COMIC EXPLAINS TRUMP CARTOONS
Canadian Jim Carrey says they’re a response to ‘unfolding nightmare’
A roundup of news from the Television Critics Association summer meeting, at which TV networks and streaming services are presenting details on upcoming programs. Canadian networks usually pick up U.S. network shows, but there has been no official word yet on where these shows might air in Canada.
Jim Carrey says his cartoons pillorying the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump are a civilized response to what he called an unfolding “nightmare.”
Carrey said Monday his sketches may veer into crassness, but are a creative way to express his political opposition.
He stars in the new Showtime series Kidding, about a children’s TV host hit by a family tragedy, which debuts Sept. 9.
Those who have got the Carrey cartoon treatment include Trump and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Sanders’ father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, blasted Carrey’s sketch of Sanders as sexist and bigoted.
Some critics called it ugly, but Carrey says he didn’t use the word and drew what he considered to be Sanders’ essence.
FILLION RETURNS TO SMALL SCREEN
Nathan Fillion is ready for action as a police officer in ABC’s new drama The Rookie — up to a point.
Fillion said Tuesday his “knees would appreciate it” if he can have a stuntman do the running for him.
The 47-year-old actor joked that at this point in his life, “kneeling is a stunt for me.”
In The Rookie, the Edmonton native plays a man whose midlife crisis leads him to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Fillion, who starred in ABC’s Castle for eight seasons, said he believes there’s a cultural wave of people reinventing their lives like his character in The Rookie.
The drama, which includes Richard T. Jones, Afton Williamson and Alyssa Diaz in the cast, debuts Oct. 16.
ROSE TO REINVENT BATWOMAN ROLE
Ruby Rose is making history with her latest role as Batwoman, the first openly gay superhero to headline a TV series.
Batwoman will be introduced in a December crossover event with The CW’s other DC Comics shows, Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl.
A stand-alone series about Bat- woman, whose real name is Kate Kane, is in development for the 2019-20 TV season.
Kane is described as a highly trained street fighter with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind.
Rose wrote Tuesday on Instagram that she’s “thrilled and honoured” and “an emotional wreck” over the news. As a young, gay person, she never felt represented on TV.
Rose gained stardom when she was cast in season 3 of Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black.
ABC SHOW GETS A LIFT
Life mirrored art during ABC’s promotion of its new fall drama A Million Little Things. The series is about a group of people who became friends after being trapped in an elevator.
As the actors and producers concluded a Q&A with TV reporters, an ABC spokesperson relayed a coincidental turn of events: Guests were stuck in an elevator on the eighth floor.
The elevator malfunction is a small part of A Million Little Things. The series opens with the suicide of one of the friends and follows the impact of his death.
There was a happy ending at the hotel, with the guests safely exiting the elevator.
The ensemble cast of A Million Little Things, debuting Sept. 26, includes Ron Livingston, James Roday and Grace Park.
SNL STAR STARS IN OWN SHOW
Taran Killam bounced from one character to the next on Saturday Night Live, tossing out impersonations of everyone from Brad Pitt to Eminem to Matthew McConaughey each week.
Then the bottom dropped out. In August 2016, Killam and Jay Pharoah were let go from the late-night sketch comedy institution.
Killam had one year left on his seven-year contract.
Now, he’s back on TV with the comedy Single Parents, debuting Sept. 26 on ABC.
“I have not heard from Lorne,” Killam said of his former SNL boss Lorne Michaels, “but he’s a very busy man.”
Killam plays a 30-something dad who is so focused on raising his daughter that he’s lost sight of who he is as a man.
“The exciting challenge for me is to be the same character week in and week out, which is not something I’ve done before,” he said Tuesday.
“SNL was so all-consuming, you’re literally living day-to-day, so I don’t know at the time that I would have foreseen what was to come next.
“As soon as I was off the show a pilot just like this was exactly what I was looking for.”
Not that he has any experience as a single dad.
In real life, Killam and actress-wife Cobie Smulders have two young daughters.