How HBO Could Fix ‘Vinyl’

How HBO could fix Vinyl

The ’70s rock ‘n’ roll drama has too many characters, too many subplots and too many rock star impressions, says James Wolcott. “The creators and new showrunner need to trim and streamline until they can locate the narrative spine, or implant one,” he says. They also need to dump Richie Finestra and replace him with Andrea Zito. While you’re at it, get rid of Kip. Wolcott adds: “Everything happens too disjointedly fast on Vinyl and is rendered meaningless due to this helter-skelter effect. Empire can get away with it because it’s in its own time-space continuum, but Vinyl needs to pace itself for maximum payoff.” PLUS: Vinyl is a brave and bitterly honest depiction of addiction.

Could Josh Charles return for The Good Wife finale?

There are rumors of a Will Gardner, but CBS won’t say if it’s true.

Bob Odenkirk pays tribute to Garry Shandling at TV Land Icon Awards

The Better Call Saul star, who was with Shandling four days before his death, expressed gratitude to the late comedian for taking a chance on him early on in his acting career on The Larry Sanders Show. “And then,” he adds, “there was the friend and mentor he was behind the scenes. That’s what we’ll really miss. He encouraged and supported you when you were starting out, or maybe when you took a hit or were just unsure of yourself.”

John Stamos credits Garry Marshall for his “Have Mercy” Full House catchphrase

“He always said, ‘Get a catchphrase, you need a catchphrase.’ I’m not kidding you,” Stamos said during his TV Land Icon Awards acceptance speech. “The ‘have mercy’ thing came out of, ‘Oh s**t, Garry told me I had to have a catchphrase.”

How Game of Thrones mastered social media to become the most viral show on TV

As The Wall Street Journal reports, “HBO started crafting a social-media strategy a year and a half before the show’s debut, assembling a team that has worked to expand the show’s viral reach ever since. HBO marketers found an ideal environment for stoking online activity: passionate and literate fans, a multitude of characters and allegiances and a distinct, complex world with its own rules.” PLUS: GoT creators are anti-spoilers.

The Bachelor’s Olivia Caridi became suicidal while watching this season

January to March “was a really dark time,” Caridi tells Page Six, adding: “”It felt like I was in middle school again. I thought many times what it would be like if I wasn’t alive.”

Kurt Sutter and Katey Sagal to talk about their careers at the ATX Television Festival

The husband-and-wife team is expected to discuss Sons of Anarchy, Bastard Executioner, along with Married with Children, at the June festival.

David Chase doubts he’ll do a Sopranos prequel, talks HBO’s drama woes

Of a prequel, Chase tells Deadline, “I’ve had people talk to me about that. I’ve had conversations with some movie studios that want to do it as a film. So far I’ve rejected the idea but I certainly wouldn’t do it as a television show.” As for HBO of today, Chase, whose working with the pay network on A Ribbon Of Dreams, says “I’ve heard is they don’t rely quite as much on the creator or the artist doing what comes naturally to him or her.”

Why has hatred for Hannah Horvath dogged Girls?

Lena Dunham’s HBO comedy is still top-notch, but the hatred for her character endures.

CBS’ new web series is Not Safe for Daytime

The YouTube series stars CBS’ daytime celebs, from The Price is Right to The Bold and the Beautiful, in web video spoofs.

J.J. Abrams: An ABC exec didn’t think Jennifer Garner was “hot enough” for Alias

Abrams, in a conversation with Chris Rock at the Tribeca Film Festival, recalled favoring Garner for the Sydney Bristow role. “She came in and was amazing, and I remember someone at the network was like, ‘I don’t know, is she hot enough?’” Abrams said. “The executive’s no longer there.” PLUS: J.J. Abrams is “down” with doing a Chris Rock TV show.

Shonda Rhimes’ Romeo & Juliet sequel finds its Juliet

Danish actress Clara Rugaard will play Juliet on the ABC pilot Still Star-Crossed.

Presenting the 30 best theme songs of all time

From Cheers to The Big Bang Theory to It’s the Garry Shandling Show.

FX developing Dan Harmon’s animated Happy City comedy

The Community and Rick and Morty creator’s next comedy follows a talking taxi and his “millennial friends,” a firetruck and a helicopter. It’ll be in the vein of Thomas the Tank Engine.

Nasim Pedrad’s Fox comedy pilot Chad pushed back

Because it will shoot in May, the comedy pilot that has the SNL alum playing a 13-year-old Iranian boy won’t be considered for the fall. But could end up with a midseason pickup.

HBO’s Confirmation is surprisingly flat, uninspired — and suffers coming in wake of The People v. O.J. Simpson

Much of the TV movie “feels like lavishly and unnecessarily re-created newsreel” with its reliance on old news footage, says Hank Stuever. “But the real absence in Confirmation is that almost ineffable combination of contextual fact and communal imagination that made The People v. O.J. Simpson seem utterly new and addictive — while still adhering almost entirely to reported details. Confirmation works so hard to play things straight down the middle that it forgets to become a movie.” PLUS: There’s simply not enough time to develop the Anita Hill character or other characters, it’s less enjoyable and less enlightening because it’s so dispassionate, Kerry Washington and Wendell Pierce deliver powerful performances, Washington insists the film doesn’t favor Anita Hill, how Hill reacted to Confirmation, and how Wendell Pierce found empathy for Clarence Thomas.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt boosted its weirdness in Season 2, and became more enjoyable

“The weirder and more random Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt gets, the more enjoyable it is,” says Matt Zoller Seitz. “Season two of the show is more enjoyable than season one because, for long stretches, it barely remembers what it’s about, plot-wise, and enters that trancelike comedy zone where some of the best sketch comedy resides — a place of one-damn-thing-after-another inventiveness.” PLUS: It’s become a show mostly without straight white males, it’s still the fastest show on TV, with TV’s best joke writers, nothing’s changed in its first made-for-Netflix season, it’s good enough not to binge on, it’s still devoted to shock over insight, why Tituss Burgess hated Season 1 reviews of his character, Ellie Kemper on reuniting with Jon Hamm, Jane Krakowski talks Jacqueline, and all Netflix shows were singing Peeno Noir on Twitter today.