Murdering a TV character takes talent
We’re just a few hours away from the Emmy Awards. It airs on CBS in the US and can be watched locally in Australia On Foxtel’s Showcase or streamed via BINGE.
The general expectation is that The Studio will sweep a bunch of comedy awards, while best drama is a coin flip between Severance and The Pitt. My thinking is that The Pitt will take Best Drama - it is hugely popular and tells a great Hollywood story about returning production back to LA with an old-school broadcast length season (with an annual 15 episode season - not quite the 20-25 episode runs of yesteryear, but better than 6 episode orders every 18 months).
Every year I find myself less and less invested in the Emmy Awards. I’m very keen to see a win for The Pitt, but that’s really the extent of my interest this year. I’m not sure if it is a relfection of me changing as a person, or the vitality/relevance of awards shows like this.
Probably a combination of both.
Leaving the TV behind one fateful Saturday afternoon
In the spirit of having a well-rounded cultural life where I consume culture away from a TV or movie screen, I left the house on Saturday afternoon to visit Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre where I saw a stage play. About television.
Written by friend of the newsletter (and real life, I guess) Melanie Tait, the play How To Plot a Hit in Two Days is about the writers room of iconic Australian drama series A Country Practice across two planning days where they plot to kill off Molly, one of the show’s most beloved characters. Actor Anne Tenney wanted off the show, so they gave Molly leukemia… chosen so that they could either bump her off or give her character an 11th hour reprieve if Tenney changed her mind.
I was a few weeks away from turning five years old when the episode aired, so I’ll admit that I’ve never seen any of this era of the show (though, A Country Practice ran 13 seasons, so I certainly saw a lot of it as an older kid). The play didn’t work for me as nostalgia bait.
But it is an interesting exercise in watching a team of creatives work through creative problem solving. It gives each of the characters an earned perspective and grounds them all in the creative process of it all. Initially, I was a bit frustrated that there wasn’t more to it in terms of character arcs than that, but after a good nights sleep, I feel like Tait made the right creative choices in how she’s delivered the story.
A few additional thoughts:
I was beyond delighted to see Georgie Parker on stage. I’ve always loved her, but had forgotten just how much until Saturday - I don’t think she has lit up my TV screen in quite a number of years. Anyway, she’s wonderful in this as the writer charged with leading the murder of Molly.
It was interesting to see photos of all the main 1985-era cast members up on the wall next to the writers cards. Notably, cast member Gordon Piper isn’t given a space on the wall for reasons that are very easy to Google.
I can’t really think of many instances where Australian TV productions have been brought to life through nostalgic looks through the window like this. There was the Molly Meldrum biopic made by Seven a few years back. That’s all that’s coming to mind as I pen this late on a Sunday night. Maybe the time is right for me to produce my Pugwall’s Summer 12-part TV series expose…
The play runs until Oct 11. If you are in Sydney and curious, I’d encourage you to get along.
News Desk
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade has made a public apology for saying that mentally ill homeless people should be killed. If Kilmeade still has his job by the end of the week, that’s a serious injustice. This isn’t just someone misspeaking. Read: THR
It has been 25 years since the launch of Jackie Chan Adventures, which was notable enough for Isaac Rouse to write a retrospective at Polygon.
Nadia Khomami Nadia Khomamiabout the millennial women that turned teen romance The Summer I Turned Pretty into a hit.
Brian Cox had a wardrobe malfunction wearing a kilt on stage at a TIFF event. Read: TV Insider
Neil Druckmann has spoken about feeling overwhelmed by the workload writing so much of The Last of Us while also ramping up work on his next game. Read: Variety
Sean Astin has been elected the new president of actors’ union SAG-AFTRA. Read: THR
Jon Cryer says that he was paid a third of what co-star Charlie Sheen was making on Two and a Half Men. Which… seems more than fair actually. Read: Deadline
Smart glasses are on the rise with more companies coming on board to develop in the space. Read: UploadVR
Trailer Park
Marvel Zombies debuts Sept 24 on Disney+.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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