Tag Archives: Television Drama

ABC’s Of Kings and Prophets – Post 1

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king and prophets

Of Kings and Prophets is a new ABC biblical saga premiering Tuesday March 8th at 10:00 pm. The show’s plot is based on the Old Testament story of Saul, the first king of the Israelites dating from 1000 B.C. It is prophesized by Samuel that God wants Saul to destroy an ancient Israeli army in order for him to keep his throne. With his refusal, Samuel then prophesizes that Saul will lose his power and it will be given to another: David the shepherd (from the story of David and Goliath). The show stars Ray Winstone as King Saul, Olly Rix as David, and Mohammad Kari as the prophet Samuel.

With this show being based on characters from the Bible, it was only right for two of the executive producers to be Bill Collage and Adam Cooper who are also the creators of the show. They were also the writers and executive producers of the recent biblical film Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) which told the story of Moses starring Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton. Other executive producers include Chris Brancato, Jason Reed, Reza Aslan, and Mahyad Tousi.

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As far as promotion goes, there is a dramatic trailer that is available on ABC.com along with a blog post from November 2015 by Aaron Welsh. There are also many promotional videos that includes cast videos, behind the scene looks, and 30 second clips of episodes. The cast is full of new faces so having detailed videos available is important for potential viewers and fans. It allows them to do a bit of research and gain a connection with the type of actors they will be watching.There is a Twitter page with only 962 followers but executive producers Collage and Tousi have been tweeting heavily about the show with a combination of 4,000 followers. There is also a Facebook page that has 9,466 followers and it has the same videos that are found on the ABC website.

 

ABC’s The Catch – Post #1

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(image taken from DarkHorizons.com)

Shonda Rhimes has done it again! Premiering March 24th at 10pm on ABC, the new crime drama The Catch will be joining the #TGIT line up taking the place of Rhimes’ other hit show, How to Get Away With Murder. Alice Vaughn is a forensic accountant in LA who specializes in cases for high profiled frauds. But when her fiancé cons her out of millions and disappears weeks before their wedding, her new focus is finding him and regaining her funds. Unfortunately, its discovered that he was in a master con plan with another woman while still falling for his mark: Alice.

Alice is played by Mirielle Enos who is best known for her Emmy and Golden Globe nominated role in AMC’s hit drama The Killing. Another familiar face within the cast is Bethany Joy Lenz from CW’s One Tree Hill. According to ABC.com and Imbd.com, Peter Krause from NBC’s Parenthood would be playing Alice’s fiancé Kieran Booth but the show’s trailer depicts an up and coming actor named Damon Dayoub who played a reoccurring role in Freeform’s Stitchers.

Production for the show is taking place in LA at the ABC Studios and Shondaland. Rhimes is the executive producer but is also partnering with Betsy Beers. Beers has worked as a producer on Rhimes other ABC hit Grey’s Anatomy which will air before The Catch on #TGIT at 9pm.

Blood & Oil: Post 2

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In addition to a fairly star-studded cast, Blood & Oil‘s off-screen talent provides insight on the quality that viewers may expect come its premiere later this month. For the writers: Josh Pate, whom has had relative success in film bearing titles as Deceiver and The Grave, pairs with Rodes Fishburne, a novelist whom makes his TV writing/producing debut with the premiere of Blood and Oil.

The show, which has gone through multiple name changes, from tentatively “Oil” to possibly “Boom” to finally Blood & Oil, could be potentially defined by the talent and ambition of its producers.

Tony Krantz, the man behind the success of 24, could be the game changer for Blood & Oil. While his latest broadcast venture Dracula with NBC was canceled after its first season, Krantz has brought heart and ambition to Blood & Oil.  Don Johnson, arguably the show’s most recognizable and experienced actor, claims he originally said no to the series. However, after meeting with an insistent Krantz, Johnson claimed he was taken by “the passion that everyone had with the project” (Source: Entertainment Weekly, Sept. 18-25 issue #1382).

 

TCA SUMMER PRESS TOUR 2015 - "Blood & Oil" Session - The cast and producers of ABC's "Blood & Oil" address the press at Disney | ABC Television Group's Summer Press Tour 2015 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. (ABC/Image Group LA) JOSH PATE (CREATOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), RODES FISHBURNE (CREATOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), TONY KRANTZ (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), AMBER VALLETTA, DON JOHNSON, CHACE CRAWFORD, REBECCA RITTENHOUSE

TCA SUMMER PRESS TOUR 2015 – “Blood & Oil” Session – The cast and producers of ABC’s “Blood & Oil” address the press at Disney | ABC Television Group’s Summer Press Tour 2015 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. (ABC/Image Group LA)
JOSH PATE (CREATOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), RODES FISHBURNE (CREATOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), TONY KRANTZ (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), AMBER VALLETTA, DON JOHNSON, CHACE CRAWFORD, REBECCA RITTENHOUSE

Blood & Oil – Post #1

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ABC’s Sunday Primetime lineup will have two new additions: one being Blood & Oil, a soap drama with high stakes scheming and ruthless ambition. The series, which boasts the tagline “Millionaires are made everyday”, follows a hopeful young couple as they move to modern-day North Dakota on the heels of America’s greatest oil discovery.

The classic “striking gold” storyline may fare well for younger audiences craving a rag to riches story with plenty of edge. ABC’s hugely popular Once Upon a Time, which got top ranks for the 18-49 broadcasting demo, acts as the lead in for Blood and Oil, and seem to target the same younger viewers.  Based on the choices for on-screen talent, “Blood and Oil” has a lot of potential to carry some of the “Once” numbers at its 9 o’clock slot. Lead protagonist Billy Lefever is played by Chace Crawford, who will certainly create interest amongst the 18-24 demographic following his fame on the hit series Gossip Girl.  Playing the other half of the new-chance seeking couple as Cody Lefever is Rebecca Rittenhouse; who is set for a hopeful splash on ABC after her role as Brittany the short-lived Fox teen drama Red Band Society. Also starring are TV vet Don Johnson (Miami Vice) and supermodel-turned-actress Amber Valletta from ABC’s recently finished series Revenge. Johnson and Valletta will play opposite Crawford and Rittenhouse as ruthless oil tycoons Hap and Darla Briggs. 

 

Blood and Oil premieres at 9/8c September 27th on ABC.

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Allegiance Week Two

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NBC “Allegiance” Flops During Week Two

The executives at NBC were in for a disappointing Thursday night.  “Allegiance” premiered its second episode this week to extremely lacking results.  The show received a .7 rating and 2 share for 18-49 with 3.65 million total viewers.  It was the lowest performing in its 10 o’clock Thursday night time-slot behind CBS’s elementary with 7.9 million viewers and ABC’s how to get away with murder with 8.44 million total viewers.  NBC’s strategy to place it directly after “The Blacklist” does not appear to be working, and this week “The Blacklist” brought in the lowest ratings it has seen since it was on Monday nights with a 2.4 rating/7 share.  Although the numbers were a little lower than usual, it is still bringing in more viewers than the usual NBC Thursday night comedy lineup.  Most sources and critics online are expecting “Allegiance” to be cancelled pretty rapidly and I would not be surprised if they were right.

The other critique of the show is that it is too similar to FX’s “The Americans”.  After a second episode, the feedback generally is that they are different enough, but “Allegiance” falls short considering the success of “The Americans” has not been overwhelming– this week it received a .3 rating 18-49 with just under one million viewers.  Saturating the marketplace with another cold war era spy shows when the demand is not high was not a good programming decision.

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