LA Law is coming back to TV

Iconic late 80s/early 90s drama series LA Law has been given the greenlight to return to TV. Original series star Blair Underwood will return to lead the new series for the US ABC network. The revised premise for the law show:

The venerable law firm of McKenzie Brackman reinvents itself as a litigation firm specializing in only the most high profile, boundary pushing and incendiary cases. Underwood’s Jonathan Rollins has gone from idealistic to more conservative as he clashes with millennial JJ Freeman to decide the best path forward for the firm to effect political and legal change.

The original LA Law was recently available to stream on the US IMDb TV service, but was removed recently. It would be great if the OG series was made available again more broadly - it still holds up okay (even if the 80s/90s trappings of the show certainly feel every bit an 80s/90s drama).

Now to answer the big question that should be on everybody's mind: How do they plan to screw up the theme song by commissioning a new theme that invokes the original while also making it terrible? It's an important ingredient for any TV series reboot.

TV sequel to Trainspotting is on its way

A sequel to Trainspotting focused on Robert Carlyle's Begbie character is on its way. An adaptation of the Irvine Welsh book The Blade Artist, the series is set 20 years after Trainspotting:

Now known as Jim Francis, Begbie is a reformed character who believes he has found the perfect life. But a return to Scotland for the funeral of a murdered son he hardly knows confronts him with a past he can barely recall and he soon discovers you can take the boy out of Edinburgh, but you can’t take Edinburgh out of the boy.

Mr Men / Little Miss books coming to TV

Recently I became a father, propelling me back into the world of kids fiction as I bought up a small library of titles to kick-start my child's interest in culture. Obviously The Monster At The End of The Book was an immediate purchase. But also, I was thinking about buying a couple of Little Miss and Mr Men books. Unless you have some younglings in your life, these probably aren't books you've thought much about since you read them.

But that is set to change.

The book series by Roger Hargreaves is set to be adapted for the TV screen by way of Endeavour Content. The property is 50 years old this year.

25 years of Fox News

Fox News began broadcasting 7 October, 1996. That means that it has now been 25 years of the TV network.

You can watch the first 3 hours of the broadcast of the network over at YouTube (it wouldn't enable an embed).

And now for some absolutely unrelated links:

AT&T wanted a rival for Fox News. So it asked for the birth of OAN.

In testimony delivered by OAN founder and chief executive Robert Herring Sr, he revealed that the origins of the controversial right-wing, horse-paste-COVID-cure-peddlin' network OAN were with AT&T requesting a second conservative news channel - one that could compete with Fox News.

Since then, AT&T has been a crucial source of funds flowing into OAN, providing tens of millions of dollars in revenue, court records show. Ninety percent of OAN’s revenue came from a contract with AT&T-owned television platforms, including satellite broadcaster DirecTV, according to 2020 sworn testimony by an OAN accountant.

Giancarlo Esposito is tired of anti-vaxxer's shit

Presumably not an OAN viewer, Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul, The Mandalorian) has this to say about actors wanting to work without being vaccinated against COVID-19:

“If you don’t want to vaccinate, go to a small island and sequester yourself,” the Mandalorian and Better Call Saul actor says. “[Otherwise] you’re saying ‘Fuck you’ to all you other human beings. We all have to do it if we want to live. I don’t understand how people don’t vaccinate. For me, I’ve lost dear friends, so I know it’s real. Not only in Europe but in America, friends who were completely healthy and uncompromised. The vaccine is the answer. I’m not downing anyone who doesn’t want to vaccinate. Don’t work. Go ride it out somewhere where you’re not going to compromise anyone else if you get it.”

Prominent anti-vaxxer stars reportedly include Rob Schneider (now shooting Netflix’s Home Team) and Letitia Wright (filming Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). And, I guess, Scott Baio probably.

TeeVee Snacks

Off the back of Midnight Mass, Mike Flanagan has signed with Netflix for another horror series - The Fall of The House of Usher. Read: Variety
The SNL season 47 opener was the lowest rated SNL season opener in its 47 year history. Source: The AV Club
Former Hulu chief Kelly Campbell is now President of streamer Peacock. Read: Deadline
Former Billions star Damian Lewis wasted little time booking his next TV gig. He'll star opposite Guy Pearce in the limited series A Spy Among Friends. Read: Deadline
The Sydney Film Festival has announced its 2021 program. Read: if
Universal Studios has signed a deal with The Pokémon Company to create theme park attractions for its park in Japan. Read: Polygon
Fox News Media launches its weather channel on Oct 25. Read: THR
RIP Cynthia Harris - the former Mad About You star was 87. Read: Deadline
Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformia will debut exclusively worldwide on Amazon Prime Video. Read: thefutoncritic
The Netflix merch store, with its range of Uniqlo-like t-shirt fashions, now has Squid Game merch to buy. Check it out: Netflix.shop
Here's Richard Kind explaining how he blew the audition for Married WitH Children. Read: The AV Club
British streaming audiences have outnumbered pay TV for the first time. Read: Variety