Too Much TV: Is It Okay To Speak Ill Of The Dead?

I am not going to celebrate anyone's death. But there are plenty of reasons not to celebrate the life of Hulk Hogan

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, July 24th 2025:

PRODUCTION NOTES
Tonight's newsletter is so late that it has actually become a morning newsletter. My apologies. I have been battling a flare up of some health issues this week and it's really knocked me back. I'm hopeful things will get better this weekend, it makes it difficult to keep on a predictable schedule.

VOICES OF THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
As you likely already know, the media industry is in the middle of another cycle of seismic changes and the challenge for any person is figuring out the best way forward. Can you take the existing talents you have, add to them and find the best way forward for you?

Barbara Barna Abel describes herself as a "multi-media communications coach, creative advisor, talent & executive development expert." But what that really means is that she helps clients develop the skills and confidence they need to thrive in an industry that seems to be shifting on a daily basis.

And she certainly has the experience of having to do that herself - more than once. She began her career in the music business before shifting to television, where she helped develop and cast a string of iconic (and sometime not so iconic) shows, including Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, What Not To Wear and The RuPaul Show.

She's had a long and fascinating career in the entertainment industry and I recently had the opportunity to talk with her about some of her experiences.

Here is a brief excerpt from the interview:

Looking back on that period, what's the thing that people don't understand about what you do? I think the image people have of the casting process is what they see in movies or television. And I suspect that doesn't reflect the way it is in reality.

Sometimes it can be close. I remember watching La La Land and seeing Emma Stone's character audition and thinking "Oh, that look familiar." But there are also big differences between the scripted and the unscripted world and how this works. One of the most important distinctions is to understand that in the unscripted world, casting is the development process because you start as the producer or whoever came in with the idea for the show.

It exists on paper. And you probably have created one of the most beautiful, amazing decks of all time. In fact, as a fun little tangent to say that I did the original Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

You can have the greatest visual deck that really explains what the show would be. You've got a clear idea, you've got it written down. You've got the template to create that vision, but you're bringing real people into the process.

So who those people are, they start to shape what the show will become. And sometimes, and that's the best case scenario, you find these amazing personalities like Carson Kressley and Ted Allen. And they start to define the direction of the show. Things start to take off and ideas you were attached to start to fall away. Because maybe nobody has that exact skill, but suddenly you discover they can and do something else. And they bring other things to life.

When I did Man vs. Food, the original focus was really on a bona fide competitive eater. And then Adam (Richman) comes in and he's somebody who so loved food discovery. He would keep a journal about what he ate, not in a calorie way like Bridget Jones. But he would write "Oh my God, I had the most amazing Jamaican meat pie at this little place in Brooklyn today."

It was that passion. So suddenly the show became this sort of really warm human thing, because he's an every guy, not a professional competitive eater. The show became something different than it would have started with on paper.

I have a couple more interviews along these lines coming up. But if you are someone working in any aspect of the entertainment business and are interested in talking about what you do, please reach out at rick@allyourscreens.com.

THE ORIGIN STORY OF THE PARAMOUNT PSA DEAL
There have been conflicting stories in the media about whether the Paramount Global settlement with Donald Trump included as much as $20 million in public service announcements for issues the president deems important. Paramount executives had claimed those PSAs were not part of the deal, but Trump has repeatedly disagreed. Oliver Darcy's Status has a look at what may or may not be part of the deal and the ways in which the details have been spun publicly:

It wasn’t until after the agreement was announced that the notion of a quiet side deal offering free advertising resurfaced: The New York Post’s Charlie Gasparino reported that Trump had struck a separate PSA arrangement with Ellison, a revelation that blindsided Paramount’s leadership. The company quickly denied that any PSAs were part of the settlement it negotiated and noted the deal was finalized under the supervision of a mediator. Skydance, for its part, has remained silent—even as Trump publicly boasted that he expects upwards of $20 million worth of advertising.

While the precise details still haven't been confirmed by either side, what is increasingly clear is that Skydance head David Ellison isn't just willing to work with the Trump Administration, he is inclined to do so because it aligns with some of his personal political beliefs.

IS IT OKAY TO SPEAK ILL OF THE DEAD?
Hulk Hogan died Thursday of a cardiac arrest in Clearwater, Florida at the age of 71. And while I don't wish anyone ill, I am also not going to pretend that the man born Terry Gene Bollea wasn't a terrible person much of the time.

From a pop culture standpoint, there was no one bigger than Hulk Hogan in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the face of professional wrestling and so popular he appeared in everything from movies (playing variations of his wrestling character) to the reality series Hogan Knows Best. He sold an insane amount of Hogan-themed merchandise and can best be described as "The Rock times ten."

But he was also someone who was frequently terrible to friends, co-workers and random people in his life. Many people know that he was the front man for a Peter Thiel-fronted lawsuit that forced the closure of the web site Gawker after it posted a tape of him having sex with his wife's best friend. The tape also revealed that the Hulkster was an unabashed racist:

“If she was going to fuck some n****r, I’d rather have her marry an eight-foot-tall n****r worth a hundred million dollars! Like a basketball player! … Fucking n****r.”

And then there was that time last year when an over-served Hogan threatened to body slam Kamala Harris:

“Want me to body-slam Kamala Harris?” a noticeably drunk Hogan asked the crowd at an Ohio event promoting his new beer. “Want me to drop the weight on Kamala?”

Threatening the sitting vice president with violence wasn’t enough for the WWE star as he then moved to racist comments. “Is Kamala a chameleon? Is she Indian?” he asked.

Hogan also sabotaged efforts by wrestlers to form a union in 1986, at the height of his popularity:

Turns out that he ratted out Minnesota's future (and now former) governor, Jesse Ventura, to their boss Vince McMahon back in 1986, when Ventura was leading efforts to unionize wrestlers. Ventura learned of the Hulk's betrayal a decade later as he took McMahon's World Wrestling Federation to court over royalties.

"It was like someone punched me in the face," Ventura told "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in a 2016 podcast interview. "This was my friend. And I thought, 'Hogan betrayed me? Hogan called Vince and ratted me?'...Hogan made more money than all of us combined, including Andre [the Giant]. So naturally, he didn't want a union."

All of which might be part of the reason why wrestlers such as the otherwise amiable Andre The Giant seemed to loathe him:

I would never celebrate someone's death. But for all of his cultural accomplishments, I don't much feel like celebrating the life of Hulk Hogan.

ODDS AND SODS
* People who argue that settling a serious sexual harassment case will get you "cancelled" in Hollywood aren't following the career of Michael Weatherly.

* Speaking of talk shows, you might not realize that QVC+ & HSN+ are not only streaming platforms for shopping, but they also produce original programming. Some of it is shopping-centric shows, but there are also some really interesting experiments in what almost looks like traditional television. Busy This Week is a weekly talk show starring Busy Phillips and this week's guest for the hour is David Letterman. And it's quite an entertaining episode.

* E! News has been cancelled after 32 years on air.

* Season two of Percy Jackson And The Olympians will premiere December 10th on Disney+.

* Peacock announced that it has renewed Days Of Our Lives for its 62nd and 63rd seasons.

* Prime Video has renewed The Legend of Vox Machina for a fifth and final season, well ahead of the Season four premiere.

* Democratic FCC commissioner Anna Gomez issued an angry statement following the final approval of the Paramount/Skydance merger: "The Paramount payout and this reckless approval have emboldened those who believe the government can—and should—abuse its power to extract financial and ideological concessions, demand favored treatment, and secure positive media coverage. It is a dark chapter in a long and growing record of abuse that threatens press freedom in this country."

* Project C has released its list of Top 50 Creator-Model Journalists. There are a lot of people on the list that should be on your radar. And with any luck, I'll make the cut next year.

* Resident Alien has been canceled by USA Network ahead of its season four finale.

* The Netflix documentary Stolen: Heist Of The Century premieres Friday, August 8th on Netflix. Here is the official logline: "On the morning of 17 February 2003, detectives from Antwerp’s infamous ‘Diamond Squad’ were called to investigate the brazen night-time robbery of an allegedly impregnable vault in the middle of the City of Diamonds. It is estimated that between 100 million and half a billion dollars’ worth of diamonds were stolen – and have never been found. An ingenious gang of master jewel thieves from Italy, known as ‘The School of Turin’ were behind the audacious heist – now, after more than 20 years, the world will finally learn how they pulled it off."

* The 78th annual DGA Awards will take place Saturday, February 7th, at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

* Another version of the classic War Of The Worlds - this one starring Ice Cube and Eva Longoria - will premiere Thursday, July 30th on Prime Video.

WHAT'S NEW TOMORROW (AND THE NEXT DAY)

FRIDAY, JULY 25TH:
* Big Brother: Unlocked Series Premiere (CBS)
* Billy Joel: And So It Goes Finale (HBO)
* Border Security: Australia's Front Line Season Sixteen Premiere (NatGeo)
* Bull Shark Showdown (Discovery)
* Death Of A Unicorn (Max)
* Florida's Death Beach (Discovery)
* Great White Reign Of Terror (Discovery)
* Happy Gilmore 2 (Netflix)
* Mama June: From Not To Hot Season Seven Finale (WE tv)
* Mandala Murders Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Monster Island (Orang Ikan) (Shudder)
* Secrets Of An Influencer (LMN)
* Solo Traveling With Tracee Ellis Ross Series Premiere (The Roku Channel)
* The Phoenician Scheme (Peacock)
* The Winning Try Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Trigger (Netflix)

SATURDAY, JULY 26TH:
* Attack Of The Devil Shark (Discovery)
* Battle For Shark Mountain (Discovery)
* Before Your Father Finds Us (Lifetime)

SEE YOU ON FRIDAY!