‘Hacks’ Creators On Season 2, Deborah’s Tour Bus & How They Landed Laurie Metcalf [Interview]

Hallmark Channel has renewed When Calls the Heart for a tenth season and is bringing on a new showrunner to help oversee the fan favorite: Lindsay Sturman (Supergirl), a television veteran with writing and producing credits spanning over 15 years in the industry, will take over the top job.

Hallmark Channel, ET can exclusively reveal.With the pickup, the network's long-running staple has named Lindsay Sturman () as its new showrunner. The one-hour drama, led by Erin Krakow, will also reach the 100-episode milestone in the upcoming season.“continues to push the limits as to what we can achieve with this show,” said Lisa Hamilton Daly, Executive Vice President of Programming at Crown Media Family Networks, in a statement.

“It was a wild ride,” exclaims 2x Primetime Emmy nominated Grace and Frankie production designer Devorah Herbert about the final season of the Netflix/Skydance Jane Fonda-Lily Tomlin series.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticAs the final minutes of “Hacks” Season 2 ticked by, it was hard to shake the feeling that they just might mark the final minutes of “Hacks,” period. With Deborah (the incomparable Jean Smart) finally tapping in to a more personal and rewarding vein of her comedy to huge success, before pushing Ava (the underrated Hannah Einbinder) out of the nest to forge her own path in Hollywood, the series easily could’ve ended there. Even Deborah’s CEO Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) and agent Jimmy (Paul W.

Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels will be back for more stand-up stories after HBO Max renewed Hacks for a third season.

SPOILER ALERT: The following reveals major plot points from the Season 4 finale of FX’s Mayans M.C.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThere you are, watching Season 2 of HBO Max’s Emmy-winning comedy “Hacks,” and delighting in the genius of American treasure Jean Smart and her worthy sparring partner, Hannah Einbinder.And then along comes Laurie Metcalf, playing a burned out tour manager named Weed.Or there you are again, on a binge of Hulu’s limited series “The Dropout,” marveling at Amanda Seyfried’s spot-on portrayal of Theranos grifter Elizabeth Holmes. And then who pops up? Laurie Metcalf, playing Stanford professor Phyllis Gardner, Hjjfjsgwho early on calls Holmes out on her lies (and later partners with another familiar TV face, William H.

Brady. Now, as America’s gun violence epidemic worsens, is the time to undertake a responsibility in storytelling depicting firearms and gun safety.”Other signatories include John Glickman, Wyck Godfrey, Grant Heslov, Simon Kinberg, Damon Lindelof, Adam McKay, Hannah Minghella, Julianne Moore, Eli Roth, Mark Ruffalo and Amy Schumer (read the full list here).The pledge includes an open letter and a three-pronged approach to #ShowYourSafety, including modeling responsible gun ownership and showing “consequences for reckless gun use.”Read the entire statement below:Like most of America, we are enraged by the recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. Considering there have been over 250 other mass shootings so far this year, it’s an almost incomprehensible tragedy.

Although Ray Romano has dabbled in writing quite a bit, including a series he created called Men of a Certain Age, the star (best known for the Emmy winning sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which certainly contained lots of material drawn from his own life and family experiences) is now moving to the big screen with perhaps his most ambitious project yet. The film, Somewhere In Queens, draws its comedy and drama from a very somewhat overbearing but likeable and recognizable Italian American family.

By Renee Lou Dallow“God was in his heaven, and there were sausages for breakfast.”Terence Davies’ new film, Benediction, is about the life, loves and the poetry of queer World War 1 British poet Siegfried Sassoon.In the film, he is asked by a military tribunal if he is pro-German, to which Siegfried played by Jack Lowden replies,  “I’m pro-human.” Sassoon, a decorated war hero who became disillusioned with the endless conflict and casualties, was anti-war and spoke out against the powers of the day failing to state conditions for peace.The film then moves to another conflict – his life and struggles with his homosexuality. A long passionate affair with actor Ivor Novello (Jeremy Irvine) and a somewhat more sensitive and empathetic relationship with Stephen Tennant (Calm Lynch) follow before Sassoon marries Hester Gatty (Kate Phillips) and has a son, George (Richard Goulding).

Zack Sharf “Stranger Things 4” is going to end with the biggest bang the Netflix series has ever seen. Speaking to Empire magazine, series creators Matt and Ross Duffer revealed the upcoming season finale will include more VFX shots than all of the show’s third season combined. It’s worth noting the “Stranger Things 4” finale is super-sized and clocks in with a runtime that’s two and a half hours long.“The final episode has more FX shots than the entirety of Season 3,” Matt Duffer said.“There’s an hour-long chunk in the final episode that just doesn’t stop,” added Ross.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab,” they Volume 1 finale episode of “Stranger Things” Season 4.The second part of “Stranger Things” Season 4 will debut in less than a month. But what member of the Hellfire Club can wait that long for answers to all the questions posed by the shocking Volume 1 finale and its major reveal that Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) created the Upside Down and the big bad Vecna, by locking One (Jamie Campbell Bower) inside the supernatural realm.“Stranger Things” creators Matt and Ross Duffer, professionally known as the Duffer Brothers, weren’t willing to spill on everything just yet when sitting down with Variety to talk about the first seven episodes of Season 4 on Thursday — but they gave us plenty to go on until Volume 2 debuts July 1.

One final showdown. As fans await the conclusion to season 4 of Stranger Things, executive producer Shawn Levy hinted that the best is yet to come.

EXCLUSIVE: Avenue 5‘s space voyage may be coming to an end. Season 2 of Armando Iannucci’s space comedy, delayed by the pandemic, has not been scheduled yet. I hear it will likely launch in the fall and is expected to be the series’ last. A rep for HBO declined comment.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterSusan Sarandon and Fat Joe are set to lead the voice cast of the animated comedy series “The Movers” in development at Fox, Variety has learned exclusively.The series is based on an original idea by Sarandon, her son Jack Henry Robbins, and Danielle Uhlarik. All three are credited as co-creators and executive producers, with Robbins and Uhlarik writing the script.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterMatt and Ross Duffer, aka the Duffer Brothers, decided to break up their nine-episode fourth season of “Stranger Things” in a rather unconventional way. By now, most fans of the Upside Down surely know that the first portion of the season, which launches Friday, consists of seven super-sized episodes, while Volume 2, which debuts July 1, has only two installments.Though Episodes 8 and 9 are longer than all the episodes that came before them, running at 85 minutes and nearly two and a half hours, respectively, there could still be concerns among viewers that only two episodes does not a second volume make.But the Duffers assured Variety that Episode 7 of “Stranger Things 4” is not just at the level of any previous season closer they have done, but sets up Episodes 8 and 9 in a way that makes the two-episode Volume 2 feel like it can stand alone.