“Carter” is the Least Credible of the Overdone Consultant Detective Genre

I wish that I knew someone who worked as a detective in a police department to ask them a simple question: “Did you ever hire an outside consultant to help you solve a crime?” I would be willing to bet large sums of money that the answer is a resounding “No”. Yet if we were to take TV shows at their word, we would presume that it was an everyday occurrence. We used to have lots of private detective shows like Magnum, P.I. (which is being rebooted this fall by the way) or Mannix and of course classic movies and mystery novels are full of PIs such as Sam Spadeor Mike Hammer. But we seem to be flooded with police consultants these days. The most ridiculous of these just premiered on WGN America in the form of a procedural called “Carter

Of course the most famous outside please consultant from literature is Sherlock Holmes created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887. He has been adapted and re-adapted many times on film and TV. The most recent Sherlock incarnation is Johnny Lee Miller in “Elementary” which will air its seventh season this fall. This reimagines the character in a modern-day setting with a further twist that his companion Dr. Watson is female. Even before that, Edgar Allen Pro perhaps invented the murder mystery genre with his character C. Auguste Dupin who first appeared in 1841 in Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue“. In the case of these classic characters they are such geniuses that we can believe that the police might consult them on a case. On a much lighter note we had “Monk” who was a neurotic super detective played by Tony Shalaoub for eight seasons. He was a Sherlock Holmes style super detective character but at least he had the credentials of being a former police detective.

Slightly less credible as the non-police super sleuth we had Patrick Jane played by Simon Baker on “The Mentalist” for seven seasons. He was a fake psychic showman who was adapt at reading people’s tells and understood the psychology of how to manipulate them into confessing or revealing themselves as the guilty party. The FBI was aware he was not really psychic but just observant. The show also featured the romantic tension between him and his FBI partner Teresa Lisbon played by Robin Tunney. Taking a much more comic approach to the same fake psychic routine was “Psych” in which a super detective actually convinced the local PD that he had psychic powers that he could contribute to police cases when in fact he was just a gifted observer. “Psych” is played strictly for laughs and the show didn’t hesitate to “jump the shark” many times including an all musical episode in its final season. Despite its ridiculous premise, it ran for eight seasons and there have been follow-up TV movies. It’s great for a laugh but extremely far-fetched as a serious detective show.

Unfortunately the trend these days is for people from less credible professions who cross over to take up the role of police consultant. The most successful of these cop consultant shows was “Castle” in which mystery writer Rick Castle played by Nathan Filion who consulted with NYPD to help them solve crimes because he knew so much about criminals from writing novels about them. The premise is ridiculous but the stories were fun and the chemistry between Castle and the detective Kate Beckett whom he later married in the show was genuine. The show was a hit for eight seasons.

In the past year we’ve had several more entries into the genre. First we have “Deception” in which a disgraced stage illusionist teams up with the FBI to use his skills as an allusions to trick criminals into revealing themselves. He also is able to uncover when the criminals are using the art of illusion to throw the police off of their crimes. Again there was a hint of romantic link between the consultant and a female detective that given enough seasons probably would’ve gone down the road of Castle. I liked the show but it only lasted one season.

This year also brought us “Instinct” in which the outside consultant is a former CIA agent, turned author, turned college professor. He gets pulled into a case by the NYPD when a serial killer uses his best-selling book on abnormal psychology to leave clues to his next victims. This character portrayed by Alan Cumming was also paired with a hot young single female police contacted but they avoid the romantic connection because he is gay. His background in psychology and abnormal behavior as well as his CIA background lends some credibility to the story. The show was successful enough to get picked up for a second season. I’ve enjoyed it enough to keep watching.

Finally we come to the most ridiculous cop consultant stories of the bunch. The first is ABC’s new series “Take Two” in which a washed up actress who played a detective in a TV show teams up with a private detective supposedly to prepare for an upcoming film role where she will play a PI. Rachel Bilson plays the actress turned PI and Eddie Cibrian is her PI buddy. The idea that she knows a lot about police work or has some sort of special insights just because she played a TV detective stretches credibility to the breaking point. There is even a ridiculous scene where the bad guy has her gunpoint, forces her to put down her gun and she ends up kicking the gun in the air and hitting him in the face with it thus re-creating a scene from one of her TV episodes. I’ve only seen one episode out of the nine that have aired. There will be a total of 13 this season and it’s too soon to tell if it would get renewed for another one.

As if this genre wasn’t already overloaded to the breaking point, this week WGN America premiered a new series called “Carter” in which Jerry O’Connell plays an actor from a popular cop TV show. As in “Take Two” the actor has suffered a public meltdown although it hasn’t yet ruined his career. He is on hiatus between seasons so he goes home to Canada to get away from the limelight. While on hiatus he teams up with a childhood friend who is a police detective. She is played by Sidney Tamila Poitier. She is the daughter of famous actor Sidney Poitier. This one is played a little bit more for laughs in that they at times poke fun at the TV cop genre. They are still taking the ridiculous approach that being a TV detective somehow trained you to do the real thing. This is mitigated only by the back story that he has been a semi-famous boy detective in his childhood apparently having to do with the case of his mother who went missing. We will have to see where that story goes in future episodes.

Even the TV series “Lucifer” in which the devil himself becomes a police consultant has more credibility than these actor consultants because Lucifer has a certain hypnotic ability that can coerce people into nearly confessing their crimes. The show was canceled by Fox after three seasons but has been picked up for a fourth season by Netflix. Although a bit silly at times, I do enjoy it.

In summary I sort of liked “Deception” even though it lacked a lot of credibility. “Instinct” with its Sherlock-like consultant and “Elementary” with its reimagined actual Sherlock Holmes are both worth watching. But I can’t recommend either of the actors-turned-consultant shows “Take Two” or “Carter” and unless you are more interested in a RomCom than a real cop show. They both get “skip it” ratings from me.

ABC’s “Castaways” is not a “Survivor” clone. May be worth checking out.

ABCs new reality series “Castaways” on paper would appear to be a ripoff of CBS’ long-running reality competition show “Survivor” but apparent from the fact that people are stranded on an island, the shows could not be more different.

Castaways drops 12 people on a series of tiny islands in Indonesia separately from one another. It’s as if they were survivors of a ship wreck. They are dropped off in the ocean just offshore where they will find scattered supplies and luggage that may or may not be their own. They know that there are other contestants out there with them but they don’t know where they are or even how many others there are. It is up to each of them to decide to try to make it on their own or to seek out the other castaways.

There is no post like Jeff Probst on Survivor. There are no competitions or tribal councils to vote people off. Unlike the 39 day duration of Survivor, these participants have no idea how long they will be out there. You either survive to the end or you give up and they take you out of the game.It’s filmed documentary style and includes a peak at what the individuals lives are like in real life. It’s all about surviving and has nothing resembling the game show atmosphere of Survivor or Big Brother. I suppose if you were to compare it to any other reality show it would be more like Discovery Channel’s “Naked and Afraid” without the ridiculous nudity.

The participants in some cases bear little resemblance to the typical Survivor contestant. For example the first person we meet is a food addict who weighs 390 pounds. Another 61-year-old woman struggles to care for her parents who have Alzheimer’s. Others such as X military man, an aspiring Nashville singer, a crab fisherman, seemed to be the more typical Survivor types.

it’s probably too soon to tell just how compelling or entertaining series will be but it’s definitely worth checking out. You can catch it Tuesday nights on ABC at 10 PM. The first episode which is already aired is available on demand. For now I’m giving it a rating of “I’m watching it

Entertainment news: Hardwick commentary; Andrew Lloyd Webber no longer Really Useful; Picard makes it so again; Data is new VP; RIP Ellison, Ditko and others.

I’m still trying to get caught up on entertainment news.

Before we start I want to comment on the Chris Hardwick situation. In case you don’t know Chris Hardwick is the host of the “Talking Dead” after show for both “The Walking Dead” and “Fear the Walking Dead” on AMC. In the walking that off-season he also has his own show on AMC called “Talking with Chris Hardwick” in which he interviews a celebrity guest for a full hour. He is also occasionally hosted and after show for “Better Call Saul” titled “Talking Saul”. He also hosts the NBC primetime game show “The Wall”. He was the founder of the nerd culture website Nerdest.com in which he had a podcast for many years where he interviewed celebrities one-on-one.

Several weeks ago on the day of the season premiere of “Talking with Chris Hardwick” AMC pulled him off the air and canceled his appearances at San Diego Comic Con where he was set to host panel discussions with the stars of the Walking Dead franchise.

It was prompted by a blog post by his ex-girlfriend who, without naming him specifically, described an ex-boyfriend who is emotionally and physically abusive to her. She claimed that after their breakup he threatened and/or actually did try to ruin her career by blacklisting her and discouraging other people from hiring her. Given the hypersensitivity and zero-tolerance state of the #MeToo era we are living in he was guilty until proven innocent. I mentioned that she did not identify him by name but she described the ex-boyfriend as a media icon who started out with a famous online podcast and is now a comedian and talkshow host. And it was public knowledge that they had been a couple so it was obviously him.

Hardwick released a statement saying that it was a nasty breakup but denied any abuse allegations. AMC eventually said that Yvette Nicole Brown who is a frequent celebrity fan guest on the “Talking Dead” show would replace him at comic con and on the TV shows on an interim basis. She made it clear in tweets that she considered it “just filling in for a friend”. When it was announced that Hardwick was suspended I publicly speculated that Brown would be the only logical choice for a replacement. NBC commented that new episodes of “The Wall” would not start taping until September and they were taking a wait and see attitude.

Many genre TV shows have attempted to produce after-shows similar to “Talking Dead” including “Orphan Black”, “Game of Thrones”, and “Sons of Anarchy” but none have been successful because they’ve not been near the quality of those hosted by Hardwick. He is a credible super fan, he has a sensitive yet probing style of interview, his experience doing nerd-based stand-up comedy shines through in his approach to the interviews. There is lots of fan involvement with questions submitted via social media and a weekly question from a member of the studio audience. All of the above combines to make his shows a fun entertaining ride for fans of the series.

I was seriously bummed out that he was off the air because I’m a great fan of his. While there’s no excuse for the kind of abuse that women have suffered at the hands of media people and while I completely support the #MeToo movement, these cases need to be taken on a case-by-case basis. We live in a country founded on the principle of innocent until proven guilty. The current atmosphere makes it much too easy for a disgruntled person to completely destroy someone’s career over a mere accusation. Even if Hardwick is guilty of bad behavior, there are degrees of these things. There was no hint of multiple allegations and there were no details that suggested the kinds of extreme behavior alleged of people like Weinstein, Cosby, and Spacey. I really don’t believe everyone who’s experienced a bad relationship deserves to have their career destroyed.

Fortunately after an investigation by an outside firm, AMC has agreed to reinstate Hardwick as has NBC. Yvette Nicole Brown substituted for him at Comic Con. She also hosted a special edition of “Talking Dead” last week that was a preview of season nine of “The Walking Dead”. She announced that Hardwick would return next week to “Talking Dead” after the mid season premiere of “Fear The Walking Dead”. NBC also announced that he would return to “The Wall”. Last week he was also guest judge on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”. I never saw any news references about that episode or what NBC might’ve done had he not been reinstated. There is no way they could edit him out of the episode especially since the guest judge always gets the opportunity to hit the Golden Buzzer to advance one act to the next round. I suppose had the investigation revealed that the situation was serious, they would’ve had to run the show with some sort of disclaimer saying that it was taped before the allegations were made public.

We’ve seen some extremely high profile actors such as Johnny Depp continue with their career beyond serious allegations about their abusive behavior. I wondered if they’ve gotten more of a free pass because it didn’t reach the level of the big three (Weinstein, Cosby, and Spacey) and they had sufficient economic incentives to turn a bit of a blind eye to the allegations. While Hardwick is a very hot property right now, he doesn’t have the star power Johnny Depp.

I’m relieved to see that someone who is not a megastar like Depp can continue with their career despite previous mistakes. Don’t get me wrong… People need to be held accountable for their bad behavior. But we have a court of law and due process procedures to deal with these kinds situations. My hope is that once the backlog of unreported abuse two things will happen. First women will be empowered to seek legal remedies to the things that have happened to them with more confidence that their claims will receive serious consideration. And second, I hope that anyone who does behave badly is treated like a case-by-case basis and that any consequences of their behavior is proportional to the offenses.

Soapbox mode off…

I’m trying to catch up with my entertainment news.  This blog entry covers June 1 through the present. We’ve been so far behind that I haven’t bothered to include any of my usual links to spoilers from TV journalists Michael Ausiello or Matt’s Inside Line. The “spoilers” that they referenced had already happened however I think we’re getting close enough there’s some useful information in those links so we will start including them as I come across them.

In these links read about…

Article about special-effects on Game of Thrones.

Postmortem interview with actors from Westworld about the end of season 2 and a post credits scene.

Postmortem interview with producers of Handmaid’s Tale about the season finale and going forward.

Spoilers from Matt’s Inside Line dated July 26.

A behind-the-scenes look at auditions for Jeopardy.

What would’ve happened in season five of “The Last Man on Earth”.

Executives at CBS All Access discuss more Star Trek series, Twilight Zone reboot, Stephen King and other topics.

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated August 7.

Interview with ABC executive about the decision to cancel “Roseanne” and to go on with the spinoff series “The Connors”.

 

Not linked but still of interest…

We begin with 2 major deaths.

RIP famous sci-fi author Harlan Ellison who wrote the award-winning Star Trek episode “City on the Edge of Forever”, the film “A Boy and His Dog” and who edited and compiled the famous anthology series “Dangerous Visions”. Often quite outspoken and divisive among fans who either adored or hated him. He successfully sued several films for ripping off themes from his stories including Terminator which James Cameron admitted was an inspiration. He never wanted money in these lawsuits. He just insisted on being given credit for his ideas. He was 94.

RIP comic book artist Stephen Ditko who along with Stan Lee created Spider-Man, Dr. Strange and others. Age 90.

Jamie Lee Curtis is set to return in a new film of the long-running “Halloween” franchise.

The “Game of Thrones” prequel coming to HBO soon is set “thousands of years in the past” compared to the current series. Production starts in October.

John Lassiter cofounder of Pixar Animation is leaving as Disney Animation chief after allegations of workplace misbehavior.

Ryan Gosling will star as Neil Armstrong in an upcoming film titled “First Man”

RIP actress Eunice Gayson who was his first “James Bond girl” appearing in “Dr. No” and “From Russia with Love”. Age 90.

Actor Jeremy Renner suffered a broken arm during the filming of the film “Tag” about a bunch of grown men who still play tag with one another. He has recovered and is looking forward to appearing in Avengers 4.

RIP opera singer Neil Boyd who was the winner of season 3 of “America’s Got Talent”. He was 42 and had multiple medical problems.

Ewan McGregor will play grown-up Danny Torrence from “The Shining” in a new film titled “Doctor Sleep”.

Actor Hartley Sawyer has been promoted to series regular on CW network’s “The Flash”. His stretchy character Ralph Dibney has already been a relatively major character the past season.

Liza Minnelli disapproves of the upcoming biopic about her mother Judy Garland which will star Renée Zellweger

Jeremy Jordan who plays techno geek Winn Schott on Supergirl has been demoted from series regular to recurring character. It was his decision to step back from the role full-time.

Jason Ritter whose “Kevin (Probably) Saves the World” was canceled will be back on TV playing a superhero in Netflix’s family drama “Raising Dion”.

AMC theater chain has started a $20 per month subscription program to compete with MoviePass. Unlike MoviePass, it is good for premium showings such as IMAX and 3D but of course is limited to AMC theaters. Meanwhile MoviePass crashed on the opening day of the new Mission Impossible film causing its stock to plummet. At first they said they will no longer support big blockbuster films such as this and that price would go up from $10 per month to $15 per month. Now they say they are keeping me $10 per month but limiting use to three movies per month.

RIP graphic designer Richard Alan Greenberg who designed the title sequences of Alien, Superman, the matrix and others. Age 71.

When I heard that the AMC series “The Terror” had been renewed for a second season I couldn’t understand because the story at basically wrapped up. However similar to American Horror Story the new season will have a completely different setting and topic. This time much of it takes place in a World War II Japanese internment camp. So basically it’s a totally different show.

NBC has confirmed that there will be a two hour wrapup movie for its canceled time travel series “Timeless”. They say it was fan pressure that got the deal done.

Russell Crowe will play Fox News chief Roger Ailes in an upcoming Showtime series

RIP reality TV star Richard “Old Man” Harrison of Pawn Stars. Age 77

RIP actress Deanna Lund who appeared in the late 60s sci-fi series “Land of the Giants”. She was 81.

The Grammy awards is expanding the number of nominees in its major categories from 5 to 8.

RIP Joe Jackson father of Michael Jackson and his siblings and longtime manager of The Jackson Five. Age 89.

Actress Eileen Davidson is leaving the soap opera “The Young and the Restless” in her role as Ashley Abbott after 36 years.

RIP character actor Stanley Anderson who played the judge in the final episode of Seinfeld and played a general in Spider-Man. He was 87.

Showtime has ordered 10 episodes of a new series tentatively titled “Halo” based on the videogame.

RIP former MSNBC host Ed Schultz. Age 64 natural causes.

RIP actor Tab Hunter. He was a teen heartthrob in 1950s movies not later came out as gay and became an activist. Age 86

Release of the new Indiana Jones 5 film starring Harrison Ford has been pushed back to 2021.

Rapper Drake broke the Beatles record for having five simultaneous singles in the top 10 of the Billboard ranking by owning seven of the top 10 for one week. He also broke his own record for having 27 songs in the top 100 including all 25 from his recent album “Scorpion”. He also set an online record for 1 billion streams.

RIP Nancy Sinatra first wife of Frank Sinatra and mother of his children. Age 101.

The Walking Dead season 9 will have its first deaf character played by deaf actress Lauren Ridloff.

Nickelodeon has ordered 22 episodes of the 90s cartoon Rugrats. There will also be a new Rugrats movie.

Supergirl will have TVs first transgendered superhero played by trans activist Nicole Maines.

Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton and Colin Powell will guest star on the season premiere of Madam Secretary.

Production will begin this fall on a new Deadwood movie at HBO. Will premiere in the spring of 2019.

Veep is going back into production for its seventh and final season to premiere in spring of 2019 after delay for Julia Louis Dreyfus cancer recovery.

One of my favorite new documentary series “One Strange Rock” has been renewed for season 2 on National Geographic Channel. Check it out on demand.

YouTube has removed InfoWars videos and suspends live broadcasts from controversial Alt-Right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. He has also been suspended from posting videos and Facebook for 30 days. And also Spotify has removed many of his podcasts from their service. And also Apple has pulled his podcasts from iTunes.

Game show Beat Shazam pulled the episode featuring singer Demi Lovato after she was admitted to the hospital for an apparent drug overdose. She has canceled the remainder of her tour.

Headline “Andrew Lloyd Webber’s theaters no longer really useful”. But seriously folks… He is renaming his theater division “Really Useful Theaters” to just “LW Theaters” to distinguish between that and his other production company which handles his creative output which is called “Really Useful Group”. So I guess he’s still useful after all… Just not his theaters 🙂

Original MythBuster Adam Savage will host a new show featuring experimenting kids titled MythBusters Junior.

RIP William Loud the father of the first reality TV family on the PBS series “An American Family” in the early 70s.

Carrie Fisher will appear in Star Wars episode 9 by using unused footage from the previous two installments. Her family approves. Filming of living actors began in late July.

Fear The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul have both been renewed for seasons 5 by AMC.

The first season of Marvel’s Runaways which originally was released on Hulu is now going to air on Freeform channel. I wasn’t sure I would enjoy a teenage theme show such as this but it was really quite good. Highly recommended.

Octavia Spencer will play Madam CJ Walker in an upcoming Netflix miniseries.

Netflix hit “Stranger Things” season 3 is being delayed until summer of 2019. Producers and writers say they want to take the time to get it right and maintain the quality they’ve been delivering.

CBS president Les Moonves is the latest high-profile executive to be accused of sexual misconduct.

A prequel of the TV series “24”will tell the origin story of agent Jack Bauer. It’s under development at Fox.

Alan Alda has revealed that he has had Parkinson’s disease for three years.

Former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat will produce a TV series “The Time Traveler’s Wife” for HBO based on the movie of the same name.

2001: A Space Odyssey is being re-released in IMAX in late August and will appear at the Indianapolis White River IMAX in the 70 mm film IMAX format the first week of September for a limited run. I’ve already got plans to see it. I’ve only seen it in a theater one time and that was in the small 2 screen cinema that used to be in Speedway shopping center. Really looking forward to seeing it and near Cinerama format and a decent sound system.

Former Star Trek Cmdr. Data Brent Spiner will guest star as the vice president in the next season reassuring role on Supergirl.

Skydance and Paramount are going to reboot Terminator with a mostly female cast.

Warner Bros. TV is in the early stages of rebooting the 80s and the sitcom ALF.

Steve Coogan and John C Riley play Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy is upcoming movie “Stan & Ollie”

Comedian Chris Rock will star in season 4 of Fargo as a crime boss in 1950s Missouri

FX has ordered a miniseries titled Shogun

American Horror Story has been renewed for season 10 ahead of its upcoming season 9 premiere.

Patrick Stewart is returning to Star Trek as Jean-Luc Picard for a new series being developed for CBS All Access

RIP James Bonner who featured on the TLC series “My 600 Lb. Life” found dead of a shotgun wound. Age 30.

RIP actress Charlotte Rae who played house mother Mrs. Garrett on “The Facts of Life”. She was 92. Meanwhile there are plans to reboot series in progress.

Robert Redford plans to retire from acting after his upcoming film “The Old Man & The Gun” but he says “never say never”.

Showtime announces that “Shameless” season 9 will have 14 episodes (up from the usual 10) but will be split into 2 groups of seven and winter blocks.

Showtime has announced that Homeland will end with season 8.

The final season of Netflix series House of Cards will premiere November 2

FX has acquired the cable broadcast rights to Mission Impossible: Fallout, Deadpool 2, A Quiet Place and other big films.

Ruby Rose who has appeared in “Orange is the New Black” has been cast as Batwoman in a crossover episode CW networks superheroe Arrowverse. She may end up getting her own standalone series.

The upcoming season of American Horror Story: Apocalypse will include lots of people from previous seasons among them AHS veterans Taissa Farmiga, Gabourey Sidibe, Lily Rabe, Frances Conroy and Stevie Nicks.

If you missed James Cordon’s “Carpool Karaoke” segment a few months ago where he visited London and toured Liverpool with Paul McCartney there is still time to catch it. There’s going to be a prime time one hour special with never before seen segments to air on CBS August 20 at 8 PM. The original segment on his show was phenomenal. It included a surprise concert in a local Liverpool pub that was enough to bring tears to the eyes of any Beatles fan. Highly recommended and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do in the one hour special.

TNT will have a new sci-fi drama “Snowpiercer” based on the 2013 movie about survivors in a frozen post-apocalyptic world who ride around on a super train.

Recently the home used for exterior shots of “The Brady Bunch” went up for sale at auction. It was purchased by cable channel HGTV. The starting bids began at $1.9 million but the actual selling price has not been disclosed. They outbid former *NSYNC member Lance Bass who was hoping to acquire the home. HGTV plans to restore it to its former 1970s glory. On the original show the interiors were shot on a soundstage so the inside of the house probably resembles nothing like what we saw on TV.

The producers of “This Is Us” say that the new season will be more “hopeful” now that they’ve put the Jack’s death story behind them. However it will flash back to his days in Vietnam so how hopeful could that be? Time to stock up on tissue before the September 25 premiere.

There will be a new Oscar category starting with the 2019 ceremony that will be for “Popular Film” so that films like Star Wars, superhero movies, and other blockbuster films will have a chance at recognition even if they aren’t rigidly worthy of the critical acclaim of the typical best picture. The move is being met with mixed reaction. Some are praising it while others say they are selling out and diminishing the value of an Academy award.

Former Friend David Schwimmer will have a recurring role in the upcoming season of Will & Grace as a love interest for Grace.

We previously reported the death of former Lois Lane in the Superman movies Margot Kidder. The corner has now ruled her death a suicide.

And we did it! I’m now all caught up!

Out of date Entertainment “News” from January through May

As I mentioned in my previous blog, we haven’t done one of these in over six months so much of it is not really “news”. We already covered my comments about what shows got renewed and canceled. So this is just miscellaneous news, tidbits, links of a different nature. Because I’m so far behind, this particular installment covers January through May. I will post another blog soon to get caught up from June through the present.

Here is a link to a chart showing the new fall schedule. We will probably do a separate blog to talk about some of the new shows before they air and we will endeavor to write reviews of most if not all of the new shows once they do air.

Fall TV Schedule 2018: What’s on When? And Versus What?

 

In the links below read…

Stan Lee has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against his former company Pow! Entertainment.

Postmortem interview with stars of “Once Upon A Time” about the series finale.

Postmortem interview with producers of “Once Upon A Time” about series finale.

Postmortem interview with producers of “Agents of SHIELD” about season finale and exiting characters.

Postmortem interview with producers of “Madam Secretary” about season finale.

Postmortem interview with producer of “Blue Bloods” about season finale.

Article about new pilot series that did not get picked up. You always hear about what got canceled, what got renewed, but not about what didn’t make it in the first place. Here are a few.

Postmortem interview with producer of “Lucifer” about the season finale.

Interview with producer of “This Is Us” about season 3 and long-term plans for the show. Even though the series is likely to run for years he reveals they’ve already shot the series finale scene.

Postmortem interview with Chris Carter X-Files about the season finale.

Postmortem interview with producers of “The Good Doctor” about the season finale.

Not linked but also of interest…

Freeform has ordered a spinoff series of “Pretty Little Liars” to be called “The Perfectionists” and will run for 10 episodes. Created by the same people who make “Black-ish”.

Cast members of Game of Thrones are speculating that multiple endings to the series are being shot because they don’t trust the actors to keep quiet. It’s more likely they just haven’t decided which ending playwright best.

Kevin Bacon will star in a new crime drama “City on a Hill” for Showtime set in 1990s Boston produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

Jordan Peele is going to reduce a new series for Amazon Studios titled “The Hunt” said in 1977 about a group of Nazi hunters living in New York City. 10 episodes have been ordered.

MTV has suspended production of its series “Catfish” because of sexual abuse allegations against its harvest.

Jennifer Aniston will play POTUS and Tig Notaro will play her partner as the first lesbian couple to occupy the White House in a film click called “First Ladies” for Netflix.

We previously reported are Agents of SHIELD had been renewed for season 6. We now know that it will be just 13 episodes and will not premiere until summer 2019. Executives insist this has nothing to do with the timing of the Marvel Cinematic Universe release of Avengers 4 in May. They also say that just because it’s a short season doesn’t mean it’s the end of the series. They seem to like they have a strong fan base and think that summer run will actually help keep the series going.

Pauley Perrette implied in a series of tweets that she left NCIS as a result of “multiple physical assaults” but she refuses to “spill the beans”. Nobody knows what that means.

ABC executives said that the cancellation of “Designated Survivor” was not only because of poor ratings but concerns on what creative direction the show would be going in the future. They had three different show runners into seasons so the show underwent a lot of turmoil behind the scenes.

Epix cable network has ordered a 10 episode series titled “Pennyworth” about Alfred Pennyworth famous butler to Bruce Wayne. It will explore his origins as a former SAS soldier who opened a security business with Bruce Wayne’s father Thomas Wayne in 1960s London. Although produced by Gotham showrunner Bruno Heller, it is not set in the same “universe” as Gotham and will not have Sean Pertwee who currently plays Alfred on Gotham. He is obviously too old to play the part.

RIP actress Patricia Morrison complained in the original Broadway production “Kiss Me Kate” opposite Yul Brynner. She was 103 years old.

NBC is the winner of the average rating for the season helped a bit by the Super Bowl and Olympics although if you filter out live news and sports events for all networks NBC still comes out on top.

CBS will have a new drama for 2018/19 titled “The Red Line” staring Noel Wyle. It’s about a white Chicago cop who mistakenly suits and kills a black doctor. Wyle plays the husband of the doctor.

NBC announced there will be “America’s Got Talent: The Champions” this coming winter. It will feature fan favorites from the American version plus other acts from “Got Talent” editions around the world.

RIP actress Margot Kidder known for playing Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve in the Superman movies in the 70s/80s. She was 69.

Connie Britton will not be returning to “9 -1-1” next season. Jennifer Love Hewitt will join the cast as a new character.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus River receives the “Mark Twain Prize” for American humor at the Kennedy Center in October.

HBO is developing a series based on the “Watchmen” graphic novels.

NBC’s next live musical will be “Hair” to be performed and broadcast live in front of a live audience. Scheduled for spring 2019.

Andrew Lincoln will appear in only six or so episodes of season 9 of The Walking Dead before leaving the series for good. No word on if he will be killed but surely so.

Sesame Street is suing the producers of a raunchy R-rated Melissa McCarthy film “The Happytime Murders” in which she plays a detective who teams up with a puppet to solve puppet murders. They lost when a judge refused to grant an injunction against the film.

Helena Bonham Carter has joined the cast of the Netflix series “The Crown”. She will play Princess Margaret in season 3.

TBS has announced that the Conan O’Brien show will be shortened to a half-hour and will feature fewer celebrity guests.

RIP actor Robert Mandan who played Chester Tate on the classic ABC sitcom “Soap”. He was 86.

Kathy Bates is returning to American Horror Story this season and we are very happy.

RIP Frank Avruch the original Bozo the Clown dead at 89

Anson Mount will play Capt. Pike in season 2 Star Trek Discovery. He was recently in “Hell on Wheels” and “Marvel’s Inhumans”.

Game of Thrones recently spent 55 days shooting one battle scene on three locations for season 8.

RIP actor Harry Anderson from “Night Court” died at age 65. No cause of death was released.

RIP actor Verne Troyer who played “Mini-Me” in the Austin Powers movies. He was 49.

Battlestar Galactica alum Katee Sackhoff is to star in a Netflix sci-fi drama “Another Life” about an astronaut on a mission alien intelligence. We can’t wait.

RIP TV chef Anthony Bourdain suicide at age 61.

RIP season 3 winner of America’s Got Talent Neil Boyd who was an opera statement. Died at age 42 part failure, kidney failure, and liver disease.

This month’s Chris Young’s “Sure Sign of the Coming Apocalypse Award” goes to a new animated film featuring the Spice Girls that is in production.

RIP producer writer Stephen Bosco who created NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues. Age 74

RIP director Milos Forman who directed “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. Age 86

RIP actor R. Lee Ermey who famously played the drill sergeant in “Full Metal Jacket” age 74. Probably one of my favorite character actor performances of all time. I can watch that scene over and over again.

Steven Spielberg is set to direct DC comics film “Blackhawk”.

RIP composer and musician Bob Dorough who created “Schoolhouse Rock”. Age 94

Brad Pitt and Leonard DiCaprio are set to star in Quentin Tarantino’s new film “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” based on a Charles Manson murders.

Allison Mack who played Chloe on Smallville has been arrested and charged in a sex trafficking case. It sounds like a tabloid headline but apparently it’s true.

The Simpsons has surpassed Gunsmoke as the longest-running scripted TV series in history. Meet The Press is the longest-running TV series of any kind.

RIP Larry Harvey founder of the Burning Man Festival age 70

RIP director Michael Anderson who directed “Logan’s Run” and “Around the World in 80 Days” age 98

Jurassic World 3 is scheduled for June 2021 release. Let me guess dinosaurs get loose and a bunch of people. I should be a screenwriter 🙂

RIP actor David Ogden Stiers known for playing Maj. Winchester on M*A*S*H. Age 75

Renée Zellweger will play Judy Garland in an upcoming biopic titled “Judy”.

RIP actor Jerry van Dyke brother of Dick van Dyke. Age 86

Rock icon Eric Clapton reports he is slowly going deaf.

Neil Diamond has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and is retiring from touring

Thursday Night Football is moving from CBS to Fox this year with a five year deal from the NFL.

 

Stan Lee files suit against former company

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