Gina Rodriguez

It’s a busy, baby life for “Not Dead” star

It was a maybe-typical day for Gina Rodriguez.
She laughed, she cried, she hugged Charlie; she seems to do all of that a lot. But ths was different because:
— It happened to be 8:30 p.m. on a Wednesday (Feb. 7). While she was at work, her show, “Not Dead Yet” (shown here with Rodriguez, right, and Hannah Simone) was airing its season-premiere on ABC.
— The Television Critics Association was there to visit the show’s set.
Reporters viewed the bedroom of her character Nell (messy, lived-in) and her landlord Edward (obsessively tidy). They also saw a newspaper box (you do remember newspaper boxes?) for the paper where Nell writes obituaries. Then they met the actors plus Charlie (almost 1), who cuddled her and ignored them. “He doesn’t like to perform,” she said. “He’s not his mother’s son.” Read more…

“Not Dead”: a lively view of an obituary writer

As “Not Dead Yet” debuts on ABC, we’re reminded of a key literary fact:
Few art forms can match the combination –facts and flair, done on a deadline – of an obituary.
“This tight little coil of biography, with its literary flourishes, reminds us of a poem,” obit-writer Marilyn Johnson wrote in “The Dead Beat” (HarperCollins, 2006). “Certainly, it contains the most creative writing in journalism.”
And now – after piles of shows about cops and cowboys and such – there’s one about an obit writer. “Not Dead Yet” (shown here) debuts at 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 8) on ABC, then settles into the 9:30 slot. Read more…