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Tuned In: How will TV shows handle COVID-19 moving forward?

Mitchell Haddad/NBC

Tuned In: How will TV shows handle COVID-19 moving forward?

Some networks suggest old favorites will be back; others are building pandemic-proof schedules. Will pandemic plots be incorporated into series?

What will the future of TV look like amidst the ongoing pandemic? It’s hard to predict.

In the near term, expect more one-offs like last’s week’s “Haircut Night in America,” featuring celebrity hair stylists offering DIY grooming tips on CBS, or this week’s “House Hunters: Comedians on Couches” (10 and 10:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday), showing comedians mocking the hit HGTV series.

The production shutdown has made broadcasters willing to reconsider past decisions: The “Daytime Emmy Awards” haven’t aired on broadcast TV for several years, yet they will air again — with remote acceptance speeches — at 8 p.m. June 26th on CBS.

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Experimentation has also ratcheted up. From episodes created from quarantine (CBS’s “All Rise,” Apple TV+’s “Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet,” NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” reunion) to shows moving platforms (Paramount Network’s “68 Whiskey” is now available on CBS All Access).

Birdie (at left, voiced by Josh Gad) in “Central Park,” premiering May 29 on Apple TV+.
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Movie nights, abandoned by broadcasters more than a decade ago have returned with the “CBS Sunday Night Movies” — this weekend it’s a “Grease Sing-A-Long” (8:30 p.m. Sunday) and ABC’s “Wonderful World of Disney,” (8-10 p.m. Wednesdays) which next week features “Big Hero 6.”

Animation, which can be completed remotely, has gotten a boost with the producers of NBC’s “The Blacklist” using animated scenes to complete their season finale. Pop TV’s “One Day at a Time,” which halted production six episodes into a new season, completed a seventh episode using all-animation and voiced by the live-action show’s series regulars for an episode airing at 9:30 p.m. June 16th.

Series inspired by the self-isolating experience are springing up, from streamer Britbox’s scripted, remotely produced, four-episode “Isolation Stories” (June 23) about the lives of characters in lockdown, to Netflix’s upcoming “Social Distance,” to Freeform’s four-part rom-com “Love in the Time of Corona,” expected to air in late summer.

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Looking ahead to fall, things become murkier.

Fox and The CW took pandemic-proofing approaches to their fall schedules, relying on new content held back from spring and summer and acquiring previously released shows few have seen (Fox picked up “L.A.’s Finest” from Spectrum Originals; The CW will air “Tell Me a Story” from CBS All Access and “Swamp Thing” from DC Universe).

CBS went the opposite route, announcing a fall schedule overflowing with returning scripted series that haven’t returned to physical production and have no set date to resume. CBS execs say they are building out contingency plans, too, but the first take is to proceed with hope for a return to normal.

So far ABC and NBC haven’t released any fall schedules — but NBC did pick up the first season of a completed Canadian medical drama, “Transplant,” for future airing — which only solidifies the uncertainty everyone faces.

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Actors and actresses will not necessarily be willing to take the risk of returning to work — even when studios do institute new practices meant to protect film and TV workers

One British study suggests 60% of scripted shows globally could be delayed until 2021, but producer Tyler Perry already announced he’ll re-start production on two of his series in Atlanta in July, housing cast and crew at his studio on a former military base, a unique situation that can’t easily be replicated. 

It’s more practical to imagine wannabe “Big Brother” houseguests self-quarantining in a hotel for 14 days before production on a new season begins, but what about the crew? Studios and guilds have been working on safety protocols  for weeks, but no date has been set for a return to production.

On May 20th, California Gov. Gavin Newsom hosted a Zoom call with Californians who work in the entertainment industry, including “This is Us” actor Jon Huertas, who said series creator Dan Fogelman suggested the NBC hit may not resume production until January 2021 in the event of a second wave of the virus this fall.

“Emotionally, of course, we all want to get back to work,” Huertas said. “But also, the actor is going to be the least protected person on set. We can’t film with PPE on.”

Then there’s the question of content: Will TV shows acknowledge the pandemic or just carry on as if it never happened? Will viewers want an escape from COVID-19 or will they prefer programming that embraces the reality of our times?

“That's the question every writer in Hollywood is asking him or herself right now,” said Mike Schur, who produced the April “Parks and Recreation” pandemic-inspired reunion special on NBC. “It's very hard to try to figure out what people will want down the line in September or beyond. Will people want to see shows reflect the reality of what they went through or are still going through in all likelihood, or will they want pure escapism?”

Mr. Schur pointed to the aftermath of 9/11, when “Friends” didn’t address the terrorist attack but “The West Wing” did an entire out-of-sequence episode.

“It sort of depends on what the themes of that show are and what the world of that show is,” he said. “I'm sure some shows will run right at it, some shows will run directly away from it.”

Apple TV+’s “Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet,” a comedy set in a video game company, was filming the first episode of its second season when COVID-19 forced the show to shut down production. Series star and co-creator Rob McElhenney (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) pushed to do a quarantine episode in part to get past the emotional ramifications of the pandemic. McElhenney said he expects to have to rewrite most of the already-scripted second season so it can better reflect the new normal of the workplace, whatever that turns out to be.

“The way that we thought about it was we’re gonna do an episode in quarantine where we’re addressing it directly and its effects on the gaming industry, the effects on our characters and the effects on the world and then ideally what we would do is .. at a certain point, put this the [expletive] behind us [from an emotional standpoint] but we can’t do that from an operational standpoint,” McElhenney said in a WebEx interview late last month. “There is a very real scenario in which as we return to the workplace — all of us, collectively — we are going to see a completely new and different experience. Are we coming in in masks every day? Are there no longer cafeteria spaces where we’re no longer sitting next to each other? Are we coming in in shifts? Elevator rides, are they happening anymore for the next three years? These are the kinds of things that if you wholly ignore, I think you do so at your peril because you’re now operating in an alternate universe.”

McElhenney doesn’t rule out an “It’s Always Sunny” pandemic-themed episode.

“The ‘Mythic Quest’ characters believe in science, they believe in the law,” he said. “The ‘Sunny’ characters, I’m pretty certain they do not believe in science, unless it suits them, and they absolutely do not believe in the law. I think an episode of ‘Sunny’ quarantine would be quite different from ‘Mythic Quest’ and I love the idea of jumping into it.”

Media attention shifts

In the 10 days since the video of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police horrified the nation, TV’s attention has shifted from the COVID-19 crisis to covering peaceful protests calling for criminal justice reform as well as riotous demonstrations.

ABC pre-empted its regular programming Tuesday night for “America in Pain: What Comes Next?” and this weekend CNN and “Sesame Street” team up for a one-hour special for children, “Coming Together: Standing up to Racism” (10 a.m. Saturday). “PBS NewsHour” premieres the special “Race Matters: America in Crisis (9 p.m. Friday, WQED-TV) and local religious broadcaster WPCB-TV will air “Real Life: Special Edition on Faith, Race & Reconciliation” (9 a.m. Friday, 12:30 p.m. Saturday). 

Actor Griffin Newman (“The Tick”), a former “Blue Bloods” guest star, called on actors who have played police officers to donate to social justice reform organizations.  The cast and executive producers of NBC’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” made a $100,000 donation to the National Bail Fund Network. 

Producer Dick Wolf fired a writer from an upcoming “Law & Order” spin-off for controversial Facebook posts about looters and curfews. 

Channel surfing

Disney+ renewed “Diary of a Future President” for a second season. ... YouTube canceled dance drama “Step Up” but Starz picked up the show for a new season. ... Turns out The CW will not recast Kate Kane after the departure of “Batwoman” star Ruby Rose, instead creating a new character who will don the Batwoman cowl.

Tuned In online

Today's TV Q&A column on the blog responds to questions about “Wynonna Earp,” “The Drew Carey Show,” Cinemax originals and KDKA-TV. This week's Tuned In Journal includes posts on “Dirty John.” Read online-only TV content at http://communityvoices.post-gazette.com/arts-entertainment-living/tuned-in.

TV writer Rob Owen: rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Follow RobOwenTV on Twitter or Facebook for breaking TV news.

First Published: June 4, 2020, 12:00 p.m.

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