Thursday, November 26, 2015

NEWS: Peter Reckell, Disney Subscriber Losses, 'Empire' Online Store, Bryan Cranston

Peter Reckell on shooting the death of Bo Brady on Days of our Lives
“What’s keeping me from saying, ‘Killing Bo? That’s not a good idea,’ is … what I discovered over the past three years, and that is being a dad,” Reckell tells Soap Opera Digest. "And the important role I have in my daughter’s life…. As important and as wonderful and inspirational as being Bo Brady is, this job of being Loden’s dad is more important to me at this time.”

Being Mary Jane is redefining single womanhood
Creator Mara Brock Akil intentionally kept her title character single. "The working title of this was Single Black Female, because sometimes we’re reduced to those three words,” she says.

Jane the Virgin's is portraying a radically frank depiction of early motherhood
“The truly radical thing about this season of Jane the Virgin,” says Kathryn VanArendonk, "has been how much of these first episodes have been about the unavoidable, unglamorous, and absolutely life-consuming physical reality of new motherhood. Jane Villanueva uses a breast pump. Frequently. She worries about her milk supply. Her body does not bounce back instantly. She is exhausted, and her baby’s presence is a new constant in her life.”

NBC is developing a college sex scandal drama
Fated will revolve around a sex scandal connecting the university’s president and head football coach, who are brothers.

Robert Rorke complains that primetime's "high brow" dramas are turning into daytime soap operas
The New York Post writers says: "Bringing characters back from the dead? That’s the kind of plot device usually found on daytime drama to goose ratings and arouse sleepy fans. So when did shows such as Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead become soap operas on par with Days of our Lives, which famously brought back notorious villain Stefano DiMera (Joseph Mascolo) from the grave, or The Young and the Restless, which killed off Adam Newman and revived him — with another actor (Justin Hartley) playing the role?"

Disney Suffers Severe Cable Subscriber Losses
The Walt Disney Company has lost 7 million subscribers to its cable networks in the last two years, according to a regulatory filing posted by the company Wednesday. Among the networks posting losses is ESPN, which at 92 million subscribers is down from the 95 million reported in 2013. Disney Channel, Disney XD and ABC Family, all Disney-owned, each had 4-5 million lost subscribers over the two year period, according to the company’s annual 10K report.

FOX has launched the official Empire online store
The store, which boasts show-inspired apparel (like a skirt-and-crop-top outfit and colorful jersey dresses), show quote tops ("Porsha, get my damn shoe!"), and more items. To celebrate the opening, Fox is hosting a contest that includes a $1,000 shopping spree to shop the store. (For those who don't win, there's still good news: the store's currently running a sale, with items up to 40% off!)

Freak TV: Welcome to the Golden Age of Weird
From BoJack Horseman to Broad City, television programming has become more bizarre – and better – than ever.

Bryan Cranston Cries While Watching Emotional Breaking Bad Clip: "I Saw My Daughter's Face"
On Wednesday's Inside the Actors Studio, Bryan Cranston got emotional when explaining his thought process behind a pivotal Breaking Bad scene.

On the James Lipton-hosted Bravo show, Cranston watched a clip of his character, Walter White, choosing not to help save Jesse Pinkman's (Aaron Paul) girlfriend Jane (Krysten Ritter), instead letting her choke on her own vomit. According to Cranston, shooting the scene was surprisingly tough on him.

Watch below:

4 comments:

  1. Is Rorke just catching on that most of primetime, especially the cable shows, are just soap operas with a bigger budget, and writers that are not afraid of the more conservative viewpoints of viewers from more mature material?

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    1. ITA. And Rorke is also wrong about Adam Newman. Viewers basically knew from the get-go that Adam wasn't dead. We saw his hand move at the crash site. Meanwhile, his wife Chelsea was convinced he wasn't dead, and within weeks (which are like days on soaps) we saw a faceless figure in a dark room being cared for who was wearing Adam's unique wedding ring. The only mystery was what would Adam look like (and who would be playing him) when he returned. And gee, didn't they do that on PRIME TIME soap Dynasty back in the early 80s when they had to recast Steven Carrington?

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    2. Apparently! And once again, and since the term was coined, the mainstream press uses "soap opera" in an insulting way. No wonder Irna Phillips never liked her shows to be called that. I personally love the terms--thus, We Love Soaps :).

      The primetime serials have all obviously been influenced by daytime soaps, and not just the obvious ones like the Shonda Rhimes shows. Even my favorite comedies of the past decade, Parks and Rec and 30 Rock, had serialized stories including love triangles.

      I at least give Rorke credit for mentioning actual daytime characters even though he was off in his analysis.

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    3. Ever since bo brady died.hope life is dis@ster shooting bo killer and s5efano.ho is going to take care of ceira.or .ring bo brady back.

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