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Television

I don’t want to subscribe, but I think I will absolutely have to!!!

Disney+ TV Shows to Stream Episodes Weekly – Won’t Be Dropped All at Once

If you were hoping to binge Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian” straight through — or any of the other Disney+ TV series that will be available when the streaming service launches Nov. 12 — then you are out of luck, because Disney plans to drop episodes weekly on the forthcoming platform.

During D23Expo in Anaheim, Calif. on Friday, “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” creator/co-showrunner Tim Federle told TheWrap his super-meta show would release its 10 episodes on a weekly basis. And a Disney+ spokesperson confirmed to us Saturday that all the streaming service’s series will follow this same format.

Along with Favreau’s live-action “Star Wars” series and “HSMTMTS,” other original shows that will have their first episodes available at launch on Disney+ include “The World According to Jeff Goldblum,” the Kristen Bell-produced “Encore” and short-form Pixar collection “Forky Asks a Question.”

You’ll be able to subscribe to Disney’s highly-anticipated streaming competitor to challenge Netflix and Amazon for $6.99 a month (or as part of a $12.99 bundle with Hulu and ESPN+).

Along with housing its own vast library of content, Disney+ will feature original “Star Wars,” Marvel Studios, Pixar, National Geographic and Disney productions.

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Television

I love the characters but the show is getting kind of boring. Hope it ends strong.

‘The Good Place’ to end after fourth season

“The Good Place” will end its run after its fourth season next year, creator Mike Schur revealed on Friday at the show’s Emmy FYC panel.

Speaking in front of a full house at the TV Academy’s Saban Theatre in North Hollywood, Schur revealed that the show’s writers plan was to tell a four-season story and that’s exactly what they planned to do.

“It’s a bullet train it doesn’t slow down for anything,” Schur said of the final season.

The series stars admitted they appreciated the fact that they were ending the show on their own terms, even though they were sad to see it end. “Much respect,” said star Ted Danson. “I know we do fart jokes but this is a serious show.”

“Any padding or over-telling a really great story would be a shame.”

Added D’Arcy Carden, who plays Janet: “We all learned together, my reaction was ‘cool, ok, yeah,’ and 24 hours later it was, ‘I think I’m depressed!’

“I have so much respect for Mike and the writers and I have always been a fan of shows that go out on their own terms.”

“The Good Place,” from Universal TV, has been critically acclaimed from launch, and at the recent network upfronts NBC revealed that via multiple platforms and streaming it is actually the network’s most-watched show.

The freshman sitcom premiered in 2016 to solid ratings, attracting the best ratings for a new Peacock comedy since 2012.

“After ‘The Good Place’ was picked up for season two, the writing staff and I began to map out, as best we could, the trajectory of the show,” Schur said in a statement. “Given the ideas we wanted to explore, and the pace at which we wanted to present those ideas, I began to feel like four seasons – just over 50 episodes – was the right lifespan. At times over the past few years we’ve been tempted to go beyond four seasons, but mostly because making this show is a rare, creatively fulfilling joy, and at the end of the day, we don’t want to tread water just because the water is so warm and pleasant. As such, the upcoming fourth season will be our last.”

Per NBC, “The Good Place” averaged a 1.6 rating in adults 18-49 last season and 4.6 million viewers overall in live plus seven day ratings. Counting digital viewership only, “The Good Place” was up season to season by 38% in 18-49.

“Since day one, ‘The Good Place’ has been a seminal show for us and one that hits all the NBC touch points – incredibly smart, funny, inventive and emotional,” said Lisa Katz and Tracey Pakosta, Co-Presidents of Scripted Programming, NBC Entertainment. “We know the audience will love what Mike Schur and his writers have in store for the final season.”

Since its launch in 2016, “The Good Place” has won the AFI Award for Program of the Year, TCA Award for Program of the Year, a Humanitas Award and a Peabody Award. In addition, the series has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award, Writers Guild Award, Producers Guild Award and Critics’ Choice Award.

A show that has explored philosophy., the afterlife and everything in between, “The Good Place” stars Ted Danson, Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Jacinto and D’Arcy Carden.

Schur, David Miner, Morgan Sackett and Drew Goddard executive produce.

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Business Movies Television

I own all of this stuff…all of it! Why would I subscribe?

Disney+ to launch in November with 400 movies and 7,500 TV episodes

Disney finally revealed details of its long-awaited streaming service in a presentation to investors on Thursday afternoon.

Disney+ will launch globally on November 12th, 2019 with 400 movies titles and 7,500 TV episodes. The streaming network will collect content from across its various subsidiaries, including Pixar, Marvel, LucasFilm, as well as its own productions under the Walt Disney banner. It’s also developing several original films and series.

The ad-free subscription service will be priced at $6.99 monthly — or, $69.99 annually — and will also be bundled with Hulu and other Disney offerings at a discounted price.

Among Disney+’s extensive offerings:

— All of Disney’s classic animated films — including The Lion King, Snow White, Little Mermaid, and Aladdin — will be unlocked from the Disney Vault and made available on Disney+. More recent animated films, such as Moana and Frozen, will also be included. Disney is also working on live-action remakes of Lady and the Tramp and The Sword in the Stone, as well as a Christmas comedy called Noelle starring Anna Kendrick, and Timmy Failure, based on the best-selling books.

— All Pixar films will be available within first year of launch, as well as its various digital shorts, including new, original series focused around Toy Story characters Forky and Bo Peep. As previously reported, Monsters Inc. is also getting a spinoff series.

— Disney+ will bring the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe together in one place for the first time. Four of its films will be available upon launch: Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Iron Man 3, and Thor: The Dark World, with Avengers: Endgame following later in the year. As previously reported, Disney+ will also be the exclusive home to original series inspired by Loki, Hawkeye, Falcon and Winter Soldier, and Vision and the Scarlet Witch. If that weren’t enough, an animated series called What If? will imagine alternate Marvel storylines.

— The Star Wars films, with the exception of Solo and The Last Jedi (to come later), will be available at launch. Jon Favreau’s episodic series The Mandalorian will also be available at launch and span eight episodes. A Cassian Andor series is also in the works, with Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk reprising their roles from Rogue One.

— The first 30 seasons of The Simpsons will also be available on day one.

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Television

She probably 100% right. Maybe even 1000% right.

Maisie Williams: ‘I don’t think anyone will be satisfied by Game Of Thrones ending’

Maisie Williams fears Game Of Thrones fans will be disappointed by the show’s climax, no matter how writers tie it all up.

The actress, who plays Arya Stark in the hit HBO fantasy drama, can’t see a win for the cast and crew when the program wraps later this year, because no one wants the series to end.

“I don’t know that anyone is going to be satisfied,” the 21 year old tells Sky News. “No one wants it to end, you know, but I’m really proud of this final season. I’ve always felt ashamed to say things like that, but I am. I’m really proud of all the work we’ve put it, for me it’s the right time. I hope people like it.”

Her co-star Kit Harington previously echoed her concerns about the end of the show, stating, “It’s like when you finish a book, you’re not happy it’s over are you? You don’t finish a good book and say, ‘I’m happy I finished that’. You have this grief that it’s over, and it’s exactly the same with nine years doing this show. No matter how it ended, or how it does end, there’s always this bit of you that’s like, ‘Oh’. There’s this loss around it.”

Maisie recently told The Guardian she was all alone on the set as she said goodbye to her character in her final scene.

“I ended on the perfect scene,” she said. “I was alone – shocker! Arya’s always bloody alone. But I was alone and I had watched a lot of other people wrap. I knew the drill, I had seen the tears and heard the speeches.

“I got to the end and I didn’t want more. I had exhausted every possible piece of Arya. And this season was quite big for me. I had a lot more to do. Mainly because there’s just less characters now, so everyone’s got more to do.”

The hit show’s final six episodes will air from mid-April.

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Television

Don’t do it, folks!! Don’t ever do it!!!

Steve Carell Shoots Down ‘Office’ Revival & Series Writer Explains How The Comedy Survived A Disastrous First Season

There’s no doubt that Netflix is a huge reason why “The Office” is even bigger now than it ever was during its 9 season run on NBC. In hindsight, you would think that the network knew exactly what it had with Steve Carell and the rest of the cast in what would become one of the best comedies of the last decade. But really, in the beginning, no one knew and the series almost didn’t survive.

On a recent episode of Vox’s podcast “I Think You’re Interesting,” series writer Michael Schur talked “The Office” and why it is a miracle the series lasted 201 episodes when it probably should have only lasted 6. And then Steve Carell finally puts to rest all talk of an ‘Office’ reunion.

READ MORE: Steve Carell Says Universal Shut Down Production On ’40-Year-Old Virgin’ Because He “Looked Like A Serial Killer”

“That show was developed by Kevin Reilly, who was running NBC at the time. He had come from FX, and he loved the British show, and he was very passionate about ‘The Office.’ So he gave [creator] Greg [Daniels] the chance to basically do it the way he wanted and basically cast it the way he wanted. He was very invested in the show. We made six episodes that first season, and no one liked it,” said Schur.

He continues, “So, definitely going to get canceled — except that Kevin Reilly kind of stakes his reputation as an executive [on it]. And says to his bosses at NBC, ‘I believe in this show. I think it can work. Please, please, please give me another chance. Give us another season.’”

Luckily for all involved, the begging of Reilly coincided with Steve Carell becoming a massive star thanks to Judd Apatow’s “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” Suddenly, NBC had more at stake than just a low-rated American remake. The network had a movie star under contract.

“They partially gave us the second season because they had Steve under contract. So, network executive sticks his neck out. The guy who’s the main character becomes a movie star,” said Schur.

But getting a second season wasn’t going to fix all the wrongs of the first season. Because of Carell’s rise to fame, Schur and the rest of the folks behind the scenes decided to take the show in a different direction and branch off more from the British ‘Office’ that the series was based on.

He explains:

“The guy who created the show [Greg Daniels] is a first-ballot hall of fame TV brain. And he says, ‘Well, let’s look at thing No. 2, and let’s think about how we should take that information and use it for the show. And the way we should is by saying, that guy, that character he’s playing in that movie, is so sympathetic and so kind and so lovely. We need to take 20 percent of that energy and put it into Michael Scott’

And the writers — his own writers, me included! — rebelled and said, ‘You’re going to ruin it. The thing that Ricky [Gervais] and Steve [Merchant made] is perfect, and how dare you, and the whole point is it’s supposed to be bleak, and Michael Scott, like David Brent, is a terrible person.’ And Greg patiently listened to all of us, and heard us all out, and said, ‘No, you dummies, I’m going to do it this way, and we’re going to add just a tiny little glimmer of hope to the end of every episode.’

And he did. And that is the difference between that show lasting 12 episodes and lasting 200.”

So, the rest is history. The series lasted 9 seasons and over 200 episodes. And now, thanks to streaming, fans are discovering the NBC comedy and loving it more than ever. This has led to many fans asking about a potential revival or reunion.

Sadly, according to star Carell, if there is a reunion, it’ll be without him. In a new interview with Collider, the actor sets the record straight on whether or not he’d want to be included.

Carell says:

“I’ll tell you, no. I feel like I’m a broken record, talking about this because I get asked about it. The show is way more popular now than when it was on the air. I just can’t see it being the same thing, and I think most folks would want it to be the same thing, but it wouldn’t be. Ultimately, I think it’s maybe best to leave well enough alone and just let it exist as what it was. You’d literally have to have all of the same writers, the same producers, the same directors, and the same actors, and even with all of those components, it just wouldn’t be the same. So, no. But, I love the show. It was the most exciting time, and all of those people are my friends. We all love it. It was a special thing. It was a special thing before people thought it was a special thing. It was special to us, before other people started feeling that way. But, no.”

Even though it doesn’t appear that Carell is interested in bringing Michael Scott back to Dunder Mifflin, fans can still relive his antics on Netflix over and over again.

Categories
Television

So…hurry up April!!!!

‘Game of Thrones’ reveals final season air date

It’s official: The end of “Game of Thrones” is coming in April.

On Tuesday, the show’s official Twitter account posted a video announcing that the eighth and final season will air in April 2019.

The season will contain just six episodes, although they will reportedly be supersized — some as long as feature films.

The video teases, “Every battle. Every betrayal. Every risk. Every fight. Every sacrifice. Every death. All #ForTheThrone.”

It’s not a trailer with new footage, but it sure beats that time “Game of Thrones” made everyone spend an hour watching a block of ice melt, in order to find out the Season 7 air date.

It emphasizes the impending conflict between Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), who is currently Queen, Daenerys Targaryen (Emila Clarke), who’s come to Westeros to stake her own claim on the Iron Throne, and the current King in the North Jon Snow (Kit Harington), who doesn’t even know that he also has a claim to the throne — since nobody’s told him who his real parents are, yet.

HBO didn’t specify the exact date in April, but if the show continues the pattern of airing on Sundays, the choices are April 7, 14, 21 or 28.

And now our watch begins.

Categories
Television

SPOILER ALERT: I thought it would be the dog.

SPOILER ALERT: Who Died on Modern Family?

It may be weird to say this, but it’s true: The moment Modern Family fans have been waiting for (dreading) is here: the big death.

So, who kicked the bucket? Spoiler alert! It was Shelley Long’s DeDe Pritchett, mother to Claire (Julie Bowen) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), ex-wife of Jay (Ed O’Neill).

Reactions were…mixed. DeDe was never the most popular member of this extended family, and that fact paired with the fact that everyone was wearing complicated Halloween costumes made for a lot more comedy than tragedy, and a lot more arguing than crying. Claire and Mitch were troubled by childhood memories in the wake of their mother’s death, but the rest of the fam had their own way of coping.

Haley (Sarah Hyland) couldn’t stop eating, which apparently made her brain start working for the first time. Luke (Nolan Gould) couldn’t stop telling jokes, Alex (Ariel Winter) got mad at them and then had sex with her boyfriend, and Gloria was being haunted by tiny DeDe dolls that all the kids had been given once as gifts, by DeDe. Meanwhile, Phil (Ty Burrell) and Cam (Eric Stonestreet) made the mistake of trying to go to West Hollywood on Halloween night.

Everyone spent the evening waiting for an explanation for the death, which came at the very end of the episode. After befriending a pack of wolves and being saved by one of those wolves after falling through some ice and then offending a tribe of Inuits and being briefly swallowed by a whale, DeDe died peacefully in her sleep with a smile on her face and a list of suggestions for the hotel staff in her hands.

“That is so mom,” Claire said as the episode ended.

Fans have known it was coming for months after series executive producer Christopher Lloyd said a “significant character” would die and it would be a “moving event” with effects felt throughout several episodes.

“We’re handling some bigger life events in this season,” Lloyd told EW. “We do deal with a death, which is certainly a topic that families have to deal with, and on television, it’s not easy to do because that’s a heavy subject. But at the same time, it would seem unusual for a family not to go through it.”

Rumors have run rampant since Lloyd teased the death in early September 2018, with many fans speculating it would be Stella, Jay’s dog.

“It’s definitely a person, not the dog. I’ve been hearing rumors about the dog, it’s not the dog. It’s no animal, it’s a human being,” Ferguson told E! News at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles gala.

Death is nothing new to sitcoms, especially ones on ABC. The Conners recently killed off Roseanne Barr’s character, Roseanne Conner, by way of opioid overdose after Roseanne was canceled.

Modern Family airs Wednesdays, 9 p.m. on ABC.

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Television

I look forward to hearing what the “creative differences” are.

Shaun Majumder not returning to This Hour Has 22 Minutes

Comedian Shaun Majumder is signing off from the anchor desk of the popular news parody show This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

He announced that he would not be returning to the show on Saturday, during the closing night festivities at The Gathering, an annual three-day festival of comedy, music and food.

According to a CBC reporter who attended, Majumder said “creative differences” played a part in his decision.

Majumder founded The Gathering in his hometown of Burlington, N.L., in 2012.

He was a member of the This Hour Has 22 Minutes cast from 2003 to 2010, when he left the show to star in Detroit 1-8-7. He returned to the show in 2011.

CBC, which broadcasts the weekly satire, confirmed the departure.

“Given the nature of the industry, it’s not uncommon to make a change with a cast member,” CBC representative Chuck Thompson said in an email. “This has happened several times over the years with other cast members on 22 Minutes.”

Thompson added that the show “decided to go in a different direction” but “looks forward to the possibility of working with Shaun in the future.”

Majumder told CBC News he will be making a public statement about his decision in the coming days.

Categories
Television

Come on!! Give them stuff!!!

‘GOT’ stars banned from taking set props

The stars of Game of Thrones are at war with production execs after they were banned from taking home props as mementoes of their grueling years filming the hit show.

Veterans of the sex and swords HBO epic — which reportedly earns the studio $1 billion a year –had planned to take souvenirs from their time on the set.

But long-serving actors including Emilia Clarke and Maisie Williams have been told they will have to leave the show without taking their characters’ trademark weapons and clothes, or iconic show props including armor and jewelry.

Regardless of orders, the actors are allegedly planning to take their most beloved possessions from set.

They believe they deserve them after spending years shooting the hit show in freezing weather and other difficult conditions.

“The cast is calling show chiefs cheap for putting a ban on them taking any personal reminders of their time on the show,” a source told Radar.

“They feel they have put everything into the show and made a lot of people a lot of money, and think it is a disgrace they won’t be able to take small souvenirs of their time on the show home when it wraps.”

A ban on actors walking away with treasures comes after Kristian Nairn – who played giant Hodor – admitted he had taken a door as a keepsake from the show, which he revealed he planned to hang on a wall at his house.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau — who plays Jaime Lannister – said he intended to steal his character’s fake gold hand and use it as an ashtray in his house.

Actor Liam Cunningham admitted in an interview: “I grab a prop every year – I don’t think of it as grabbing, I think of it as liberating them.”

Radar’s source said the stars’ revelations they regularly swiped props had prompted a clampdown on thefts, with the props team demanding all items handed out during takes be returned personally by actors and signed off on a checklist.

The insider added: “Show bosses have got sick of the thefts as it costs a lot of money to produce these props – the show has its own armory and blacksmiths who make them, and they know they will sell for a lot once the show finishes.”

“Extras are also guilty of thefts and security teams have now been briefed to be especially watchful and ordered to stop anyone who tries to leave the sets carrying valuable props.”

Game of Thrones’ final season will air next year, and almost every episode has already been filmed.

Categories
Television

Love this!!

Chris Rock joining ’Fargo’ Season 4

TORONTO — FX Networks CEO and President John Landgraf announced today in Los Angeles that Chris Rock will star in a fourth season of “Fargo.”

Each season of the Emmy-winning anthology drama features a new cast of headliners as it skips through different decades. Up until now, production has been based in and around Calgary, with the Canadian city doubling for Minnesota as well as North and South Dakota.

The new season is not scheduled to commence filming until 2019. A Fox spokesperson today said it is too early to tell where production will be located

Here’s what is known: the new season is set in 1950 in Kansas City, Mo. Actor/comedian Rock will star as a family man caught up in the migration of African Americans from the U.S. south who travelled north to escape segregation and oppression.

Rock’s character must surrender his oldest son to his enemy and also raise his enemy’s son as his own in order to thrive in his new settings. Complicating matters further is a new wave of immigration from Europe entering Kansas City, including members of an Italian crime syndicate.

A release from the network describes the new season as “a story of basically decent people who are probably in over their heads. You know, Fargo.”

The Emmy and Peabody-winning drama, based on the Coen brothers feature film, has been on the shelf for an extended period as creator/writer/showrunner Noah Hawley juggled feature film work as well as his duties on his other FX series, “Legion.” Rock, 53, was quoted saying he can’t wait to work on the series.

Hawley, as well as executive producer Warren Littlefield, have praised the largely Calgary-based crews working the series during its first three seasons. Littlefield’s other award-winning drama, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” shoots in and around Toronto, Hamilton and Cambridge, Ont.

Shows don’t always stay put, however. Hawley’s other FX series, “Legion,” was relocated from Vancouver to California for its second season, lured by enhanced tax incentives on the American west coast.

That move, Hawley explained last January, was also largely dictated by second season “Legion” scripts calling for more desert scenes.

“You want to embrace what the location you’re filming in has to offer you,” said Hawley of the shift south. “The sad thing with Vancouver is that people often shoot Vancouver to imitate someplace else — or Toronto or Atlanta — rather than, no, it’s this beautiful mountainous evergreen terrain. I just want to embrace where we are.”

The most recent season of “Fargo,” which aired in 2017, starred Ewan McGregor in a dual role. Kirsten Dunst and Ted Danson headlined Season 2, with Billy Bob Thornton starring in the first season.

Thornton took in a Calgary Stampeders CFL game during his 10-episode stint and was amazed to see shirtless fans in the stands painted in team colours.

The Arkansas native had a great time in Canada but in an interview in 2014 admitted that the winter shoot took some getting used to.

“One night, it went down to 40 below and they wouldn’t allow us to work,” he said at the time. “You figure if a Canadian says it’s too dangerous to go out there, it probably is too dangerous to go out.”