Stars on Screen
Now in session: After a false start and a month-long wait, “Council of Dads” is ready to reconvene for a second episode airing Thursday, April 30, on NBC.
The network has opted to take an unusual but not unprecedented (not for NBC, anyway) approach to launching this new family drama. The hourlong series was originally slated to premiere on March 10, but it was pushed back to March 24 to give “New Amsterdam” more time in the coveted time-slot after “This Is Us.”
Why March 24? That’s when “This Is Us” wrapped its fourth season, and the finale was supposed to provide “Council of Dads” with a sizable leadin audience to get it off to a good start.
Of course, that was a month ago and there hasn’t been another episode since. But don’t worry, the mini hiatus was a planned one. In fact, it’s the same strategy NBC employed with “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” which launched in January/February this year.
“Council of Dads” stars Tom Everett Scott (“13 Reasons Why”) as Scott Perry, a loving father whose cancer diagnosis prompts him to plan for his family’s future. He enlists the help of several friends, played by Clive Standen (“Vikings”), Michael O’Neill (“Dallas Buyers Club,” 2013) and J. August Richards (“Angel”), to provide some male parental guidance to Scott’s four children and some support for his wife, Robin (Sarah Wayne Callies, “The Walking Dead”).
The series is based on Bruce Feiler’s 2010 memoir but will be taking quite a few creative liberties with the story. For one thing, Feiler survived his health scare in real life (he also has
three kids); but by the end of the series premiere, we learned that Scott, the character based on Feiler, had died. We also watched the Council of Dads step in to walk Scott’s eldest daughter down the aisle.
So where will the show go from here? We’ll find out this Thursday when “Council of Dads” settles into its spot in the NBC lineup.
May movie month: We don’t usually see networks filing their lineups with movies in May, which is normally the big month for season and series finales. Then again, these are unprecedented times.
Starting next week, you’ll want to prep some popcorn on Sunday evenings. With “God Friended Me,” “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “NCIS: New Orleans” all bowing out early due to the coronavirus pandemic, CBS will be getting some programming help in May by airing movies from corporate sibling Paramount Pictures. On May 3, the network will air the 1981 movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the first of the Indiana Jones quartet of films produced by the film studio. The following Sunday, May 10, viewers can
tune in to “Forrest Gump” (1994), starring Tom Hanks and Sally Field. On May 17, you can watch Tom Cruise in his first outing as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in the 1996 film “Mission: Impossible.” This is the film that launched a franchise, which will add two more installments in 2021 and 2022.
Ease into Memorial Day with the May 24 airing of “Titanic” — no, not the 1996 CBS miniseries but the 1997 Oscar-winning film from director James Cameron. And on May 31, the May movie marathon ends with “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989). It stars Harrison Ford as the fedora-wearing, whip-cracking, snakefearing archeologist, while Sean Connery is his academic-minded father (though there’s only a 12-year age gap between the two actors).
Fiddy and Starz: It’s hard to believe it’s been 17 years since “In da Club” first hit the radio airwaves and made Curtis James “50 Cent” Jackson a star.
Jackson has since sold more than 30 million records worldwide and remains one of the top-selling rappers of all time. But he’s also been busy building an impressive list of acting and producing credits. And that list just got a little longer this month.
The rapper/actor/producer’s latest TV project is “Black Mafia Family,” which recently landed a straight-toseries order from Starz. It’s an eightepisode, drug trafficking drama. And it’s based on the true story of Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory, two brothers who rose from the streets of Detroit in the 1980s to become one of the most influential crime families in America.
This marks the fifth collaboration between Starz and Jackson, who served as executive producer on the cable network’s most-watched series, “Power.” That one wrapped in February after six seasons, but it seems neither the network nor the producer were ready for the story to end, since Starz promptly ordered four spinoffs.
Another “Power” alum, Randy Huggins, will serve as both scriptwriter and executive producer alongside Jackson, who considers “Black Mafia Family” to be a passion project. And that passion was evident in Jackson’s statement. “I told you ‘Black Mafia Family’ was coming and it’s going to be the biggest show on television,” Jackson said. “Meech and Terry are legends and I am excited to bring their story to Starz.”