‘Scandal’ Finale On Small Screen And Onstage At Television Academy

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 16, 2013 @ 11:54pm PDTTags: Joe Morton, Kerry Washington, Scandal, Shonda Rhimes

Diane Haithman is a contributor to Deadline.

Scandal Season FinaleScandal fans watched tonight’s jam-packed season finale and received a major revelation SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! because of a single line (“Dad???”).  The ABC drama’s ’gladiators’ as they are called heard it live at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at the end of the first-ever onstage table read of the show using the finale script. The session ended about 10 minutes into the 10 PM PT airing. The cast whooped and hollered too. “The satisfying part is, I knew all along,” Morton crowed as the cast finished reading Act 6 which revealed that Rowan (Joe Morton) is the father of Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington). At the top of the session, show creator/executive producer Shonda Rhimes said she hoped the experiment would give the audience a feeling of what it’s like to be in the room at a real table read. Washington said she didn’t know that would be a plot twist until the first table read of the script. “I grew up in a household where Joe Morton is a great American hero,” she said. “Every week I would say: ‘Joe, I really hope we have some scenes together. He’d say: ‘We do. We do.’ ”

Related: ABC To Air Some Dramas In Two Batches Of 12 Episodes

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‘The Office’ Staff On How The NBC Series Will End: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday January 16, 2013 @ 4:54pm PSTTags: NBC, Steve Carell, TCA, The Office

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

It’s official. Greg Daniels, executive producer and showrunner of The Office, said at today’s TCA that Steve Carell would not make a re-appearance in the last season or the final episode of the show’s nine-season run. Daniels said that Carell “was very much of the opinion that the ‘Goodbye Michael’ episode and story arc leading up to it was the goodbye to the fans and the show”. This final season, the producer said, “is the goodbye that the rest of the show gets to have.”

Daniels said viewers should not expect every detail of 9 seasons to be wrapped up in the final episode, which does not yet have a completed script and is still at the table-read stage. He said next week’s episode is “the beginning of the end” of the 24-episode season. Daniels would not reveal any plot spoilers but said that one character is fired in Episode 15.

He added that the finale will be one hour. Ken Kwapis, who directed the first episode of the show, will be back to direct the last one. Daniels said some series regulars and guest stars may return, including Mindy Kaling. Read More »

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NBC’s ‘The New Normal’ Cast & Producers On Show’s Gay Themes: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday January 16, 2013 @ 2:14pm PSTTags: Ellen Barkin, John Stamos, NBC, TCA, The New Normal

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

John Stamos dropped by a TCA panel discussion today for NBC‘s The New Normal held on the set at Paramount featuring the cast and executive producer Ali Adler (co-creator with Ryan Murphy). Stamos is guesting in an episode in which he plays a character of ambiguous sexual orientation (to explore the fallacy of “gay-dar”). Stamos was asked to compare today’s TV sitcom world — which can accommodate the “new normal” of a gay couple who are expectant parents via a surrogate — to his days on Full House. “It was three men living together in San Francisco raising a couple of kids. It’s the same thing,” Stamos quipped.

Ellen Barkin, who portrays the bigoted mother of the pregnant surrogate (Georgia King), said she was not surprised by the controversy surrounding the show (a Utah TV station has refused to air it). “It’s part of the reason why many of us got involved in the show, it was saying something that is not always said in a sitcom,” she said. Barkin last summer told Deadline she believes an affiliate has the right to ban something, but considers it censorship. Read More »

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Marlo Thomas On Difficulty Of Being ‘That Girl’ In 1960s TV Biz: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday January 15, 2013 @ 3:51pm PSTTags: PBS, TCA

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

Today’s TCA panel on PBS’ documentary Makers: Women Who Make America, which traces the last 50 years of the women’s movement and premieres February 26, featured some powerhouse players in the fight for equality: Gloria Steinem and Marlo Thomas among them. Both made strong statements about the state of feminism in America in 2013. But one of more telling stories recounted on the panel was not about politics, but rather Thomas’ recounting the struggles behind her 1966-71 TV series That Girl. At age 24, Thomas became both producer and star in the comedy about a spunky single girl and aspiring actress taking on New York City.

At the time she was pitching the series, Thomas had read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and said that after college “I was a bridesmaid 17 times” and didn’t want to get married. She said that every TV script she was reading was all the same: “the women were wives, daughters and secretaries.” She took her idea to NBC programming executive Edgar Scherick, demanding: “Ever thought of doing a show where the woman is somebody?” She said Scherick responded as though “I had been speaking Swahili.” She gave him a copy of Feminine Mystique. His reaction: “I just have one question: Is this going to happen to my wife?” Read More »

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‘Mr Selfridge’ Is Not ‘Downton’, Producers Say, But They’ll Take Its Success: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday January 15, 2013 @ 12:38pm PSTTags: Jeremy Piven, Masterpiece Classic, Mr. Selfridge, PBS, TCA

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

Today’s TCA panel on PBS’ new Masterpiece Classic series Mr. Selfridge — a period drama starring Jeremy Piven as real-life department store entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge — was haunted by the ghost of Downton Abbey. On March 31, the new drama will join the megahit Downton on Sunday nights, so it is not surprising that Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton announced at the top of the session that the premiere of Mr. Selfridge on Britain’s ITV a couple of weeks ago rated higher that the premiere of “that other show.”

Related: ‘Mr Selfridge’ Debuts To Strong Ratings On UK’s ITV

60 Minutes SportsCreator Andrew Davies said on the panel that no decision has been made on a second season but “I’ve already written the first [episodes] of Season 2. We should hear very soon. We’ve done such good numbers in the UK; I’m very confident.” He said that in his mind, he’s up for four seasons: “Are you up for it, Jeremy?” he joked. Replied Piven: “I certainly hope I have the job, yeah. To be replaced at this point would be very disappointing. And confusing. It could be like Darrin on Bewitched, I guess.”

During the panel that featured Piven, Davies and co-stars Zoe Tapper and Frances O’Connor., Eaton stressed the differences between Selfridge (based on the nonfiction book by Lindy Woodhead) and Downton. She said that while both shows have “gorgeous people, money, life and death, seduction,” this story is based on reality. Plus she said, the department store world is a different “precinct beside the country house and the house in town. I don’t know why it hasn’t been done before.”

Related: TV Trailer: ‘Mr. Selfridge’

After the panel, she acknowledged that Masterpiece would love to repeat Downton’s success with a similar show. “We’re adding another member. It’s always risky and I think its inevitable that you want to do more of what works,” she said. “So when there is a hit show like Downton, I think there’s an enormous urge to capitalize on the attention it brings Masterpiece and to build on the audience that we’ve attracted, this seemed like kind of a perfect fit. But you have to vary it. It’s not another country house.” Read More »

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PBS & WNET Partnering with TED on ‘Ted Talks Education’ (Not The Teddy Bear): TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday January 15, 2013 @ 11:36am PSTTags: PBS, TCA

PBS and WNET have teamed up to produce Ted Talks Education, the first original TED public television education special set to air April 16. The series, announced today at TCA by WNET VP Stephen … Read More »

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Philip Roth & Mel Brooks Swap Stories, Talk Jewish Writers On PBS Panel: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday January 14, 2013 @ 7:51pm PSTTags: Mel Brooks, TCA

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

Two venerable creative forces held journalists enthralled for more than an hour and a half – no easy task – at today’s TCA PBS panel. Novelist Philip Roth, who turns 80 in March, and Mel Brooks, 86, are both subjects of upcoming American Masters documentaries this year (Philip Roth: Unmasked premieres March 29 and Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premieres May 20).

Mel Brooks showed up late, so the session began with Roth, speaking via satellite. Introducing the two artists, American Masters series creator and executive producer Susan Lacey said that the Roth documentary is the first film biography of Roth.

The two men spoke separately, but both addressed the issue of whether or not they considered themselves “Jewish” writers. Both said no. “I don’t write in Jewish, I write in American,” Roth said. He said he considers himself a “regionalist” when it comes to his work. “Bellow and Faulkner were regionalists, they write about the place they come from. So did Joyce,” said Roth. “I write about the locale I come from, and that particular locale was full of Jews, including me and my family.”

Brooks started out with a Jewish joke of sorts: “I’m not such a comedy giant, I’m 5-foot-6″, he said. “There are guys who aren’t as funny, but they’re taller.” He said growing up he once heard his mother talking to his friend about a woman leaving her husband. “She said: ‘How could she leave him? He was so tall,’ ” Brooks recounted. “This is the way Jews think.”

Related: ‘Blazing Saddles’ Mel Brooks’ Next Broadway Musical? Maybe: TCA Read More »

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‘Blazing Saddles’ Mel Brooks’ Next Broadway Musical? Maybe: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday January 14, 2013 @ 4:02pm PSTTags: Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks, TCA

At a PBS panel on the American Masters series, Mel Brooks — the subject of an upcoming documentary — said that he is thinking about turning his movie Blazing Saddles into his next Broadway musical. … Read More »

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PBS Kids’ New Math Series ‘Peg + Cat’ Set For Fall Premiere: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday January 14, 2013 @ 3:04pm PSTTags: PBS, TCA

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

PBS announced today that a new math series with a female lead, Peg + Cat, will premiere in the fall. At the summer 2012 TCA, PBS president Paula Kerger had spoken about … Read More »

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PBS On ‘Downton Abbey’ Schedule: “We’re Not Punishing Viewers” – TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday January 14, 2013 @ 1:43pm PSTTags: Downton Abbey, Paula Kerger, PBS, TCA

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

Ricky GervaisPBS president Paula Kerger said today that the pubcaster has considered the idea of synching the U.S. broadcast schedule of its hit series Downton Abbey with the earlier British schedule on ITV, but so far it has not found that such a change would best suit the American viewers (she added that in Britain the show airs with commercials; in the U.S. it does not). The idea, she told critics during a PBS session at TCA, has been to avoid pitting Downton against the glut of new fall programming on U.S. networks and cable channels. She compared the experience to watching the Olympics: “People knew the outcome but watched them every night,” she said.

A questioner pointed out that American viewers accept the Olympic broadcast schedule but find it “annoying.” “We’re not punishing our viewers,” Kerger responded with a laugh. “At the end of the day, I want to make sure we are putting the series in a place where the most people can find it.”

Related: PBS To Air Week Of Programming On Newtown Tragedy: TCA Read More »

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PBS Chief Says “No Negative Impact” From Elmo Scandal, Big Bump From Big Bird: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday January 14, 2013 @ 1:20pm PSTTags: Paula Kerger, PBS, TCA

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

Paula Kerger PBS TCAPBS president Paula Kerger’s Q&A session with reporters at TCA included a lot of talk about Sesame Street. The pubcaster’s chief was asked about the show’s darker side: The controversy over former Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash, who resigned in November after accusations of having underage sex. “Elmo is larger than any individual; I have not seen any negative impact,” Kerger said today. “Time will tell; we will watch it very carefully.” Kerger reminded that the character of Kermit the Frog has survived the loss of original voice Jim Henson. As to casting a new Elmo, Kerger said that some of the series’ characters have multiple puppeteers and that there was already an effort underway to get some “additional help” for Elmo. She said she did not expect there would be any formal announcement of a new Elmo puppeteer.

Related: PBS To Air Week Of Programming On Newtown Tragedy: TCA Read More »

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PBS To Air Newtown Tragedy Special Programming: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday January 14, 2013 @ 10:33am PSTTags: PBS, TCA

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

PBS announced that it will respond to Newtown by airing a week of special programming February 18-22 focusing on December’s Connecticut school shooting. The “After Newtown” programming will begin each evening with a PBS Newshour report on topics raised by the tragedy. The series will include a Frontline special report in collaboration with The Hartford Courant profiling the shooter; a NOVA documentary about violence and the brain, a Need To Know report on the “ripple effects of the shooting incident”, and an update on political action surrounding gun control from Washington Week With Gwen Ifill. Read More »

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‘Cult’ Producers On “Putting A Magnifying Glass” On The Darker Side Of Fandom: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday January 13, 2013 @ 12:26pm PSTTags: Cult, Josh Schwartz, Len Goldstein, the CW

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

CultThe new CW drama Cult that premieres February 19 surrounds what happens when the mysterious disappearance of the brother of an investigative journalist leads to a journey into the dark underbelly of a TV series and its rabid, obsessive fan base. So the first question from a critic on a TCA panel this morning asked maybe whether there was a danger in looking at passionate television fans and telling them “your passion scares Cultme and I’m afraid you might kill me.” Exec producer and showrunner Rockne S. O’Bannon admitted that the production team is very cognizant of this issue. “But unlike other shows, we have the advantage of putting a magnifying glass on that idea itself,” he reasoned. The natural followup query is whether there is indeed a certain cause-and-effect between TV and movie content and certain behaviors from impressionable fans. Exec producer Len Goldstein explained that Cult is absolutely peering at the relationship between fans and their shows, “which is certainly more pronounced than ever before… Read More »

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‘Carrie Diaries’ Amy B. Harris On The Importance Of “Being Authentic”: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday January 13, 2013 @ 11:30am PSTTags: AnnaSophia Robb, CW, The Carrie Diaries, the CW

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

The Carrie DiariesThe CW took center stage at TCA in Pasadena this morning with a supersized panel of 9 actors and 4 executive producers representing The Carrie Diaries, the new ensemble Sex And The City prequel that premieres tomorrow night at 8. One obvious question was why this show wound up on CW rather than, say, HBO, the home of its predecessor. “We always felt this was predestined for The CW,” stressed exec producer Josh Schwartz.” Fellow exec producer Amy B. Harris, a Sex And The City staff writing alum who is running Carrie Diaries, related that Warner Bros. originally asked Sex showrunner Michael Patrick King if he was interested in turning writer Candace Bushnell’s book into a series, but he was busy with CBS’ 2 Broke Girls and suggested they approach Harris. “It just felt right in every way for The CW to be the perfect home for it”, she said. It gave us the chance to tell fun, provocative high school stories.” In other words, HBO perhaps would have proved too niche-y and limiting for the soapier series the producers had in mind.  Read More »

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Mark Pedowitz On Nielsen, ‘Supernatural’ & ’90210′ Future, ‘Selection’, ‘Vampire Diaries’ Spinoff, Wonder Woman, Aging CW Viewers

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Sunday January 13, 2013 @ 10:49am PST
Nellie Andreeva

The CW president Mark Pedowitz has something for the Orwellian year 1984. In his first TCA appearance in 2011, he walked onstage to Alphaville’s 1984 hit Forever Young. Today he took the TCA podium to Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 anthem Born In the U.S.A. to present the CW’s midseason slate anchored by Sex And The City prequel The Carrie Diaries, which too is set in 1984.

Pedowitz said he likes “the simplicity of 1980s” and believes that the nostalgia factor will bring older audiences to Carrie Diaries. He has no problem with that, stressing that broadening out the CW audience has been a priority for the CW and is reflected in the network’s fourth quarter ratings where the CW was virtually flat in the core 18-34 demo and up in total viewers. And Pedowitz said he was actually flattered by NBC topper Bob Greenblatt’s jab during the NBC TCA session that the CW’s median age has risen above 41 years. “I’d like to thank Bob for giving us a shout out for doing what we set out to do,” Pedowitz said.

He did take a shot at Nielsen though, remarking that “I think they missed the boat in 18-34,” not being able to capture a large portion of the viewing done by younger people on digital devices.

The CW’s longest-running show currently on the air, veteran drama Supernatural, has a good shot at extending its run. “We are pleased with how Wednesday night has done this fall with Arrow and Supernatural. Supernatural has gained back viewers, creatively the show is in great shape. There is always a good shot that it will come back.” Read More »

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Mark Gordon, Ann Biderman Introduce Showtime’s Fixer ‘Ray Donovan’: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Saturday January 12, 2013 @ 6:42pm PSTTags: Liev Schreiber, Mark Gordon, Ray Donovan, Showtime

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

Ray DonovanRay DonovanProducer Mark Gordon had a little surprise for his audience at today’s TCA panel on his new Showtime drama series … Read More »

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Achieving Closure On ‘The Big C: Hereafter’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Saturday January 12, 2013 @ 5:43pm PSTTags: Laura Linney, Showtime, The Big C

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

Showrunners of the Showtime cancer comedy The Big C were split originally in their relative level of optimism over whether they thought the show would be renewed to wrap up … Read More »

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Incoming ‘Save Me’ Showrunner Darlene Hunt On Her Ideas For NBC Comedy Series

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Saturday January 12, 2013 @ 5:42pm PST

Ray Richmond contributes to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

At TCA to promote the final installment of her Showtime comedy The Big C, series creator Darlene Hunt was asked about her pending new job as showrunner of NBC’s midseason comedy … Read More »

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‘60 Minutes Sports’ Lara Logan On Surviving Brutal Attack In Egypt: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Saturday January 12, 2013 @ 4:45pm PSTTags: Lara Logan, Showtime

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

60 Minutes SportsLara Logan, who was hired fulltime as a 60 Minutes correspondent last September and appeared this afternoon on a panel promoting Showtime’s new series spinoff 60 Minutes Sports — on which she serves as a correspondent — grew emotional while speaking after session. She was asked about any lingering emotional scars stemming from the frightening and nearly-fatal February 11, 2011 attack she suffered in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, during which she was groped, assaulted, beaten and had her clothes entirely ripped from her body. The attack continued for some 25 minutes and involved an estimated 200-300 men. When Deadline asked if the emotional trauma remained with her, she replied, “I think anything that happens to you on this scale stays with you forever.” Logan continued, “Am I traumatized? Do I have bad dreams? No. And after it happened, when I got back from Egypt, I was honestly almost elated because I was so close to death and coming to terms with being gone.” The gravity of that event contrasted today with Logan’s vibrant, vivacious demeanor and striking appearance, which belied feelings that seem to reside just below the surface, “I was dying in that square,” she recalled, “and I never thought I would see my children again. After I got home, for weeks I couldn’t believe I was alive.”  Read More »

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