'Mad Men' creator unsigned for season three
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Bryan Cranston won an Emmy for his role as terminally ill drug dealer Walter White in AMC's "Breaking Bad." The series returns on March 8.
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UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. -- AMC, the basic cable network home of "Mad Men," will continue its forays into scripted series this year with a second season of "Breaking Bad" and a fall mini-series remake of 1960s drama "The Prisoner," starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen.
And, yes, "Mad Men" will be back this summer, although AMC president Charlie Collier said creator/executive producer Matthew Weiner still isn't signed to return. Lionsgate, which produces the series, continues to negotiate with Weiner.
"We remain very optimistic Matt will be part of the show," Collier said.
In order to make the summer schedule, Weiner will need to be signed within the next two months so the writers can get back to work. Collier noted that "Mad Men" made its schedule following the writers' strike last winter.
In the more immediate future, "Breaking Bad" returns at 10 p.m. March 8. Star Bryan Cranston won an Emmy for his role as Walt White, a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher who becomes a drug dealer after a terminal lung cancer diagnosis.
"It's a character story about a good man who makes a bad decision," said series creator Vince Gilligan.
The first season was cut short by the writers' strike, which Gilligan said actually worked in the show's favor.
"If we had done the last two episodes of the season and the strike had not interrupted them, I was anxious about how the show would be received," Gilligan said. "I took a breath and realized I wanted to slow things down a little. The strike saved us from doing too much too soon."
But time does pass and things change. The home used as the base for Walt and his former student/co-conspirator Jesse (Aaron Paul) was sold between seasons and was no longer available as a shooting location, forcing Gilligan and his writers to work that into the story.
Gilligan promised that the new season will begin with a clue of how the whole season is going to end, and it's an ending he described as "slam-bang." But it probably won't be Walt's death.
"There may be a ray of good news this season," Gilligan said. "For how long, we don't know. That is often the case in real life [with cancer]. There are better months; there are worse months. There are moments of sunshine, moments of hopeful outlook, and that can change in the blink of an eye, unfortunately."
But it sounds like Walt's end will come, even though Gilligan doesn't have a specific idea for the show's final episode.
"I want to make it as realistic as possible," he said.
PBS's license to air reruns of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" expires in August, but PBS president Paula Kerger said PBS intends to keep the program around.
"My assumption is we're going to keep 'Mister Rogers' available," Kerger said.
But in what form? Last year, PBS cut its feed of the program from daily to one episode per week with the option for stations to stockpile episodes and continue to air them daily. PBS has talked about streaming episodes online, but that has yet to happen. Fewer than a dozen episodes are available on DVD.
Further consultation with PBS's programming department indicated that PBS and Family Communications Inc., the Oakland company Rogers founded, are "working jointly to determine the next steps beyond August 2009," according to a statement issued by PBS. "At this point nothing has been determined."
So it sounds like negotiations are in the offing, but I suppose it's possible that "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" could cease to air later this year if a new deal is not reached. For the sake of today's young parents, I hope it doesn't come to that.
Stephanie March will reprise her role as assistant district attorney Alexandra Cabot for six episodes of NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" beginning in March. ... "The Morning Show With Mike and Juliet," which airs locally in syndication at 10 a.m. weekdays on WPMY, has been canceled. Original episodes will continue to air through June. ... Pittsburgh's Bill Strickland, president of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and author of "Make the Impossible Possible," will be a guest Thursday on PBS's "Tavis Smiley" (11 p.m., WQED's The Create Channel). He'll discuss issues related to the rising unemployment rate. ... President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, speak with Brit Hume in an exclusive "Fox News Sunday" interview at 6 p.m. Sunday on the Fox News Channel. The chat with the 43rd and 41st presidents of the United States will include discussion of the transition from this administration to President-elect Obama's administration, the younger Bush's legacy and the family's plans when he's out of office.
First Published January 10, 2009 12:00 am
