Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
HOLLYWOOD Q&A
Q: I’ve gotten hooked on that New Zealand show “Wellington Paranormal” on CW. When is it coming back?
A: Unfortunately, “Wellington Paranormal” has gone on to the grave. But unlike so many of the perpetrators they chase on the horror-mockumentary series, it likely won’t rise from the dead. It was announced well ahead of Season 4’s debut in New Zealand that this would be the show’s final season.
Jemaine Clement (“Flight of the Conchords”), who created the series along with fellow writer-director-actor Taika Waititi (“Jojo Rabbit,” 2019), said the pair were “pausing” the show after Season 4 — partly because they have a million other projects going on at the same time — but that pause now seems permanent.
Waititi is busy being Hollywood’s latest it-boy (he directed and wrote “Thor: Love and Thunder” earlier this year and will reportedly direct a Star Wars film in the near future). Clement, meanwhile, has roles in all three of the Avatar sequels currently being produced or planned, among other projects. The pair are also hard at work on a new season of their other paranormal mockumentary show, FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows.”
The similarity between those two shows is no coincidence. Both “Wellington Paranormal” and “What We Do in the Shadows” are spinoffs of Clement and Waititi’s 2014 film version of “What We Do in the Shadows.” “Wellington’s” two cops, O’Leary (Karen O’Leary, “The Eggplant”) and Minogue (Mike Minogue, “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” 2016), appeared briefly in the film.
While the “Shadows” show is produced for American TV, “Wellington” started as a local show in New Zealand and only later caught on internationally — available, as you say, on CW in the U.S. as well as HBO Max, and on the Crave streaming service in Canada.
Q: Remember the sitcom “227”? Was that a spinoff of “The Jeffersons”?
A: Despite the presence of Marla Gibbs as a sardonic, level-headed wit on both shows, “227” is not a spinoff “The Jeffersons.”
Gibbs played Flo, the housekeeper, on all 11 seasons of the classic sitcom “The Jeffersons” from 1975 to 1985. The year it was canceled, “227” premiered, starring Gibbs as the matriarch of a family that was part of the community living in a mid-rise apartment building in Washington, D.C.
Gibbs produced and co-created the latter, slice-of-life sitcom, placing herself in the straight-woman role, commenting on and grounding the wackier antics of those around her — much like her role on “The Jeffersons,” but there was no direct story connection. In fact, “227” was based on a stage play of the same name (though the play was set in Chicago instead of Washington).
Ironically, one more piece of evidence proving that Gibbs’ two sitcoms are separate is the fact that the great Sherman Hemsley also appeared in both — he starred in “The Jeffersons” as hot-headed dry cleaning magnate George Jefferson, but played a totally different character, an arrogant client of Gibbs’ character’s husband, in a third-season episode of “227.”
It was still a fun callback to “The Jeffersons,” though. Not only were Gibbs and Hemsley together again, but they were also allowed to repeat the hilariously tense relationship they built up on “The Jeffersons.”
Q: How on Earth did they get Paul McCartney to be in “Give My Regards to Broad Street”? I just saw it and it was truly bad.
A: It actually didn’t take much convincing, since the “they” in that equation was the great Paul McCartney himself. “Give My Regards to Broad Street” (1984) was the ex-Beatle’s idea from start to finish.
“I’ve been trying to make a movie for a while,” McCartney told The Oklahoman newspaper at the time of the film’s release. “Just ‘cause I like the sort of ambiance of movies, the idea of being in them. A lot of people wanna be in movies, you know, and I’m no different.”
That explains how the film got made in the first place, since, as you say, it seems pretty unlikely otherwise.
It starred McCartney as himself, forced to go on a hunt around London for the lost master tapes of a new album. Story-wise, that’s about it.
“’Give My Regards to Broad Street’ is about as close as you can get to a non-movie, and the parts that do try something are the worst,” legendary film critic Roger Ebert wrote at the time.
Of course, The Beatles were pioneers in making nonsensical movies that showcased killer soundtracks, so maybe that’s how this one should be viewed. The “Give My Regards to Broad Street” album featured some McCartney and Beatles classics, as well as a few new McCartney originals.
While the film flopped at the box office, its soundtrack topped the U.K. album charts, reaching platinum-level sales in the U.K. and gold in the U.S. and Canada.