Two of the legendary stars of the hit NBC cop drama share their takes on playing cops in Chicago.
After leaving “Chicago Med” fans on the edge of their seat, they give us a taste of what’s to come.
Colin and Norma give a sneak peek into what their characters are going to face in the upcoming season of the hit NBC show.
The brains behind the hit medical drama reveal their plans for the upcoming season and how they use reality to fuel fiction.
Photo By Jason Bell
DeWanda Wise is proving to be one of the most charming and adroit young talents out there today.
The stars of the hit NBC show about firefighters in Chicago discuss everything from their time on the show to what it’s like playing a firefighter in Chicago.
Amy Sedaris’ new show “At Home With Amy Sedaris” received a warm welcome at its premiere this past Diwali Thursday in NYC, as cast and crew walked a multi-colored carpet, quite appropriate for the occasion.
Sedaris entered The Bowery Hotel in a puffy blue dress, complete with blue frills and sparkles. Though Sedaris is a huge fan of comedy, she appreciates the mundane too, and thinks that the “boring” has redeeming qualities, often looked over in American television. Her new show “At Home With Amy Sedaris” centers around crafts and cooking, two of Amy’s favorite hobbies. Though she had originally intended for the show to be dry and focused, she realized that laughs were necessary to break the ice for a home-show such as this.
This led to the creation of a show that mixes the slow with the fast, the witty with the humorless. A perfect example of what I mean by this juxtaposition is the way Amy describes fish in the beginning of her first episode. “Fish a strange cold-blooded and limbless creature that thrives in the stuff we drown in…but when battered and pan-fried, scrumptious!” Amy goes into a historical, nature-documentary sort of drawl, but then makes sure not to bore the audience for too long as she jumps into delicious and oily possibilities.
The show is corny and awkward, but employs both traits to strengthen its niche. It bathes in idiosyncracy in an endearing way rather than an annoying one. The sexual tension between Amy and her guest chef is the perfect energy for a home-cooking show, and it gives the episode a laid back, homey feel. “You handle those so well,” Amy says seductively to her guest as he straddles raw fish with his gloved hands. The mundane is funny, and the funny is mundane with Amy’s style. Her characters tell the audience unnecessary information about their lives, sort of like when one of your relatives drones on and on about pointless occurrences.
I had the pleasure of speaking briefly with Amy about her show:
Q: So what kind of comedy can we expect to see on the show, is it going to be more physical, more verbal?
A: There’ a lot of physical comedy, a lot of verbal comedy, a lot of visual comedy, so yeah!
Q: From what I’ve read the show wasn’t originally intended to be a comedy, so if you take away the comedy from the show – how does it function?
A: It’s “bring a book”… that’s why you need comedy you realize “oh this is just killing us, so boring.” But I mean I like boring shows, but we just naturally like to laugh, so we tried not to be so serious.
Q: You like boring shows?
A: Like PBS type shows, how-to shows, shows you can zone out too.
Q: Are there any elements of that kind of mundane-ness in the show?
A: Yeah, not for too long, because then you want to laugh.
The show also screened at the inaugural Tribeca TV Festival last month. Below are two clips from the post – screening panel courtesy of the festival:
The show premieres October 24th on TruTV at 8pm, perfect to relax to after a long day.
The Knockturnal got to Gilmore Girls Fan Fest, a 3-day fan-created and town-sponsored convention in Kent, Conn., just in time to sing along with Louise Goffin, Carole King’s daughter and duet partner on the show’s theme song “Where You Lead,” and witness the weekend’s final Q&A panel with select cast members from the original run and the revival, plus a spontaneous video chat with Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore) between pilot meetings.
“Empire” is at a new time on Wednesdays, on FOX.
In a world where information and knowledge is just a Google search away, how do you stay competitive or better yet relevant? Clearly, the media landscape is ever changing and disruption seems to be constant. Television viewership is down, but streaming is up. Both once staples of our industry are now out of date. Creativity is the new currency with ability to think outside the box as the only way to be relevant.
We caught up with Tru TV’s EVP of Marketing & Digital, Puja Zohra, at NAB Show New York, where she was talking on their panel on “Creativity: Shaping The Future of Business.” She opened up about Tru TV’s willingness to reach and engage their audience using social media during March Madness even if that involves being a little harsh. See, every year Tru TV launches an unconventional social media campaign around March Madness challenging their viewers to troll them. Yes, they let their viewers twitter troll Tru TV. “We created over 1,200 pieces of custom content,” says Zohra about this year’s campaign. She explains, “we have what is called a “war room,” so for two days you got 30 people stuck in a room… analysts, writers, designers, looking at what’s coming in [and] sending it back.” She adds, “it’s kind of fun. It’s the time of the year that we are able to show our voice… and have a lot of fun.”
Now for most traditional cable companies the thought of engaging in twitter beefs, battles and flat out trolling might not seem like a good idea, especially with the legal department. However, according to Zohra they try to sidestep clashes and not to have any of those issues. She clarifies, “What we try to do is match the tone of the person who is talking to us. So when we are creating a response, we will try to give it back to them as good as they are giving it to us, because they struck us first.” She adds, “We have a head of editorial and a writer, and they’re the ones who are doing all the stuff.” She explains it not easy though, “because of the speed at which this happens there is no approval process….[but] I think it also helps to have people at the company who have your back. My boss who’s the president of the network will stand by us.”
Zohra acknowledges that the benefits do outweigh the risk. She emphasizes, “I think that I really love and live for this [especially] when you get positive feedback from the internet [about the campaign].” She does express that she hopes it can keep going, but each year is different. She notes, “Every year we think is it going to happen this year? Will they come after us? [So], we are ready.” She goes on to say that traditional media’s biggest challenge, other that disruption from “technology companies you know Netflix or Hulu,” is the “status quo.” She affirms that “it’s hard to completely reinvent yourself,” but acknowledges the necessity for media companies to do so.
-Melissa Unger