Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, November 14th, 2024

Introducing "Carl The Collector"

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, November 14th, 2024:

PRODUCTION NOTES
My apologies for the lateness and brevity of tonight's newsletter. I'm battling a bit of a cold and while it's not too bad overall, I mostly want to just sleep. Which is not the optimal situation when trying to write a newsletter. Luckily, the weekend is on the way.

Speaking of the weekend, in two weeks I'll be in L.A. for the weekend for the L.A. Press Club National A&E Journalist Awards banquet on Sunday, December 1st. I'm only in town two days, but I do still have a bit of time free so reach out if you'd like to have coffee or a drink. I'd like to meet as many of you as I can in the short window.

INTRODUCING CARL THE COLLECTOR
PBS Kids is premiering a new animated series this week and it's a real treasure. Created by New York Times bestselling illustrator and author Zachariah OHora (My Cousin Momo), Carl The Collector is the first PBS Kids show to feature an Autistic main character.

Here is how the network describes the show:

"Carl is a warm-hearted autistic raccoon who enjoys collecting things and loves his friends and family in Fuzzytown. In each episode, Carl and his friends work and play together, and in the process, find out what makes each of them who they are. Carl pays extraordinarily close attention to detail and comes up with unique ideas that others might not consider. These traits have helped him amass his extensive collections—from autographs and bottle caps to fake mustaches, pet rocks, sweaters, and virtually everything in between—which can come in handy for solving problems around the neighborhood."

I had the opportunity to speak with executive producer Zachariah OHora and writer Ava Rigelhaupt (who is Autistic) about the show and here is a sample of the conversation:

I wanted to ask you about the Plushie Collection episode, which is one of the first episodes. It feels very real to me in the way Carl responds to the challenge of having to cull through his collection. It takes a nicely nuanced approach to showing how his mind works, how he becomes overwhelmed and the way his family and friends help him through what turns out to be a very difficult process.

Zachariah: It was one of the first stories she (Ava) brought to us, and it wasn't something that we would have come up with. It came from her own personal background, her personal story. And that's another part of this, having authentic representation, obviously on screen, but also behind the screen. And this episode really brings that home. I love that episode, it's great.

Ava: You talked about seeing authentic Autistic representation and also finding a way to make it approachable to all families and kids. Writers sometimes say that specificity breeds universality, and so being really specific makes it more authentic, makes it real, makes it feel more like life.

So in this episode, you're bring introduced to an Autistic perspective you've never been introduced to before. But of course, you also see friends having disagreements on what they want to do today, how they are going to play and that's something that all kids - whether they're autistic or not - can relate to in a way. They can find details of themselves in the show and hopefully, of course, Autistic kids find details of themselves in the show as well.

As for the story itself, it came from when I was a bit older than Carl, when I was about high school age. I still had a lot of stuffed animals and we were moving from Ohio to Rhode Island. I had so many stuffed animals and my mom gave me a big box, and she said "you can keep all the stuffed animals you can fit into the box." Because while I had grown up in a big house, now we were moving into a smaller apartment, so we probably won't have that much room. We probably won't be able to play with all of them.

It was really hard, because especially for autistic people, we get really attached to our things and our toys. And so I had to go through this process, and I think I saw my mom going through this as well for a couple of other things. And she helped me break down, as you said, this overarching problem that really seemed daunting, into smaller bits and pieces. Which often helps kids and Autistic kids understand how to tackle a situation. 

And similar to Carl, I realized that I didn't play with all of them. And while you still kind of want the memory, you might not need the physical item. And this applied to other stuff. School projects, trifle boards, things that you were proud of, but you still don't need. Because you're not going to put them on the bus to go to your new apartment. So we took pictures, because you don't need the physical thing. But you want to remember that time you made a shoe craft box about an anteater's habitat and it looked pretty cool.

And so coming from that came a lived experience of what it's like to give things away, to slim down and to need to make those decisions. But then also sometimes feeling better about it, feeling more relief that you gave some of the stuff away, but still having some pictures of things. And that's how the episode came about.

ODDS AND SODS
* If you are a fan of Homicide: Life On The Street, you should be reading Kyle Secor's Substack about his experiences on the show. Dan Barrett has a long interview with Secor on his Always Be Watching Substack and it's full of nuggets you might not have heard before. And speaking of the show, I'll remind you of one of my favorite related stories, that time John Wells was sued by Warner Brothers for allegedly plagiarizing the book the show was based on to create his own detective series.

* The talent competition series Second Chance Stage premieres Thursday, November 28th. The streamer says the series "offers contestants who have pushed their dreams aside for years, even decades, a second chance at their big break. With performances ranging  from dancing to singing to stand-up comedy and more, one winner will receive a $100,000 cash  prize in front of an audience full of talent scouts, agents and producers looking for the next big star. Judges include country music superstar Martina McBride, acclaimed stage and screen actor Taye Diggs and Saturday Night Live cast member, comedian and actress Heidi Gardner with sports broadcaster and New York Times bestselling author Emmanuel Acho tapped to host." If you're interested, here is the first look video.

* Season two of Peacock's Deal Or No Deal Island will premiere with a two-hour episode on Tuesday, January 7th.

* Season four of Mythic Quest will premiere January 29th on Apple TV+. The streamer will also premiere a four-episode companion series entitled Side Quest, which "explores the lives of employees, players, and fans who are impacted by the game in an anthology format."

* And in the category of "I'd rather claw my eyes out with a rusty knife than watch this," The Food Network has announced that the latest edition of Food Network's Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition premieres on January 5th, 2025. It will feature Tiffany Pollard, Sebastian Bach, Cheryl Burke, Adam Rippon, Trinity the Tuck, Frankie Grande, Bartise Bowden, Corinne Olympios and Rachel Reilly.

* The new Sterling K. Brown series Paradise, premieres January 28th on Hulu. Here is the first look video.

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH:
A Reason For The Season (Hallmark Movie Channel)
Beyond Goodbye (Netflix)
Carl The Collector Series Premiere (PBS)
Cross Series Premiere (Prime Video)
Decoding Beauty (Curiosity Stream)
Emilia Perez (Netflix)
Harry Potter: Wizards Of Baking Series Premiere (Food)
Holidazed Series Premiere (Hallmark+)
Say Anything Series Premiere (Hulu)
Sherwood (Britbox)
Style Me For Christmas (BET+)
The Day Of The Jackal Series Premiere (Peacock)
The Dog House UK S5 Christmas Special (Max)
The Lost Children (Netflix)
The Mother Of Penguins Series Premiere (Netflix)
The Woman With My Face (LMN)
Unwrapping Christmas: Mia's Prince (Hallmark+)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH, 2024:
An Almost Christmas Story (Disney+)
Back In Action (Netflix)
Christmas With The Singhs (Hallmark)
Cobra Kai Season Five B Premiere (Netflix)
Cold Case Files Season Premiere (A&E)
It's All Country Series Premiere (Hulu)
Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson (Netflix)
Killer Cases Season Premiere (A&E)
La Maison Season Finale (Apple TV+)
Silo Season Two Premiere (Apple TV+) 
The Creep Tapes Series Premiere (Shudder)
The Last Woodsmen Series Premiere (Discovery)
The Night Before Christmas In Wonderland (Hulu/Prime Video)
The UnBelievable With Dan Aykroyd Season Premiere (History)
Three Women Season Finale (Starz)

SEE YOU ON FRIDAY!