Image Credit: Richard Cartwright/ABC
Last night’s wild season 2 finale of Scandal featured a number of shocking revelations and a big moment for our girl Quinn. We caught up with Scandal creator and showrunner Shonda Rhimes after an Academy of Television Arts and Sciences cast reading of the finale to ask her a few questions. Be warned, though, if you haven’t seen the season finale of Scandal, there are only spoilers below.
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Maybe Olivia Pope needs to do some damage control for ABC, which brought back only two of the 10 shows it premiered last season. At the network’s upfront presentation on Tuesday, Kerry Washington appeared in a pre-taped clip as her character from Scandal, and offered advice to Anne Sweeney, the president of Disney/ABC Television Group, alongside Jimmy Kimmel. Discussing the problem of Dancing With the Stars, which took a ratings dip this season, Kimmel quipped, “For one thing, they’re not really stars.” There aren’t a ton of stars in ABC’s new lineup, either — but there are a whole lot of new shows. So if you can’t find something to watch between the comic-book blockbuster Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the soapy infidelity thriller Betrayal, and almost a dozen other projects, don’t go crying to Olivia. She’s already preparing to slam down the phone and tell you, “It’s handled!”
MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
Genius biochemists, martial arts experts, and regular mortal nerds, prepare to program your DVRs, because the geek pedigree here is so strong, you’d need extra-thick coke-bottle glasses to read it. Executive producer Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Marvel’s The Avengers) has tapped Clark Gregg to reprise his feature film role as Agent Phil Coulson, the leader of an exclusive team of scary men in dark suits known as S.H.I.E.L.D. who investigate unexplained mysteries around the world. Other things to look forward to? Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) dislocating some kneecaps. Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) flying adorable little sci-fi miniplanes. Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) constantly marveling at some scientific creation or another. (“It’s not of this Earth!”) Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) perfecting his “I’m a very handsome man, and I don’t have time for this nonsense” smirk. And you, super-excited Marvel fan, losing your mind just a little.
The trailers for ABC’s new shows have arrived!
To see them all, scroll down. And to see ABC’s new fall schedule, click here. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Jack Rowand/ABC
[Obvious Note: Spoilers for Once Upon a Time's second season finale -- "And Straight On Till Morning" -- follow!]
If you clicked on this link, I’m betting you don’t need prodding to watch the promo that’s below. And you probably don’t need any further explanation, either. So: The first trailer for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC is here: READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Katie Yu/ABC
Of all the characters introduced or highlighted for the first time during Once Upon a Time‘s second season — including Captain Hook, Mulan, Princess Aurora, Lancelot, and even Dr. Victor Frankenstein — none is as pivotal to the show’s master plot as Neal Cassady, a.k.a. Rumpelstiltskin’s prodigal son Baelfire. Rumpel engineered the dark curse that created the town of Storybrooke purely so that he could find his long-lost child, meaning that Once itself wouldn’t exist if not for Bae. He spent a significant amount of time in Never Land, giving Once‘s writers an opportunity to introduce an entirely new world in season 2 (and beyond). And coincidentally, Bae also had an intense relationship with Emma Swan, daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming — one that resulted in the birth of Henry Mills, a.k.a. the fulcrum of the series (for better or worse).
As of now, Bae’s fate is uncertain: when last we saw the guy, he was suffering from a mortal bullet wound and falling through a portal to an unknown other land. But though Bae’s in no position to speak for himself, the actor who portrays him — Michael Raymond-James, late of True Blood and FX’s gone-too-soon Terriers — was happy to chat with EW before Once‘s finale this Sunday, May 12. Read on for more about Bae’s journey — as well as whether Raymond-James believes that his character and Jennifer Morrison’s Emma are meant to be.
First things first: Are we going to see Bae again before the end of the season?
I don’t know how to answer that! Are you asking, do I die?
Image Credit: Richard Catwright/ABC
Happy Endings isn’t dead yet. But ABC might as well have dipped it in antelope blood, rolled it around in some truffle salt, and left it in a cage with some very hungry tigers, because tonight, the network will air the season finale — and it might also be the final episode of the show. And that’s sad, because a great sitcom like this one shouldn’t have to endure the indignities that this one has suffered, having already been yanked from the schedule for all of February and much of March, replaced by Celebrity Wife Swap (starring Coolio and Kate Gosselin!) in its old Tuesday slot, and finally exiled to Friday night, where its final 10 episodes were marched off the plank two by two.
By the time ABC launched an ad campaign, begging fans to “save” the show, some fans started complaining that the only thing Happy Endings needed to be saved from was ABC. Two of the show’s stars, Casey Wilson and Adam Pally, even made their own S.O.S. plea last month, though it looked like someone might’ve held a gun to a puppy’s head before they agreed to record it. Pally did not take off this sunglasses the whole time. “We did not realize that our show needed saving,” he said, his voice heavy with irony. “But, apparently, we need your help to keep it on the air.” The worst part of all? Coolio says his Celebrity Wife Swap relationship was a sham! Say it ain’t so! READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Donna Binder
How To Survive A Plague may not have walked away with an Academy Award on Sunday, but the story could have a longer life yet. Thursday, ABC Studios announced that they had optioned the rights to the David France documentary about a group of HIV-positive activists fighting for their lives and the lives of their friends, who managed to get the pharmaceutical industry to focus on testing and identifying new treatments for AIDS. While the film was a documentary mainly drawing from interviews and news footage, the miniseries will be scripted. France confirmed the news to EW.
“It’s still very early. We don’t know how long it will be for example, so we’re still working those details out,” France told EW. “But I have been working on the story and on the script for some time, and I think it’s going to allow us the luxury of being able to tell the story around the kind of activity that brought us to the end of the plague, and to find out what is left for us.”
Image Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Mandy Moore could be headed to ABC primetime. The singer and Tangled star has been cast in the ABC comedy pilot Pulling, EW has confirmed.
The show, based on the British sitcom of the same name, focuses on three 30-somethings who don’t quite have everything figured out but still live life by their own rules. According to Deadline, Moore will play “optimistic and desperate to snag a husband” Louise.
Pitch Perfect‘s Jason Moore will direct the Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (who both wrote Bad Teacher) pilot.
In 2012, Moore starred in another ABC pilot about newlywed restaurant owners that never made it to air.
Read more:
Rachelle Lefevre cast as ‘Under the Dome’ female lead
Fall comedy pilots 2013 master list
Jason Lee to play hallucinating detective in CBS pilot
Happy Endings has found a new timeslot home, but fans of the comedy are probably not going to be too happy about this move.
ABC announced today back-to-back episodes of Happy Endings will air Fridays starting March 29 at 8 p.m. ET. The move comes after Endings has bounced around ABC’s schedule for a few months, first relinquishing its Tuesday nights and then being pulled from Sundays, where it took up a brief residence.
In a release announcing the midseason shuffle, ABC said the switch will not affect Last Man Standing or Malibu Country because both will have concluded their seasons by then.
Per this just-announced schedule change, Tuesday nights will also see a shift, with ABC airing back-to-back reality shows. Celebrity Wife Swap will premiere a new season Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. and cooking competition The Taste will move back one hour to 9 p.m. As previously announced, the Dancing With the Stars results show is scheduled to take over 9 p.m. starting March 26.
Image Credit: Ida Mae Astute/ABC
She’s back!
Well, almost. Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts announced today that she’ll return to the ABC program on Feb. 20 — coincidentally enough, five months to the day since her bone marrow transplant.
Roberts took a medical leave of absence from GMA late last summer to treat her myelodysplastic syndrome (or MDS), a rare blood disorder. She underwent a bone marrow transplant on Sept. 20, was released from the hospital Oct. 10, and — after one more hospital stay in November — began preparing for her return to the morning program with a series of “dry runs” last month. READ FULL STORY »
ABC executives are queuing up for the network’s Big Thunder Mountain project. ABC just gave a pilot order to Big Thunder, which is inspired by the 1979 Disneyland theme park mine ride.
“When a brilliant, late 19th century New York doctor and his family are given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to relocate to a frontier mining town run by a powerful, but mysterious tycoon, they quickly realize that not everything in Big Thunder is as it seems,” goes the show’s logline. Jason Fuchs (Ice Age: Continental Drift) has the task of writing the pilot. Chris Morgan (The Troop) will executive produce.
In addition to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise keeping giving its theme park rides new big-screen life, Disney has a film starring George Clooney with the title Tomorrowland in the works. Tomorrowland is being developed by director Brad Bird (Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol) and writers Damon Lindelof (Lost) and Entertainment Weekly’s own Jeff “Doc” Jensen.
ABC also picked up three other drama pilots Tuesday: READ FULL STORY »
James Hibberd
@James_Hibberd
Lynette Rice
@EWLynette
