Tag Archives: The Last Man on Earth

Fox is Rebuilding Its Slate, One Hit at a Time

dana walden

Dana Walden received a baptism by fire when she and Gary Newman took over as co-chairmen and co-CEOs of Fox Television Group last summer. But after enduring a brutal fall, the network is back on trick thanks to Empire, one of the biggest new hits in decades. Walden sat down with me for this Adweek profile about her rollercoaster first year on the job. She talked to me about the good, the bad and — going to back to last fall — the ugly:

Yes. Going in, Gary and I always anticipated that this was going to be a really tough fall. We were encouraged by Gotham, encouraged by Sunday night. I felt like our job as the new leaders was to stay focused on the positive momentum and point to things that establish what we wanted to do in the future. That was a far better approach than being mired in how demoralizing the overnights can be.

And now that Empire’s ratings keep soaring (seven consecutive weeks of ratings increases and counting!), she says the show’s success has restored her faith that mass hits are still possible:

Yes. I’ve had so many conversations with my peers at other networks in broadcast and cable, and over and over again the sentiment is, this is just great for the business. It has sent a wave of enthusiasm and optimism through our business that you can create a scripted show, something that’s not a live event, and you can still eventize it in a way that a lot of people are going to make it appointment watching.

Walden also talked about juggling her network and studio hats, Empire’s second season order, standing by Backstrom, taking a big swing with The Last Man on Earth and how Empire has affected her thinking about what shows to pick up next season.

Fox Is Rebuilding Its Slate, One Hit at a Time

Everything is Awesome, Especially Chris Miller’s Plans for the Next Three ‘Lego’ Movies

chrismillerphillord

The Lego Movie was an unexpected smash last year, grossing $468.8 million worldwide and captivating parents and kids alike — everyone, it seems, except Oscar voters (grrr). A year later, the film’s writing-directing duo, Chris Miller and Phil Lord (who also wrote and directed 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street), are tripling down on their “Everything is Awesome” gamble, overseeing not one but three different Lego Movie sequels and spinoffs.

First up is Ninjago, a spinoff based on Lego’s popular Masters of Spinjitzu line of sets, which will be out Sept. 23, 2016. That will be followed on May 26, 2017 by a Lego Batman spinoff, with Will Arnett returning as Batman, directed by Chris McKay. Finally, 2018 will bring The Lego Movie Sequel, directed by Community and The Mindy Project director Rob Schrab, with Miller and Lord producing and writing the script.

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I spoke with Miller (above, right) — who along with Lord (left) is also  executive producing the innovative, hilarious new Fox comedy, The Last Man on Earth, debuting March 1 — for my recent Adweek cover story on the not-so-funny state of broadcast comedy. (“To do something that’s going to get people’s attention,” he told me of Last Man on Earth, “my theory is you have to do something that feels unique and special and gets people talking: ‘Did you see this thing?’ We wanted to do something that didn’t feel like anything you’ve seen before, because otherwise, what’s the point?”) But he also talked to me at length about how he and Lord were able to successfully rebrand a pair of beloved franchises, and how they’ll (hopefully) do it all over again with the upcoming three Lego films:

Between Lego Movie and the Jump Street films, how were you able to take these brands that people have known and loved for years, and…
And make something new out of them? Well the first thing is to take it very seriously and to think about whatever you’re talking about and find the love and the joy in it. And to try and be smart about it, and not just do the most common denominator. When we were doing The Lego Movie, our big fear was it was going to feel like a giant toy commercial. And that was the last thing we wanted to do, ever. So I think by making it feel like it was just a piece of personal expression that was using the bricks as a medium to tell a story made it feel like oh, this is something that somebody made, not something that came from corporate, on high.

I feel like people can sniff that stuff out. When a corporation is trying to make a viral video, and everyone in it is drinking Dr. Pepper or something, you’re like, ‘Oh, you’re trying to sell me Dr. Pepper here, man!’ And people don’t like to feel like they’re being sold something. So we just don’t ever let a choice be made for that reason. Then in the end, it ends up being, you know, good!

After you pulled off 21 Jump Street, did that make tackling Lego Movie less daunting?
That was a crazy risk, obviously, turning that into a weird, self-aware comedy. That was mostly born out of our embarrassment about knowing that rebooting television shows is a morally bankrupt approach to making movies. But we loved the concept of guys getting a second chance to go back to high school and I enjoyed the original show, so it seemed like it was mostly us apologizing. Like, “We know this is a crazy idea for a TV show, but we know it and we’re trying to make it good. So just be on our side on this!” So one of our things is trying to get the audience on your side and going, “Hey, we’re all in this together, let’s have a good time.”

How do you replicate your Lego Movie success with the next three films?
Yeah, there’s three so far. The key is hiring different filmmakers for each one who can make the tone their own. They can’t all feel like the same exact thing. So, the Ninjago one has a very distinct tone of its own. It feels like a comedy Kurosawa movie or something. And the Batman one has got some of the most crazy action you’ve ever seen. Each one has its own voice and it feels true to the thing that we made, but it also feels like again it’s a filmmaker making something and using this as a medium to tell a fun story.

You talked before about being worried The Lego Movie would seem like a commercial. It would seem that’s even more of a concern now.
That’s the danger there, exactly!

Because now, Lego is probably saying to you, “Come up with this so we can sell even more Legos!”
Exactly. Part of doing Lego 2 was saying, we want to make everybody nervous again like they were the first time. We want to make the Lego group nervous, and we want to make Warner Bros. nervous. And if we’re not making them nervous, then we’re not pushing it far enough and we’re not doing our job.

The Not-So-Funny State of TV Comedy

state of comedy

While I’ve written dozens of stories for Adweek’s site since last fall, I hadn’t yet written anything for the actual magazine — until today. I made my Adweek print debut in the best and biggest possible way: with a pair of cover stories tied to Thursday’s Two and a Half Men series finale.

Jon Cryer Adweek cover

In addition to my Jon Cryer Q&A, I also spoke with a dozen network presidents, comedy showrunners and sitcom stars for this deep dive into the not-so-funny state of broadcast comedy as two more long-running sitcoms prepare to say farewell. As I wrote,

With CBS’ How I Met Your Mother closing shop last year, Two and a Half Men wrapping this week, and Parks and Recreation—NBC’s top-rated sitcom in adults 18-49, airing its series finale on Feb. 24—broadcast comedy is in a state of transition. While formidable comedy blocks remain on Sunday night on Fox (The Simpsons, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Family Guy), Thursday on CBS (Big Bang, Mom, Men) and Wednesday on ABC (The Middle, The Goldbergs, Modern Family, Black-ish), sitcom ratings are down across the board, and this season is littered with failures: ABC’s Manhattan Love Story and Selfie, NBC’s A to Z and Bad Judge, Fox’s Mulaney, and CBS’ The McCarthys and The Millers (the latter last year’s top-rated sitcom in 18-49 but canceled this season after just four episodes).

The news seems grim, but no one is ready to pull the plug on network comedies:

Despite all the struggles, in conversations with network executives, showrunners, stars and media buyers, a surprising consensus emerges: There is still plenty of fight left in the sitcom. Comedy might not be the dominant broadcast force it was a decade ago, but it is still an essential part of the TV landscape and everyone remains optimistic that the next hit could happen as early as, well, this week.

This was such a fascinating and fun story to report and piece together, thanks to invaluable insights from network presidents like CBS’s Nina Tassler and Fox’s Dana Walden, comedy executive producers like Mike Schur (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks and Recreation), Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project), Stephen Falk (You’re the Worst), Robert Garlock (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Chris Miller (The Last Man on Earth) and sitcom stars like Cryer, Kaling and Billy Gardell (Mike & Molly).

Almost all of them arrived at the same conclusion: it’s only a matter of when, not if, the next hit sitcom is created.

Hollywood remains solidly confident that TV’s next great comedy is just around the corner. “Television’s a very cyclical business,” points out Walden, noting that when she started at 20th Century Fox Television in 1992, the powers that be had decided dramas were done. Then, the studio developed The X-Files for Fox and Steven Bochco created NYPD Blue for ABC, and they were suddenly hot again. “You can’t ever rule out a genre of storytelling,” says Walden. “There’s going to be another breakthrough comedy, and then we’re going to say, ‘Oh, comedy is back!'”

In addition to following the link and reading the whole story, make sure you pick up this week’s issue!

The Not-So-Funny State of TV Comedy