Category: Television

Jerry Seinfeld to Revisit Early Club Days for Netflix Special

A new, hour-long comedy special will show Jerry Seinfeld returning to one of the clubs where he cut his teeth, New York City’s the Comic Strip, for what’s being billed as an “intimate stand-up set.” The show, dubbed Jerry Before Seinfeld, will also feature a tour of the legal pads he’s kept with every joke he’s written since 1975 and footage from childhood videos. The special is set to premiere on Netflix on September 19th.

The streaming service has posted video from the special and photos of Seinfeld’s comedy notebooks to its @NetflixComedy Instagram account. One, which is a bit like a lyric video, contains audio of Seinfeld joking about moving furniture with his dad while the words are highlighted in his notebook.

Mike Myers is the secret star of the summer in The Gong Show

A woman who plays the harmonica with a tarantula in her mouth. A guy performs the piano standing on his head. A couple spit bananas into each other’s mouths.

And that’s just in the first 15 minutes of the premiere of the rebooted The Gong Show. Talent shows are a dime a dozen nowadays, but there was only one uber un-talent show, and it ran on NBC in the 1970s.

The Gong Show was conceived long before YouTube, but the concept’s well suited for the bite-sized, Carpool-Karaoke world of social media.

Much of the current ’70s game-show revival, which includes Battle of the Network Stars and The $100,000 Pyramid, is bland enough to evoke a U.S. president of the era, Gerald Ford.

However, in the case of The Gong ShowThe Gong Show — airing Thursdays on ABC and Citytv — there is some spice: It comes in the form of host Tommy Maitland, who uses the Queen and the Union Jack as backdrops, just in case you don’t grasp that he’s British.

Unlike the manic original show’s host Chuck Barris, Maitland, whose favourite line is “Who’s a cheeky monkey?” is butter smooth. His jokes are all Graham Norton — full of sexual innuendo and saucy side-glances. “I haven’t had this much fun since Dolly Parton showed me how she keeps her guitar picks warm,” he says smugly.

The only similarity to Barris, who died in March, is that on occasion Maitland will wear a hat — in this case that of a matador. Barris wore an endless array of different hats, all pulled so low over his eyes, which became part of the character of the show.

“Turn on your telly and turn off your brain,” Maitland reminds today’s audiences, as he presides over a trio of fellow comic performers who serve as the judges; in the premiere, it was Will Arnett, Ken Jeong and Zach Galifianakis.

The premise remains simple. Unlike America’s Got Talent or The Voice, or any of the other variety shows that now populate the airwaves, there’s no hunt for future stars here — quite the opposite. The show instead finds amateurs who are truly awful and sees who can complete a performance before someone sounds the gong to put a stop to them.

The winner, or loser if you like, picks up a $2,000 cheque, about equivalent to the $500.32 that Barris offered four decades ago, if you factor in inflation.

So far the new version lacks legendary returning “talent” like Gene Gene The Dancing Machine or Murray Langston, who performed as The Unknown Comic with a bag over his head. In fact, the most remarkable act on The Gong Show is not any of the competitors.

The true talent is Maitland himself, who happens to be the alter ego of a completely unrecognizable Mike Myers.

The show credits give no hint who the host really is, and many viewers likely have no clue. But beneath the prosthetics, which likely take most of the day to put on, is a demonstration of one actor’s impressive, full-on crazy dedication to his craft.

The Canadian comedic star is known for creating characters that become rooted in our culture. Lovable slacker Wayne from Wayne’s World, in a basement modelled after his own in his beloved Scarborough, comes to mind, as do swinging ’60s super secret agent Austin Powers, and the Scots-tinged voice of animated ogre Shrek.

But Tommy Maitland is something else. Myers’ characters typically leap from the screen, — as the purple-trousered Austin Powers would say, “yeah, baby!” But this time he dials back on Maitland, understanding that a game show host is a cipher, not the attraction. In doing so he inhabits the world of a British show host so completely that the character is entirely believable.

The joke is so elaborate that the ABC News release about the show has a fictional biography for the host. It seems that Arnett had become friends with Maitland after meeting him at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Dying to work with the comic, he pitched The Gong Show.

Still, at times it feels like Myers is channelling Mrs. Doubtfire in a tuxedo. And he can’t escape his Myers-isms completely, particularly when he says “it blows” with that cheeky-monkey grin.

Why he decided to host a summer filler of a game show is a head-scratcher. But at this stage in life, Myers has nothing to prove — though he has been away from the spotlight since 2008’s wretched comedy The Love Guru, he certainly doesn’t need another paycheque.

He is playing not for a greater audience, but for his fellow comics. Or mostly himself. And he is likely snickering mightily underneath that prosthetic mask.

It’s unlikely the show will last. So catch it while you can before Myers gets bored. It’s not quite Roger Federer in his twilight years winning Wimbledon, but seeing the gifted performer go full-on Col. Kurtz in this comedic heart of darkness — where is he taking this? — is special, even if he doesn’t always hit the mark.

Not everyone has to be in on the joke. And Mike Myers, it seems, is perfectly fine with that.

Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump will return to SNL next year

We’re still not rid of the real Donald Trump, which means Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live won’t be going anywhere either. Speaking with CNN, Baldwin confirmed that his Trump will return during the show’s next season, but his busy schedule will prevent it from being a regular thing like it was last season. “We’re going to fit that in,” he said regarding his Trump impression on SNL, adding, “I think people have enjoyed it.” That may seem like an odd take on the “character”—which was evidently popular enough to bring back nearly every week—but Baldwin did admit back in February that he doesn’t exactly have fun playing Trump.

Basically, it sounds like he’s only agreeing to come back because people responded to his Trump so positively, which goes against a comment he made in March about not knowing “how much more people can take it.” Perhaps that’s why he’s dialing back the number of appearances he’ll make, telling CNN that it will be “a couple celery sticks” instead of a “whole meal.” Either way, we’ll have less Trump on SNL, but the same, depressing amount of Trump in real life.

Colbert’s full-season victory over Jimmy Fallon is official

It’s official: Donald Trump has been good for Stephen Colbert.

A final tally of late-night numbers were released on Tuesday for the 2016-2017 TV season, confirming a stunning comeback for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Colbert’s final average nightly viewership was 3.26 million — 80,000 ahead of the 3.18 million nightly total for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” according to Nielsen.

The left-wing, bespectacled talk-show host claimed his full-season victory after losing miserably in the 2015-2016 TV season, when he trailed Fallon’s “Tonight” by 870,000 viewers.

Indeed, Colbert mounted his impressive comeback after beginning the latest season with a 738,000-viewer deficit versus Fallon, closing it steadily as the election and its aftermath wore on, according to Nielsen.

Colbert’s victory over Fallon came as viewers flocked to Colbert’s “Late Show” for its cynical take on politics and nightly take-down of President Trump – including a vulgar rant last month that drew outrage but boosted ratings.

Fallon floundered, meanwhile, as he stuck to his usual mix of song, dance and amiable celebrity interviews — although many believe he never recovered after fawning over Trump and mussing his hair during a September show.

In terms of eyeball share, Colbert’s comeback was the product of a 12.4 percent viewership gain, versus a 15.6 percent loss for Fallon, according to Nielsen.

“Late Show’s” seasonal late-night crown in total viewers is the first for CBS since the 1994-1995 TV season.

Viewership numbers for the season, which stretched from Sept. 19, 2016, to May 24, 2017, include live viewing plus seven days of delayed playback.

‘Northern Exposure’ Team Talks Possible Revival: “We Would Love to See It”

Stars Rob Morrow, Janine Turner and Cynthia Geary joined Joshua Brand and producers Mitchell Burgess, Robin Green and Cheryl Bloch to discuss the beloved CBS series.

The cast and creative behind cult favorite Northern Exposure reunited Friday at the ATX Television Festival to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the CBS series.

“I think it was five years ago,” star Rob Morrow joked.

Like most reunions in the Peak TV era, the question turned to potential revival of the quirky drama, which ran for five seasons and 110 episodes. Set in a sleepy town in Alaska, the series centered on New York City physician, Dr. Joel Fleischman (Morrow), who is sent to practice in the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska to fulfill his obligation after Alaska paid for his medical education.

“Rob has been working trying to get them to do it,” co-creator Joshua Brand said. “We would love to see it because I think it is of a time but it’s also not of a time.”

In addition to Morrow’s efforts, actor Darren E. Burrows, who played Ed on the series, has been working to raise money for the project. “It sounds like we all want it to happen,” said Cynthia Geary, who played Shelly.

Janine Turner, who played Maggie, encouraged those in the crowd to write to Universal Television, which produced the series. “Write Universal. At least we got to get it streamed,” she said of the series, which is not currently available to stream on any platform.

The push for a potential revival harkened back to the early efforts to simply get the show on the air. Brand recalled the show’s unassuming start when it quietly launched on CBS in the summer of 1990 with an eight-episode order.

“They didn’t think anyone would watch but they had to, they had to burn off an eight-episode series,” Brand recalled of the deal between Universal Television and CBS. “The network didn’t understand the show.”

Case in point? Brand recalled one of the original names pitched for the series was Dr. Snow. “Of course, they thought it was a medical show,” Brand said with a laugh. “Rob would get on his sled and carry the serum to the sick people.”

Because of that, CBS initially refused to air the season one episode, “Aurora Borealis: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups,” which has since become a fan-favorite and screened for fans Friday at the start of the panel. “When the network saw it, they thought it was too weird and odd and they didn’t want to air it,” Brand said. Producers convinced them to air it as the eighth and final episode of season one and it was quickly embraced by viewers.

“Once we knew that people did like this episode we actually, my partner and I, we turned to each other and we said we can do anything we want on this show and it was incredibly liberating,” Brand said. “We understood that the audience was willing to go on any ride we wanted to take them. … It opened up the whole show for us.”

While the show was off beaten the path, Morrow said it continues to resonate because it appealed to a broad spectrum of viewers. “It was highbrow and lowbrow,” he said. “You could an intellectual and like it and be an idiot and like it and that was really rare. It certainly on the page read like nothing I had ever read.”

Because the series was hard to understand, at least by network standards, the creative team was largely left alone according to Brand. “We were fortunate in that we were flying under the radar,” Brand said. “At the time, we were fortunate to sort of have to fly by the seat of our pants.”

However, that all changed once the show became a runaway hit. Brand recalled a particularly big fight over the season two episode titled “War and Peace,” in which Morrow’s character broke the fourth wall – a creative move that “horrified” the studio, he said.

“I got into a huge fight with them because they wanted me to change it,” he said. “I said no, ‘This is it.'”

Brand then recalled bring flown to New York for a tough meeting with executives. “They sort of told me I was a really bad boy and I either had to kiss the ring or the threat was obviously to get rid of me,” he said. “It was an explicit threat. … I loved the show and I didn’t want to leave the show so I kissed the ring.”

However, Brand went back to Los Angeles and soon found he was “miserable” and “unhappy.” So he called his agent and told him he was done with the show. Two hours later, Brand recalled, the studio called him. “They said, ‘Here’s the deal: You can do whatever you want, but you can’t ask us for any more money,'” he said with a laugh. “And I never got another note from them again.”

Four ‘Game of Thrones’ spinoffs in the works

Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin has signed a new TV production deal to develop four offshoot series from the hit fantasy franchise.

Show creators and executive producers D. B. Weiss and David Benioff are currently preparing to premiere the seventh season of the show in June, and work on the final eighth season will begin later this year, ahead of a planned 2018 release.

However, fans have now been given more to look forward to as officials at U.S. network HBO have reached a deal with Martin to “explore different time periods” in the “vast and rich universe” created in his book series A Song of Ice and Fire in four related shows.

Specific details about the projects, as well as production timelines, have yet to be revealed, but Martin will pen the series with Godzilla’s Max Borenstein, Kick-Ass screenwriter Jane Goldman, Mystic River’s Brian Helgeland, and Carly Wray, who worked on Mad Men.

Weiss and Benioff will not be involved in the writing process, but will oversee the series as executive producers, alongside Martin, reports Deadline.com.

It’s good news for fans, who have been patiently waiting for Martin to finish writing the sixth instalment of his A Song of Ice and Fire saga, following the 2011 release of the last book in the franchise, A Dance with Dragons.

He had been hoping to have the sequel, The Winds of Winter, complete in time for 2016, to coincide with the broadcast of the sixth season of the Game of Thrones TV adaptation, but he failed to hit his deadline.

Instead, Weiss and Benioff had to base their plotlines for the TV series on the book ideas Martin outlined for them in order to move forward with the project.

Daily Show reunion coming to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

A Daily Show reunion will take place on the stage of one of its most famous alumni.

The May 9 episode of The Late Show will bring together Colbert and former Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart (an occasional guest who is also an executive producer on The Late Show) with former correspondents Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Ed Helms, and Rob Corddry. The booking is tied to the 20th anniversary of Colbert joining Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, something Colbert noted on Tuesday night’s The Late Show when he announced the gathering. That installment is being billed “as a special evening of comedy and conversation,” and the whole episode will revolve around the reunion.

Like Colbert, Bee, and Oliver went on to host their own late-night series, TBS’ Full Frontal and HBO’s Last Week Tonight, respectively.

The Late Show airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

Wait, Is Mike Myers Heading To TV Soon? Here’s The Weird Story

Although Mike Myers got his big break on the small screen thanks to his gig on Saturday Night Live, he’s probably best known nowadays for his contributions to the big screen in franchises like Austin Powers and Shrek. Now, Myers may be heading back to TV for a brand new job, but… well, it’s not exactly clear. News broke today that ABC has chosen British comedian Tommy Maitland as host for its revival of The Gong Show, but it turns out that Tommy Maitland didn’t seem to exist until quite recently, and he looks an awful lot like Mike Myers in prosthetic makeup.

The photo of Tommy Maitland comes from his Twitter account, which is just one step that seems to have been taken to establish him as somebody who definitely exists and was not just invented for the purposes of a game show reboot. The story gets even more elaborate in a press release from ABC, which reveals that “Thomas Winston Maitland” was born in 1944 in the U.K. He became known when he began work as an announcer for a British radio show and landed minor roles in the Carry On film franchise.

According to ABC, he wrote a book, made 11 films, is hugely popular in Italy, and made a huge impression on Will Arnett when Arnett was a teenager. Arnett is executive producing The Gong Show for ABC, and he reportedly specifically reached out to Maitland to work as host. Maitland has openly admitted to coming out of retirement for The Gong Show for the money, and he told THR that he already has two potential catchphrases picked out.

Based on the uncanny resemblance between this “Tommy Maitland” and Mike Myers, Myers’ history of wearing prosthetics to play a wide range of characters, and the fact that THR has hinted that Myers and Maitland are one and the same in the wake of an interview, I’d say that the odds are pretty good that we’ll be seeing Mike Myers tackling hosting duties on The Gong Show when it debuts on ABC this summer. That said, we might not get confirmation of his involvement for a while, if at all. If Myers and Maitland are the same person, then ABC, Myers, and Will Arnett all went to pretty great lengths to sell the ruse. Kudos to them for going all-out, I suppose. If anybody could pull this off, I’d definitely put my money on Myers.

We can confirm some of the other folks who will appear on The Gong Show. Celebrity judges who will weigh in on contestants’ talents (or lack thereof) will include Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Alison Brie, Andy Samberg, Elizabeth Banks, Joel McHale, Dana Carvey, Will Forte, Anthony Anderson, and Jack Black. Tune in to ABC on Thursday, June 22 at 10 p.m. ET to catch “Tommy Maitland” in his Gong Show hosting debut, and don’t forget to check out our midseason TV premiere guide and our summer TV premiere schedule to discover all your viewing options now and in the coming weeks. Be sure to drop by our rundowns for cable/streaming and broadcast TV renewals and cancellations as well.

New Heath Ledger documentary to air on Spike in May

Heath Ledger will be the subject of a new Spike TV documentary, I Am: Heath Ledger, to air in May 2017.

It’s been a little over nine years since the actor’s tragic death at age 28 from an accidental mixture of prescription drugs.

Ledger, the Australian-born star of 10 Things I Hate About You, The Patriot, Brokeback Mountain, and The Dark Knight, among others, was beloved for his rugged handsomeness, as well his low-key demeanor. He was often seen skateboarding down streets of his Brooklyn neighborhood and strolling with Matilda, the young daughter he had with actress Michelle Williams.

Considered one of the most compelling actors of his generation, he brought a deep soulfulness to his roles, especially in Brokeback Mountain, opposite Williams and Jake Gyllenhaal, for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.

Now his story will be told in Spike’s original documentary series, I Am, which is an inside look at the lives of unique individuals as told by those in their inner circle.

Previous subjects have included JFK Jr., Chris Farley, and Bruce Lee.

‘Game of Thrones’ final season will be even shorter

The “Game of Thrones” end is nearing.

Season 8 of the HBO fantasy drama — its final outing, which will debut in 2018 — will only have six episodes, co-creator David Benioff revealed at Austin’s SXSW festival on Sunday. (Season 7, which premieres July 16, has seven episodes).

While that may be a major bummer for superfans who will face a vast personal wilderness once the show has completed its run, what it really means is that we are this much closer to knowing who will take the Iron Throne.

The showrunners, at least, have revealed their choice. “We identify most with House Lannister. We want to win,” Benioff said of he and co-creator D.B. Weiss, according to coverage of the panel on Vulture. When actress Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark and was co-hosting the panel, asked him, “Is that a spoiler?” Benioff reportedly covered his face with his hands.

In casting news, singer Ed Sheeran is going to do a guest spot in Season 7, playing an unspecified role that he apparently has another cast member to thank for. “For years we were trying to get Ed Sheeran on the show so we could surprise Maisie [Williams],” who is a huge fan, Benioff said. “And this year we finally did it.”

Williams, who plays Arya Stark, also co-hosted panel and Benioff revealed that he and Weiss tested over 300 girls for the part before they downloaded her audition tape in a hotel lobby in Morocco. “There was a little thumbnail picture of Maisie Williams [on our laptop],” he says. “She looked about 7. Like she was 12, but going on 7. So we clicked on the audition video and waited about 40 minutes for it to download. When we saw that audition video she was just f - - king awesome.”

As for a potential spinoff series, the showrunners said they won’t stick around should HBO decide it can’t exist without some element of “Thrones” on its schedule. “There’s always going to be an urge for the characters who maybe will survive to do a spinoff show or a sequel show,” Benioff said. “And I think HBO might well do one. And we’ll watch it. I think it’ll be great, but I think it’s important to get new blood in. New vision.”