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Fuller adds another big series to his plate

The most fun superhero shows on tv are about to crossover

Take flight with DC's new Supergirl Digital Comic, coming early next year!

Kara will continue to fly high on CBS deeper into 2016

What to expect in the upcoming season of CBS' SUPERGIRL.

The Supergirl pilot that debuted last night on CBS a lot of weight on its shoulders. The show tells the story of Kara Zor-El, played by Melissa Benoist, as she escapes Superman's shadow and comes into her own as National City's first superhero. It is the network's first major superhero endeavor, the first superhero show led be a solo female in more than 40 years and the pilot had a lot of ground to cover, attempting to endear characters to new viewers while also trying to re-envision elements of the mythos without alienating established comics fans. Does it succeed? The Beat is here to tell you with a hard hitting roundtable. We've always wanted to have one of those.

Last Thursday, early afternoon, I perused the lower level halls of New York Comic Con. Autographings and photo ops were running nicely, and the Queue Hall (aka “the stockyards”) was mostly empty, as the morning crush had long subsided, and most of the Main Stage events in Hall 1-D had already occurred.  Out of curiosity, […]

Excited about CBS’ Supergirl? The first episode is right around the corner, on Monday, October 26th at 8:30 pm Eastern, to be exact. To mark the almost one month countdown, CBS has released a new trailer that highlights some brand-new footage, including a look at Peter Facinelli‘s Maxwell Lord. I remain pretty hopeful about this […]

Folks, we have a Livewire.  As reported by Variety, Brit Morgan will guest star as Leslie Willis during an episode of CBS’ new television adaptation of Supergirl, which debuts this fall. Cast in the show as a shock-jock (think female Howard Stern…I guess radio isn’t dead in this world), Leslie has an accident that transforms her and makes her take […]

In a pretty nice piece of marketing, CBS is aiming squarely at the young women demographic for the upcoming Supergirl, and to highlight that they invited 400 mother and daughters to view a sneak preview of the first episode.

In doing so, they also got a nice surprise, which you’ll see in the short video below…

Given the tendency of superheroics in mass media to aim for the testosterone, it’s nice to see a network to cater to a wholly different demographic for this series. It should give us a whole new reason to root for its success. Everybody needs heroes to look to up to after all.

Supergirl premieres Monday, October 26th (8:30-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on CBS.

As fan frustration increasingly mounts over the lack of female-centered superhero movies and TV shows, the team behind Supergirl vows that when translating Kara to the small screen, they won’t sacrifice the unique take her gender brings to the story.

“For us, usually when you see a female hero – and it’s no disrespect to any of them – they’ve had to lose being female to be the hero,” said Andrew Kreisberg, an executive producer and writer for the show. “Usually when you see a hero, it’s because she’s badass. And what we’re saying is you can be badass and still be a girl, and being a girl ins’t a bad thing. And so much of what makes Kara successful her is that she is a girl, and women do things differently. Our version of this world presents Superman as a bit of a loner… and that’s not the way Kara does things.”

Chyler Leigh, who plays Alexandra Dancer, a character created specifically for the show, said the female-led show was a common sense move.

“I wouldn’t even say it’s a good step forward; it’s appropriate. It makes sense. It is timely,” she said. “I have two daughters, they’re eight and six, and I couldn’t think of a better way to be a part of something that is such a great influence for them. They get to look up to Supergirl.”

Executive Producer Ali Adler said that they saw more than 1,000 women audition for the role, but that Melissa Benoist – who landed the role – was the very first person they saw, and she stuck with them throughout the audition process.

“She is so special and contagious and true,” she said. “She’s unapologetically a badass, and she’s soft.”

Benoist said that although she’s been physically training for the role, it wasn’t something she was used to.

“It’s funny because in my every day life, I have always been such a pacifist. I grew up in a household full of women, and if you hit someone, it was a huge deal, even just a slap,” ehs aid. “So the butt kicking is new, that’s a new muscle I’m flexing, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I liked it.”

At the SDCC panel, showrunners also revealed that Maxwell Lord would be appearing this season, played by Peter Facinelli,  as well as villains Livewire and Reactron.

Supergirl will debut in late October of 2015 on CBS.

Supergirl, the new CBS drama that will debut this Fall in the same timeslot as Gotham (8 pm on Mondays), got its first trailer at CBS’ Upfronts presentation today as well as a new synopsis:

Twelve-year-old Kara escaped the doomed planet Krypton with her parents’ help at the same time as the infant Kal-El. Protected and raised on Earth by her foster family, the Danvers, Kara grew up in the shadow of her foster sister, Alex (Chyler Leigh), and learned to conceal the phenomenal powers she shares with her famous cousin in order to keep her identity a secret. Years later at 24, Kara lives in National City assisting media mogul and fierce taskmaster Cat Grant (Golden Globe Award winner Calista Flockhart), who just hired the Daily Planet’s former photographer, James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks), as her new art director. However, Kara’s days of keeping her talents a secret are over when Hank Henshaw (David Harewood), head of a super-secret agency where her sister also works, enlists her to help them protect the citizens of National City from sinister threats.

 

While Gotham isn’t quite a ratings juggernaut for FOX, it does very well in its timeslot, so I’ll be curious to see if this splits the audience at all. Either way, this is a whole new kind of Batman vs Superman showdown.

Hooray, it’s Friday! My weekend is going to be filled with Cowboy Bebop and early Miyazaki as I try to give anime a proper go. Hopefully your plans are even more fun! Here are your Friday morning headlines:

– It’s now official, Harrison Ford is returning for a sequel to Blade Runner, and replacing Ridley Scott in the director’s chair will be Academy Award nominated director Denis Villeneuve (Enemy, Prisoners). The new film will be scripted by Hampton Fancher, who co-wrote the original, and comics-scribe/Green Lantern screenwriter Michael Green (who is also working on the sequel to Prometheus). This story will take place several decades after the end of the first and is based on an idea of Scott and Fancher’s.

Does the world really need a sequel to Blade Runner? Probably not, and I say that as someone who thinks Blade Runner is the best science fiction film ever made. Though I can’t help but be curious as to what Villeneuve may bring to the table visually.

– CBS’ Supergirl continues to add to its cast as David Harewood (Homeland) will be joining the cast as Hank Henshaw, better known to comic fans as Cyborg Superman. In this series, Henshaw will be an ex-CIA agent that now heads up the Department of Extra-Normal Operations which monitors extraterrestrial threats to the planet. Sounds like an antagonist to me.

The series has also enlisted Chyler Leigh (Grey’s Anatomy) to play Alexandra “Alex” Danvers, Kara’s adopted sister. It’s worth noting, that every cast member added to Supergirl thus far has either been a female or a person of color, which I find to be a wonderfully exciting development.

– By way of the folks at Latino Review, here are some new Daredevil images from Empire:

– Last up, we have a nice poster by Gabrielle Dell’Oto for the upcoming March 3rd mid-season premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. focusing on the changes occurring in Skye and Raina:

He’s really only alluded to in the series synopsis, but now according to a casting call listed on ProjectCasting, Superman will indeed be putting in some sort of appearance in the new CBS drama Supergirl.

The call appears thusly:

We are looking for BODY DOUBLE for a DC Comic Superhero –
You must be available for an interview this Thursday and if selected will work several day during March.
This is for a CBS pilot. You can be SAG or Non-Union.
You should be 5’11 or taller and be Square Jawed
and have a ripped physique.
You must send a bodyshot, shirtless, sizes, current contact info and your first five to [email protected] – in the subject line write SUPERMAN

So, if any you gents out there fit the bill, apply away!

There are a number of Superman-based characters appearing in the series such as Cat Grant, Hank Henshaw, the Toyman, and Jimmy Olsen. But this report at least confirms that Kara won’t be the only Kryptonian around doing heroic deeds.

Former Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart is the latest actress to jump into the comic book world, as Warner Bros and CBS have revealed that she will be playing Cat Grant in the prime-time drama Supergirl.

Created by Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway, Cat is a columnist for the Daily Planet and a sometimes love interest for Clark Kent. For this iteration, she’s described thusly: “a self-made media magnate and founder of CatCo, Cat Grant started her career as a reporter and has built her company into a global powerhouse. Kara (series star Melissa Benoist) works at CatCo as her assistant.”

Flockhart’s take on the character will be the fourth time Cat Grant has appeared on-screen, previously having been played by Tracy Scoggins in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Emilie Ullerup and Keri Lynn Pratt in the final two seasons of Smallville.

Good get!

When Melissa Benoist was cast as Supergirl last week for the CBS upcoming superhero drama of the same name, I had a feeling the Jimmy Olsen announcement could only be a few days away, given that the auditions for both roles were held pretty closely together.

Like magic, we now have a new Jimmy Olsen! Mehcad Brooks (Desperate Housewives, True Blood) will be playing everyone’s favorite Daily Planet photographer/giant turtle-based superhero. Actually, the latter probably won’t happen sadly, but Brooks will surely have a camera in hand at some point.

The Supergirl iteration of Jimmy is described as “a smart worldly photographer for CatCo, the media company where Kara works. He had previously been working and living in National City for mysterious reasons, and his salt of the earth nature piques Kara’s interest”.

I’m not totally up on my Supergirl lore, but National City doesn’t ring any of my DC Comics bells (other than being the former name of the company). I assume its something created specifically for the new series.

There are a number of roles still to be cast, including: Cat Grant, Hank Henshaw – the Supergirl obsessed director of the Department of Extra-normal Operations, Kara’s CatCo colleague Wynn Schott, and Kara’s sister Alex.

CBS has found the lead of their first superhero adaptation since The Flash debuted in 1990.

Melissa Benoist, who appeared most recently in the indie hit Whiplash, has been tapped for the role of Kara Zor-El in Supergirl, making her the third live action version of the character, following Helen Slater (Supergirl) and Laura Vandervoort (Smallville).

The hour-long drama, which does not yet have a series order, centers on a 24 year old version of Kara. After growing up with the Danvers family, who taught her to be careful in the use of her powers, she’s faced with an unexpected disaster that forces her to use those abilities in public. Kara begins to help the people of her city and thus is given the name “Supergirl”.

The pilot episode will be written by Greg Berlanti (The Flash, Arrow) and Ali Adler (The New Normal).

Benoist is also known for her role on the Fox series Glee, the same series that brought Grant Gustin (star of the current iteration of The Flash) to prominence.

Supergirl finally gets CBS into the superhero game, as ABC (Agents of S.H.I.E..L.D., Agent Carter), NBC (Constantine), and FOX (Gotham) have all already debuted their comics-based series.

A Jimmy Olsen casting announcement, a character known to be a major part of Supergirl, will be announced imminently.

By Alexander Jones

Twin Peaks fans have been eagerly awaiting the Twin Peaks: The Complete Mystery DVD since it was announced. During the panel for the show on Saturday night, some mysteries about the show were revealed, such as both the Fire Walk With Me and the deleted scenes from the original show. Meaning, that this is as close as we are going to get to everything about the show ever shot on one single DVD collection. With the added bonus of a visual HD restoration to the package–speaking of the packaging, this includes a wonderful package featuring the ominous face of Laura Palmer in the flesh or more like wrapped in plastic. Take a look at the following interview conducted with CBS General Manager Kenneth B. Ross, along with actress Kimmy Robertson chiming in towards the end in order to get the primer on what to expect for the new DVD box set. 

During that call at the panel you mentioned that you acquired a full 88 minutes worth of footage, and that you also scored it and restored it. So how long did it take between the team getting the new footage, and then getting it ready for the showing on Tuesday?

Ross: David and his team are the ones that did it. I really don’t recall exactly how long the work took because I was so immersed with all the details of working it out, and France was involved and it was CBS, and it was David Lynch, and it was MK2, and this had been going on for years literally. The physical post-production work took about 8-9 months to deliver the elements.

After all this time, this television show has really become iconic, and it has influenced so many other pieces of media from comic books–to other television series. Do you have any idea on what has sparked the new interest on the show? At the panel beforehand there was a good amount of people in attendance.

Ross: I think that you know in the entertainment business, and I think I said I touched on this on the panel so I apologize if I was repeating this, but I there’s a word called ‘classic’ some people say ‘cult’ some people say ‘classic’ some say ‘evergreen’ you know the Sound of Music is still loved today. I was involved in putting the I Love Lucy Christmas special on CBS last Christmas, and it got the highest rating in the time setting. You know a show that was fifty plus years old because people still love Lucy. Kimmy: I watched it. Ross: People love I Love Lucy. This is one of those properties, and there are not a lot of them, but a bunch of them where the love, never the flame, never the fire, never and so what it’s about is it’s showing it in a way that it has never been experienced before which is what we are trying to do–in terms of technology to make the experience as satisfying as possible picture, audio, etc. By showing more than you’ve ever seen before–new high definition scenes, deleted scenes from the series, lastly what the fans have been clamoring for for nearly 20 years–the Fire Walk With Me deleted scenes. Then you have the entire fan base to them. I read a tweet that Brian showed me that made me as happy as I can be when we walked into this room, because I had said all along you come to Comic-Con. I have been a comic collector since I have been a kid. Comic-Con for me was I live in New York, I used to go to to the McAlpin Hotel, I am talking about 40 years ago and buy comic books that were in baggies you know with my friends and that’s what Comic-Con was you know. There was no show business, no Hollywood, no actors, none of that, and now I don’t have to tell you guys what it is; but I knew that this property Twin Peaks was like a pillar of Comic-Con and the Comic-Con community. Just like Star Trek for example. People here would go wild and love it, and the tweet was; I heard Marvel announced something blah blah blah, Twin Peaks is coming out at Comic-Con and this is amazing. That is sort of my answer to your question, it is sort of as relevant as it has ever been. I actually think it’s more relevant than it has ever been because there is so much media drawing from it.

Ross: As you say, think about the shows where the creators you know, I mean David Chase has said that inspires him and on and on and on think about the shows that wouldn’t exist today if not for Twin Peaks having come out and changed the landscape of television.

Kimmy Robertson: I heard Mark Burnett on the radio yesterday or the day before saying Survivor– that he got the guts to do that because of Twin Peaks. Survivor! Mark Burnett!

Ross: Another CBS show!

By Ron Rodman

In this blog last month, I wrote about Dr. Billy Taylor and his pioneering work on television as an advocate for jazz. To celebrate Black History Month, it is appropriate to mention another African American musician who was a pioneer on American television: Nat King Cole, jazz pianist and vocalist, was the first African American musician to host a nationally-broadcast musical variety show in the history of television.

Publicity photo from the premiere of The Nat King Cole Show.

In 1937, Cole started to put together what would become the “King Cole Trio,” the name being a play on the children’s nursery rhyme. As part of the trio, Cole expanded his own role in the group, both playing jazz piano and singing with his rich, velvety baritone voice. The trio toured extensively and finally landed on the charts in 1943 with Cole’s song, “That Ain’t Right.” His first big hit the following year was “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” a song reportedly inspired by one of his father’s sermons. The trio continued its rise to the top with such pop hits as the holiday classic “The Christmas Song” and the ballad “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons.”         

By the 1950s, Nat King Cole emerged as a popular solo performer. He scored numerous hits, with such songs as “Nature Boy,” “Mona Lisa,” “Too Young, ” and “Unforgettable.” He worked with many of the greatest jazz artists in the country, like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, arranger Nelson Riddle, and others.

However, the 1950s was a difficult decade for African American entertainers. In his performances around the country, Cole had encountered racism firsthand, especially while touring in the South. He had been attacked by white supremacists during a mixed race performance in Alabama. Yet, he was also criticized by other African Americans for his less-than-supportive comments about racial integration, and for performances for segregated audiences. Cole considered himself an entertainer and not an activist, and often sought to assimilate with white audiences.

1956 proved to be a pivotal year for Nat King Cole, and he was to become not just an entertainer, but also a pioneer for equal rights. By the mid-1950s, he had achieved status as a mainstream performer and sought to pursue this career as other stars had done — to produce and star in his own television show. His bid for a TV show brought with it a sense of mission. “It could be a turning point,” he realized, “so that Negroes may be featured regularly on television.” Cole realized the stakes were high, and said, “If I try to make a big thing out of being the first and stir up a lot of talk, it might work adversely.” Cole and his agents negotiated with CBS for a show, but his own program never materialized. Cole’s manager then tried NBC, and they successfully reached an agreement for The Nat “King” Cole Show.

The Nat “King” Cole Show debuted on 5 November 1956. The show aired without a sponsor, but NBC agreed to pay for initial production costs; the network assumed that once the show actually aired and advertisers were able to see its sophistication, a national sponsor would emerge. Cole exuded his benign, soft-spoken persona on the set, chatting with the TV audience and singing Broadway and Tin Pan Alley tunes. But the show was innovative in that it also featured Cole in his original role as a jazz pianist, playing and singing with jazz notables such as Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald. Cole also used his connections to bring other high caliber musicians to the show, many of whom voluntarily appeared with minimal compensation. Some of these included Harry Belafonte, Mel Tormé, Frankie Laine, and Peggy Lee (shown below).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Despite the high musical quality of the show, the race barrier seemed too much for the predominantly white TV audience of the 1950s to overcome. Many national companies balked at sponsorship, as they did not want to upset their white customers in the South who did not want to see a black man on TV shown in anything other than a subservient position. Although NBC agreed to fund the show until a sponsor could be found, Cole decided to cancel the show himself in its second season, disappointed with ratings and lack of sponsorship. Cole was quoted as saying of the doomed series, “Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.” The last show was aired on 17 December 1957. After he cancelled his show, Nat King Cole continued to appear on other TV shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, The Garry Moore Show, and others.

Though short lived, The Nat “King” Cole Show paved the way for other black entertainers to find their way to television in the next decade. 1967 witnessed the premier of The Sammy Davis, Jr. Show on NBC, as a mid-season replacement that ran for 15 episodes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In 1969, singer Leslie Uggams, hosted The Leslie Uggams Show, a musical comedy variety series that aired on CBS for one season in 1969.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Unfortunately, American audiences still seemed uncomfortable with TV shows hosted by sophisticated black musicians, and it finally took a comedian — Flip Wilson — to host a successful show, The Flip Wilson Show, which ran for four seasons on NBC from 1970-1974.

Ron Rodman is Dye Family Professor of Music at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. He is the author of Tuning In: American Television Music, published by Oxford University Press in 2010. Read his previous blog posts on music and television. 

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Image credit: Publicity photo from the premiere of The Nat King Cole Show. NBC Television. Via Wikimedia Commons.

The post The Nat “King” Cole Show: pioneer of music television appeared first on OUPblog.

Writers Veronica Roth, Marie Lu and Erin Morgenstern all landed movie deals for their debut novels.

Roth released Divergent in May; Morgenstern’s book The Night Circus is due out in September and Lu’s title Legend will hit bookstores in late November. Lu sold her book’s movie rights to CBS Films. Summit Entertainment snatched up the rights to Roth and Morgenstern’s novels.

According to Variety, Harry Potter film producer David Heyman is interested in The Night Circus film. Deadline reported that Twilight film producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey are looking at Legend. All three authors made an appearance at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This week, the major TV networks got all dressed up to court advertisers at their upfront presentations. They casually announced several show cancellations — “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior,” “Hellcats,” “$#*! My Dad Says,” and many,... Read the rest of this post

When Jack White (said he was starting up a mobile record store, this wasn’t quite what we imagined. The Third Man Standing van will make its debut at SXSW and then begin traversing the country, announcing its stops on Twitter. Along with vinyl... Read the rest of this post

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Clayton P. Alderfer

Undercover Boss, one of reality TV’s newest additions, is based on a truth that many thoughtful CEOs grasp: they do not have a thorough understanding of what goes on at the middle and bottom of their organizations.  There are multiple reasons why.  Immediate subordinates do not know either.  Middle and lower ranking managers withhold their understanding from those above them.  First level managers cut deals with hourly workers that permit the employees to do well enough financially while not working too hard – lest the employees act disruptively.  CEOs hired from outside have even less of an idea about what goes on, as insiders feel resentful about being subject to outsider rule and choose not to tell what they know.  The reasons why CEOs face this predicament are thus far reaching.  The question for CEOs who grasp this tough reality is whether they can do anything about it.

Undercover Boss provides one solution to the top boss’s dilemma: Change clothing; create a new identity; become a temporary hourly employee; expose one’s shortcomings as a worker; [eventually] reveal one’s identity to those who helped; provide high profile rewards (and an occasional punishment) to employees who were encountered; hold a public meeting to reveal the charade; and, finally, go back to work as an apparently enlightened CEO armed with the knowledge acquired.  Here the TV episode ends.  But is this the whole story?

As someone who has spent several decades studying organizations, serving as a middle manager in universities, and working as an organizational consultant to numerous systems, I believe the findings that undercover bosses turn up are, for the most part, valid.  The problems are with the procedures the CEOs use.  Most critical is the rationale built on deception.  The show operates from the premise (shared with social scientists who conduct experiments using deception) that one can establish laws of human behavior by employing methods that include lying to the people who provide data.  In short, one lies to learn the truth.

In social psychology over the years, students to whom the experimenters lied later told other students, who then became what was termed “experiment-wise.”  Beyond that, lead investigators carried out studies demonstrating that experimenters (perhaps inadvertently) communicated experimental hypotheses to the people providing data, thus possibly invalidating the findings produced.   To compensate for these two problems, researchers introduced a second order of lying.  Investigators began to lie not just to their “subjects,” as respondents in these studies were called, but also to the experimenters who executed experimental treatments.  Among researchers who used deceptive practices, this later development ushered in a new order of experiments based on “double deception.”  Viewed in organizational terms, these practices emanated from temporary organizations in which top managers (professors) lied to middle managers (graduate students), who in turn lied to subordinates (undergraduates or innocent citizens).

Undercover Boss appears not yet to have reached the second stage of employing deceptive practices.  Shows currently close with an apparently happy gathering of employees smiling as their CEO reveals the deception after having returned to his actual role.  The implied explanation for the observed employee satisfaction is that the people feel pleased, because the top boss has taken the trouble to find out what organizational life is really like at the middle and bottom of the system.  One wonders, however, just how long the initial reactions will last.  Might there be resentment toward the employees who assisted (some wittingly, some unwittingly) the boss in his deception a

Reminder! Applications for the inaugural GennY Award are due this Wednesday. Winner gets to present their case study on the main stage at this year's Youth Marketing Mashup. Also, "early adopter rates" end this Friday so register and save... Read the rest of this post

NOTE TO MYSELF: WHY IN THE WORLD DID ABC CAVE IN BASED ON THE OPINION OF 1500COMPLAINING VIEWERS AND INSTITUTE CENSORSHIP POLICY

Seems that ABC decided to cancel controversial (to some) rocker, Adam Lambert, appearance on Good Morning America, on November 25th. Lambert, who is openly gay, performed on the American Musical Awards show and made what some perceive as obscene gestures while promoting his single release. Given the open-ness and language used in lyrics by rap singers with absolutely no intervention on the part TV networks, this move by ABC is unwarranted and IMHO, dummmmb. The AMA show in itself is very open and nobody blinks an eye when any of the performers push the limits - and they do that. In cancelling Lambert, CBS immediately grabbed him.

Silly, silly ABC!

BTW - ABC received 1500 complaint phone calls from viewers who found Lambert's actions distasteful. Perhaps the viewers should have just clicked to another network. The late Elvis Presley, who was featured waist-up during his early performances on TV, must be laughing it up, somewhere, however those were in the staid and proper 1950's/'60's. Times have changed and ABC should know better.

BTW - in cancelling Lambert, CBS immediately grabbed him guaranteeing the network a large viewing audience. Silly, silly ABC!