Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, February 17th, 2025

A bit of backstory about the upcoming CW series "Good Cop/Bad Cop"

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, February 17th, 2025:

A BIT OF BACKSTORY ABOUT THE UPCOMING SERIES 'GOOD COP/BAD COP'
While the shows don't get much attention from the mainstream entertainment press, The CW is doing a nice job of putting together some fun, familiar, family-friendly procedurals.

The newest series is Good Cop/Bad Cop, which premieres on Wednesday. And just based on the logline, you have a pretty solid idea of what to expect:

Good Cop/Bad Cop is a one-hour procedural dramedy centered around Lou (Leighton Meester, “Gossip Girl”) and Henry (Luke Cook, “Katy Keene,” “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”), an odd couple sister and brother detective team in a small Pacific Northwest police force. They must contend with colorful residents, a serious lack of resources, and their very complicated dynamic with each other and with their police chief, Big Hank (Clancy Brown, “Dexter: New Blood,” “Billions”) — who happens to be their father.

The screeners I've seen of the show are a lot of fun and I'll have a full review tomorrow. But I wanted to pass along part of a conversation I had last November with Jeff Wachtel, who is probably best known in the industry for his long and successful run as the head of the USA Network during its so-called "blue sky" programming era. He left that role in 2020 after allegations of "behavioral issues" and went on two years later to launch Future Shack Entertainment, a new television production company focused on developing and co-financing shows for global audiences.

When I spoke with him, it was primarily to talk about Future Shack's first show on the market, Murder In A Small Town, which was airing on Fox (and has subsequently been picked up for a second season). But the production company was also in the midst of launching Good Cop/Bad Cop and we talked a bit about the show:

I wanted to talk a bit about Good Cop/Bad Cop, because it is a really good example of the complications that can come when you're putting together a global production.

It was an interesting experience because we shot Good Cop/Bad Cop in Australia and most shows there don't use a showrunner. But we had John Quaintance, who is a traditional showrunner, although he had mostly done comedies.

This was stepping into the drama world, and he proved to be a great leader, and the single vision we needed, and he kind of ran the operation. But in Australia, they were not so used to that, because the production company is basically the showrunner in Australia. And when John came there, they said, "Okay, so thank you, but here's what we're gonna do."

And John had to push back and say "No, you're not." So it was a little bit of rebalancing.

Good Cop/Bad Cop has an interesting financing model. You essentially have four network partners - The CW, The Roku Channel (which has a first-look deal with Future Shack), as well as Stan in Australia and ITV in the UK. That is a lot of moving parts.

It's a little more, I'll say, labor intensive, with four sets of notes and four partners, each of whom have very different needs and approaches. Everybody's played really nicely, though. Everybody's aware that it's not like a traditional US network where one person's paying 70 or 80% of the cost, or a streamer where they're paying 100% of the cost.

So everybody has to have reasonable expectations. We treat each network as if they were THE network. Different people weigh in more or less heavily than others.

In this case, I'd say the CW, which is the larger of the two US networks, has had the primary position in directing creative. ITV, Stan, Roku are all involved with investments and have been very involved and give us hope. They're not shy about their notes.

But I'd say, so far, the CW has had the primary position.

I write a lot about global TV production. And this seems to be a more common business model, this splitting it across three or four different partners in different parts of the world and financing it that way. But it has to be really complicated, just the logistics of it. Because you're have to, as you just said, keep all four or five partners happy, at least happy enough that they're going to stay on board. But they all have different markets, different things that they care about. And at the end of the day, I suspect you're the one that has to make the decision.

I certainly am the one who gets the blame. But it's a balancing act. You try to introduce everybody, keep really strong lines of communication open, keep everybody's expectations reasonable. Their investment is very reasonable.

So you have to make sure the expectations are in line with that. And I do find that almost everybody wants the same thing. Of course, a lot of people are worried about their careers or not making a mistake.

But for the most part, people just want it to be good. So if you can keep the disagreements around, well, I think this is good, and you think this other way is good, and we just have to bang it out and may the best idea win. And sometimes it takes time to get there. But then you're basically in good shape.

Good Cop/Bad Cop premieres Wednesday on The CW.

AND WHEN I SAID THAT IT TAKES A LOT TO GET TOSSED OUT OF THE SNL ECOSPHERE, THIS IS WHAT I MEANT
If you are not familiar with the name Horatio Sanz, the Late Nighter has a good recap of his past history with the show:

It was four years ago that Sanz was accused of assaulting an underage fan during his time on the show. Though Sanz and NBC denied the allegations, the suit was settled after his accuser sought to add Jimmy Fallon, Lorne Michaels, and Tracy Morgan as defendants, arguing that they had enabled Sanz’s misconduct.

The accuser later shared her story on ABC’s Nightline, including photos and texts that she said corroborated her allegations.

But despite that, Sanz walked the red carpet at the SNL 50 event and was even interviewed by Variety:

Asked in a red carpet interview with Variety to name the greatest life lesson he learned during his time at SNL, Sanz responded, “Respect people who are ahead of you in years. Listen to them. I think when you’re twenty years old, you have a lot of attitude about, like, get out of here, I know I’m doing. And I wish I would have listened a little more to people who were, you know, a little older and had some sage advice.

That's true. I can certainly think of some advice I'd wish you'd taken during your time on the show.

SEE IF YOU CAN MAKE IT THROUGH THIS STORY WITH TEARING UP
Not that we need more stories to make us cry, but this ESPN piece about the unlikely friendship that developed a young girl with cancer and members of the UConn women's basketball women team will gut you. But it's also a much-needed reminder that by opening our hearts, we can have an impact on others no matter how tough the situation might be:

The rabbi quoted Abby, who months earlier had stood on the same pulpit at her bat mitzvah and taught a lesson from the Bible about "the importance of finding strength when we are challenged." Ella and Olivia, with incredible grace, spoke of Abby's humor and her love of breakfast, and shared a story from when they were little and Ella cut Abby's hair. (It wasn't great.) Gwen talked about Cooper, who always seemed to know when Abby was struggling and lay protectively at her feet until just days before she died. Dan referenced one of Abby's favorite songs from "Rent" -- the one that suggests that while most people think of lives in terms of days or months or years, the greater quantity -- the best quantity -- might be to measure the love.

When it was their turn, the UConn seniors stood together at the lectern. Ducharme spoke of Abby's beloved Jayson Tatum sneakers and the crafts they made and the kisses they'd blow each other before games. "I never thought this sweet little girl with such an infectious smile would change my life in the way that she did," she said.

Bueckers mentioned the Legos and the dinners and the card trick -- Abby never did share with anyone how she did it. "From the first day we met, we all knew the bond was going to be something special," Bueckers said.

She looked out at the audience.

"Abby lives within all of us."

This piece is so well written. Holy cow.

ODDS AND SODS
* Oliver Darcy's Status newsletter is reporting tonight that The Wrap will announce four big hires on Tuesday: former media critic/columnist for CNN & Variety Brian Lowry as media editor; Tom Lowry as senior vice president of editorial strategy; Jen Laski as director of photography and video; and Graham Starr as business editor.

* I wrote about Lorne Michaels a bit in Friday's newsletter, but I expanded it for a piece I posted over the weekend on AllYourScreens.com. And among other things, it gave me the opportunity to call someone a "tool" in a headline.

* Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will begin streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S. and Canada on February 18th.

* Daytime syndicated talk show Tamron Hall has been renewed for a seventh season by ABC-owned TV stations and Hearst Television.

* I am a little late on this one, but Harper's Bazaar has a good piece on why it's been so hard to create a black Sex And The City.

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17TH:
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story (Britbox)
A Remarkable Place To Die Series Premiere (Acorn TV)
American Murder: Gabby Petito (Netflix)
Best Interests (Acorn TV)
Gabby's Dollhouse Season Premiere (Netflix)
On TV: A Black History Month Special (CBS)
Thomas Jefferson (History)
We Beat The Dream Team (HBO)
Who Is Luigi Mangione? (Investigation Discovery)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18TH:
Court Of Gold (Netflix)
Exterior Nights (MHz Choice)
George Lopez: Muy Católico (Prime Video)
Offline Love Series Premiere (Netflix)
Renovation Aloha Season Two Premiere (HGTV)
Rosebud Baker: The Mother Lode (Netflix)
The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground Of A Serial Killer (Hulu)
Tiny House Nation: Memory Lane Series Premiere (fyi)

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY!