Arab Times

‘Orange Is the New Black’ to end with season seven

Spinney retires from Big Bird

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LOS ANGELES, Oct 18, (RTRS): “Orange Is the New Black” is set to end after its upcoming Seventh Season on Netflix. The cast of the series broke the news in a video post on Wednesday.

Netflix had renewed the Lionsgate-produced series for three seasons ahead of the Season 4 premiere in 2016. As part of the deal, series showrunner Jenji Kohan will remain in that role through Season 7. The critically-acclaimed dramedy initially followed the inmates of Litchfield Minimum Security Prison, with Season 6 seeing many of the main cast move to the Maximum Security facility often mentioned in the series.

“After seven seasons, it’s time to be released from prison,” Kohan said. “I will miss all the ladies of Litchfield and the incredible crew we’ve worked with. My heart is orange but fade to black.”

The series stars Taylor Schilling, Uzo Aduba, Kate Mulgrew, Laura Prepon, Laverne Cox, Dascha Polanco, Danielle Brooks, Selenis Leyva, Taryn Manning, Yael Stone, Jackie Cruz, Lea DeLaria, Adrienne C. Moore, Elizabeth Rodriguez Michael Harney and Nick Sandow. The series was created by Kohan and based on the book of the same name by Piper Kerman.

The show has received widespread critical acclaim throughout its run, garnering multiple Emmy nomination­s and back-to-back wins for Aduba in the supporting actress in a comedy series and drama series categories in 2014 and 2015. The show originally competed in the comedy category before a rule change ahead of the 2015 Emmys necessitat­ed a switch to the drama category.

Though Netflix does not release viewership informatio­n, Nielsen has attempted to calculate the show’s audience in a continued push to measure streaming viewers. Most recently, Nielsen reported that the first episode of Season 6 drew an average-minute audience of 5.4 million US viewers in the initial three days of availabili­ty.

The Disney streaming service series “High School Musical: The Musical” has found its lead.

Joshua Bassett has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming series, which is slated to debut in late 2019. Bassett will play Ricky, a cynical but charming high school junior who launches a bold plan to win back his exgirlfrie­nd Nini by auditionin­g to star opposite her in the school’s production of “High School Musical.”

“As someone whose childhood was shaped by the cultural phenomenon that is ‘High School Musical,’ I am thrilled to have the opportunit­y to continue to tell this story. Go Wildcats!” Bassett said.

17-year-old Bassett is an actor, singer, dancer and guitarist. Since age seven, he has performed in over 30 musical theater production­s and had roles in several commercial­s and television series including a recurring role in Disney Channel’s “Stuck in the Middle” and a guest starring role in the upcoming crime anthology “Dirty John” for Bravo.

He is repped by The Osbrink Agency, Artistic Endeavors and Jackoway Tyerman.

Vulnerable

“Joshua’s interpreta­tion of the Ricky character was brilliant – funny, winning and, at the same time, uniquely vulnerable,” said Gary Marsh, president and chief creative officer of Disney Channels Worldwide. “The audience is going to love watching this charismati­c young actor put his stamp on this next chapter of the ‘High School Musical’ franchise.”

The series will be filmed in Salt Lake City, Utah, in a single-camera documentar­y style. The 10-episode story follows as a group of high school students who stage a performanc­e of “High School Musical” for their fall theater production, only to realize that as much drama happens offstage as onstage.

Caroll Spinney has been a television mainstay since 1969, but his face has rarely made an appearance.

Disguised beneath a frock of bright yellow feathers and an orange bill, the “Sesame Street” puppeteer was the heart and soul behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since the show’s premiere almost 50 years ago.

Now, at the age of 84, Spinney told the New York Times that he is retiring from “Sesame Street” after nearly half a century playing some of the show’s most iconic characters. Come Thursday, Spinney will enter the “Sesame Street” studios in Astoria, Queens for the last time before leaving the roles behind forever.

“Before I came to ‘Sesame Street,’ I didn’t feel like what I was doing was very important. Big Bird helped me find my purpose,” Spinney said in a statement. “Even as I step down from my roles, I feel I will always be Big Bird. And even Oscar, once in a while! They have given me great joy, led me to my true calling – and my wonderful wife! – and created a lifetime of memories that I will cherish forever.”

Spinney said the physical requiremen­ts for the show have become more and more difficult in recent years. Starting in 2015, he transition­ed out of the Big Bird suit after developing a balance problem in the costume and has since been providing only voices for the character. His final voice recordings will be used during the upcoming 50th anniversar­y next year on HBO.

A consortium of Japanese media companies is partnering with US animation studio Tonko House to make an animation series starring Kumamon. The hugely popular character is the mascot of Kumamoto, a province in southern Japan.

The project was announced by Kumamon creator Kundo Koyama and provincial governor Ikuo Kabashima. Koyama is a TV producer who also wrote the Oscar-winning drama “Departures.”

Tonko House is best known for Oscar-nominated short “The Dam Keeper.” It was launched by former Pixar art directors Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi. The studio is handling developmen­t and production of the project. The number of episodes and the start of broadcast have yet to be announced.

The Japanese partners are talent agency Yoshimoto Kogyo, ad agency Asatsu-DK, Ireton Entertainm­ent, a production and distributi­on company headed by former Warner Japan president Bill Ireton, and Thefool (“Like Father, Like Son”).

Introduced in 2010 to commemorat­e the start of the Kumamoto “shinkansen” express train, the black-bear-like Kumamon is the most widely recognized of the hundreds of socalled “yuru-chara” mascots that can represent everything in Japan from government agencies to amusement parks. The partners are looking expansion into films, games and merchandiz­ing.

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