Category: Television

Patrick Stewart to reprise role as Jean-Luc Picard in new Star Trek series

Patrick Stewart is boldly going where he’s been before — Star Trek.

CBS All Access said Saturday that Stewart has been tapped to headline a new Star Trek series, reprising his Star Trek: The Next Generation character, Capt. Jean-Luc Picard.

Stewart, 78, shocked an audience at a Las Vegas Star Trek event when he announced he would be reprising his famous role.

The new series is not a Next Generation reboot but will tell the story of the next chapter of Picard’s life. No title or air date was revealed.

In a statement on Instagram, Stewart says he thought his Star Trek days “had run its natural course” so he considers it a delightful surprise to be playing Picard again.

“During these past years, it has been humbling to hear stories about how The Next Generation brought people comfort, saw them through difficult periods in their lives or how the example of Jean-Luc inspired so many to follow in his footsteps, pursuing science, exploration and leadership,” Stewart wrote.

“I feel I’m ready to return to him for the same reason — to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times.”

Stewart headlined his Star Trek series for seven seasons and portrayed Picard in the movies Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).

Star Trek fans, considered among the most fanatical of any film or television franchise, responded gleefully on social media to the news.

‘Roseanne’ spinoff is official — without Roseanne — ABC announces

Welcome back, Conners.

Unwilling to let the working class family and its viewers disappear, ABC has brought back a makeshift “Roseanne” reboot called “The Conners,” rehiring most of the main cast except for its controversial lead, Roseanne Barr.

“We have received a tremendous amount of support from fans of our show, and it’s clear that these characters not only have a place in our hearts, but in the hearts and homes of our audience,” stars John Goodman (Dan), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie), Sara Gilbert (Darlene), Alicia Goranson (Becky) and Michael Fishman (D.J.) said in a joint statement.

“We all came back last season because we wanted to tell stories about the challenges facing a working-class family today. We are so happy to have the opportunity to return with the cast and crew to continue to share those stories through love and laughter.”

The first iteration of the “Roseanne” reboot was axed suddenly after Barr called Valerie Jarrett, the former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, the baby of the “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes.”

After the cancellation, Barr agreed to waive any financial and creative rights to the spinoff, an agreement that ABC stressed Thursday.

“I regret the circumstances that have caused me to be removed from Roseanne,” she said in a statement. “I agreed to the settlement in order that 200 jobs of beloved cast and crew could be saved, and I wish the best for everyone involved.”

Executive producer Tom Werner also said he was “grateful to have reached this agreement to keep our team working as we continue to explore stories of the Conner family.”

It’s unclear how exactly Roseanne Conner will be killed off — either literally or figuratively — but the show promises to “follow the Conner family who, after a sudden turn of events, are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before.”

In the season finale, the matriarch was undergoing long-awaited knee surgery, so an operating room accident could easily solve the casting issue.

“The Conners” will slide into “Roseanne’s” time slot on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. in the fall.

‘Walking Dead’: Andrew Lincoln to Exit as Norman Reedus Eyes $20M-Plus New Deal

The face of The Walking Dead is leaving the franchise.

Star Andrew Lincoln, who has played beleaguered former sheriff Rick Grimes since the show’s premiere, will exit the AMC zombie drama in its upcoming ninth season, sources confirm to The Hollywood Reporter. Meanwhile, co-star Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl, is in the midst of negotiating a rich new deal that will pay him more than $20 million as he will become the new No. 1 on the call sheet.

Sources say Lincoln will be phased out in season nine in a fashion similar to co-star Lauren Cohan, who will film only six episodes of the series. Cohan, who pays Maggie, opted to exit the highly rated AMC drama and booked the lead in ABC’s Whiskey Cavalier after her efforts to renegotiate a new deal to stay on The Walking Dead went south. After ABC picked up Whiskey Cavalier to series for a midseason bow, it closed the door on Cohan’s full-time return to the series — even if she had closed a new deal. AMC declined comment.

Lincoln’s decision to leave comes as a major shock for the franchise, which ranks as one of the top dramas on all of television among total viewers and the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. What’s more, Lincoln’s Rick is still the focal point of creator Robert Kirkman’s comic series on which the AMC drama is based.

Losing Lincoln comes as The Walking Dead has always taken a “remix” approach to its source material and after an eighth season that featured the death of Rick’s son, Carl (Chandler Riggs), who was largely seen as the future of both the show and the comic. (Carl remains alive and well in the source material.)

For his part, Lincoln lives with his family in London and returns to the show’s Atlanta set for production. He has made no secret that he has little desire to cash in on the show’s success with film deals, and he saw his time with The Walking Dead coming to an end sooner rather than later after Rick’s death was foreshadowed multiple times in a season-eight storyline that wound up being part of Carl’s death.

In December, Lincoln told THR that “there needs to be an end game and that is something that is definitely being talked about.” In February, the actor said that “there’s certainly an endgame in my head. Whether or not that’s the same endgame that’s in the producers’ heads or the people I work with, is another matter. That’s open for discussion.”

Sources note that contracts for Lincoln and Reedus were up after season eight. Unlike in the past, AMC was slow to announce a season-nine renewal as the series was negotiating a larger pact with now-former showrunner Scott M. Gimple. Reedus and Lincoln closed new deals at the time to return for season nine, with the former now looking to cash in given the latter’s pending departure. Sources say Reedus has already begun work on season nine in Atlanta as he negotiates his new pact, which, while it isn’t a done deal, is said to be worth north of $20 million.

“There are lots of unanswered questions, and we owe a debt to all of the viewers to answer a few of those,” Lincoln said in February when asked about a storyline in which Rick appeared to be dying. “So, yes, once they’re answered, there is an endgame. I’ve said it before. There’s certainly an endgame in my head.”

News that Lincoln is leaving The Walking Dead comes as the franchise is poised to reinvent itself again in season nine with Angela Kang becoming the show’s fourth showrunner, replacing Gimple. For his part, Gimple has moved on to a larger role with AMC as chief creative officer of all things Walking Dead after Kirkman exited his overall deal with the cable network for a rich deal with Amazon Studios.

“We knew for a long time that season [eight] was, in many ways, the end of a chapter of the show,” Gimple told THR after the finale. “The differences that people will be seeing in season nine and beyond are going to be pronounced. It’s going to be a very different show with characters handling very different issues, challenges and threats than we’ve seen before. These characters will be different in a lot of ways.”

Relax, John Oliver’s not really quitting ‘Last Week Tonight’

It was all a joke. The host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” said Sunday that he’d achieved all he’d wanted for the show by having an Australian animal hospital’s special ward to treat a chlamydia outbreak among koalas named for him. He said, “goodbye, forever, everyone,” as stagehands broke up his set around him.

That inspired a wave of social media posts among fans wondering if he was serious.

No. It’s a comedy show, after all. HBO said Monday that he’s scheduled to be back on the air next Sunday.

Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon’s Cord & Tish to return for Royal Wedding

And you thought Cord and Tish went gaga over flowers…

“Saturday Night Live” alumni Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon will reprise their roles of Cord Hosenbeck and Tish Cattigan, respectively, for a live HBO special tied to the upcoming British royal wedding.

“The Royal Wedding Live With Cord and Tish!,” which the premium cabler announced Tuesday, will air Saturday, May 19 at 7:30/6:30c, with a primetime replay that day at 9:45 pm.

Shannon and Ferrell introduced the characters in “The 2018 Rose Parade Hosted by Cord & Tish,” an Amazon parody special that streamed live in January.

Rose Parade correspondent (and fellow former “SNL”-er) Tim Meadows, as well as other guests, will be on hand to help with the coverage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding procession. A release for the special promises that Tish and Cord will relay the big event “with their trademark dignity and grace.”

Ferrell wrote and will executive-produce the special with Andrew Steele (“SNL”), Mike Farah (“Billy on the Street”) and showrunner Bellamie Blackstone (“@midnight”); Shannon will produce. Funny or Die will produce.

‘Arrested Development’ Season 4 Getting A “Remix” Before Season 5 Hits

There’s good news and bad news about “Arrested Development.” The good news is that season 5 is coming. And apparently its right around the corner. The bad news is…well not really that bad, honestly. The second bit of news is about season 4.

To say that Season 4 of “Arrested Development” wasn’t as well-received as previous seasons would be a gross understatement. The story of the Bluth family was widely regarded as one of the best comedies on TV, which led Netflix to revive the show for the ill-fated season 4. Unfortunately, a variety of behind-the-scenes circumstances led to the series being presented in an odd way, or as the series creator Mitch Hurwitz says, “a ‘Rashomon’-style of storytelling. Needless to say, fans weren’t very pleased.

But never fear! Hurwitz is back and wants to make things right. Or at least give it a valiant effort before season 5 of the series makes its triumphant return later this Summer.

In an open letter tweeted out by Hurwitz, he describes an effort to recut and “remix” season 4 to be told in a more simple, chronological way. While he readily admits that his main driving force was money (“I mean, who am I kidding, I want this thing to syndicate eventually.”), he says that he found other purposes to remix and re-edit the season.

“But I also pursued it as a comedic experiment to see if new jokes and a new perspective would emerge from a remix that features all the Bluths in every episode, and where the simultaneity of the story plays out chronologically,” explained the creator. “And I’m really excited about the final result.”

Let’s be real, Hurwitz did this to win back favor from the fans before season 5 is released. Speaking from my own personal experience, I didn’t even finish the fourth season because it was so lackluster. However, with the “remix” scheduled to hit Netflix this Friday, May 4, I might go back to see if I initially misjudged the series.

“Arrested Development Season 4 Remix: Fateful Consequences” will hit Netflix on May 4, followed “real soon” by season 5.

‘Broad City’ To End After Season 5, Ilana Glazer & Abbi Jacobson Ink First-Look Deal With Comedy Central

One of Comedy Central’s signature comedy series, Broad City, will be coming to an end after its upcoming fifth season, set to air in early 2019.

Comedy Central is staying in business with Broad City creators, showrunners, directors and stars Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, who have signed a development deal with the network. Under the pact, Comedy Central will have a first look at all content created and/or developed for television by Glazer and Jacobson, both together and independently. The deal also extends across all of parent company Viacom’s television networks.

Glazer and Jacobson have three projects already in development at Comedy Central under the new pact: Mall Town USA, Platinum Status and Young Professionals. (The pact excludes existing projects, including Jacobson’s A League of the Their Own reboot series, in works at Amazon.)

Broad City is in the middle of a two-season renewal for Seasons 4 and 5 it received in early 2016 ahead of its Season 3 premiere.

“Broad City’s Abbi and Ilana may appear to be aimless and full of hair-brained schemes, but Abbi and Ilana IRL have proven to be stellar creator/writer/performer/director/producers,” said Kent Alterman, President of Comedy Central. “Their supreme focus on telling new stories, in new worlds, with new talent is nearly scary.”

He told Deadline that it was Glazer and Jacobson’s decision to end the show. “It’s purely driven by creative storytelling. They came to us and said, ‘We think that we need to figure out how to resolve a final season.’ They have great ideas about how they want to end it, and the last thing we want to do is to have someone not end something on their terms.”

Alterman would not reveal details about Season 5 as they are still being formulated but said that the duo’s “plans for winding the series up are really exciting. I think it’s going to be a great celebration of this show.”

Said Glazer and Jacobson, “Broad City has been our baby and first love for almost 10 years, since we started as a web series. It’s been a phenomenal experience, and we’ve put ourselves into it completely. Broad City’s always had a spontaneous pace and feeling, and ending after season five honors that spirit. We are very excited to bring new voices and points of view to Comedy Central and continue our collaboration together in new ways.”

The deal with Glazer and Jacobson is a coup for Comedy Central which has seen a number of creators and stars who established themselves on the Viacom network leave for new shows elsewhere, most recently The Daily Show‘s Hasan Minhaj and Michelle Wolf, who will headline their own talkers for Netflix, and previously Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Samantha Bee. “We are working in a very supportive environment; it’s a very different environment now at Viacom, being less siloed, and that helps,” Alterman said before adding in his signature deadpan style, “We are still trying to overcome the bad feelings that we only got 16+ years with Jon Stewart and 20 with Stephen Colbert because runs are usually longer than that but we are doing the best we can.”

Broad City has been one of two hit Comedy Central primetime series created by and starring women, along with sketch comedy Inside Amy Schumer, which is on indefinite hiatus as Schumer focuses on features. There has been no change in the show’s status but Schumer’s open invitation to return stands. “If she decides she wants to refocus her energy in the sketch arena, we’re ready to go,” Alterman said.

Created by Broad City producer Gabe Liedman, Mall Town USA is an animated comedy that follows the afterschool misadventures of a 13-year-old girl navigating the complexities of puberty and society in the classic microcosm of American culture that is The Mall. Jacobson and Glazer executive produce.

Written by and starring Eliot Glazer (Ilana Glazer’s brother), Platinum Status is set in the hipster-heavy east side of Los Angeles and tells the story of professional back-up singer Noah (Glazer), a gay guy who’s always felt left out of the “community.” And after he’s dumped by his boyfriend of ten years, Noah rebounds in the least likely way: by hooking up with a girl. With help from his friends Kevin and Mimi and guidance from his kinda-sorta-girlfriend Alexa, Noah tries to evolve both in the bedroom and the recording studio. Eliot Glazer will write and executive produce and Ilana Glazer will also executive produce along with Principato Young’s Peter Principato and Brian Steinberg and Electric Avenue’s Will Arnett and Marc Forman.

The third project, Young Professionals centers on David Litt, who at age 24 became one of the youngest White House speechwriters in history. Written and executive produced by Litt and inspired by his own experiences, Young Professionals follows five friends who struggle to make a difference in the broken, bizarre, hopelessly absurd world of Washington, D.C. Jacobson and Glazer also serve as executive producers.

New episodes of ’Street Legal’ in development

TORONTO — Over 20 years after it ended, a reboot of the Canadian courtroom drama “Street Legal” is on the horizon.

The CBC tells The Canadian Press it is in development on six new episodes of the series with Bernie Zuckerman, president of Indian Grove Productions.

The public broadcaster says original cast member Cynthia Dale is attached.

It adds that “no further details are confirmed at this point.”

The popular Gemini Award-winning series aired from 1987 to 1994 and followed a group of lawyers at a firm in Toronto.

Storylines focused not just on their cases but also on their personal lives, adding a soapy quality.

Dale played aggressive lawyer Olivia Novak in a cast that also included Eric Peterson, Sonja Smits, C. David Johnson, and Albert Schultz, among others.

The show was shot in Toronto and had a saxophone-heavy theme song and many guest appearances.

Dale, Peterson, Smits, and Johnson are all theatre stars whose careers have continued to thrive after “Street Legal.”

Dale has had a longtime presence at the Stratford Festival and other theatres, as well as a singing career and appearances on series including “Working the Engels.”

Peterson has racked up scores of onscreen credits, most notably his role as grouchy dad Oscar Leroy on the Canadian series “Corner Gas” and its new animated version.

Smits left “Street Legal” in 1992 to pursue other projects and spend more time with her family. She went on to star in “Traders” and has recently appeared on “Mary Kills People.”

Johnson’s recent credits include the series “The Blacklist” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

And Schultz went on to become the founding artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre Company in Toronto. He recently resigned, after four actresses filed separate lawsuits against him and the company, alleging sexual misconduct. None of their allegations have been tested in court.

Other series from Indian Grove Productions include “Remedy” and “King.”

Judd Apatow doc takes deep dive into Garry Shandling’s life

Comedian Garry Shandling’s untimely death, in March 2016, extinguished the brilliant creative mind behind groundbreaking TV classics “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”

Shandling’s passing, at the too-young age of 66 (from a pulmonary thrombosis), left a complicated legacy: he was embracing yet distant, philosophical yet cutting, gregarious yet extremely private.

Few people felt they really knew what made him tick.

“There were aspects of his life he was struggling with, and part of working on this documentary was trying to figure that out,” says noted comedy writer/producer/director Judd Apatow, who takes a deep dive into his mentor’s life in HBO’s “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling,” airing over two nights (Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m.). “Zen” uses Shandling’s personal journals, home movies, audiotapes and recollections from Jim Carrey, Jay Leno, Sarah Silverman, David Duchovny, Kevin Nealon and ex-girlfriend Linda Doucett — among many others — to map the arc of the comedian’s life.

“All Garry cared about was honesty and the truth,” says Apatow. “ ‘Here’s my life, my struggles, here’s how I dealt with it, how I tried to evolve as a person.’”

Apatow grew close to Shandling while working on “The Larry Sanders Show,” HBO’s satiric comedy series about a neurotic, insecure late-night talk show host (played by Shandling) that ran for six seasons (1992-98), won a slew of awards and established the cringe-worthy comedy template for, among others, Ricky Gervais’ BBC series “The Office.”

“I felt that as close as I was to Garry, there was more to know that he hadn’t shared with me,” Apatow says. “He was always very sweet and giving but was also distracted and consumed, and you knew there were other things on his mind.”

Shandling’s diaries, spanning from 1977 to his death, provide a valuable peek into the comic’s complex psyche. “It’s so rare that you know exactly what somebody was thinking during most of the important moments of their life. It’s a real blessing when you can have that type of insight,” Apatow says of the journals, which came to light when Shandling was going to share them in another project that never came to fruition. “We realized that Garry was up for revealing parts of his journals,” says Apatow. “So I took that as sort of permission to use them in the documentary.”

The journals also reveal Shandling’s lifelong battle with finding closure over the passing of his beloved older brother, Barry, who died (from cystic fibrosis) when Garry was 10. Shandling’s parents, Irving and Muriel, rarely talked about Barry thereafter and kept Garry away from his funeral. Apatow unearthed a clip of the Shandlings being interviewed about Garry, when the subject turns to Barry.

“In that footage you see his mom refusing to talk about [Barry] passing away and the effect it had on Garry,” says Apatow. “And you realize, ‘Oh, she did that to Garry his entire childhood,’ so he was never able to work through that grief at a very important time in his youth. I do think it led him to being obsessed with the truth and presence and love, because at an important time of his life he didn’t get that the way he needed it.”

Apatow says he decided to make the documentary after Shandling’s memorial service. “When people spoke at the memorial they were so funny and insightful and his life added up to a very inspirational message,” he says. “People left and felt like they’d been through a religious experience.

“A lot of us were sad we didn’t know more [about Garry] and maybe we weren’t there for him or understand him as much as we would’ve liked to,” he says. “I feel Garry would like his life to be a lesson to other people, to help people. All he wanted was to use his pain and try to spread a very simple message, which is that we shouldn’t be all about egos — we should care more about connecting and loving other people.”

According To Creator Dan Harmon, The Future Of Rick And Morty Is In Jeopardy

For those of you Rick and Morty fans who have been wondering what is going on with Season 4 and the future of the season, Dan Harmon has offered an update and it’s not good. After a disgruntled fan complained to Harmon for not working on the new season of Rick and Morty, Harmon confirmed that Adult Swim hasn’t officially picked up another season of the show yet. Here’s what the fan tweeted to Harmon:

“Quit wasting time and go finish the next R&M season, you lazy alcoholic. Run the Jewels can get the animators to make a music video, but we’re waiting on them for the next season? Nah, we’re waiting on you to finish writing it, like that fuckin book.”

Then Harmon replied with the following:

I hear ya, tough spot. On one hand, it can be challenging, especially with crippling lazy alcoholism, to write a show that hasn’t been ordered by a network. On the other hand, the thought that fans like you pay the price…I mean…I’m gonna grab a drink

It’s strange and a shame that Adult Swim is dragging their feet on this. Rick and Morty is a wildly popular show! How have they not greet lit a Season 4 yet!? I don’t have an answer for you. I’m just as confused as the rest of the fans.

The first three seasons have been so freakin’ funny and entertaining. I hope someone eventually pulls their head out of their ass to push Season 4 forward, but even if that happens, since no work has been done on it, it’s gonna be a long ass time before we see any new Rick and Morty episodes.

In the end, I’d rather wait for new episode than not have any new episodes at all.