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Posts published in “TV”

ABC’s Anthony Anderson/Kenya Barris Pilot Adds Larry Wilmore As Showrunner

wilmoreWhat do you do when you have a show about what it means to be black in today’s society that is in a need of a showrunner? You turn to an expert. ABC’s untitled Anthony Anderson/Kenya Barris comedy pilot (formerly Black-ish) has tapped The Daily Show’s senior black correspondent Larry Wilmore as executive producer/showrunner. Written by Barris and loosely based on his personal experiences, the project centers on an upper-middle-class black man (Anderson) who struggles to raise his children with some sense of cultural identity despite constant contradictions and obstacles coming from his liberal wife, old-school father, and his own assimilated, color-blind kids. Wilmore tackled similar issues on his Fox comedy series The Bernie Mac Show. The Anderson/Barris pilot hails from ABC Studios, Laurence Fishburne‘s Cinema Gypsy and Principato Young, with Wilmore executive producing alongside Anderson, Barris, Cinema Gypsy’s Fishburne, Helen Sugland and Tom Russo as well as PYE’s Peter Principato, Paul Young and Brian Dobbins. Fishburne may also guest star.
article by Nellie Andreeva via deadline.com

Black & Sexy TV's Web Series "The Couple" Gets HBO Deal

The-Couple
Numa Perrier and Desmond Faison star in “The Couple”

Aficionados of Black cinema and television arts are ecstatic about the announcement of a TV deal involving Black & Sexy TV’s hit web series The Couple and powerhouse cable television network HBO. Rumor has it the deal will also involve legendary filmmaker Spike Lee as an executive producer. Black & Sexy co-creator Numa Perrier recently confirmed to JETmag.com that the Web superstars did clinch a deal with HBO.
News first leaked Monday at Sundance Film Festival during the Blackhouse Digital Panel, which included Black & Sexy TV founders Dennis Dortch and Numa Perrier, actor Jay Ellis (The Game), Lena Waithe (Dear White People), Edwin Benton and was moderated by Brickson Diamond. The deal was revealed while Diamond and Dortch discussed the task of how to maneuver creative content to new platforms.
For those unfamiliar, the Black & Sexy TV original web series, starring Numa Perrier and Desmond Faison, follows a young Black couple, chronicling the everyday nuances of dating and living together in a hilariously fresh way. Some may recall the unprecedented 2012 Kickstarter campaign that surpassed an original $25,000 goal to raise more than $32,000 in an effort to turn the web series into a film.
Black & Sexy TV offers original programming that is intentionally and unapologetically for us and is responsible for creating breakout web series hits such as Roomieloverfriends—which is also produced by Awkward Black Girl’s Issa Rae, That Guy and a new docu-series Yellow, which explores the “pleasures and problems of the light skinned Black man.”
The development deal with HBO is said to still be in its early stages.
article by Marissa Wallace via jetmag.com

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon Team with Scholastic to Create A Holiday Children’s Book for 2014

The “Queen of Christmas,” known for her best-selling holiday digital single “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” makes it no secret that she loves the holidays, and is preparing to release the couple’s first book in fall 2014 — just in time for the holiday season.
The celebrity couple have paired up with children’s book heavyweight Scholastic Press to publish the festive picture book, Roc and Roe’s Twelve Days of Christmas. The book, which is a spin on the classic Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” will feature the couple’s twins Moroccan “Roc” Cannon and Monroe “Roe” Cannon. The illustrations will be handled by New York Times best-selling artist AG Ford.
The Carey-Cannon clan say they are “excited to work with the Scholastic team on our Roc and Roe picture book and we can’t wait until this holiday season. ”
“It’s been such a fun and collaborative process and we are thrilled to be working with Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey on this exciting project. Roc and Roe’s Twelve Days of Christmas is the perfect book to read with your little ones—an adorable spin on a classic tale, sprinkled with humor and heart,” said Ken Geist, VP and editorial director for Scholastic Press Picture Books.
This will be the first book for both Carey and Cannon, but knowing her love for Christmas this may not be her last festive collaboration. In the meantime, Carey is preparing her new album The Art of Letting Go to be released this spring. Cannon serves as the host of America’s Got Talent.
article by M.L. Ward via uptownmagazine.com

Comedy Based On Kevin Hart’s Life Gets Cast-Contingent Pilot Order at ABC

kevinhartABC has given a cast-contingent pilot order to a multi-camera comedy from hot actor-comedian Kevin Hart and former Community executive producers Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan.  The untitled Kevin Hart project is based on Hart’s life and stand-up. Written by Goldman and Donovan, it takes a candid look at the post-divorce life of a couple trying to forge a friendship for the sake of their kids, despite differences.
20th Century Fox TV is producing, with Hart, his manager Dave Becky, Goldman and Donovan executive producing. If the project goes forward, Hart likely will play a recurring role. Hart is one of the hottest comedy talents at the moment. Following the breakout success of his 2013 movie Think Like A Man, his latest feature comedy, Ride Along, broke box-office records with a huge Martin Luther King weekend opening.
article by Nellie Andreeva via deadline.com
 

PBS' "American Masters" to Profile Alice Walker

American Masters - Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth
Alice Walker at the London premiere of American Masters “Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth,” in London. PBS will commemorate Black History Month with programs including a profile of “The Color Purple” author Walker. The Walker profile will air Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/PBS, Brenda Lawley)
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — PBS will commemorate Black History Month with shows including a profile of The Color Purple author Alice Walker.
The public television service announced Tuesday that the program about Walker will air Feb. 7 as part of the American Masters series.
Other PBS shows marking Black History Month in February include American Promise, a coming-of-age documentary about two young men, and a documentary about a Mississippi state commission that investigated foes of segregation.
American Promise airs Feb. 3 on the POV showcase. Spies of Mississippi will air Feb. 10 on the Independent Lens program.
To mark Black History Month online, PBS.org will offer Behind the Lens, about photographer Eunique Jones Gibsons portrayals of prominent African-Americans as youngsters.
article via bigstory.ap.org

Bill Cosby Returns to NBC for Family Comedy

Bill Cosby
(Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

NBC is re-teaming with Bill Cosby and producer Tom Werner on a family comedy.  While there is no pilot order and no studio is attached, NBC has confirmed that they are hiring writers and Cosby would star “as a patriarch in a multigenerational family.”  The Cosby Show, which Werner produced through his production company with Marcy Carsey, ran from 1984 to 1992 on NBC. The sitcom Cosby, which the comedian developed with John Markus and also costarred actress Phylicia Rashad, ran from 1996 to 2000 on CBS.

Partnerships with 1980s and ’90s TV stars seems to be a theme at NBC, where The Michael J. Fox Show is fairing okay in ratings. (Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing on ABC is doing better). The Cosby news happened a day after NBC announced it was scrapping its Murder She Wrote reboot with Octavia Spencer.
article by Whitney Friedlander via Variety.com

Jay Z and Will Smith Sell Electronic Music Comedy with Calvin Harris to HBO

Calvin Harris Jay Z HBO

The DJ that has brought dance music fans songs including “Feel So Close” and “We Found Love” is making a move towards the small screen. According to Variety.com, HBO is developing a half-hour comedy with Calvin Harris that takes place in the world of electronic music entitled Higher.  Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh on board to write the pilot, with a starry lineup of executive producers including Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jay Z, James Lassiter, Tyran Smith, Miguel Melendez, Mark Gillespie and Dean Wilson, along with Harris.
No word yet on the plot of Higher, which will hail from Overbrook Entertainment, Three Six Zero Group and Marcy Media. Jay-Z and Will Smith have previously collaborated on the Broadway production Fela, and are also teamed on forthcoming feature musical Annie.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

Uganda’s Stacie Aamito Crowned Africa’s First Next Top Model

Stacie AamitoThe African edition of Next Top Model recently came to a close and Ugandan beauty Stacie ‘Queen’ Aamito claimed the crown.
Aamito beat out 11 contestants from eight different countries—including three women from Nigeria and two from South Africa—to become Africa’s first-ever Top Model winner. The 20-year-old won a contract with New York-based agency DNA Model Management, an endorsement deal with P&G, a one-year contract as ambassador for South African Tourism, along with $50,000 in prize money.
After her win Aamito told reporters, “I would like to thank everybody for their support and for believing in me. It is a dream come true for me and it is truly awesome.”
Africa’s Next Top Model is the brainchild of supermodel Oluchi Onweagba. Onweagba, who’s married to Italian designer Luca Orlandi, has been in the business for over fifteen years, gracing runways for designers like Victoria Secret, Christian Dior, and Giorgio Armani, and snagging covers for publications like Italian Vogue, i-D, Elle, and Surface.
Africa’s Next Top Model was a hit with viewers and many are hopefully this will help catapult African models to international success.
article by Britni Danielle via clutchmagonline.com

Prince to Guest Star on Fox's "New Girl" After Superbowl

prince-2012-australian-tour-announced_hAccording to E! News, Prince will be cast on New Girl, because he is a “huge fan.”  The ever enigmatic 58-year-old will appear in post Superbowl episode, which came about when he personally contacted the producers.  “He knows everything about the show. He contacted Zooey [Deschanel] and Hannah [Simone] directly and asked to do [it],” executive producer Brett Baer said. “He’s a Nick and Jess shipper!”

Prince’s role in the show will be “right in the middle of trying to help [Nick and Jess] work through some stuff.” Apparently, “his thing was all about getting to Jess and trying to bring out this inner part of her that hadn’t been brought to the forefront.”
article by Lauren Duca via huffingtonpost.com

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to Lead Viewers on "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey"

Neil Degrasse Tyson
NEW YORK — Bringing a long list of prepared questions to an interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson is a fool’s errand. That’s not to say a conversation with the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History isn’t illuminating — quite the opposite.  It’s just that the gregarious astrophysicist can’t help but find science lurking in every corner, turning even the most banal transaction into a teaching moment. An offer of bottled water, for instance, unexpectedly turns into a lengthy digression about the difficulty of freezing distilled water and the origins of Gatorade.

Tyson’s zeal for knowledge is intoxicating and irresistible, even if it means less time for the ostensible topic of the conversation — his starring role in the documentary series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, premiering on Fox and National Geographic in March.  “I see myself as a servant of the public appetite for the universe,” says Tyson, seated in his office overlooking the giant white sphere of the Hayden Planetarium.
Scattered among hundreds of astronomy books are, among other things, a vanity plate reading “COZMIC,” a life-sized bust of Sir Isaac Newton, a half-dozen or so globes, a quill pen collection, a can of Dole pineapples in “cosmic fun shapes” and a pink boa.
Tyson’s combination of humor, intelligence and accessibility have made him one of the most recognizable scientists in the country and put him atop many fantasy dinner-party guest lists. The author or editor of 10 books, he maintains an active social media presence (1.5 million Twitter followers) and produces a radio show and podcast, “StarTalk Radio.” He’s also become a late-night TV regular, through frequent visits to The Daily ShowThe Colbert Report and Real Time With Bill Maher.
Now he’s moving into prime time with Cosmos, a follow-up to Carl Sagan’s groundbreaking 1980 PBS series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. In what may seem like an odd pairing, Seth MacFarlane serves as executive producer on the series. Tyson first met the Family Guy creator at a gathering of the Science and Entertainment Exchange in Los Angeles several years ago and later pitched him about getting involved in a Cosmos reboot.