Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, August 20th, 2020
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, August 20th, 2020. I'm writing this from the Twin Cities suburbs, where AllYourScreens HQ is powered by coffee and pizza rolls.
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, August 20th, 2020. I'm writing this from the Twin Cities suburbs, where AllYourScreens HQ is powered by coffee and pizza rolls.
IT'S TIME FOR SOME CBS EXECUTIVES TO LOSE THEIR JOBS
The thing about being an executive at any large public company is that you are extremely well compensated for your work. And in exchange, you primarily have just a couple of things you absolutely have to get done correctly. You need to plan and properly execute a successful business plan and hopefully make money while doing it. But you're ultimately also responsible for the actions of your subordinates. Company culture flows from the top down and when things start to go sideways, it falls on those at the top to make corrections and take responsibility. Yes, a top executive can't possibly know every detail of what is going on inside the company. But when variations of the same problem keeps happening at the same company, then it's clear that executives have forgotten their primary duty to shareholders and the company at large. Making money is important. But no company can continue to be successful if it has sickness eating away at its corporate soul from within.
CBS had another piece of bad news surface today: five of the seven writers on the hit rookie series All Rise have left the series following a string of disagreements with showrunner Greg Spottiswood over issues of how minorities were depicted on the show:
Ms. Edwards and Mr. Nayar said the problems had been apparent as early as the second episode, which included a story line centered on the character Emily Lopez, a public defender who had recently left her physically abusive husband.
As the character, played by the actress Jessica Camacho, enters the courthouse, she is having a conversation with Sara Castillo, a court reporter played by Lindsay Mendez, about how hard it is to live alone. In the original script, Ms. Mendez’s character tells Ms. Camacho’s character that “a one-night stand” would solve her problem. Some writers said the dialogue, while meant to be funny, was an insensitive response to a character grappling with the consequences of domestic abuse.
As the sequence progresses, the two women get on an elevator. A naked white man joins them, and they continue their conversation as if nothing odd is going on. Mr. Nayar and Ms. Edwards said they had sent emails to Mr. Spottiswood objecting to the scene after the majority of the show’s writers found it objectionable.
In isolation, it might be possible to see this story as the result of a unique battle between a showrunner and his staff. It's not unheard of for things to escalate throughout the season, although it is extremely rare for the situation to result in most of the show's writing staff exiting the series.
But this is not the first time a CBS showrunner or series has been involved in a controversial personnel situation.
Last month, CBS Television Studios fired Peter Lenkov, the show runner of Magnum P. I., MacGyver and Hawaii 5-0. A CBS investigation concluded that he had favored male employees and spoken inappropriately to women and people of color. The firing came after several years of complaints and multiple interventions by the CBS HR department.
In December 2018, news broke that CBS had paid actress Eliza Dushku a whopping $9.5 million following allegations that series lead Michael Weatherly sexually harassed her numerous times on the set of his series Bull.:
The Bring It On actress accused her Bull costar of repeatedly making lewd comments about her appearance and saying he wanted to have a threesome with her. In one particularly disturbing incident, Dushku alleges that she incorrectly delivered a line, prompting Weatherly to shout at her, "I will take you over my knee and spank you like a little girl." She says the incident was captured on tape. According to Dushku, Weatherly campaigned for her to be fired (he denies this) and trivialized her complaint as resulting from a “humor deficit."
In June 2019, former NCIS co-star Pauley Perrette said she had left the long-running series the previous year, reportedly because of harassment from series star Mark Harmon:
A year earlier, Perrette alluded on Twitter to "multiple physical assaults” on the CBS drama’s set, but declined to go into any detail. "I refused to go low, that’s why I’ve never told publicly what happened," she wrote then. "I’m trying to do the right thing, but maybe silence isn’t the right thing about crime."
She also claimed that a "very rich, very powerful publicity 'machine'" was "keeping [her] silent," and yet she cryptically maintained: "He did it."
Those comments arrived just days after Perrette’s NCIS swan song aired on CBS. In the May 2018 episode, her character, Abby, committed herself to following in fallen colleague Clayton Reeves’ footsteps by shepherding a charity for homeless women. Abby shared heartfelt, in-person farewells with everyone on the team… except for Harmon’s Gibbs, with whom she instead exchanged a conspicuously edited ASL good-bye across his front lawn.
And the broken culture at CBS has also included parts of the company's executive offices, including when the long-running head of CBS, Les Moonves, was fired after multiple accusations of sexual harassment were reported:
In a draft report of the investigation, which was reviewed by The Times, the lawyers wrote that Mr. Moonves had tried to cover up that he was looking to give a job to an actress who had made an accusation against him, that he had “received oral sex from at least 4 CBS employees under circumstances that sound transactional” and that he had destroyed evidence and misled investigators.
The issue also apparently extends into some of the CBS owned=and-operated local television stations. Last December, Los Angeles Times reporter Meg James reported on widespread allegations at misconduct at the station level.
More than two dozen current and former employees of KCBS and KCAL (both in Los Angeles) described a toxic environment where, they said, employees encountered age discrimination, misogyny, and sexual harassment — and retaliation if they complained, the report stated.
The Times reported that there were discrimination complaints at CBS-owned stations in Chicago, Dallas and Miami, too. Complaints range from age discrimination to inappropriate comments and unwanted touching.
There is plenty of blame to go around - from ineffective network and studio HR departments to investors willing to put up with a broken corporate culture as long as the revenue keeps streaming in. But at some point, the aggregate weight of the allegations is impossible to ignore. It's clear that the situation has not been resolved and continues to be an ongoing issue at CBS. We've reached the point where executives need to lose their jobs. Not because they have engaged in harassment like Les Moonves. But because they have failed in their primary duties as good stewards of the company and its employees.
It's not just the multiple problems with harassment that have plagued the network. It's also the larger issue of making staffing decisions that would make it less likely for problems to surface later in the process. And to be more pro-active as problems occur and not rely on HR to "solve" the problem.
For context on this, read this recent Twitter thread from Rachel Palmer, who briefly worked on All Rise. Here is one part of it - you should read the entire thing - and reading this, it's easy to see how an earlier and clearer positive intervention by the network might have helped keep things from escalating:
"It troubles me that he, a middle aged white guy from Canada, was able to convince WB and CBS that he was the only one who could tell this Black woman from Los Angeles' story.
I don't know why WB and CBS have stood by him. Literally every single person from the writers office had to complain to HR about him. He still has his job. Everyone else had to leave theirs."
And in the end, that is why some CBS executives should lose their job. Because they have allowed a corporate culture to continue in a way that not only degrades its employees, but I would argue also leads to programs that are much less than what they could be.
Here is a rundown of the new television programs premiering today:
1) Beth Stelling: Girl Daddy (HBO Max)
Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco presents Beth Stelling in an artfully hilarious hour about family, society and the exes who have shaped her. Thirteen years into her career as a stand-up, Stelling has been called a “female comic” so many times that if she ever has kids they might as well call her “girl daddy.” Stelling responds to her co-workers' lazy, fear-driven #MeToo material by guiding her audience through the humorous side of tough conversations around consent, chauvinism and women’s bodily autonomy. Is it MY abortion? Or OUR abortion? Let your new Beth friend explain in her first hour-long stand-up special.
2) Biohackers (Netflix)
Mia goes to medical school to get close to a professor she suspects had a hand in her past family tragedy and gets tangled in the world of biohacking.
3) Great Pretender (Netflix)
Supposedly Japan's greatest swindler, Makoto Edamura gets more than he bargained for when he tries to con Laurent Thierry, a real world-class crook.
4) HA Comedy Festival: The Art Of Comedy (HBO Max)
Hosted by viral Latinx comedian and actress Anjelah Johnson and shot at the iconic Empire Theater in San Antonio, TX, the HA Comedy Festival: The Art of Comedy is a one-hour multi-act stand-up special that showcases "the best of the fest". The HA Comedy Festival brought together a line-up of amazing Latinx talent for several days of endless laughter.
5) James Veitch: Straight To VHS (HBO Max)
James Veitch is really hoping this special sort of pushes him into the big time so he doesn’t have to write his own blurbs anymore. This comedy special (by James Veitch) is something that, tbh, he can barely remember doing. He remembers that the morning of it he accidentally took double the dosage of his antidepressants and, in a blind panic, called poison control from his hotel room who told him he’d “be ok” which was good but also something of an anti-climax. Anyway it contains loads of strong material and will probs change lives. Will that do?
6) John Was Trying To Contact Aliens (Netflix)
A rural electronics whiz broadcasts radio signals into the stars and monitors for signs of alien civilizations while enduring a lonely personal life.
7) Random Acts of Violence (Shudder)
Comic book creator Todd, his wife, assistant and best friend all embark upon a road trip from Toronto to New York Comic Con, and bad things start to happen: people start getting killed. Is a crazed fan using Todd’s "Slasherman" comic as inspiration for his stylized slaughter?
8) Rose Matafeo: Horndog (HBO Max)
Rose Matafeo has kissed nearly 10 men in her life, AKA she's a total horndog. But what is horniness? Is it that intangible essence of excitement and adventure that has inspired humankind since the dawn of time? An understanding of the overwhelming power of love as the key to true personal flourishing? Or is it simply wanting to bone everyone, all the time
9) Singletown Series Premiere (HBO Max)
Singletown begins with a unique ending as five couples press pause on their relationships and spend one incredible summer living their best single lives in the city. The newly separated couples and their four new flatmates move into two luxury Singletown apartments, which, to their surprise, are located in the same building and come with a celebrity mentor. Supported by their mentor’s matchmaking skills, the singletons embark on an indulgent summer full of money-can’t-buy exclusive dates, out of this world parties and unforgettable experiences. At the end of each week, the couples meet to take part in the Love Locket ceremony. Will they choose to reunite and leave the show as a couple or will one, or both of them, choose to stay single and remain in Singletown?
TOO MUCH TV REALLY IS A THING
This newsletter is called "Too Much TV" because....well, it's hard to keep track of all the new television premiering everyday. To help you prioritize your viewing, click here to see our list of more than 400 upcoming television premieres, movies and finales. You'll find listings from more than 70 networks, as well as streaming services and web shows.
I'll be back with another one tomorrow. If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.