We’re so addicted to TV these days that summer is no different than any other season.
Once upon a time (here I go again), the summer
was a time for reruns. If memory serves, the reason for this was twofold. The first reason was that the big networks were the only game in town. So if they decided to run their “regular”
season from September to May, and then basically take the summer off by scheduling repeats of their regular-season shows, then so be it.
The other reason had to do
with summer lifestyles. HUT levels (homes using television) plummeted due to the switchover to daylight savings time and the allure of warm-weather activities out of doors. Who would want to waste
time watching stupid TV when there was a summer to enjoy?
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More recently, as the TV universe began fragmenting, the summer became a season for experiments.
Think “Survivor” on CBS in the summer of 2000, for example -- an experiment that worked out well.
Here in the present day, we’re not only
awash in new TV shows in the summer months, but many of them are actually good. In fact, two of them just won one of the most prestigious awards in media -- the Peabody.
The awards, bestowed just last week, were richly deserved. And it just so happens that the two honored shows are about media. One of them was “Mr. Robot,” the
USA Network series about a conspiracy of computer hackers. The other was Lifetime’s “UnREAL,” the scripted drama series about the behind-the-scenes goings-on at a dating-competition
show on TV (inspired by “The Bachelor” and that ilk).
They’re both about to start their second seasons -- “UnREAL” on June 6
and “Mr. Robot” on July 13. They are just two shows on a list of summer premieres that grows longer and more attractive every year.
Coming up
soon are “Feed The Beast” (June 5), AMC’s new drama series starring David Schwimmer about a pair of would-be restaurant owners, and “Animal Kingdom” (June 7), TNT’s
new drama series about a crime family with Ellen Barkin as the clan’s queenpin. I’m looking forward to previewing both of them soon.
On June 12,
CMT (Country Music Television) premieres “Still the King,” a scripted sitcom about a washed-up singer played by Miley Cyrus’ dad, Billy Ray Cyrus. This show looked great in the clips
CMT showed at its upfront in March.
Jay Leno returns on June 15 for the second season of “Jay Leno’s Garage” on CNBC. Hmm, sounds like
it’s time for my second annual “What’s Jay Leno Been Up To?” column. I’m sure the readers of this TV blog cannot wait for that one.
Here’s something I never thought would ever happen: A remake of one of the most no-Tori-ous made-for-TV movies of the 1990s, “Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?” This 1996
movie starring Tori Spelling as a young woman dating a psychopath was most notable for the creativity of its title. Not only was it memorable, but it managed to represent an entire genre of
melodramatic TV movies Lifetime seemed to specialize in at the time about young women in peril.
And since 1990s revivals are all the rage these days in the
Millennial-happy TV biz, “Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?” has been remade. And it’s been rewritten by none other than James Franco. He’s also in it, along with Spelling and
her original co-star, Ivan Sergei. The new “Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?” premieres June 18 on Lifetime.
As if that isn’t enough, the
fourth installment in Syfy’s “Sharknado” series -- “Sharknado: The 4th Awakens” -- premieres on July 31. Now
that the East and West coasts have already been attacked by tornado-borne sharks, expect this fourth movie to feature airborne shark attacks further inland. I’m resorting to guesswork concerning
this scenario because the description on Syfy’s press site is so vague. Maybe they’re just keeping the plot a secret for some reason.
June 21
will bring the premiere of a new scripted drama on OWN called “Greenleaf.” The show stars Keith David as Bishop James Greenleaf, the leader of a Memphis megachurch. This is a big series
for OWN, which thinks so highly of it that it was renewed for a second season back in April -- two months before the first season is scheduled to premiere.
All of this and more, including the return of “Ray Donovan” on Showtime June 26, and a new “Uncle Buck” sitcom on ABC, starring Mike Epps in the title role,
premiering June 14.
As one who comes from a long line of Uncle Bucks, I would like to say: Thank you, ABC.