Stories

“Terror” blends two kinds of horror

LOS ANGELES — Like most of George Takei’s shows, “The Terror: Infamy” is a fictional tale.
He’s done a lot of them, before and after becoming a “Star Trek” star, a half-century ago. But this one is different: Its supernatural scares are alongside the sort of real-life horror he knew as a boy.
“I’m a Southern California kid, sent over to the swamps of Arkansas,” said Takei, 82.
That was in 1942, when Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps. Takei was 5, going with his father (a real-estate man), mother, older brother and baby sister. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 6, 2019

Stories

Pop gets funny — Lear, Linn, Levys

LOS ANGELES — We never expected the Pop network to be a treasure-trove of comedy.
We didn’t expect much of anything, actually. The network’s image and purpose were kind of sketchy.
But here it is now, with producers ranging from Norman Lear (97 and a TV legend) to Laura Chinn, 33, who spent years adrift in Florida. “I would go to California, but I couldn’t stay for long,” she said. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 4, 2019

Stories

A “Hot” show becomes instant nostalgia

Floating through the TV universe are endless tele-memories
.The channels vary – Get and Grit, Decades and Retro and Antenna and more – as do the shows. There’s “Partridge Family” and “Petticoat Junction,” Ed Sullivan and Johnny Cash and “Death Valley Days.”
But into that world comes a surprise: Just four years after it ended its run, “Hot in Cleveland” begins a two-hour rerun stretch every weekday on GetTV. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 3, 2019

Stories

Got a billion? Want something new? Go undercover

LOS ANGELES — Glenn Stearns was facing a common– well, semi-common – dilemma.
He had it all – the cash, the cars, the houses, the charity. What else might he want?
A ranch? An island? He had them, too. (In fairness, he merely shares them – one with John Elway, the other with Sir Richard Branson.)
What’s left? Reality shows – first “The Real Gilligan’s Island” and now “Undercover Billionaire.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 2, 2019

Stories

Woodstock — the triumphant disaster

LOS ANGELES — As the reports rolled in, one thing was clear: Woodstock (shown here) was a disaster, a swirl of mud and hunger, chaos and confusion.
“The New York Daily News headline (said), ‘Hippies mired in sea of mud,” recalled Joel Makower, whose book is the basis for a PBS documentary Tuesday.
Other headlines echoed that — “Rock Crisis” and “Traffic Uptight at Hippiefest” and more. They set a grim tone, as festival founders had their post-Woodstock meeting with bitter bankers. “The last headline we had read was ‘Nightmare in the Catskills,’” Joel Rosenman recalled.
Then things rebounded, he said. The bankers compromised. “And the next headline we saw, which we thought was going to be worse, was, ‘Miracle at Bethel.’” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 2, 2019

Stories

At last, TV has lots of sketchy women

LOS ANGELES — TV has always been fond of sketch comedy.It’s gone from Sid Caesar and Milton Berle to The Kids in the Hall and “Saturday Night Live.” It’s had the full range of people … but only if your range is mostly confined to white males.But now there’s the flip side — two shows centering on all-female casts:– “A Black Lady Sketch Show” (shown here) opens Friday on HBO, with four black women at the core. “It hadn’t been done before,” Issa Rae said. She produces the show and is in some sketches, but says this was propelled by Robin Thede and “her passion for comedy.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 29, 2019

Stories

Let’s pause to savor Richard Curtis’ summer

LOS ANGELES — Let’s officially designate this as the Richard Curtis Summer, crossing most media:
— It started early on TV, with the “Red Nose Day” special May 23. That’s part of a global charity Curtis co-founded 34 years ago, raising (so far) more than $1.3 billion.
— It reached movie theaters on June 28 with “Yesterday.” That has passed $100 million worldwide, which would be minor in the superhero universe, but is big for a sweet-spirited comedy/drama
.– And now it reaches the streaming world. “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” sleek and amiable, starts Wednesday (July 31) on Hulu, adapting his movie. “It’s a British institution almost, those Richard Curtis films.” said Nathalie Emmanuel, one of the stars. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 28, 2019

Stories

Want to cook? Go catch something

LOS ANGELES — The nice thing about being an upscale chef is that the food is already there.
It’s in the pantry and the freezer; you just mix it and cook it and such.
But Gordon Ramsay’s new show is a little like his Scottish boyhood, in which he had to catch the food first. Or steal it.
“My father couldn’t afford fishing rights,” Ramsay recalled.”So we were poaching; we were stealing salmon.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 26, 2019

Stories

Post-‘Thrones’ HBO: More shows, more nights

LOS ANGELES – Imagine a baseball team shedding superstars.
Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle all retire … just as the manager is told to play more games with more people.That’s HBO now.
Gone are “Game of Thrones” (shown here) — with 32 Emmy nominations, a dozen more than any other show – plus “Veep” and “Big Little Lies.” The pilot has been shot for a “Thrones” prequel, progamming chief Casey Bloys told the Television Critics Association, but there have been no plans for a third “Lies” season.
This comes just after HBO got corporate instructions to have more shows on more nights. “The big challenge … was to make sure we weren’t just filling hours to fill hours,” Bloys said.
So far, that seems to be working. After averaging just over 100 hours of original shows in most seasons, HBO will finish this year with 150; next year, it may have 160. That means: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 25, 2019

Stories

Sinking boat? Huge shark? All part of her day

LOS ANGELES — We’ve all been in this situation, sort of:
A shark has bitten a chunk out of our boat, which is slowly sinking. This happens to be the world’s largest great white shark – 20 feet and 2.5 tons; also, a couple 15-footers were nearby
.That moment in Hawaii is being shown – and re-shown – in cable’s “Sharkfest/Shark Week” marathon. What thoughts were racing through the mind of Kimberly Jeffries (shown here) at the time?
“I was thinking, ‘This is going to be really expensive to fix,’” she said. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 24, 2019