Megan McLachlan continues coverage of SCAD TVfest in Atlanta, the 13th annual festival celebrating the best and newest in television.
Many television shows are ending this season, but lots more are only heating up at SCAD TVfest.
On the red carpet, I had the chance to say goodbye to fan favorites like Cobra Kai and meet new future cult classics like Adult Swim’s Oh My God…Yes! Plus, Distinguished Performance Award recipient Noah Centineo revealed a little bit why all your friends might be binging The Recruit Season 2 right now.
Check out my recap of Day 2 of SCAD TVfest!
Found Showrunner and Stars Reveal What They Think of Superfans Who Want Gabi and Sir to Get Together
NBC’s Found has developed quite a following with the best premise on television: Recovery specialist Gabi (Shanola Hampton) finds missing people. . .while also keeping her own former kidnapper “Sir” in the basement (Mark-Paul Gosselaar). (Note: He gets out!)
If you go on Reddit, you’ll discover that superfans of the show ACTUALLY want Gabi and Sir to get together — based on the duo’s dynamite chemistry.
On the red carpet, showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll joked that maybe we need to raise the bar in our character shipping.
“I get it,” continued Okoro Carroll. “Mark-Paul is cute and he pays Gabi a lot of attention. But we don’t want that kind of attention! But I’m grateful [fans are] so emotionally invested in the characters.”
“Why is that a thing?” laughed Hampton. “Feel better about yourselves and want someone better for Gabi! You don’t want someone like that with her. Dynamically, it would be great because I’d get to work with Mark-Paul all the time and that’s fantastic, but c’mon, that is not what their connection is!”
Mark-Paul Gosselaar grimaced before revealing how he REALLY feels.
“It’s fascinating, but it makes me giggle,” said Gosselaar. “But it’s good. It’s what you want when you do a show. I’m all for it! Yeah yeah, we should be together.”
Hallmark’s NEW Home is Where The Heart Is Tackles Representation and Emotion in Home Design
“It’s an emotional design show,” said Home Is Where the Heart Is executive producer Jessica Sebastian-Dayeh on the red carpet.
Hallmark has teamed up with one of its frequent actors, Luke Macfarlane, and co-host/designer Olivia Westbrooks to create a special kind of home renovation show. Not only because Macfarlane crafts a piece for each family they work with, but because of the representation.
“What does it mean to be a home renovator that’s gay?” joked Macfarlane, echoing the early conversations around the series. “I was like, there have been a lot of gay home renovators! Any opportunity to show different kinds of people and more importantly that we go into different kinds of families. Everyone deserves an opportunity to have a space that they feel comfortable in and reflective of that.”
Sebastian-Dayeh said the magic of the show is its authenticity.
“Luke and Olivia are incredible faces for this show. Everyone in this show is authentically themselves, which is how things should be. Whether the design is about the person or the people going in there, everything about the show is how it should be.”
“There will be people who watch the show inspired to become a woodworker or interior designer because they see us on television,” said Westbrooks. “I want people to walk away feeling joy and happiness in their hearts.”
Home is Where the Heart is debuts on Hallmark+ in March.
Adult Swim’s Oh My God…Yes! Envisions Dating in the 30th Century. . .and Spoiler Alert: Nothing Has Changed Much
Oh My God…Yes! series creator Adele “Supreme” Williams said the concept of her show came from a conversation with a friend after undergoing a breakup.
“I call the person you meet in that first month of dating ‘the representative,'” said Williams. “They show up as their best selves and say everything you want to hear. And I said, ‘I wish I could be in a relationship with his representative.'”
Then she started imagining a world where that could be true, with cyborgs coexisting with people they once dated — which thus became the show’s premise of dating in South Central LA in a not-so-distant future.
Executive Producer Dominique Braud brings years of experience in animation to the collaboration, including her work on The Simpsons. Oh My God…Yes! includes jokes in the background you might not catch the first time, just like the billboards of Springfield.
“For me, [my involvement was] the timing and helping make sure the jokes hit,” said Braud. “That was the most important. With animation, they did their thing, but we needed to get that timing.”
The Cobra Kai Cast Talks the End of the Series, Legacy of the Show & Karate Kid
Cobra Kai ends this year, and on the red carpet, the showrunners, including co-creator Josh Heald, reflected on the series’ legacy for future adaptations of beloved franchises.
“We set out to do something very ambitious, and we set out with love in our hearts,” said Heald. “I hope that’s a lesson to other creators and studios and rights holders when it comes to adapting or rebooting material. It’s realizing why the property resonated in the first place. There’s a desire to mine the material for its essence, and you miss the stuff that actually gives it soul. We tried to do that in a way that told a brand-new story but really showed the reverence for that material all the way through.”
With the final season dropping on February 13, cast members — including Mary Mouser (Samantha), Tanner Buchanan (Robby), and Gianni DeCenzo (Demetri) — all named one particular Season 6 episode as one to watch out for.
“13’s my favorite,” said Buchanan. “I think after you watch it, you’re going to go through a lot of feels.”
“I think 13 is a great example of these characters at their best,” said Mouser. “They’re the most forward and their most advanced in their character development.”
“I die in that episode,” joked DeCenzo. “So it’s crazy!”
Noah Centineo Talks The Recruit Season 2 Being a Ratings Hit and How It’s Alexi Hawley’s World He’s Living In
“Was I worried about people forgetting it? Totally!”
It’s been almost three years since Netflix’s The Recruit came out, and on the red carpet, star, executive producer, and SCAD Distinguished Performance Award recipient Noah Centineo said that even though it’s been a minute, Season 1 was in the Top 10 leading up to the release of Season 2 on January 30.
“A lot of that is because of The Night Agent coming out with their second season,” said Centineo. “Fortunately, Netflix did this brilliant thing where they put The Night Agent back in action and The Recruit Season 2 together. They bundled us. We weren’t left out of that, and we’re grateful for that. I think the show stands on its own two feet, but having that support was great.”
Centineo credited showrunner Alexi Hawley with his — and the show’s — ability to mix comedy with drama and action.
“It’s really Alexi’s heart and soul. When I read the pilot four years ago, it was all there — that genre-blending of funny, dramatic, and high stakes. I thought that was so interesting. It’s a spy genre, but from the lens of a young kid fresh out of law school. I thought it was very fun. When it comes to my input, I think Alexi got to meet me and write for my personality and form my strengths without a doubt, but when it comes to actually giving input, it’s his world. I live in it.”
SCAD TVfest continues through February 7.
