The CBS people are turning to familiar titles – “Grease” and “Star Trek.”
For “Grease,” it will simply be a singalong version of the 1978 movie (shown here) with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. For “Trek,” however, CBS All Access will stream a series set on the Enterprise, a decade before the Kirk/Spock days. Details are:
– “Grease”: As COVID-19 trims the regular shows, CBS has explored the vaults of Paramount, its sister company. It revived the “Sunday Night Movies” notion for May, using only classics – “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Forrest Gump,” “Mission: Impossible” (8 p.m. May 17), “Titanic” (7 p.m. May 24) and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (8 p.m. May 31).
Now it has added “Grease” for the following Sunday (8:30 p.m. June 7), with a difference: This one will have lyrics on the screen, so we can all belt out “Greased Lightnin’,” “Summer Nights,” “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and, of course, “Beauty School Drop Out.”
“Grease” has made the rounds: Fox had a live production in 2016 and HBO Max is planning a series.
– “Star Trek”: In the second “Star Trek: Discovery” season, the ship answered a distress call from the Enterprise … which then had Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) as its pre-Kirk captain, with Ethan Peck (Gregory’s grandson) as Spock and Rebecca Romijn as Number One. For a time, Pike even captained the Discovery.
Now those three will be back on the Enterprise for the new series, not yet scheduled. Akiva Goldsman, an Oscar-winner for “A Beautiful Mind,” will be creator and producer, as he is on “Star Trek: Picard.”
That’s part of a “Trek” universe on All Access, with “Discover,” and “Picard.” Being developed as possible series are an animated show, a show set at Starfleet Academy and a mini-series based on “The Wrath of Khan.”