Tag / ABC

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Prolific Authors – 2 Books

Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, since I’ve far surpassed my reading output of any year on record, I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through October. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 118 books, so there could be some movement over the past two years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span.  Today, we start things off with the now 41 authors I’ve read twice, an increase of six over two years ago.

Max Barry

An Australian author, I’ve enjoyed the two novels of his I’ve read, Jennifer Government and Company.

Laura Caldwell

I have no idea how I came across the work of this local author, but I must have enjoyed it enough to go back for seconds.  Unfortunately, she passed away in 2020.

Michael Chabon

Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the most recent of the two works of his I’ve read.  I have another, Wonder Boys, waiting in the to read pile, so he rise up some day.

Fate Of The Union – Max Allan Collins with Matthew V. Clemens

Matthew V. Clemens

The co-author, with Max Allan Collins, of the final two chapters of the Reeder and Rogers trilogy.

Ernest Cline

The man responsible for both Ready Player One and Ready Player Two.

Bill Clinton

The former president has co-written two novels with James Patterson.

Felicia Day

The first author here that I’ve happened to meet in person.

Cameron Dokey

She makes the list based on two entries in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.

Diane Duane

Living in Ireland, she is responsible for a Star Trek: The Next Generation book and a Spider-Man novel, of all things.

Warren Ellis

The comic writer, currently in exile after being called out for abusing women, makes the list thanks to two prose novels.

David Fisher Continue reading →

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ABC Upfronts

ABC is taking a cautious approach to their fall schedule.  With the ongoing writer’s strike putting the availability of scripted shows in doubt, the network has put all of its eggs in the reality basket.  Long-time stalwart Dancing With The Stars, after being shunted off to Disney+ last year, returns to its familiar Monday night perch.  The night ends with the Golden Bachelor, a dating show for AARP-set.  Tuesday night brings another installment of Celebrity Jeopardy! followed by two hours of Bachelor In Paradise.

Wednesday retains a bit of a comedy block, with Judge Steve Harvey, followed by an hour of Abbott Elementary reruns and another installment of What Would You Do?  Game shows take over Thursday night, with Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, Press Your Luck, The $100,000 Pyramid.  Friday remains the same, with Shark Tank followed by two hours of 20/20.  Sunday kicks off with America’s Funniest Home Videos followed by three hours of The Wonderful World of Disney.

On the bench for mid-season are 9-1-1, rescued from FOX, Abbott Elementary, American Idol, The Bachelor, The Conners, The Good Doctor, Grey’s Anatomy, Not Dead Yet, The Rookie, Station 19, Will Trent, and High Potential, the only new show on the docket.

Shows never to be seen again are A Million Little Things, Alaska Daily, Big Sky, The Company You Keep, and The Goldbergs.  The fates of Home Economics and The Rookie: Feds are still up in the air.

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Why Make A Choice?

After a tumultuous 38th season of Jeopardy! that saw the initial choice to replace Alex Trebek removed after a week due to a scandal related to inappropriate comments he had made on an earlier podcast, the producers decided to keep their current jury-rigged hosting situation as is.  Sony Pictures Television has signed both Mayaim Bialik and Ken Jennings to long-term deals that will see the two continuing to split duties on the syndicated game show, while Bialik will continue to host primetime editions of the show as well as the new Celebrity Jeopardy! slated for ABC this fall.

With more versions of Jeopardy! on the air than ever before, and with Bialik continuing to star on Call Me Kat, which has been picked up for a third season, producers felt that multiple hosts would be needed to handle the load.  The search for a new host has been a laborious one, with a parade of celebrity guest hosts completing the show’s 2020-2021 season following Trebek’s death to the naming of Mike Richards as the permanent host before that imploded.

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Post Mortem – Black-ish

After eight successful seasons, Black-ish aired its final episode in April, going out with a creative renaissance fueled, I assume, by the knowledge that this was their last go-around.  Debuting in 2014, the show has bounced back and forth between Tuesdays and Wednesdays on ABC’s lineup, never a huge hit, but always delivering quality laughs.

I assume the cast, especially the younger actors, will go on to other projects where they will continue to make a stamp on Hollywood.  Anthony Anderson has already shown up starring on the re-booted Law & Order.  Marcus Scribner will be joining the spinoff Grown-ish for its fifth season.  Marsai Martin, still only 17, has already started producing movies and is well on her way to becoming a mogul in her own right.

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ABC Upfronts

After a cautious year following the pandemic shut down of 2020, ABC is mixing things up with their fall schedule.  The week gets off to an unfamiliar start, as long-time stalwart Dancing With The Stars is being shunted off to Disney+.  Instead, Monday nights will start with the former summer staple Bachelor In Paradise followed by The Good Doctor.  Tuesday night brings another installment of Bachelor In Paradise followed by The Rookie: Feds, a spinoff of The Rookie starring Niecy Nash.

Wednesday’s comedy block switches things around a bit, with The Conners starting things off, followed by The Goldbergs, Abbott Elementary, and Home Economics.  Big Sky moves over from Thursday to finish off the night.  Thursdays start the same, with Station 19 and Grey’s Anatomy followed by Alaska,  starring Hilary Swank as a disgraced journalist who leaves New York for Alaska.  Friday remains the same, with Shark Tank followed by two hours of 20/20.  Sunday stays mostly all reality, with America’s Funniest Home Videos, Celebrity Jeopardy!, and Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, followed by The Rookie.

On the bench for mid-season are Not Dead Yet, a comedy starring Gina Rodriguez, and the returning The Wonder Years, A Million Little Things, American Idol, The Bachelor, and Judge Steve Harvey.

Shows never to be seen again are Black-ish, Queens, and Promised Land.

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Book 15 (of 52) – A Little Closer To Home

A Little Closer To Home: How I Found The Calm After The Storm – Ginger Zee

Ginger Zee, chief meteorologist for ABC, checks back in with the follow-up to her 2017 memoir.   This time around, she digs deeper into some of the other issues swirling around and mixed up in her depression: two suicide attempts, divorce, anorexia, rape, and an abortion, among other things.  She also gives insight into how, after years of avoiding her emotions and her mental health, she has used therapy to dig into her issues and, years later, finding the interconnectedness of the things that have happened in her life and how she has reacted.

A Little Closer To Home gives Zee another outlet to tell her tale of recovery and how, even today, she continues to dive into her past and look for ways to improve.  Thanks to the fine folks at Anderson’s Bookshop, I was able to participate in a Zoom call with her where she dove deeper into some of these topics and the need to normalize taking care of and seeking help for our mental health.

Ironically, four years ago, I read Ginger Zee’s first memoir back-to-back with her ABC News co-worker Dan Harris’ first book on meditation.  This year, I switched it up by fitting two books in between their respective second efforts, though Harris has recently left ABC.

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2021: The Year In Television

Now that I am home full time, I have plenty of time to catch up on the streaming shows I may have missed in years past or that were newly released. Since we cover the network and cable shows that I watch elsewhere, let’s take a look at the 34 seasons of the 24 shows I streamed on 8 different platforms this year.

13 Reasons Why Seasons 1-2 (Netflix)
When a high school girl commits suicide, she sends a series of confessional tapes to the people she deems responsible.

The Blacklist Season 8 (Netflix)
Having missed an episode or two along the way, I had to wait for the season to hit Netflix to combine with what was on my DVR to come up to date as the story of Elizabeth Keen wraps up.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 4 (Netflix)
The final installment of the darker interpretation of Archie Comics character somehow found a way to crossover with the 90s ABC version before ending its run.

Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol (Peacock)
A very unfaithful adaptation of the novel which I probably should not have watched right after reading the book.

Devs (Hulu)
A woman keeps digging into the death of her boyfriend, running afoul of his employer, who is up to some sketchy stuff.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney+)
Burdened by the legacy of Captain America, both the Falcon and the Winter Soldier try to find their way in a post-blip world.  When the government’s replacement Cap goes bad, the Falcon finally decides he is ready to take on the legacy Steve Rogers left for him.

The Flash Season 7 (Netflix)
I used a combination of Netflix and my DVR to catch up on the goings on from last season.

Hawkeye (Disney+)
Hawkeye takes on a new apprentice when the re-emergence of his old Ronin costume causes an uprising in New York’s underworld.

The History of Swear Words (Netflix)
Nicholas Cage hosts this look at some of our culture’s favorite words, including their etymology and most popular uses.

Loki Season 1 (Disney+)
Loki teams up with many different versions of himself to find out who is behind the TVA.

Love Life Season 1 (HBO Max)
An anthology series that follows one person’s romantic history per season.  The first season focused on Anna Kendrick’s Darby Carter as she learns to love herself and let herself be loved.

Mad About You Season 8 (Amazon Prime)
The 12-episode revival, released in 2019 on something called Spectrum Originals, finds the Buchmans rediscovering themselves after their daughter leaves for college.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation Season 1 (Netflix)
I wasn’t originally planning on watching Kevin Smith’s revival of the old He-Man cartoons, but when fandom acted all butthurt by them, I needed to see what the fuss was all about. Continue reading →

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A New Era

Nearly 9 months after the death of Alex Trebek, Sony Pictures Television has found their new hosts (yes, hosts) for Jeopardy!.  Mike Richards, who became the executive producer of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune for the 2020-2021 season, has been named the host of the daily syndicated version of the show.  Richards, who guest hosted for two weeks at the end of February and into March, had previously hosted the 2012 revival of The Pyramid for Game Show Network and was the executive producer of The Price is Right and Let’s Make A Deal for over a decade before joining Sony in 2020.

In addition to Richards, Mayim Bialik will host primetime and spinoff series, including the upcoming Jeopardy! National College Championship set to air on ABC next year.  Bialik, the former Blossom and Big Bang Theory star, guest hosted for two weeks at the end of May and the beginning of June.

When word first leaked of Richards getting the job, complaints about harassments lawsuits during his time at The Price is Right surfaced, along with him seemingly having lied about the circumstances around his guest hosting stint.  A skeptic might say the Bialik move was an attempt to head off criticisms of yet another white man gaming the system to get a job, although I also wonder how much someone like Bialik would be interested in the main gig, given her other commitments.

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Post Mortem – Mixed-ish

We wrap up this year’s look at the shows I watched that have been cancelled with Mixed-ish, the prequel spinoff of ABC’s Black-ish.  Looking back at the childhood of Tracee Ellis Ross’ Rainbow Johnson, the show focused on a mixed race couple who have recently left a commune and are trying to acclimate back in to society with their 3 children, who have never had to deal with their race before.   Despite favorable reviews, the pandemic-shortened second season saw ratings plummet and settle in under 2 million viewers and ABC announced the cancellation in May.

The cast combined known talents, like Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Gary Cole, with talented newcomers (at least to me) Arica Himmel and Tika Sumpter.  I know Cole has already lined up a gig for the next season and I hope to see the others in something again soon.

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Post Mortem – Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The seventh and final season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired last summer, wrapping up in August on ABC.  The first series set in, but not completely part of, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it took a while to find its footing before eventually setting into a nice groove.  The connection to the movie franchise was stronger in the first season, with a couple cameos and events in the movies impacting the plot of the show, but that waned as the seasons went on, to the point that the blip caused by Thanos wasn’t even addressed.

With Marvel (and Disney) looking to more tightly integrate their television shows with the movies, they’ve shifted their internal reporting structure and cancelled all of their existing shows.  AOS, the first and longest running of those shows, was the final piece of that puzzle prior to the new offerings from Disney+, which will be much more tightly connected to the MCU.  That said, seven seasons is a good run (and much more than the Netflix shows received) and hopefully we’ll see some of these characters again.