PASADENA, California — Is four and a half hours of Garry Shandling too much? Not to filmmaker Judd Apatow, who produced an upcoming HBO documentary on him.
Apatow describes Shandling as a mentor. He wrote for Shandling, produced episodes of The Larry Sanders Show and even interviewed the comic when he was a 16-year-old high school student doing a radio show on Long Island.
The documentary, presented in two parts premièring March 26 and 27, was an outgrowth of mini-documentaries that Apatow made for Shandling’s funeral. The comic died of a heart attack at age 66 on March 24, 2016.
Apatow’s film delves into a series of hand-written journals that Shandling kept for 30 years that outlined thinking about his life and career.
“I think he’s one of the most important comedy minds of all time,” Apatow said.
Journalist Ronan Farrow, who has written extensively about sexual misconduct charges against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein for the New Yorker magazine, has signed a three-year television deal with HBO.
Farrow will develop and star in a series of documentary specials focused on the abuse of power by individuals and institutions, the network says.
Farrow says he believes there’s a new generation seeking out substantive reporting that takes on powerful interests and attacks systemic unfairness.
Farrow’s Weinstein investigation was published on the heels of one by The New York Times, and ignited the current focus on badly behaving men.
The story became an embarrassment for NBC News, Farrow’s former employer, which decided his work about Weinstein wasn’t ready to air and authorized him to take it elsewhere.
Roseanne Barr says making her character a Donald Trump supporter in the revived sitcom Roseanne is true to its roots.
Barr said she always tried to have the original ABC sitcom Roseanne reflect society, and the show’s Conner family is a fictional version of the working-class people who put Trump in office, said Barr, herself a Trump supporter.
In a Q&A with TV critics, Barr and others involved in the reboot of the 1988-97 comedy said they hope depicting a loving family that disagrees on politics will set an example for a divided America.
The new Roseanne, debuting March 27, reunites Barr with John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert and other original cast members.
The Grey’s Anatomy spinoff has yet to be titled, and Chicago Fire shares the blame.
ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey said the NBC franchise drama’s name is the reason the Grey’s spinoff about firefighters won’t be called Seattle Fire.
It’s challenging to come up with a good show title, Dungey told a TV critics’ meeting Monday, noting that the Seattle-based Grey’s Anatomy wasn’t named until shortly before it debuted.
The network is sorting through options and hopes to make the pick in the next couple of weeks, she said.
The Grey’s Anatomy spinoff will debut with a two-hour episode on March 22 as part of ABC’s lineup of shows from producer Shonda Rhimes. One of them, Scandal with Kerry Washington, is wrapping its seven-season run with the finale airing April 19.
