Mike Hughes on TV

This is a week for great voices on PBS. Friday has Audra McDonald; see previous blog. And Sunday has Katherine Jenkins and more, on the Capitol lawn. Here's the story I sent to papers:

By MIKE HUGHES

Katherine Jenkins has strayed so far
from her comfort zone that she's probably fogotten where it is.

Her latest adventure is singing Sunday
in the National Memorial Day Concert. There will be a sprawling crowd
(200,000 or so), an imposing setting (U.S. Capitol lawn) and
impressive company – “American Idol” winner Candace Glover,
Tony-winner Alfie Boie, “Voice” finalist Chris Mann.

That's enough to make many people
quake; but at 32, Jenkins is used to big settings.

She's sung at Royal Albert Hall, the
Sydney Opera House, Wembley Stadium and Westminster Cathedral. She's
sung for the Queen and the Pope. “I'm not usually a nervous
person,” she said of the latter, “but that time, I was.”

And lately, she's stepped beyond music
to try:

– The “Dancing With the Stars”
American edition. “I totally thought I was going to be the first
person voted off, because no one had heard of me.” Instead, she was
runner-up to Donald Driver.

– A marathon run this spring. “I
kept telling people I would never do it again, but now I'm not sure.

It takes that spirit to go from a Welsh
town of 20,000 to global success. Yes, Jenkins (a former model) has
the look of a pop star and the voice of a classical diva, but she
also has an adventurous soul. She attributes that to an attentive
dad.

When she was born, he was 55, in his
second marriage, retired and relaxed. “My mom went back to work and
he took care of me,” she said. “My dad was very calm and
world-wise.”

Jenkins grew up with confidence. She
spoke Welsh as a second language and won singing festivals. When she
was a teen, her life kept changing: A teacher steered her to
classical music … her dad died … she went to the Royal Academy of
Music.

First, she starred in “Guys and
Dolls,” in high school. “Everyone expected me to be Sally Brown
(the sweet Salvation Army worker),” Jenkins said, “because that
was closer to me.” Instead, she was Adelaide, dancing at the Hot
Box. It was a first step in dancing outside her comfort zone.

– “National Memorial Day Concert”

– 8 p.m. Sunday (actually, Memorial
Day eve), PBS, repeating at 9:30 (check local listings)

Amazing things happen when Audra McDonald steps to the microphone. She flawlessly ranges from Broadway to classical, from whimsical or deeply emotional. Now she has a PBS concert special Friday; here's the story I sent to papers:

By MIKE HUGHES

Growing up a continent away, Audra
McDonald was sure she wanted to be in New York. She wanted to be on
Broadway and on the Lincoln Center stages.

“I didn't get to see a lot of
classical music growing up,” she recalled. “But I was able to
reach it through 'Live From Lincoln Center' …. I remember watching
(conductor Leonard) Bernstein and freaking out.”

Now she's a Broadway star with five
Tonys; her own “Live From Lincoln Center” concert is Friday.

Also, she's the show's host. That's
important, because she recalls the show's original host fondly.

“Beverly Sills sort of introduced me
to this whole world,” McDonald said. “I saw this place that I
wanted to go …. We don't look anything alike or sing anything
alike, (but) I felt a deep connection.”

McDonald looks nothing like the
light-haired Sills or most past-generation stars. She's gone on to
play Broadway's top black characters – in “Porgy and Bess,”
“Ragtime,” “Raisin in the Sun” – and others.

That began in 1993, she recalled: “(My)
agent said, 'They are doing a production of “Carousel” with a
color-blind casting at Lincoln Center. We want you to go in for it.'”

Paula Kerger, now head of PBS,
remembers seeing McDonald's Tony-winning work as Carrie Pipperidge
when “Carousel” opened in '94. “I knew instantly that she was
an extraordinarily gifted performer and would have an amazing
career.”

This career started far from Broadway.
McDonald was born in Germany, when her dad was in the military, and
grew up in Fresno, Cal., where both parents were school
administrators.

There were other interests. Her dad was
a pilot who died in a 2007 experimental-plane crash; both parents
were musical.

“My mom used to sing,” McDonald
said. “She had a cassette tape of Beverly Sills ….Every morning,
my mom would play it in her Mazda RX7 as she took us to school, and
she would sing along.”

McDonald did community theater at 9 and
did musicals at a performing arts high school. The goal was New York,
though, so she auditioned for Juilliard – taking her to the Lincoln
Center she saw on TV.

“I remember … being like, 'There's
the fountain! There's the fountain!' So I annoyed my mother and did a
couple (dances) around the fountain, like the kids did in (TV's)
'Fame.'”

She got into Juilliard, where she added
classical music and saw shows – sometimes with free tickets and
sometimes with stealth. “I remember sneaking in to see 'Anything
Goes' and second-acting that.”

Second-acting? “You used to be able
to find a ticket stub and say, 'I was sitting there.'”

Fresh from her 1993 graduation, she
landed a “Secret Garden” tour and then “Carousel.” She's
lived in New York for the 25 years since high school. Divorced from
bassist Peter Donovan (with one daughter), she married actor Will
Swenson in October.

There's been more media to conquer by
McDonald, whom the Lincoln Center's Elizabeth Scott calls “a
cross-genre 'it girl'.” The biggest change, she said, was her four
years as a “Private Practice” star:

“I would walk through the airport and
people would say, 'Oh my gosh! Naomi. Naomi. Naomi! And that was
something I had never experienced before, in all of my years of being
on Broadway.”

– “Live From Lincoln Center,”
Audra McDonald in concert

– 9 p.m. Friday, PBS (check local
listings)

This may have taken Southern manners to
an extreme:

Twice lately, an “American Idol”
finalist handed a big advantage to a competitor. In 2011, Scotty
McCreery survived the gesture; this year, Kree Harrison didn't.

“Idol” logic says the winner of the
coin-flip will choose to go last, making the final impression on
voters: When McCreery (from North Carolina) won the flip, he handed
the choice to Lauren Alaina; when Harrison (from Texas) won the flip
last week, she also deferred.

“I didn't care ,” Harrison said. “I
asked Candace (Glover) and she said she wanted to go last.”

So she let her; Glover's powerhouse “I
Who Have Nothing” seemed to seal her victory.

Yes, Harrison knew her opponent would
finish strong. “Everything Candace Glover sings is awesome,”she
said.

Letting her sing last was a major
mistake … or just a sign that Harrison was happy either way. “I've
already reached the level of my dreams,” she said.

Two hours after “Idol” ended,
Harrison turned 23. Her country single (“All Cried Out”) was
ready and she'd been invited to sing June 4 at the Grand Ole Opry,
“the best birthday present I've ever had.”

Actually, her first single almost
happened long ago. When Harrison was 10, she sang on Rosie
O'Donnell's show; she returned three more times, and landed a record
deal. Nothing got released, however; “what I didn't want to do was
something bubble-gummy.” She returned home at 11, after her
father's death in a plane crash; eight years later, her mother died
in a car crash.

After a string of tragedies, it would
be logical for Harrison to be distant or bitter; fellow contestants
say she's the opposite. “Kree is like a mom,” Angie Miller said.
“She's so nice and never thinks of herself.”

That peaked when she didn't choose to
go last. Candice Glover promptly blasted her way to the title,
surprising no one. “Have you heard her?” Harrison asked. “She's
incredible.”

You're forgiven if you've never hard of the GMC cable channel, or if you assume it has something to do with trucks. Don't worry about that; its name will soon change anyway. Still, the channel fills an important niche. Here's the story I sent to papers about the evolving channel and one of its stars, Candace Cameron Bure:

By MIKE HUGHES

Things are looking up – or UP – for
one cable channel.

It was once known as the Gospel Music
Channel, then was simply GMC. “I've always hated that name,” said
Leigh AnneTuohy, who will soon be one of its stars,

Then again, many people don't know the
channel by any name. It's been fairly obscure, despite having some
fans in Hollywood. “I'm always happy to do a movie for GMC, because
it's not afraid of shows that are faith-based,” said Candace
Cameron Bure.

Bure (“Full House”) now stars in
her second GMC film, “Finding Normal.” Three weeks later, Tuohy
(portrayed by Sandra Bullock in “Blind Side”) debuts her
feel-good reality show,”Family Assistance.” And between those
two, the network will switch its name on June 1 to UP.

Think of it as “uplifting” or such.
It has sometime-religious messages in its movies, music and reruns.

That's fine with Tuohy, who grew up
surrounded by Southern faith. She likes the phrase “God-driven.”

And it's fine with Bure, a relative
newcomer to this. “I didn't start attending church until I was 12
years old,” she said. “It was very new to me.”

And it stuck with her – as it did
with her older brother, Kirk Cameron. Both:

– Grew up in California and became
young situation-comedy stars. He was first, in “Growing Pains.”

– Married at 20. “Our parents were
really young when they married, too,” Bure said.

– Have large families – three kids
for her, six (biologic and adopted) for him.

– Have made several feel-good movis,
some of them religious.

Lately, Bure has done a Christmas films
for GMC and Hallmark and a dog-lover romance for Hallmark, while
playing a gymnast's mom on ABC Family. In her new film, she's a
doctor, too busy for life … until she's arresting for speeding
through Normal, a North Carolina town of 332.

Bure can relate to one part of this –
the need to slow down life and stay in one spot.

Her own life got busier when “Full
House” co-star Dave Coulier – a hockey fan since his Detroit
boyhood – introduced her to Valeri Bure, a Russian-born hockey pro.
They married and followed his career to Calgary, Montreal, Florida,
St. Louis and Los Angeles. “You learn how to do it really well and
set up a new home for the kids,” she said.

Now he's retired from hockey and
they've been settled in Los Angeles for five years. She races off for
quick work – including 12 days in Louisiana, filming “Finding
Normal.”

And has she learned her husband's
sport? “I love hockey now,” Bure said. “I didn't know a thing
about it …. I've finally learned more, now that our boys are
playing.”

– “Finding Normal,” GMC (soon to
be UP)

– Debuts Saturday at 7, 9 and 11 p.m.

PBS' "American Masters" Monday is a joyride through a busy life.Here's the story I sent to papers:

By MIKE HUGHES

You learn a lot, hanging out with
comedy masters. You also learn by hanging out a hotel window.

Mel Brooks – the focus of a jaunty
PBS profile Monday – has done both. He loved the writers' room of
Sid Caesar's TV shows; he was less happy with a writing session on a
top floor of the Palmer House in Chicago.

By 2 a.m., the room was full of
Caesar's cigar smoke; Brooks said he needed air. Caesar, having
finished a bottle of vodka, was displeased.

“He's the strongest guy that ever
lived,” Brooks recalled. “He... grabbed me by my pants and held
me out the window. It was cold; there was wind.”

Brooks said that was enough fresh air,
thank you; the writing resumed.

It's a dandy story, but Monday's quick,
slick film didn't have room for it. “You've got to keep the train
moving,” director Robert Trachtenberg said.”

And there is, after all, a lot of story
to tell from Brooks' first 86 years.

Brooks grew up with with his single mom
in Brooklyn. He was 9 when his uncle took him to see Ethel Merman in
Broadway's “Anything Goes.” The kid promptly obsessed on show
business.

At 15, he botched his theater debut; at
18, he fought in World War II. Afterward, he fast-talked his way into
a job as the youngest of Caesar's writers.

There he was, alongside “some of the
best writers in the world.” These were the men who would later
write Broadway's “The Odd Couple,” “Hello, Dolly,” “Fiddler
and the Roof” and more.

And Caesar, Brooks said, was the ideal
person to write for. “I didn't step onstage … for a long time,
because he was the vehicle of my comic needs.”

When Caesar's shows were canceled,
Brooks had tough times … until he wrote an odd little script called
“Springtime For Hiltler.” Eventually – with a new title (“The
Producers”) and a low budget – he directed the movie. The New
York Times called it gross and vile; audiences approved.

The classics that followed – “Blazing
Saddles,” “High Anxiety,” “Young Frankenstein” – had high
satire, low sight gags and Gene Wilder. When Wilder wasn't available
for “Silent Movie,” Brooks cast himself. “I said, 'Nobody
talks, so I could get away with this.'”

He had become a writer-director-star of
loopy comedies, but also produced serious dramas (including “The
Elephant Man”) and married a serious-drama star. Anne Bancroft was
“maybe the best actress in the world,” Brooks said of his late
wife. “I was very lucky for 45 years.”

Eventually, his box-office impact
faded. “He had sort of fallen out of favor,” actor Nathan Lane
says in Monday's film.

And then he went back to the beginning,
turning “The Producers” into a musical. It set a Tony-award
record; a “Young Frankenstein” musical was next, with more
expected followed. Generations after falling in love with a Merman
musical, Brooks reached his goal of being big on Broadway.

– “American Masters: Mel Brooks:
Make a Noise,” 9-10:30 p.m. Monday, PBS (chcck local listings)