The final day of SCAD TVfest included a crop of new shows, including screenings of Amazon’s Clean Slate, NBC’s Gross Pointe Garden Society, and Disney+’s Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
On the third and final day, SCAD TVfest showcased new series dropping this year and some you can watch right now. Take a look at what’s coming soon to a small screen near you in my festival recap for Day Three.
Gross Pointe Garden Society on NBC Could Fill Your Desperate Housewives Fix
NBC’s new murder mystery show already has a nickname.
“You can call it GPGS. We shorten it to that, too!” said executive producer Casey Kyber.
For fans of Desperate Housewives (or Clarence and Joey’s Desperate Housewives rewatch podcast), you might want to check out this one: four members of a garden club get tangled up in a murder.
“We wanted to do something that was a fun, escapist, soapy drama for NBC,” said Kyber. “That was something as a viewer I was craving.”
The cast includes some of your TV faves, including Melissa Fumero, AnnaSophia Robb, and Aja Naomi King, who said she enjoys playing uptight Type A characters like Catherine and even HTGAWM’s Michaela.
“I love playing strong, confident women,” said King. “What I love about Catherine is she has this perfectly curated life she’s crafted for herself. Her life is about the presentation of everything around her. Her life’s purpose is for things to look a certain way. I think a lot of people are going to find her relatable and either enjoy or be driven crazy by her OCD tendencies.”
But it’s not just housewives who are in on this murder: There’s Ben Rappaport who plays Brett, the lone house husband in the bunch.
“[Show creators] Jenna (Bans) and Bill (Krebs) are so great about weaving our idiosyncrasies,” said Rappaport. “Brett is a fan of Emo rock, so you’ll see him wearing those shirts, with bands like the Getup Kids. This is an Easter egg about all those older Millennials out there.”
As far as stand-out characters who rise above the rest, EP Kyber says this isn’t your garden variety cast.
“I truly think audiences will fall in love with all of them. They’re all different and blend so well with each other!”
Gross Pointe Garden Society starts February 23 on NBC.
Disney+’s Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Expands Past Peter Parker
Creator, executive producer, and showrunner Jeff Trammell wears multiple hats just like Peter Parker. In this new Spider-Man iteration, Trammell said that he wanted to extend the universe a bit past the hero.
“Peter’s had a lot of shows,” said Trammell. “He’s had a lot of opportunities to be the main character. While this is a Spider-Man show, it’s very much about his neighborhood and his world around him.”
Trammell said that much of the reason why Spider-Man/Peter Parker has become a beloved character is because of his interactions with his friends.
“Not only do we care about Spider-Man, but we want to make sure we care about Peter and so much of who Peter is is based on who’s around him.”
Your Neighborhood Spider-Man is now streaming on Disney+.
Lumiere Award Recipient Sophie Skelton Discusses Being Outlander’s Most Divisive Character That Fans Have Come Around To
If your character gets people talking, you must be doing something right. And Lumiere Award recipient Sophie Skelton was fully prepared for fans to love to hate Brianna on STARZ’s Outlander.
“I get it,” said Skeleton. “But I feel very protective over her. She was a 16-year-old girl who lost her dad and her mom’s a time traveler and her dad is someone else. She’s allowed a moment. But as she’s grown up, fans have started to warm to her.”
Many passionate fans point to a moment in Season 7, specifically Episode 16 when Brianna meets her grandfather.
“That was a really lovely scene. [Andrew Whipp] was great to work with. It’s nice when you get to work with the ancestor characters because Brianna hasn’t really had much of that. I always love that. Even working with Maria or Duncan and having been able to be around the extended family, those have been heartwarming scenes.”
Outlander airs on STARZ.
No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski Invites Celebrities to Research Their Ancestry Through Food
In NatGeo’s No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski, the former Queer Eye host takes A-list talent like Florence Pugh, Justin Theroux, and Issa Rae around the country to eat their way through their heritage. Surprisingly, the paparazzi didn’t hound them too much.
“Not in the jungles of Borneo if I’m honest,” said Porowski with a laugh. “Airports definitely. It was a reminder of the scope of Queer Eye and remembering it was dropped in 190 countries. You remember it when you travel the world and are like, ‘Oh, right!'”
Porowski said the logistics were so different compared to working in the United States, with a lot of moving pieces. However, after shooting the series, which globe-trots all over the world, he missed hanging out with these celebrities (although who wouldn’t want to chill with Henry Golding for a few days).
“It was this fun little close-knit community of family. By the end of it, you’re finishing each other’s answers. I was very sad when it was done. It’s like camp.”
NatGeo’s No Taste Like Home streams February 23.
Amazon Freevee’s New Comedy Clean Slate Drops as Laverne Cox Receives SCAD’s Impact Award
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
Just this week, Amazon Freevee released Laverne Cox’s new comedy Clean Slate and on Friday night, she received SCAD TVfest’s Impact Award.
Ahead of the presentation, she and the Clean Slate cast stopped by on the red carpet to talk about the series, which stars Cox as Desiree, a trans woman who returns home to confront her past, including her father Harry, played by George Wallace.
“My character Harry back in the day was a typical Southern black man running a business,” said Wallace. “But being a father that busy working at the car wash 16 hours a day, he didn’t really know what was going on. That’s why this is such a good story because a lot of parents don’t know what’s going on.”
Clean Slate is now streaming on Amazon Freevee.
