Things add up. Unless you clean house.
Like this.
—The John Ridley file keeps growing. Entertainment Weekly reports the Mequon native is joining forces with Marvel to create a “mysterious new series” for ABC. The magazine reports Ridley will be “reinventing an existing” superhero.
Other sites report the character is the Muslim-American superhero, “Ms. Marvel.” Marvel just announced an “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” spinoff. The much-anticipated “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” is released in theaters May 1.
Ridley’s current ABC series “American Crime,” while not a ratings blockbuster, is compelling storytelling and heads toward what looks like a Ferguson-like racial confrontation in its Thursday season finale. Ridley, who won an Oscar for the screenplay for “12 Years A Slave,” is also writing and producing the “Ben-Hur” remake.
—Speaking of “S.H.I.E.L.D.”... This week’s episode held another Wisconsin reference. This time Kyle MacLachlan, who plays the demented father of “S.H.I.E.L.D” agent Skye, casually mentions that “Home is Milwaukee. That’s where we were going to bring you up,” if they hadn’t been separated.
Earlier, the main character Agent Coulson, was revealed to be a Cheesehead. In that episode Coulson said that he was born in Manitowoc. Will there be a Wisconsin reference in “Avengers?”
—Ridley isn’t the only filmmaker with area ties having a good year. Milwaukee native George Tillman Jr. directed the recent romantic drama “The Longest Ride,” based on the Nicholas Sparks novel. The film has grossed $25 million since its release on April 10. Tillman, wrote and directed “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete,” which showed at the 2013 Milwaukee Film Festival.
—Another Milwaukee Film Festival alum, “1971,” about anti-Vietnam war protesters who stole files from an FBI office, revealing government surveillance of Americans, will be shown on the PBS series “Independent Lens” on May 18.
—Vietnam lessons redux: “Dick Cavett’s Vietnam,” directed by Fox Point native John Scheinfeld, premieres Monday on WMVT-TV (Channel 36) at 9 p.m., with repeats there and on Channels 10.1, 10.2 and 36.2 through May 3. The program features interviews conducted by Cavett on his talk show during the Vietnam war era. Scheinfeld also directed “Dick Cavett’s Watergate” and “The US vs. John Lennon.”
Read my recent interview with Scheinfeld here.
—Adjust your DVR’s. Because MPTV’s Great TV Auction starts Friday, episode four of the “Masterpiece Classic” series “Wolf Hall” on Sunday moves from Channel 10 to Channel 36. The series based on books by Hilary Mantel, stars former Milwaukeean Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell, the cautious and cunning advisor King Henry VIII.
—Diane Sawyer’s interview with Bruce Jenner, in which he comes out as transgender, can only mean one thing – the May ratings sweeps are here. During the sweeps stations and networks air high profile news and entertaining programing to gin up ratings, which are used to set advertising rates.
It will be a particularly challenging time for two stations. Since the last ratings period WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) changed ownership from Journal Broadcast Group to Scripps, and its long time anchor Mike Jacobs announced that he will retire at the end of May. It’s 10 p.m. newscast was ranked fourth during the February sweeps.
And WDJT-TV (Channel 58) will spend the sweeps without a news director.
Genie Garner, who joined the station as news director, in 2012, was fired last month.
—In honor of sweeps, take a trip in the wayback machine to the days when the Three Mikes – Jake (Jacobs), Goush (Mike Gousha) and Murph (Mike Miller) – ruled Milwaukee TV on WTMJ.
When they were all in the newsroom at the same time, “three heads would swivel in the newsroom anytime someone shouted “Mike.” They represented 100 years of broadcast experience and are the history of TV news at the local level. Jacobs is the last of them to still be on the air.
Tags: 1971, Bruce Jenner, Dick Cavett's Vietnam, George Tillman Jr., John Ridley, John Scheinfeld, Mark Rylance, Marvel, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., PBS, Sweeps, Wolf Hall Posted by