Saturday’s panels of the Cable portion of the TCA press tour began a little early with AMC Networks. As with before, we’ll be live-blogging.
AMC Networks
AMC started the day with previews of upcoming shows including Humans, which is about synthetic people. The network also announced that The Walking Dead will return February 8, which is the name night Better Call Saul will premiere. Mad Men will be back April 5 at 10PM.
AMC will also be showing The Night Manager, starring Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston.
Better Call Saul was the first panel, and the producers say that since this is a prequel, “the sky is the limit” as to which characters from Breaking Bad may feature in. However, Peter Gould assures that Walt and Jesse will not appear in Season 1, at least. The show focuses on the origins of Bob Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman character from Breaking Bad, and also stars Michael McKean, Patrick Fabian, and others.
Halt And Catch Fire Season 2 starts Wednesday, April 8, and sees new challenges for the characters in the growing computer world of the 1980s. The next panel went back to the 1960s, assembling the core cast of Mad Men as they talk about the conclusion of the series later this year. More details about Mad Men’s final season, which starts April 5, can be found here.
BBC America
Mud, Sweat and Gears is a car transformation series which premieres in early 2015. Tom ‘Wookie’ Ford and Jonny Smith captain a team of two car nuts and go head to head to transform every day vehicles. Then, BBC America showed off Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, based on Susanna Clarke’s bestselling novel. It takes place during the Napoleonic Wars in England where magic once existed and is about to return. Starring Eddie Marsan and Bertie Carvel, the show will be a seven-part mini-series.
Orphan Black gave us a preview of Season 3, which introduces a new group of male clones played by Ari Millen. The first photo can be found here. Tatiana Maslany joined the panel by remote, with Ari Millen, Jordan Gavaris, and Executive Producer John Fawcett in attendance.
Adult Swim
The Jack and Triumph Show features the return of Robert Smigel’s Triumph the Insult Comic Dog as he teams up with Jack McBrayer (30 Rock) for a new series. McBrayer plays a former child star who was in a Lassie-type series that got cancelled 15 years ago. His life is all better, and then this annoying dog co-star re-enters his life. People like Christopher Meloni and Joey Fatone will be appearing.
BET
BET will be presenting the dramatic miniseries The Book of Negroes over three nights in two-hour installments starting Monday, February 16. The series featuring stars such as Aunjanue Ellis, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Lou Gossett Jr. tells the story of a young woman who was kidnapped from Africa as a child that was sold as a slave in South Carolina. This miniseries tells her story.
TV Land
2015 has a new slate of comedies on the way “with a completely different feel than anything you’ve ever seen on TV Land before.” They’re still going for that 40-something audience. Their new plans include Younger, Impastor starring Michael Rosenbaum, Teachers, and a sitcom starring Jim Gaffigan.
Younger comes from creator Darren Star and features Sutton Foster as a 40-year-old pretending to be 26. It premieres March 31 and looks quite funny.
VH1
Barely Famous is a weird hybrid between reality and a scripted show, in that we have no idea how much of this Erin and Sara Foster reality show is real.
[Sadly, we were doing interviews and missed the Hindsight and Eye Candy panels!]
LogoTV
Cucumber and Banana are two related shows from creator Russell T. Davies. Cucumber is about an older gay man named Henry Best, and Banana is a related show with younger characters, showing off the differences between the generations of gay men.
Nickelodeon
Bella and the Bulldogs is about a young girl who becomes the quarterback of the Bulldogs football team. Nick touts this as being influential in the vein of something like Clarissa Explains It All.
Comedy Central
Another Period is a comedy series that takes place at the turn of the century. It looks like a silly Downton Abbey from Ben Stiller. The best reaction to the trailer is “WTF?” though it’s very funny.
Big Time in Hollywood, FL also comes from Ben Stiller and is a continuing serial comedy.
The last panel of the Cable Press Tour was for The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, which will be the new companion for The Daily Show now that Stephen Colbert has moved on. The show will spotlight Wilmore’s unique point of view and comedic take on current events and pop culture.
