Tag / Mark-Paul Gosselaar

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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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FOX Upfronts

For the second straight year, FOX has shifted their game plan, abandoning their single camera comedies and, instead, moving closer ideologically with its sister news network.  The end result is a fall schedule with only one show that interests me, and even that 9 unwatched episodes from this season still sitting on my DVR.

Monday has two returning shows, The Resident and 9-1-1, which didn’t pull me in last year.  The Gifted, based on Marvel’s X-Men characters, moves to Tuesdays, followed by a revamped Lethal Weapon.  Wednesday’s lineup remains consistent, with Empire followed by Star.

Thursdays get turned over to the NFL, as the much-reviled game moves over from CBS.  Friday has the revival of Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing and The Cool Kids, about a group of friends in a retirement community, followed by Hell’s Kitchen.  Sunday’s animated block remains mostly the same, with a new comedy, REL, closing off the night.

The second season of The Orville will return to Thursday after the NFL season.  Gotham will also appear at some point for its final season.  Also on tap for mid-season are The Passage, a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Mark-Paul Gosselar, Proven Innocent, a legal drama from Danny Strong, and the return of Cosmos.

Gone and mostly forgotten are Brooklyn Nine-Nine (which was saved by NBC), The Exorcist, Ghosted, Kicking & Screaming, The Last Man On Earth, LA To Vegas, Lucifer, The Mick, New Girl, Superhuman, Wayward Pines, and The X-Files.

by jim

Post Mortem – Pitch

On May 1st, nearly 5 months after airing its last episode, the executive producer of Pitch announced that the show would not be returning for a second season.  Pitch, about the first female major league baseball player, premiered to high acclaim but couldn’t translate that in to viewers.  I was a bit skeptical at first, but was won over by star Kylie Bunbury and a surprising dramatic turn by Mark-Paul Gosselaar.  It was certainly the most interesting the Padres have been in years.

 

by jim

Post Mortem – Franklin & Bash

franklin-bashAfter 4 seasons, TNT decided to cut bait on Franklin & Bash, the buddy lawyer dramedy starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer.  I bailed on the show this summer during its 4th season, when it came back without co-stars Dana Davis and Kumail Nanjiani, and seemed to have lost any creative spark.  At it’s best, it was never must-see TV, and this past season was far from its best.

by jim

Book 1 (of 52) – Behind The Bell

Behind The Bell - Dustin Diamond

Behind The Bell – Dustin Diamond

When I was in college, there was a daily 2 hour block of Saved By The Bell, courtesy of superstations WGN and TBS.  When I first heard of this behind-the-scenes tell-all from the former Screech, I was of course interested.  Just not interested enough to shell out retail prices for the hard cover version of his autobiography.  For 99 cents, though, I was willing to wade into the supposed sordid details in my first foray into Ebooks.

Dustin Diamond is sure of one thing: he was a normal kid growing up in an abnormal world.  Nearly everyone else, including cast mates, other child actors, network executives, were colossal douchebags out to harsh his good time.  Mark-Paul Gosselaar was the golden child who horded his status over everyone and could do no wrong.  Mario Lopez was a man whore.  Tiffani Amber Thiessen was a slut who was passed back and forth between Zack and Slater.  Elizabeth Berkley got TAT’s sloppy seconds.  Lark Voorhies got even sloppier thirds.  Dustin Diamond, meanwhile, was the well meaning kid who just wanted to make friends but ended up the outcast for not buying into Mark-Paul’s golden status.  Somehow, it all reads a little false.

What can easily be explained by age difference (Diamond was 3 years younger than the rest of the cast), Dustin ascribes to malice.  He takes little-to-no responsibility for his own actions and is more than willing to blame others for every real or imagined slight.  He tells tales of his extensive womanizing, using extras and Disneyland as his personal whorehouses.  There is strangely no mention of the sex tape he released.

At the end of the day, I’m sure some of Diamond’s tales, both personal and about his SBTB cast mates, are true.  One would have to be incredibly naive to think a crew of teenagers would not be involved in some sexual hijinks.  But Diamond goes beyond just telling the tales, instead painting everyone except himself in the worst possible light.  It’s little surprise that Diamond has had little success after Saved By The Bell.  I suppose that is someone else’s fault as well.