Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Tuesday, February 13th, 2023

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, February 13th, 2024.

WBTV DAY AT THE WINTER TCAS
Today Warner Brothers Television arranged a series of set visits for critics on the Warner Brothers lot. We were able to speak with the casts and visit the sets for Young Sheldon, Bob Hearts Abishola, Night Court and Abbott Elementary. WBTV is proud of their broadcast comedy lineup and rightfully so. 

The downside for the studio is that both Young Sheldon and Bob Hearts Abishola are wrapping up after this season and the longtime future for the format on broadcast television is a bit shaky. There were a number of questions across the panels from critics asking about the strengths of single-camera comedies versus multi-camera and to be honest, that feels like the wrong question. 

To me, the real challenge is figuring out the economics of a comedy ensemble when all of the broadcast networks are aggressively cutting budgets and cast sizes. In the case of Bob Hearts Abishola, the studio and CBS opted to cut the budget for the upcoming season and moved everyone in the cast other than leads Billy Gardell and Folake Olowofoyeku from regular cast members to recurring roles. Which resulted in them appearing in fewer episodes and making more money.

I asked Gardell and series co-creator Gina Yashere about the decisions that had to made as the result of those discussions and how did they ensure that the show and the entire cast got the resources and screentime they deserved in the show's final season?:

Gina Yashere: There were definitely budget changes. It went right across the industry. The industry’s in flux right now. So the money that was there 10 years ago is definitely not here anymore. But what we did, we just made sure that when we actually worked with a character, rather than just crowbarring them into an episode to give them a line, we actually concentrate the stories.

So if we're using a character, we make sure we build a story around them and make that the center of the episode, so that way we use everybody properly. So that’s kind of what we did with the budget. It just made us kind of concentrate more on each character when we use them. So, it was positive but negative at the same time. But at least we got as much positive out of it by doing that, by working that way.

Billy Gardell:  The other thing is I think it brought us all closer together because look, business is business. But if we take a cut and some others are relegated to less episodes, but we keep all 150 people working, to me that’s a noble cause and that's a good reason to do that. And look, we’re in show business, the floor is always shifting. So, you adapt to the table and you keep playing. And I think we’re all grateful we’re still here. 

For what it's worth, I've always enjoyed Billy Hearts Abishola and the series never quite the love from critics that it deserved.

SPEAKING OF PEOPLE WHOSE WORK I ENJOY
One of the treats in the Night Court panel was hearing from John Larroquette, who is as pretend cranky as you would expect, based on the roles he's played over the years. He discussed how he was convinced to return to the show, particularly given that he is the only surviving member of the show's original cast:

It’s not common knowledge probably, but after the sixth year, there was talk of Dan Fielding having a spinoff like Frasier did from Cheers going onto his own series. And I declined to do that because I thought, you know, it’s a very indelible character and I’d like to play his life, that’s fine, but once this is over, I go on and hopefully do something else.

So I forgot about it. I went on to do more — The John Larroquette Show — blah, blah, blah. And then Melissa (Rauch) –- what now, three years ago? Maybe longer? Called me and said, “Oh, I’ve got an idea.” And I went, “Yeah, that’s a lousy idea.”  

No, I didn’t say it was a lousy idea, I said, “That’s a great idea. You don’t need me for it” because it stands on its own. But after we talked for a long time, as the actor sort of rose in me and thought, well, that’s an interesting challenge to look at somebody you played 35 years ago, what’s happened to his life? Where is he now? Where’s the funny in him considering he can’t be who he was in the 80s just because I can’t jump nearly as high as I used to?

And so it began to appeal to me. Walking onto the set, I must say, for the first time was sad. Because, as we all know, the rest of the cast has left us over the years. So it was -- there was some sadness involved. But the aliveness of these people around me made it like bittersweet, but yet became sweeter and sweeter as I realized that they really had the heart of the show in their hands and Melissa was running this boat well and Dan is doing a great job doing it. And so I became actually sort of pleased with coming back.

But it's still sometimes reminiscent of -- certainly I mean, you look -- I mean, so much of my career was sort of buoyed by this show originally. So it's very important to me in many ways. Anyway, we’re here, but hopefully we’re making the audience laugh and that’s the only job that I know how to do well. And I'd like to continue doing it for a while if I can. 

Speaking of The John Larroquette Show, I had a chance to speak with John for a bit after the panel and we discussed that show a bit. I'm a huge fan of the series, which like a lot of TV shows produced in the 1990s isn't available for streaming. 

He told me that for a long time he would hear from people in the AA community, asking for a copy of the first season. He said that he and series creator Don Reo built the first twelve episodes of the first season around the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. I mentioned that I didn't remember that being common knowledge at the time, and Larroquette said that they purposely didn't highlight the move. "But the people who knew, knew," he said.

BTW, The John Larroquette Show had an absolutely stellar ensemble. Liz Torres, Gigi Rice, Daryl Mitchell, and Chi McBride, as well as score of great comedy character actors.

SOMETIMES A STORY DOESN'T MEAN WHAT IT SAYS IT MEANS
The problem that often comes up when you try and build a story around another publication's interview is that all of the really clickworthy comments have already been picked over. So some poor reporter has build controversy anyway they can.

That is certainly the case with a GQ cover story featuring Oppenheimer actor Cillian Murphy. Both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety each posted essentially the same story and take on one aspect of his comments:



Based on that headline (or the Variety headline "Cillian Murphy Says Press Tours Are Broken And Boring"), you might think that the actor believe press tours are pointless and should be eliminated immediately.

And while Murphy doesn't love press tours, he is also the first person to admit that he much of that is just due to his personality and what he feels comfortable doing.

But when you drill down in the excerpts from the GQ interview, it turns out that Murphy really thinks press tours are boring because reporters tend to ask lazy, predictable questions:

People always used to say to me, ‘He has reservations’ or ‘He’s a difficult interviewee.’ Not really! I love talking about work, about art. What I struggle with, and find unnecessary, and unhelpful about what I want to do, is: ‘Tell me about yourself…’”

I can tell you from personal experience that not all reporters are as prepared for interviews as they should be going into them. I am amazed by reporters who will do an interview with an actor having only seen one episode of a long-running series.

THIS WAS ON THE SET OF 'YOUNG SHELDON'
Feel free to make your own conclusions. Apparently the TV series Dr. Who will be mentioned in some context on Young Sheldon later this season. Although producers declined to provide any more details:



SPEAKING OF GLOBAL TV ISSUES
As you no doubt know, Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show desk on Monday, and Dan Barrett brought up this interesting point in his newsletter "Always Be Watching" about where Australian fans had to watch the episode:

The difficulty of watching it in Australia apparently wasn’t that much of an issue - the show is being uploaded almost in full via YouTube. 

Why is the show being uploaded in full to YouTube from the official Daily Show account and not via one of the channels owned and operated by parent company Paramount Global? In Australia, one would expect the show to be streaming via Paramount+, Tenplay, or the Comedy Central channel available on Fetch (which is where it used to be).

Yesterday audiences were scrambling to find out how to watch The Daily Show. And instead of driving audiences to the one big show dominating discussion yesterday, Paramount Global just gave it over to the revenue black hole that is YouTube. Baffling.

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH:
* FBI Season Premiere (CBS)
* FBI: International Season Premiere (CBS)
* FBI: Most Wanted Season Premiere (CBS)
* Five Blind Dates (Prime Video)
* Kill Me If You Dare (Netflix)
* Tatort: Vienna Season Three Premiere (MHz Choice)
* Taylor Tomlinson: Have It All (Netflix)

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14TH:
* A Soweto Love Story (Netflix)
* Ghost Adventures: Screening Room Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Good Morning, Verônica Season Three Premiere (Netflix)
* Love Is Blind (Netflix)
* Players (Netflix)
* Resident Alien Season Premiere (Syfy)
* Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures Season Premiere (Disney+)
* The Heartbreak Agency (Netflix)
* The New Look Series Premiere (Apple TV+)
* The Sidemen Story (Netflix)

SEE YOU ON WEDNESDAY!