News and Quick Comments

News and Quick Comments

“Doc Martin” gets an American reboot

Can the droll charm of an English village be transformed into an American TV series?
We’ll find out next season, when Fox tries a new version of the “Doc Martin” series. Josh Charles (“The Good Wife,” “Sports Night”) will star as the displaced doctor.
This version will be produced by Ben Silverman, whose best success has been with U.S. versions of overseas hits. That has included “The Office,” “Ugly Betty” and “Jane the Virgin.”
In this case, he’s adapting a show (shown here) that had a thoroughly English flavor: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 10, 2025
News and Quick Comments

CBS next season: lots of shifts and a Dutton spin-off

CBS will put some familiar shows in unfamiliar places next season.
It will also try two new reality shows and four spin-offs, one of them with strong potential to be a hit: Kayce Dutton (the honest one on “Yellowstone,” played by Luke Grimes, shown here) gets his own series, as a U.S. marshal.
That series — tentatively called “Y: Marshals” — won’t arrive until mid-season. In the fall, viewers have some schedule shifts to worry about: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 8, 2025
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Sad sign of the times: “Equalizer” cancelled

The too-short lifespan of “The Equalizer” (shown here) says a lot about current TV.
Here was one of the heroes of the pandemic. When TV was at its low point, it leaped to No. 2 in the ratings.
Now, after a modest five seasons, it’s been canceled. The season-finale (10 p.m. Sunday, May 4, on CBS) has also become the series-finale.
“Equalizer” had exactly two flaws: It’s expensive and it’s from the wrong company. TV is like that these days. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 3, 2025
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ABC’s summer: games, flirting, but no “Bachelorette”

After pausing for a sports-stuffed June, ABC will start its summer line-up in July.
It will be a trimmed-down one, though, with no “Bachelorette.”
Instead, there will be two nights of game shows — including Martin Short hosting a “Match Game” revival — plus “Bachelor in Paradise” (shown here in a previous season). There will also be lots of room for reruns, plus Disney movies on Sundays. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 2, 2025
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Tiny Pac-12 (Pac-2?) has big TV deal

America’s smallest sports conference will again have a big-time TV deal.
The Pac-12 currently has, despite its name, two teams. (They’re shown here.) But a deal with the CW network will put nine football games on national TV this fall.
That will hold things for a year, until the Pac-12 adds six teams, nudging it to two-thirds of its name. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 29, 2025
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Farewell to a good show … and a once-great show

“The Conners” (shown here) says farewell Wednesday (April 23), ending a journey that’s been long, bumpy and sometimes wonderful.
A good show in its final years, a great one in its early years, it’s a key piece of TV history.
When this started (as “Roseanne”) in 1988, TV comedies had seemed unaware of blue-collar America. Sure, there was Jackie Gleason in “Honeymooners” and (briefly) “Life of Riley,” but not much else.
Then Roseanne Barr’s show rippled with blue-collar life. The fictional Roseanne and Dan (John Goodman) were getting by, through changes in jobs and in life. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 21, 2025
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Biblical stories in movies, music and more

TV is ready for its Easter splurge.
That started April 12, with Moses on the mountain top; it concludes eight days later with an Easter Day surge of movies, music (including Handel’s “Messiah”) and more. In between, it has dramas (shown here is “The Chosen”) and even a stage musical.
Some of this is fueled by the era when audiences (and movie studios) savored Biblical epics. During the 1950s, four of the annual box-office champions were Biblical. All of them will be rerun this year — “Quo Vadis,” “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben-Hur” (each an Oscar-nominee for best picture) plus “The Robe.”) Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 10, 2025