Month: April 2024

News and Quick Comments

Broadway time is coming, on PBS and CBS

For TV viewers, the Broadway season is coming up.
Well, maybe it’s a mini-season – five busy weeks, when Broadway-type shows get the focus. That starts May 10 with “Hamlet” on PBS … continues with three Friday concerts … then wraps up June 16, with the Tony Awards, which have just announced their nominations. And it includes some interesting crossovers:
— “Purlie Victorious” will be on PBS on May 24, three weeks before its shot at a Tony for best play revival.
— Audra McDonald (shown here), the all-time Tony champ, will be in two of the PBS specials. She has a solo concert May 17, then joins others May 31 for “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 80th Anniversary.” McDonald is the only person to win six Tonys in competetive acting categories; Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris each won five plus an honorary one. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 30, 2024
Stories

A smaller Billy wraps a big success

During the five-year run of “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” (shown here), lives have transformed.
Folake Olowofoyeku became a star, Gina Yashere became an American, Chuck Lorre became rich (well, richer). And Billy Gardell became barely more than half his size.
“I was in a place with my health that I needed to make a severe change,” Gardell told the Television Critics Association. He did, with bariatric surgery and careful living.
The Gardell we’ll see on the series finale (8:30 p.m., May 6, on CBS) is about 5-foot-11, 207 pounds. There were times when he apparently topped 370. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 30, 2024
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for May 2: “Ghosts” wraps, “Wrexham” returns

1) “Ghosts” season-finale, 8:30 p.m., CBS. This s something Isaac wouldn’t have believed during his lifetime, 250 years ago: He’s marrying another man … who was a British officer … whom he killed during the Revolutionary War. (They’re shown here, in a previous episode.) Now the wedding is complicated by an unexpected guest, wrapping up a 10-episode, post-strike season. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 30, 2024
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for May 1: ABC has “Jeopardy,” Griner

1) “Jeopardy Masters” opener, 8-9 p.m., ABC. In nine hours, spread over four weeks, top players will compete. James Holzhauer (shown here with host Ken Jennings), Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio, Mattea Roach, Victoria Groce and Yogesh Raut are involved. That takes the next four Wednesdays (nudging “The Conners” to 9:30), plus three Mondays and two Fridays. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 28, 2024
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 30: taut dramas on Hulu, Fox, more

1) “The Veil” opener, Hulu. This starts with a bleak, barren stretch of snow. In a refugee camp in Turkey, a woman is suspected of being a lethal ISIS leader. Now a spy has arrived. We don’t know her real name or her mission; she doesn’t know what to think of the suspect. What emerges are tautly written moments for two gifted people, Elisabeth Moss (shown here) and Lebanese actress Yumna Marwan. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 28, 2024
Stories

“Veil” brings Mossy intrigue to spy life

Two real-life stories – involving a retiring grandma and a retired spy – helped propel “The Veil” (shown here), the deeply layered mini-series streaming on Hulu.
The first comes from Steven Knight, who wrote the six-parter: A British friend, he told the Television Critics Association, “had a grandmother, and she was 65, and she was retiring. She called everyone to Sunday lunch (and) said: ‘For the past 35 years, I’ve been an MI6 spy.’”
Yes, Grandma was a British spy, sort of like James Bond. Then there’s the other story, from producer Denise Di Novi.
The French spy agency, the DGSE, is intensely quiet, she told the TCA. But one night, at a hotel bar, a retired agent “had too much to drink and started telling me these things about how difficult it was that they had to start working with other agencies.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 27, 2024
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 29: It’s a near-finale wedding

1) “Bob (Hearts) Abishola,” 8:30 p.m., CBS. Gina Yashere has been key to this deceptively clever show. Her character (Kemi) is mostly just brash and bold, but Yashere also co-created and co-produces “Bob,” molding the contrast between casual Midwesterners and blunt Nigerians. Now it’s time for Kemi’s Las Vegas wedding (shown here). A week later – way too soon – the fifth and final season ends. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 27, 2024
News and Quick Comments

Amid a ratings surge, “Daily Show” expands staff

Convinced that its ratings surge will last, “The Daily Show” has finally beefed up its team of correspondents.
The show has added Troy Iwata, Josh Johnson and Grace Kuhlenschmidt. Previously, the team had dwindled to four main people – Ronny Chieng, Desi Lydic, Jordan Klepper and Michael Kosta – plus occasional use of Dulce Sloan and Lewis Black.
Comedy Central is giving the show a one-week break now (stuffing the week with marathons of “Seinfeld,” “The Office” and “South Park”), but will return to its schedule on May 6: New “Daily Show” episodes are at 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, rerunning at 1:25 a.m. and then going to Paramount+.
The Monday hours are hosted by Jon Stewart (shown here) – the source of the recent surge. Comedy Central said the new hires are “on the heels of ‘The Daily Show’s’ huge ratings growth,” a claim that Nielsen seem to back up. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 26, 2024
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 28: PBS dramas begin and end

1) “Guilt” season-opener, 10 p.m., PBS. Max is an upscale schemer; Jake is his down-market brother, a decent chap who’s along for the ride. In the first two seasons, Max went to prison and Jake found love. Now they’re in Chicago with Jake’s girlfriend, running a bar; in their native Scotland, others rage and run. By the end of the first hour, things merge in wild and entertaining way; they’re shown here, executing a mucky escape. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 26, 2024
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for April 29: lots of starts and finales

1) “Ghosts” season-finale, 8:30 p.m. Thursday, CBS. This wraps its season early, leaving room for “Young Sheldon” to have a couple two-episode Thursdays. It’s time for Isaac to have something he wouldn’t have imagined in his lifetime – a wedding (shown here) to another man … who was a British officer … whom Isaac killed in the Revolutionary War. Then a surprise guest complicate the celebration. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 25, 2024