Category: Television

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Donald Faison Reboots Television Zach Braff

The Scrubs cast reunited for their first table read for the reboot


Early last December, Variety reported that there were talks of a Scrubs reunion. Then, throughout the year, we got periodic updates, mainly about the cast, which included news that Zach Braff, Donald Faison, and Sarah Chalke had signed on to return. We also learned that original showrunner Bill Lawrence was only going to be involved as an executive producer (he’s busy with other projects) and that the reboot’s premise would be, ”JD & Turk scrub in together for the first time in a long time- medicine has changed, interns have changed, but their bromance has stood the test of time. Characters new and old navigate the waters of Sacred Heart with laughter, heart and some surprises along the way.”

Now, we have a script! Not only is there a script, but five of the original cast members recently met for a table read. Braff, Faison, Chalke, Judy Reyes (Nurse Carla Espinosa), and John C. McGinley (Dr. Cox) posed for a picture with Lawrence. There’s no other word on who else is coming back or any announcement about new cast members. We also don’t have any further plot details. But, the production wheels are officially in motion!

Five cast members from the beloved medical sitcom reunited with series creator and executive producer Bill Lawrence for the first table read of the show’s upcoming ABC revival.

The costars and creator posed for a photo together to commemorate the show’s production moving forward. The pic included Zach Braff, who played Dr. John “J.D.” Dorian on the original show; Sarah Chalke, who portrayed J.D.’s love interest Dr. Elliot Reid; and Donald Faison, the actor behind J.D.’s bestie, Dr. Christopher Turk. All three of those performers are series regulars and executive producers for the revival.

Also pictured were Judy Reyes, who played head nurse (and Turk’s love interest) Carla Espinosa on the original show, and John C. McGinley, who portrayed J.D.’s mentor Perry Cox. Reyes and McGinley will be guest stars on the revival.

The Scrubs revival is set to premiere in 2026.

[From Entertainment Weekly]

I know that there are a lot of mixed feelings out there about this reboot. I have them too, but I like the idea of the OG doctors being mentors for new doctors. It’s a good way to bring it full circle. We shall see. I also got a little excited by the picture of Braff, Chalke, Faison, Reyes, and McGinley together. I wonder if we’ll also get appearances from Neil Flynn (the Janitor) and Christa Miller (who played Jordan Sullivan, is married to Bill Lawrence, and is currently starring in Shrinking.) Ken Jenkins (Dr. Kelso) is 85 and retired, so I wouldn’t blame him if he decided to opt out, and of course, poor Sam Lloyd (Ted) passed in 2020.

I’m actually more curious about who the new cast members will be. Will we get unknown actors or will they go with actors that have some name recognition? It will probably be a hybrid a la The Paper, which I liked more than I expected to. It wasn’t perfect but I enjoyed it enough to 100% watch a second season. Dropping all of the episodes at once for binging was the right call. Anyway, as far as the Scrubs reboot goes, put me down into the tentative column. Those early seasons of the show were so good, so I’m not writing it off by any means. I just need more information and a trailer to really hook me.

These photos are from 2006:

Photos credit: Jacqui Wong/Avalon, Leon Bennett/Wenn/Avalon

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politics Television

Disney announces ill-timed price increase for most of its streaming platforms

disney-announces-ill-timed-price-increase-for-most-of-its-streaming-platforms




The mass boycott of Disney, with so many us canceling our Disney , Hulu and ESPN subscriptions, was surely instrumental in convincing Disney to reinstate Jimmy Kimmel Live. Disney lost billions in stock value practically overnight. Now we have to figure out how to stick it to Sinclair and Nexstar, but I digress. It turns out that there was another reason for Disney to protect free speech/their bottom line: they had planned a price raise for most of their streaming platforms, which they just announced yesterday. Here’s more, from CNBC:

Disney on Tuesday unveiled price increases for its streaming subscription packages beginning Oct. 21.

The stand-alone Disney ad-supported plan will see a $2 increase to $11.99 per month, while the premium no-ads plan will jump $3 to $18.99 per month or get a $30 annual hike to $189.99 per year.

The Disney and Hulu ad-supported package will increase by $2 per month, and both of the bundles with Disney , Hulu and ESPN will see a $3 monthly increase. The packages with Disney , Hulu and HBO Max will also both increase by $3 per month.

The NFL plans will remain at the same pricing.

[From CNBC]

Kimmel had a clever nod to the boycott during his opening monologue yesterday. He said he was going to read a statement from Disney with conditions for his return to air, and it was just brief instructions on how to reactivate your Disney and Hulu accounts.

This is such a dumb move from Disney! It was surely in the works for a while, but they should have delayed it at least a month. Now there’s even less incentive for people to re-subscribe after the boycott. You can see the full price increase here. By raising prices for ad-supported packages they’re just nickle and diming their customers who can least afford the service. I was considering resubscribing to Hulu and Disney after dumping them for censoring Kimmel. I might if there’s specific content I want, but for now I’ll save that money and invest it in AMC A-List. I have no moral high ground, I subscribe to Fubo for my job primarily and that’s owned by Disney. As Kismet wrote yesterday, it’s hard to boycott these media monopolies. We can do it though, and we should continue to vote with our wallets.

The CEO of Disney, Bob Iger (shown here), makes $41.1 million a year.


Categories
Documentaries Lauren Graham Television

Lauren Graham & Alexis Bledel haven’t committed to the Gilmore Girls documentary

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Gilmore Girls aired from October 2000 through May 2007. I was a big fan during its original run because I loved the relationship between Lorelai and Rory, and really related to Lorelai’s relationship with her own parents, Emily and Richard. When I turned 32 I had this big extensional moment, realizing that I was Lorelai’s age when the series started, only she had a 16-year-old and I had a two-year-old.

There’s a Gilmore Girls documentary coming out soon cleverly titled, Drink Coffee, Talk Fast. So far, several former stars are confirmed to be taking part, including Kelly Bishop, Jared Padalecki, Keiko Agena, Sally Struthers, Chad Michael Murray, and more. Notably missing from the cast list is Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, who gave a nod to Stars Hollow when they reunited to present an award at this year’s Emmys. Entertainment Weekly recently caught up with Lauren on Sunday and asked her why she wasn’t participating in the documentary. Her answer was pretty straight-forward: She’s not participating if the GG series creators, Daniel Palladino and Amy Sherman-Palladino, aren’t involved.

During the September 14 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Graham was asked whether she was going to be a part of the upcoming Gilmore Girls documentary, Drink Coffee, Talk Fast, which was previously titled Searching For Stars Hollow. Graham replied that she had not yet filmed for the documentary because the creators of Gilmore Girls, Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, aren’t involved with it.

“I don’t do anything the creator of my show isn’t a part of, so, so far, no,” said Graham during the Entertainment Tonight interview.

The Hollywood Reporter reported that several Gilmore Girls stars, including Kelly Bishop, Jared Padalecki, Kathleen Wilhoite, Keiko Agena, Sally Struthers, Liz Torres, Emily Kuroda, Rose Abdoo, Matt Jones, Grant Lee Phillip, and Chad Michael Murray, will appear in Drink Coffee, Talk Fast. A few of the show’s crew members, such as Stan Zimmerman, who was a writer and producer for Gilmore Girls, director Jamie Babbit, and casting directors Jami Rudofsky and Mara Casey, were also interviewed for the project, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, one of the documentary producers, Jim Demonakos, explained that Drink Coffee, Talk Fast “will reveal how Gilmore Girls came to life, why it continues to resonate across generations, and how its unique blend of humor, heart and pop culture shaped a devoted worldwide fan community with an in-depth look at its creation and the connections it continues to foster.”

“This documentary is for fans of the show but also for anyone with an interest in cultural history and how it affects individual lives,” stated Demonakos.

In another statement, Meghna Balakumar, who co-directed the upcoming documentary with Kevin Konrad Hanna, said that they have “shot more than 100 hours of footage and have already unearthed stories, commentary, critiques, and more.”

“And we’re continuing to shoot more interviews [with the Gilmore Girls cast and crew] in the coming months to present the most complete, full and truly new story of the show’s impact and legacy that is only possible at this historical moment,” stated Balakumar, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

While speaking to Entertainment Tonight at the red carpet for the 2025 Emmy Awards, Graham shared why she believed Gilmore Girls has had such a devoted fanbase, nearly two decades after the original show ended. The actress credited the show’s fun, fast-paced dialogue and the bond between Lorelai and Rory as to why fans are still obsessed.

“I think it’s the incredible writing that kind of meets you no matter what age you are. You keep rediscovering the language. And I think it’s the relationship at the core because who doesn’t want to be best friends with their mom and their kid,” said Graham to the publication.

[From Parade]

This documentary sounds fascinating, and I’m sure that everyone involved has done so earnestly. That said, it’s noteworthy that in addition to Graham and Bledel, Melissa McCarthy, Liza Weil, Milo Ventimiglia, and Sean Gunn also haven’t interviewed for Drink Coffee, Talk Fast. I bet that some of them end up giving interviews eventually. As for the Palladinos, I wonder if there’s a reason why they haven’t participated yet. Is it scheduling conflicts? Money? Do they want to keep their cards close to their chest in case they do their own documentary one day? Have they been in contact with Lauren and some of the other cast members to ask them not to participate?

I agree with Lauren’s assessment about GG’s staying power. The writing is sharp, the relationships are enviable, and the situations are the perfect balance between relatable and soap opera.

Embed from Getty Images

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photos credit: Marion Curtis and Saeed Adyani for Netflix and Getty

Categories
Survivor Television

A Survivor 49 player missed the birth of his first child during filming

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Season 49 of Survivor starts up on Wednesday, September 24. It’s kind of an odd season for fans because we already know that the all-returnees 50th season filmed right after 49 did, *and* while they haven’t been confirmed by CBS, the two players from 49 have been leaked on fan sites. From what I’ve seen online, a decent faction of the Survivor community have somewhat written off 49, but are going to watch it in order to see how the two returning players end up faring. The overall feeling is that neither are winners, but both are entertaining characters or rootable players a la season 48’s Joe Hunter.

The cast list for season 49 was officially released a few weeks ago, but their CBS profiles and official pre-season press interviews are dropping now. In the preseason, picking what players to root for is all about the vibes and backstory. One of the biggest backstories from a castaway this season comes from a contestant named Jake Latimer. Jake’s big story is that he left to play the game while his wife was heavily pregnant and due to give birth while he was away filming. Jake’s wife did indeed give birth to their first child, a baby boy named Jax, on May 2. And no, Jeff Probst did not give Jake the news that he’d officially become a father.

They tried for almost five years to get pregnant: “Me and my wife were trying to have a baby for about four-and-a-half years,” [Latimer] explained. “We just had no luck. And we went for help, and doctors were helping, and then we finally just gave up. We weren’t getting answers. The doctor said, ‘We don’t think it’s going to work.’ So I applied for Survivor, just kind of like something to do to get my mind off of it. And while I was in the process, she got pregnant and now our firstborn child is going to be born while I’m here on the island.”

“I gave her the option for me to bow out. I said, ‘This is our child. You’re here alone.’ She’s Australian, so she doesn’t have anyone up in Canada. But she says, ‘No, you go out. This is your dream, go do it, and whatever money you make is mine.’”

Producers said they would only give him bad news: “What I’ve gathered from it is no news is good news,” Jake said before the game. “Of course, I would love to hear if my baby’s born healthy and stuff like that, but at the same time, they can’t favor me and then not tell other people what’s happening with their families back in home. So I’m just going into it as no news is good news.”

Host and showrunner Jeff Probst confirms that no special rules were put into place for Jake in terms of updating the player on his child’s birth. “The rules on Survivor are really pretty clear,” Probst tells EW. “Which is no news at all about anything that’s happening in the world, including in your own family. Unless it is an emergency situation. Then, of course we would tell you and present you with the option that if you want leave the game and go home, you can.”

Extenuating circumstances: “My dad has an eye condition called glaucoma. Basically, it’s a tunnel vision that gets smaller and smaller and smaller until it’s just black. And this will be the last season that he’ll be able to actually watch before his eyesight is all gone.” If Jake’s dad was ever going to have a chance to watch his son on the TV show they used to watch together every week as a family, now was the time. “For me to make him proud one last time and be on his favorite show and have him watch his son on there, that will be it for his Survivor story.”

A big choice: “He watched Survivor with his dad, and his dad was losing his eyesight very fast,” Probst says. “They thought this would be the last season of Survivor he would be able to watch. So for Jake, there was this tug on both ends: I have a new child coming into the world, but I have my dad who won’t be able to ever see me play again.” It’s a tug that may play out on the show itself. “It’s a very emotional story,” Probst teases. “And Jake’s a very emotional guy. You know, he is a big dude, and at first glance you think, ‘Oh, he’s going to be a certain way.’ But immediately, what you realize with Jake is he’s this really lovable, goofy, raw physical presence who’s playing this game for his dad and his unborn child. It’s pretty remarkable and really powerful.”

His wife sounds pretty chill: “It’s bittersweet,” he admitted. “I’m out here, I’m on Survivor. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but at the same time, I’m always worried about what’s going on at home and stuff like that. But she wrote me a nice little note before I left and it said, ‘Don’t worry about home, just go do your thing and you’ll have a baby here waiting for you when you come home.’”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

Baby Jax was born on May 2, which was day 13 of the game. Jake, his wife, and baby Jax are lucky that modern Survivor is only 26 days rather than the 39 days that it was pre-season 41. That’s an extra two weeks of being away! I would absolutely freaking love to play Survivor one day, but I don’t know if I’d be okay with missing the birth of my first child that I’d waited so long for. On the flip side, I also don’t know if I’d be okay with telling Mr. Rosie to go play a reality TV game while I was alone giving birth to our first child without any family nearby. Hopefully she had family come out to help her while Jake was still away. I suppose the chance of winning a million dollars would be a big checkmark in the “Pro” column, lol. Still, I would have spent every moment out there wondering what was going on back at home. It would take a very high level of compartmentalizing that I’m not sure I have. I really hope that Jake goes far this season in order to make it worth it. If not, at least he’s got a wild story to tell baby Jax one day.

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Television

Apple TV+ is raising its price to $13 a month, will you keep it?

apple-tv+-is-raising-its-price-to-$13-a-month,-will-you-keep-it?




With so many streamers adding commercials, increasing prices, merging content and cracking down on password sharing it’s hard to know which ones to keep. I recently dropped Paramount Plus because they’re capitulating to fascism, and am considering dropping AMC and MGM because I don’t use them much. (The Institue on MGM is absolute trash. I’m mad I started watching it!) I also subscribe to Netflix, HBO Max, Prime, Discovery , Peacock, Howdy (that’s great actually), Disney, Starz, Hulu, PBS and Fubo, not to mention the fitness streamers I barely use. (Several of those services, like Hulu and Disney, and Discovery and HBO Max, have overlapping content too.) In my defense, I sometimes threaten to cancel them so I get better rates. Starz in particular is really generous with this. Also it’s my job to watch TV and movies and I cut cable about 9 months ago.

Apple TV started out at a relatively reasonable $4.99 a month when it launched in November, 2019. They raised prices to $6.99 in October, 2022 and had another $3 price raise in October, 2023. Apple TV just announced that prices will raise to $12.99 starting yesterday for new US customers and within 30 days of the renewal date for existing US customers. Guess that’s no longer me.

The last show I watched on Apple TV was Murderbot. Kaiser and I both enjoyed that and Severance, which we talked about on the podcast. I also liked Dark Matter, with Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly, which came out well over a year ago. (I intend to watch The Studio at some point. I will defintely see Highest 2 Lowest when it comes out September 5!) Chief of War is said to be great but that finishes airing in about a month. The Morning Show is popular, I know my mom watches it, and Palm Royale gets a lot of buzz. Season four of The Morning Show comes out on September 17 and season two of Palm Royal is out in November.

Apple is about to find out how much loyalty their subscribers have. Maybe I should give it a chance as their shows are typically excellent, but I doubt there’s enough content to keep me paying $12.99 a month. I’ve been watching older gems on Howdy and that’s just $3 a month.

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Business HBO Television

HBO Max’s password sharing crackdown will get ‘aggressive’

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Netflix began cracking down on password sharing about two years ago. There were concerns about people who logged into their accounts while traveling or kids who used the family account while in college, but, of course those were only consumer-based worries. Disney and all of the other streaming services smelled profits in the water and quickly followed suit. Streaming consumers were about to enter into an extremely annoying, expensive timeline.

HBO Max is the latest service to get in on the action. Apparently, execs feel like they’re only in the first inning (their baseball metaphor, not mine!) in the war against password sharers. But, baseball is one of those slow-burn types of games. As the game heats up, HBO Max is preparing to get more “aggressive” about password sharing.

If you’ve been sharing account access to HBO Max, the good times are soon coming to an end. JB Perrette, head of streaming and gaming at Warner Bros. Discovery said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call that messaging to consumers is about to get more “aggressive.” The media company looking to close the loopholes by the end of 2025, with the impact starting to appear in its financials by 2026.

Following in Netflix’s lead, WBD, Disney and other media companies are all ramping up efforts to limit password sharing, anticipating a significant financial payoff from cracking down on once-overlooked practice.

Several months of testing has enabled WBD to determine “who’s a legitimate user who may not be a legitimate user,” Perrette said. Once that is determined, he continued, the next step is to “turn on the more aggressive language around what needs to happen” in order to and make sure that “we are putting the net in the right place, so to speak.”

Asked about what “inning” the process is in, to use the baseball cliché, Perrette said only the first. By the fourth quarter, he said, the process will be happening “in a much more aggressive fashion.”

“The message language right now has been a fairly soft, cancel-able message,” he said. It will “start to get more fixed and such that people have to take action as opposed to right now, sort of having to be a voluntary process.” Once those directives are established, he said, “the real benefit will start probably in the fourth quarter and then kick in in 2026.”

WBD reported solid results for the quarter, adding 3.4 million streaming subscribers (mostly via international expansion) to reach 125.7 million overall.

[From Deadline]

How long will it take us to get into the ninth inning? Perhaps HBO Max (HBO? Max?) should get its house in order before they start cracking down content sharing. They just canceled Duster, which was one of their only original program offerings. Since they don’t have a lot of new programming going on right now, many subscribers rely on their back catalog. That’s great and all, but what do they have that’s going to even drive (Duster pun intended) new viewers in? There are so many other options that all of these streamers are going to have to continually come up with new ways to draw people in. Otherwise, they’re going to lose a battle in which services like Roku offer older shows at a much cheaper price.

Photos credit: Avalon.red and via Instagram

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Domhnall Gleeson Reboots Television Trailer

The trailer for ‘The Office’ spinoff ‘The Paper’ with Domhnall Gleeson is here

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The long-awaited trailer to The Paper is out! The series, which is a spin-off/sister show to the American version of The Office, will begin airing on September 4 on Peacock. If you haven’t been following, The Paper is a mockumentary that takes place in the newsroom of a struggling paper called the Toledo Truth-Teller. It stars Domhnall Gleeson as Ned Sampson, the new editor-in-chief who is trying to save the historic newspaper by using volunteer reporters. Sabrina Impacciatore plays the managing editor and OG series star Oscar Nuñez is back as Oscar Martinez. This process is being filmed by the same documentary crew that followed the Dunder Mifflin employees around. In addition to the trailer, we also have more plot information and casting confirmation. Check it out below.

Dunder Mifflin is back. Well, not exactly. But the documentary crew that filmed inside the fictional paper company’s office is back, and this time with a new subject.

“The Paper,” an offshoot of NBC’s beloved sitcom “The Office,” follows the staff of a struggling Midwestern newspaper, which happens to employ original series favorite Oscar Martinez (a role reprised by Oscar Nuñez). The mockumentary comedy series debuts on Peacock with four episodes on Sept. 4.

In the trailer, an ambitious journalist named Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson) joins the Toledo Truth Teller as editor-in-chief, with big ideas on how to revitalize the newspaper, which shares office space with a toilet paper company. He must battle budget cuts and motivate a ragtag group of staffers played by Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, Tim Key and Nuñez. Guest stars include Eric Rahill, Tracy Letts, Molly Ephraim, Mo Welch, Allan Havey, Duane Shepard Sr., Nate Jackson and Nancy Lenehan.

“How many of you have actually written for a paper before?” Ned asks his soon-to-be superstar journalists, who previously relied on clickbait stories and pre-written articles licensed from the Associated Press.

“I wrote a paper in junior high,” replies one staffer. Another says, “I’ve tweeted.”

“The Paper” is co-created by Greg Daniels (of “The Office”) and Michael Koman (of “Nathan for You”). Both also serve as showrunners, executive producers and writers. Other executive producers include original “Office” creator Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Howard Klein, Ben Silverman and Banijay Americas. The series hails from Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.

[From Variety]

Thoughts on the trailer? I think it looks like it could be a fun show. My biggest concern was that The Paper would follow The Office beat-by-beat. From the trailer, it doesn’t look like that’s the case. That said, Domhnall’s Ned feels very Jim Halpert-coded, which…okay. I expected some basic Jim/Pam/Michael/Dwight-based characters. It also feels like Sabrina Impaccitore is trying to do her best impression of Sofia Vergara’s Gloria-having-an-airhead-moment in Modern Family, but that could just be the clip they chose. I think she’s supposed to loosely be the Michael Scott character. Oscar’s part at the end made me smile. It was so nice to see him again! I’d love to know more about what happened to him since the finale, when he was running for Pennsylvania state senator.

Mr. Rosie watched the trailer with me and was not as enthused. I reminded him that the American version of The Office did not hit its stride until season two (neither did Parks and Rec). If Peacock is going to give us an Office-related series, then I hope they give it more than a few episodes to get good. I miss the days when networks would invest in their shows rather than quickly canceling them.

photos via YouTube and Instagram