Monday 7/29/13 – Day 5 - CBS & Showtime
Have you heard? CBS is still #1. That’s been the message for some time now and it was reinforced at TCA, as it usually is by the network bosses who love to remind the press about the network’s dominant position in both the ratings and demographics. The confidence is justified because CBS shows actually do perform well. What we admire even more is the sharp spin skills of both Nina Tassler and Les Moonves.
EXECUTIVE SESSION – LES MOONVES - Nina Tassler is out of town for a funeral so big boss Les Moonves stepped in to pinch hit and reminded everyone about his spin skills and blunt honesty. Both Tassler and Moonves are never shy about touting CBS’ successes in both ratings and demos and today was no exception. Moonves announced the network has picked up a second season of Under the Dome and that Stephen King will write the first episode of season two.
Regarding the racist remarks uttered by some Big Brother contestants, Moonves said he personally found them terrible but he thinks the network handled the incident correctly. He said shows like Big Brother and Survivor are social experiments, which means people’s personal biases and attitudes are revealed on camera. Moonves also shared that he still approves final casting for CBS reality shows and he watches every episode of Big Brother because “if I didn’t, my wife [Big Brother host Julie Chen] would kill me.”
Addressing a question about CBS’ reticence to put their shows online, Moonves pointed to the network’s partnership with Amazon and said that when he ran into Jeff Bezos in Sun Valley, Bezos said he was very pleased with the partnership. Moonves says, “at the bottom of it all, it’s about is quality TV. We like our relationship with Netflix. We’re a traditional network but we’re open to new ways of doing business.”
About the shorter running series Under the Dome and Hostages, Moonves says they put the shows on and why can’t they go on for more than one season? “They can be under the dome for years. It’s television!” And Hostages is designed to run for more than one season, ratings permitting.
After joking that he heard NBC is putting Jay Leno on at 10pm after Jimmy Fallon takes over as host of The Tonight Show, Moonves said, “We love Dave. He makes money for us. He does the best show. We couldn’t be happier with him. Despite what most people say, we don’t like drama in latenight.”
Moonves doesn't agree with Bob Greenblatt’s statement that "flat is the new up" - he thinks CBS will be up this year. Network TV is not the bastard child of the entertainment business.
Regarding the Emmys, Moonves understands why shows like buzzed-about cable hits such as Game of Thrones get Emmy nominations but he thinks Academy voters also pass over great broadcast shows like The Good Wife.
THE MILLERS - The takeaway from this panel: Greg Garcia thinks farts are funny and he knows viewers agree with him, even if some critics don’t. Additionally, Will Arnett says he’s very happy working on this new comedy and having a great time working with Margo Martindale, Beau Bridges and J.B. Smoove. Asked if his real parents are anything like his new TV parents, Arnett riffed, “If my mom couldn’t give backhanded compliments, she’d have nothing to say.”
When asked about her recent TV successes, Martindale said, “I’ve always wanted to be in a sitcom, I just started killing people along the way (referring to her stellar role of Mags Bennett on Justified.) I’ve worked all my life, you just didn’t notice me. I get to turn down jobs now.”
Greg Garcia is back in the writers room for the multi-cam comedy and says he forgot just how hard it was to sit and write all day. He drew inspiration for the show from his own family, in fact, he’s taken conversations with his own parents and put them into some of the scripts. He also said a couple roles on the show have been recast (Jayma Mays is joining the show as Arnett’s sister) because he didn’t write them well enough before the pilot show and the actors got the brunt of that error.
Beau Bridges recalled learning how to act when his father Lloyd Bridges gave him his first acting gig on his hit show Sea Hunt. Bridges feels blessed that he had a dad in the business who taught him so much about the business.
HOSTAGES - The panel had the show’s two stars Toni Collette and Dylan McDermott and four, count ‘em four, executive producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Jonathan Littman and Rick Eid. Eid and Nachmanoff are the day to day showrunners and they were quizzed repeatedly about the show’s 15 episode run and whether it was truly a limited series or a show intended to run longer than one season. The exec producers definitely see the show as a continuing story and they already have ideas about where a second season could go but right now, they’re concentrating on making season one great. Littman sees the series as a 15 chapter novel. We think shorter orders are a positive change for broadcast: writers don’t burn out from doing 22 episodes a season and it honors the show business adage, “always leave them wanting more.”
Dylan McDermott says he loves playing both good and bad guys and his role in the show encapsulates both sides. Collette loved the script when she read it; she couldn’t put it down and that’s how she wound up committing to the project. There is a little bit of cross-pollination with the Israeli series Hostages is based upon but not too much as the American version started shooting first.
The show’s first season takes place over two weeks so each episode is approximately one day in the lives of the family taken hostage. The exec producers also hinted that one of the major characters will be shot when the family tries to escape. We’re curious to see more of this tense, well-acted drama.
WE ARE MEN - Rob Greenberg is at the helm of this comedy about a group of divorced men, some better at being divorced than others. Most of the panel talk revolved around Jerry O’Connell wearing a Speedo and O’Connell recounted going to a tanning booth and hitting the gym to prep for the role. Cast member Tony Shalhoub stressed that the show wasn’t just about newly divorced men trying to get laid but more about the friendship between the guys as they try to get over their busted marriages.
THE CRAZY ONES - When Robin Williams is part of a TCA panel, laughs are part of the deal. This panel was no exception but Williams is not quite as manic as we’ve seen in the past. He raved about playing off his co-stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, James Wolk and Amanda Setton and said that he relates to the father/daughter story the show is rooted in because of his relationship with his own son and daughter. Show creator David E. Kelley had been trying to write this type of story for some time and once he hit on the right way to do the story, it was a matter of getting a cast together. As the show is set in the advertising world, they’ve enlisted John Montgomery of Group M as an executive producer and that’s how McDonald’s wound up in the pilot story, though they did not receive any payment for being part of the show.
Kelley is writing half-hour comedy for the first time in years - his last one was Doogie Howser M.D. starring the very young Neil Patrick Harris. Exec producer/director Jason Winer (he directed the pilot and the first five episodes) shared at last night’s TCA party that Kelley only visited the set a couple of times and entrusted him to tell the story he wrote. Winer worried when he changed some things but says Kelley was happy with the work and felt that all the story points he wrote were hit in the finished pilot. Some critics thought Robin Williams improvised his lines but Kelley assured them, “Robin says my words perfectly and then he uses his own.” Winer explained that they shot takes where they followed the script and then they’d do a couple takes allowing Williams to improvise lines and add his own flavor. We’ve seen the pilot and can tell you the pilot is fun and made us want to see more.
ARSENIO HALL SHOW - Hall was at TCA to tout his new talk show premiering September 9, 2013 on stations across the country, mostly Fox and CW affiliate stations at various times of the night. Hall is grateful to be back in the latenight talk arena and he’s especially excited at the digital technology that makes communication so much faster. One of his goals is to do a show that’s appointment viewing; one that fans will want to watch at night and not wait until the next day to watch clips online. He admires what Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live have done with viral video but notes that Jay Leno is still #1 in latenight. Can Hall conquer latenight again? We’re not sure but we give him credit for trying. No guests are set yet for his 9/9/13 premiere show.
THE GOOD WIFE - Show creators and exec producers Robert and Michelle King and Julianna Margulies came to TCA to give a small preview of the upcoming season of the compelling drama. The defection of certain Lockhart-Gardner lawyers to start their own firm will stir the pot in a big way in season five and Alicia Florrick will be a central figure in the defection, as viewers saw in the season four finale. The recent events involving Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal came up, because Weiner’s wife Huma Abedin is often being compared to the fictional Alicia Florrick. Margulies said, “it’s really damaging that everyone is able to comment on someone’s downfall.”
Regarding familiar faces on the show: Carrie Preston, Gary Cole & America Ferrara will return in season five. Look for Melissa George as a new employee in Governor Peter Florrick’s office who provides temptation for the new Governor and plays a key role in what happens between Peter and Eli Gold. Ben Rappaport and Jeffrey Tambor will also guest on the show this season.
The recent NSA news stories will provide a framework for season five stories. The Kings said they like to work off stories that are not “above the fold” newspaper stories, not stories everyone else is covering. When asked about the show being snubbed for an Emmy nomination, King said he thinks there’s a lot of amazing TV on the air right now and it should be all about quality. Margulies chimed in that one of her pet peeves is when people tell her The Good Wife is a great show “for a broadcast network show.” It’s that last part of the compliment that irks her. She’d put the show up against any cable drama in terms of quality. For the record, we think Margulies is right.
MOM - Anna Faris and Allison Janney star in this new sitcom from Chuck Lorre, Eddie Gorodetsky and Gemma Baker (formerly on Two and a Half Men.) The comedy grows out of Faris’ character Christie rebuilding her life after bouts of addiction. Now she’s trying to raise her teenage daughter and deal with her mother (Janney) who has re-entered her life and also had her own addiction issues. Janney and Faris held hands onstage at the panel at one point and it’s clear there’s a lotta love between them already, which bodes well for the show. They also have great comedy backup from Nate Corddry and French Stewart. At the TCA party, we asked Chuck Lorre if Allison Janney’s character would be anything like the nutty mom she played in the recent film The Way Way Back and Lorre said, “Well, that mom was a crazy drunk, so not really.” Mom is a relationship show about Christie and her mom as they find their way back to being mother and daughter, while Christie also tries to be a better mom to her own daughter. Look for Justin Long as Christie’s first love interest since she’s been sober. Octavia Spencer will also guest on the show as a woman with even bigger problems than Christie.
HOMELAND - The day closed with a session for the wildly popular Showtime drama that opens season three with the aftermath of the bombing at the CIA that happened at the end of season two. Nick Brody is still in the wind and Carrie Mathison is in the hot seat. Without revealing spoilers (we’ve seen the season opener), we can tell you that you’ll learn how the bombing affects the Brody family and you’ll see Saul in a new light in his job at the agency. Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) is also back and we’ll learn more about his relationship with Carrie. One of the big themes of season three: the cost that being an agent extracts from them. Also, look for the show to travel to Puerto Rico and Israel in the new season. Asked how long they see Homeland running, executive producer Howard Gordon says they’ll do the show for as long as there are stories to tell. Gordon casually mentioned that the 24 writers room just started working this week too so he’s also working on that limited event series.
Follow SSN TV Editor Diane Gordon on twitter @thesurfreport for live tweets from the panels, and @TSSNews for selected panel tweets.