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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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Showtime’s 2013 Schedule: ‘Dexter’ Moves To Summer, Will Launch ‘Ray Donovan’; ‘Homeland’ Paired With ‘Masters Of Sex’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Saturday January 12, 2013 @ 2:04pm PSTTags: Dexter, Homeland, Ray Donovan, Showtime, TCA
Nellie Andreeva

At TCA today, Showtime entertainment president David Nevins laid out the pay cable network’s scheduling plans for the rest of 2013. The biggest change is the decision to separate veteran Dexter and Homeland, which have been paired since Homeland‘s launch in fall 2011, helping both shows break ratings records. “Dexter has proved incredibly valuable as a launch pad for Homeland,” Nevins said. “Our plan is to harness (the success) and use the shows to launch the next generation of Showtime drama series.”

Related: It’s Official: Showtime Lands Horror Drama From ‘Skyfall’s John Logan & Sam Mendes

Dexter will get on the air earlier than usual, on June 30 at 9 PM, serving as a lead-in for new crime drama Ray Donovan. The early return has not affected production on Dexter. “There is no less production time, just a little less vacation time between the seasons,” Nevins dais, adding that the drama’s producers and cast had gotten enough lead time to adjust to the scheduling change.

On Sept. 29, “we are employing our crown jewel Homeland to launch Masters Of Sex,” Showtime’s new drama about real-life pioneers of the science of human sexuality, William Masters and Virginia Johnson, Nevins said.

Here are month-by-month highlights of Showtime’s original programming slate for the rest of 2013: Read More »

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Jimmy Kimmel Goes Modest – “We’ll Be Happy As No. 3″ In Late-Night: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday January 11, 2013 @ 12:23pm PSTTags: Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel Live, TCA

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

Jimmy Kimmel today downplayed the high ratings his show has enjoyed in its new 11:35 PM time slot. “The first week doesn’t mean anything,” he said during a TCA session at the Jimmy Kimmel Live studio in Hollywood. “It would mean something if we did poorly.” Today’s panel came after Kimmel topped new time-slot rivals Jay Leno and David Letterman in the 18-49 demo last night, when the show set a new ratings high in its third night of head-to-head competition with The Tonight Show and Late Night. “It was just one night”, he told critics. Kimmel also said Letterman called to wish him well — the day before the show’s debut, which beat his longtime hero in the demo. “I’m not killing Dave”, Kimmel insisted. “We did not put a dent in his numbers. I don’t think it will hurt him.” Kimmel said he has not heard from another new rival, TBS’ host Conan O’Brien. “I don’t know him,” Kimmel said today. “I’m a fan of his. I think he’s a very funny guy.”

Related: Kimmel Pulls In 3.09M In 11:35  Debut; Tops Letterman

Kimmel said he was “happy for 10 years” in his old slot and “it’s better to be a newcomer than an old timer.” He said that he ultimately expects to be “the No. 3 show in late-night” because The Tonight Show and Letterman have such long histories. “We’ll be very happy with No. 3.” He added that no one would ever take the late night crown from Johnny Carson. Read More »

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‘The Middle’ Producers Are OK With “Underrated”: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 10, 2013 @ 5:37pm PSTTags: ABC, TCA, The Middle

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

Modern Family is such a hit for ABC that entertainment president Paul Lee just referred to it as simply “Modern” during a morning TCA panel. Everyone on the planet would know what show he meant.

But if ratings are any indication, the TV viewership is not on such a first-name basis with another ABC Wednesday night comedy, The Middle. At today’s late afternoon panel on the show, executive producers DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler joked that they were going to go to a bar and have a drink for every time a TV critic calls the show “underrated.”

Related: ‘Body Of Proof’ Producers On Season 3 Changes: TCA Read More »

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‘Body Of Proof’ Producers On Season 3 Changes: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 10, 2013 @ 5:20pm PSTTags: ABC, Body of Proof, TCA

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

The production team from the third-year ABC drama Body Of Proof was grilled at TCA this afternoon to explain the show’s significant retooling between seasons. The changes found three regulars (Nicholas Bishop, John Carroll Lynch and Sonja Sohn) being shown the door while two new actors joined with the casting of Elyes Gabel and Mark Valley as detectives — and Evan Katz jumping onboard as an executive producer. “We’re always thinking of ways to amp up the show and make it more exciting,” explained exec producer Christopher Murphey. “We didn’t want to take too much away from our A story, while still servicing separate B stories related to character.” So the production team began brainstorming ways to bring the personal life of star Dana Delany’s character into her investigative work. That meant adding a character with whom she had once had a relationship. And that led to the cast changes. Read More »

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‘Mistresses’ Producers Mull How To “Break The Rules” Without Offending The Audience: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 10, 2013 @ 4:29pm PSTTags: ABC, Mistresses, TCA

At a morning TCA panel, ABC entertainment chief Paul Lee said that ABC is high on soap operas, saying he’s delighted that General Hospital is “rocking and rolling” in daytime and adding that the series Scandal has reinvented the genre. (He also offered that the important Latina audience “loves that genre.”) “But you want to do something that breaks the rules,” the executive said.

Lee did not mention ABC’s new primetime soap Mistresses in his remarks about soaps, but at an afternoon panel the cast and producers had plenty to say about flawed women, the show’s abundant nakedness, adultery as a dramatic premise and how to “break the rules” without offending the audiences and the Standards department. Read More »

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ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’ “Embodies The American Dream”, Says Producer: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 10, 2013 @ 3:00pm PSTTags: ABC, Shark Tank, TCA

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

The ABC entrepreneurial reality series Shark Tank from producer Mark Burnett and Sony TV came into its own as an unscripted dynamo during its third season, topping Friday nights in the key demos and earning a supersizing of its episodic order from 22 to 24. During a post-lunch TCA panel, Shark Tank exec producer Clay Newbill ruminated on why the series seems to have struck such a nerve. It’s no mystery to Newbill. “It embodies the American dream,” he said. “It shows people that entrepreneurism is alive and well in this country. It empowers viewers to believe, ‘I can do it!’” Newbill went on to emphasize that he hears from people who tell him the show changed their lives. It’s pretty heady stuff for a show that’s part of a genre that gets a consistently bad rap. The producer addressed that, too, admitting that reality “has this stigma that it takes advantage of people. Well, not this show. It’s reality TV at its best. It lets real people catapult their dreams into real business success and teaches young people with drive, with passion, and if they really apply themselves, they too can make it. Kids learn the power of the human spirit.” But besides that, Newbill credits the increased popularity to the fact it takes a while for a series like Shark Tank to catch on. “Sony and ABC stuck with us long enough, and we knew the third season would be the charm.”

Related: ‘Mistresses’ Producers Mull How To “Break The Rules” Without Offending The Audience: TCA Read More »

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ABC’s ‘Zero Hour’ Explores The Human Beneath Naziism, Creator Says: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 10, 2013 @ 2:55pm PSTTags: ABC, Anthony Edwards, TCA, Zero Hour

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

The most intriguing material to emerge from a TCA panel promoting the new ABC action thriller Zero Hour starring Anthony Edwards came after the panel during an informal chat with creator/executive producer Paul Scheuring. He was asked about the presence of Nazis in the pilot and whether that was perhaps done to give the show something of a baseline for evil so there is no ambiguity. His surprising reply: “No. Actually, that’s a source of ambiguity. The idea that all Nazis are bad is something we are exploring, 100 percent.”

“The entire show is about the man or the woman beneath the identity,” Scheuring continued. “If you wear a Christian cross, are you automatically good? If you wear a Nazi armband, are you automatically bad? And that I think ultimately makes for more complex and interesting drama. All those different characters wear these different surface adornments, like Naziism, Christianity. But what’s the human beneath it?… I want to have a more sophisticated three-dimensional view of the characters as opposed to ‘Nazi! Bad!’ I mean, who cares?” Scheuring identified himself as Buddhist and went on to pose the hypothetical question whether the Christian God is real. “Scientifically, that’s the question we are starting to ask as the season goes along.” Read More »

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ABC’s Paul Lee: “We Have A Lot To Do”: TCA

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday January 10, 2013 @ 1:46pm PSTTags: ABC, Big Deals TV, Paul Lee, TCA
Nellie Andreeva

ABC‘s successful fairytale drama Once Upon A Time is all about the juxtaposition of good and bad and so were the opening remarks of the network’s topper Paul Lee at TCA today. “We have a lot to shout about and a lot to do,” Lee started off with. On the bright side, Lee touted ABC’s success with sophomore shows, including Scandal, which Lee said “is rocking and rolling,” and Once Upon A Time, as well as making “a great first step with family comedies on Friday.”

Related: ‘Mistresses’ Producers Mull How To “Break The Rules”: TCA

On the disappointment side: the soft ratings for the all-star edition of Dancing With The Stars (“We found out people like to see bad dancing as much as they like to see good dancing,” Lee said), and freshman drama Nashville‘s inability to connect with wider audiences off the bat despite very strong 18-34 ratings. Add to that the disappointing ratings performance of ABC’s other freshman dramas, Last Resort and 666 Park Ave, both of which have been cancelled. “I was disappointed that there have been no big breakout hits on any networks this fall, not just ABC,” Lee said, discounting NBC’s drama Revolution and the CW’s hot rookie Arrow.

Related: ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’ “Embodies The American Dream”, Says Producer: TCA Read More »

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