Tag Archives: Tony Goldwyn

Scandal vs. Madam Secretary

Madam Secretary continues to pull in a good size audience (well over 10 million viewers) each Sunday night on CBS, despite the fact that Sunday means audience members have to pay attention to sporting events and make sure they know what time the episode will actually start.  Thankfully we live in a modern age where the crawler at the bottom of the screen is often used to announce exactly what time both Madam Secretary and The Good Wife will begin if it is different than what was announced in television guides.

So how does Madam Secretary measure up to Scandal?  Both shows are set in the Nation’s Capitol.  Both shows theoretically center around solving problems of great import and keeping our nation running.

The primary difference is that Madam Secretary has thus far focused primarily on big problems.  Treaties between nations, treason, an operatives cover being blown while he is over seas and the decision having to be made does the government send in a Seal team ala going after Bin Laden or are diplomatic channels used to recover him.  Complex issues are faced every week, and in the end someone, somehow, comes up with a remarkably simple solution.  The twists and turns of the episode keep you wondering how these characters will pull it out, and how the real folks in Washington, D.C., get things done.   There are subtle reminders not only about how much goes on that we will never see, but about how nations care who extends their hand first to shake on a deal, and that words matter in public statements that may well end up in the history books.

Madam Secretary can give someone unfamiliar with the workings of political machines a lot to think about.   Scandal on the other hand delves into the behind the scenes in an entirely different way.

Scandal explores exactly what the title implies.  The Scandals Washington, D.C. wants to make go away, where Madam Secretary is focusing on the events of their world and trying to cope with them.  It might be fair to say where one is looking purely inside the beltway, the other has a much broader view, looking outward, where Scandal is exploring the hidden secrets of the lives of those who govern a world in which I’m grateful is fantasy, Madam Secretary rips multiple headlines at a time, turns them into an engrossing episode, and by the end of the episode I feel as though I have some understanding of just how complicated a world we live in… and why I am grateful I never chose to make a life for myself in our Nation’s Capitol.

For some, Washington, D.C., is the land of dreams, hope and potential, for others it is a place of back room deals, seedy plots, sequestrations, a land where two political parties take pride in being loyal opposition.  Madam Secretary and Scandal are both imaginary works, taking very different perspectives on the same basic location.   Where the President in Madam Secretary relies on his Secretary of State to solve the problem of the episode, in Scandal the problem of the episode needs to be solved by Oliva Pope, a keen problem solver, but someone who, in most episodes, is not a part of the political machine.

If you are watching one show, give the other a try.  Both Madam Secretary and Scandal have a lot to offer in terms of making you stop and think about how Washington, D.C. functions, how you might wish it functions.  Where Madam Secretary highlights the complexities and details of politics and makes me marvel that anyone survives treading in those waters Scandal makes me particularly glad that is not the world we live in.

Madam Secretary airs Sunday nights on CBS.
Scandal airs Thursday nights on ABC

TGIT – Welcome to Shondaland

On Thursday night if you tune your television to ABC you will take a trip to a place many refer to as Shondaland.  TGIT, or Thank God It is Thursday as the network is branding the night, is the home of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder, 3 scintillating shows with executive producer Shonda Rhimes in common.

Now in it’s eleventh season on the air, Grey’s Anatomy is an anchor for the night.  The relationship between Derek Sheppard and Meredith Grey has long been the central focus of the ensemble show which follows a complex group of characters through their daily lives in a Seattle hospital.  For those who like serial shows with slightly soapy plots, this is your show!  If you want to be able to drop in and out of a show however, nothing in Shondaland is likely to be for you.

The hallmark of a Shondaland show tends to be story arcs and plots that are woven together over the course of weeks, sometimes seasons, with twists and turns that simultaneously feel as though they came out of no where and yet, when you look back there is this nagging feeling that the writers played fair.  Bread crumbs were laid, hints dropped and the gut feeling exists that if only you had been paying a little more attention you just might have seen it coming.  That the shock that had you going “what just happened!” should not have been a shock.

Scandal follows the intrigues of a President in office (Fitz) and his Washington, D.C. fixer (Olivia).  Both Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal are loosely inspired by real people.  That is to say that it has come to light that a real problem solver for a President was spoken to before Scandal went on the air, no such behind the scenes relationships existed etc, but from a kernel of truth, and the knowledge that a real job existed  — a lot of curiosity about all the potential that existed a that whole world of possibilities — intrigue and Scandals was created.

Currently in its fourth season, Scandal was a mid-season replacement when it first hit the air in April of 2012.  A fact that the show used to its advantage to hook early viewers — because it enabled the show to start with a powerful 7 episode arc that contained individually satisfying episodes, but at the end of those 7 episodes it felt as though viewers had reached the end of a novel they could not wait to get their hands on the sequel to… and guess what, the seasons have just kept coming.

How To Get Away With Murder is this years addition to prime-time television from Shonda Rhimes and co.  Another brain-teasing show with trailers that sizzle off the screen, it is about a law professor who is also a practicing lawyer, who chooses several top students to intern in her law firm for some rare hands on experience, and by the looks of it, a year that will change all of their lives.  While the title is officially taken from the lead characters nickname for the class she is teaching, one might suspect it has some more practical applications to at least one subplot… or maybe I have just learned a thing or two from watching other Shondaland land shows over the past decade.

Someone recently told me that they had tried Scandal after hearing praise of the plot twists, but the dialogue did not feel like everyday conversation, the situations did not feel like something they could easily relate to, and as a result, they did not easily slip into the shows universe.  The only response I could give was, ‘go back, marathon those first 7 episodes, and view it not as the real world, but as something set apart, knowing it isn’t meant to be your real world.  Try and anticipate the twists, try and figure out where it is going, embrace the challenge, enjoy the cunning of the writers in Shondaland, and marvel at their skill in plotting and surprising their viewers.’  I for one would not want to live in the realm of Grey’s Anatomy or Scandal.  I have not seen enough of How To Get Away With Murder to make a decision there… but if what I’ve seen of other Shondaland shows holds true, I can already hazard a guess.

These are shows I watch to appreciate the world I live in.  Pay Shondaland a visit, then come back to the real world, take a nice deep breath, relax, and be grateful that is not reality.

“Grey’s Anatomy” stars Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey, Patrick Dempsey as Derek Shepherd, Justin Chambers as Alex Karev, Chandra Wilson as Miranda Bailey, James Pickens, Jr. as Richard Webber, Sara Ramirez as Callie Torres, Kevin McKidd as Owen Hunt, Jessica Capshaw as Arizona Robbins, Jesse Williams as Jackson Avery, Sarah Drew as April Kepner, Camilla Luddington as Jo Wilson, Jerrika Hinton as Stephanie Edwards and Caterina Scorsone as Amelia Shepherd.

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“Scandal” stars Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope, Guillermo Diaz as Huck, Darby Stanchfield as Abby Whelan, Katie Lowes as Quinn Perkins, Tony Goldwyn as President Fitzgerald Grant, Jeff Perry as Cyrus Beene, Bellamy Young as Mellie Grant, Joshua Malina as David Rosen and Scott Foley as Jacob “Jake” Ballard.

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ABC.com: http://abc.go.com/shows/scandal

“How to Get Away with Murder” stars Academy-Award Nominee Viola Davis as Professor Annalise Keating, Billy Brown as Detective Nate Lahey, Alfred Enoch as Wes Gibbins, Jack Falahee as Connor Walsh, Katie Findlay as Rebecca Sutter, Aja Naomi King as Michaela Pratt, Matt McGorry as Asher Millstone, Karla Souza as Laurel Castillo, Charlie Weber as Frank Delfino and Liza Weil as Bonnie Winterbottom.

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How To Get Away With Murder – ABC


How To Get Away With Murder is one of those shows that has a trailer that makes a person stop and pay attention.  The moment you hear Viola Davis, as Annalise Keating, say “or as I like to call it, How To Get Away With Murder,” something in the air seems to change.  Her delivery of the line is so perfect, so captivating, you want to be student in her classroom, and for a brief moment you want the world being created on that screen to be real, because there is something almost hypnotic going on.

HTGAWM600x800Then you remember this is a Shonda Rhimes show.  As in Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy.  Suddenly, with that realization in mind, it is all too easy to go from wishing this world was real to being grateful it is not!  After all, would you want to live in a world where Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) was President of the United States?  Where Sally Langston (Kate Burton) was Vice-President?  Stop and really think about the Washington goings-on of Scandal and ponder if you want that reality?  Take a deep breath and remind yourself that is just the creative workings of Shondaland, and her amazing team.  Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and her team are fantastic characters that do not really exist — to our knowledge.

And now, think again about How To Get Away With Murder.   What is the mind that brought us Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal going to do to Law School and the legal system?  I for one can not wait to find out!

The twists and turns of Scandal are so often believable because the show plays fair, leaving bread crumbs, planting clues along the way, and twisting in ways I really do not want them to go and yet, when they do, even as my mind boggles at what comes next, it works.

More than once I have found myself wishing Shonda Rhimes had time to teach a few lessons on plotting twists and turns to the writers of other shows I am watching, shows that are coming close and then falling short of the bar she has set.  Shows that are not bad, but lack that “oh wow” moment that she so often delivers, and credibly at that.

Early in the first season, student Wes will become entangled with his mysterious neighbor, Rebecca (Katie Findlay), after she becomes the main suspect in the murder of a beautiful university coed. Professor Annalise Keating’s involvement with Rebecca’s case will challenge her students’ values, convictions, and dreams, as she teaches them the dark truth about the law and our justice system. It’s worth it though. Working for Annalise is the opportunity of a lifetime, one that can change the course of our students’ lives forever, which is exactly what happens when they find themselves involved in a murder plot that will rock the entire university.

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How To Get Away With Murder premieres Thursday Sept 25, on ABC at 10 PM ET/ 9 PM CT

A two and a half minute first look at the show from ABC:

Stand Up To Cancer 2014

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The Stand Up To Cancer press release says so well what they are about, and what is going on tonight.  Normally we avoid the copy and paste approach with press releases… but in this case, the details matter too much, and we want to get it exactly right.

 Friday, September 5th (8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT) Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), will stage its fourth biennial fundraising event.  Robert Downey Jr., Melissa McCarthy, Steve Carell, Sofia Vergara, Ben Falcone, Kevin Bacon, Anna Kendrick, Tony Goldwyn, Dave Grohl, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Gad, Giada De Laurentiis, Jaime King, Mira Sorvino, Joe Manganiello, Jordana Brewster, Alison Sweeney, Amanda de Cadenet, Charlie Wilson, and Diem Brown, will be part of the star-studded appeal to help build public support for SU2C’s groundbreaking translational research that can provide patients with new therapies to save lives now. They join previously announced participants including Gwyneth Paltrow, Katie Couric, Reese Witherspoon, Pierce Brosnan, Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, Jon Hamm, Kiefer Sutherland, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Mark Harmon, Rob Lowe, Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Tony Hale, Dane Cook, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Marg Helgenberger, Matt Passmore, Rob Riggle, Italia Ricci, Ethan Zohn and Bree Turner. Special musical performances include: The Who, Jennifer Hudson, Lupe Fiasco & Common, Ariana Grande, and Dave Matthews Band.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet Productions will co-executive produce the September 5th broadcast, live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.  ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, along with ABC Family, American Forces Network, AXS TV, Bravo, Cooking Channel, Discovery Fit & Health, E!, Encore, Encore Espanol, EPIX, ESPNEWS, FOX Sports 2, FXM, HBO, HBO Latino, ION Television, LMN, Logo TV, MLB Network, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, Palladia, Pivot, SHOWTIME, Smithsonian Channel, Starz, TNT and VH1 are donating one hour of simultaneous commercial-free primetime for the nationally televised fundraising special on Friday. In addition, the show will stream live on both Hulu and Yahoo.

Instead of the traditional phone bank staffed by celebrities, the September 5th telecast will feature a “digital lounge” on the set, hosted by Yahoo News Global Anchor Katie Couric. Stars in the digital lounge will reach out to viewers via phone, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms through an exciting new campaign called “We’re Calling You” that SU2C’s supporters can sign up for at werecallingyou.org.

In the on-stage digital lounge, Katie Couric will tap into the Facebook Mentions Box, which allows supporters to share their connection to cancer and receive real-time responses from celebrities. Other celebrities in the digital lounge will participate in Facebook Q&As, using their own pages to respond live to fan questions.  Facebook and Instagram will also have a presence on the star-studded red carpet on September 5th with a photo experience that will capture the stars as they make their way into the Dolby Theatre, sharing those images and videos with fans. All of this, and much more, can be followed on Stand Up To Cancer’s social media feeds (facebook.com/su2c | Instagram: @SU2C | Twitter: @SU2C).

In addition to Facebook, an array of digital and social media platforms and influencers— ranging from Shazam, reddit, Nerdist, Tumblr, Yahoo, Hulu, AOL, and The Huffington Post— are helping support SU2C this year.

For the first time, there will be a Canada-inclusive co-broadcast of the 2014 telecast, which will air simultaneously on all four major English-language Canadian networks: CBC, City, CTV and Global, along with Canadian services AMI, CHCH, CHEK, Fight Network, Gusto TV, Hollywood Suite and TLN. All funds received from the Canadian general public during the broadcast will be directed towards the creation of collaborative research teams, as well as education and awareness programs conducted in Canada.

The first three SU2C telecasts took place on September 5, 2008, September 10, 2010 and September 7, 2012, and were made available to more than 190 countries. To date, more than $261 million has been pledged to support SU2C’s innovative cancer research programs. Since 2008, SU2C has funded 12 “Dream Teams” of researchers and two translational research teams, as well as 26 young innovative scientists whose high-risk, potentially high-reward projects are aimed at ending cancer’s reign as a leading cause of death worldwide.

There are times when it seems competition and the free market reign supreme, but Stand Up To Cancer is a prime example of an industry pulling together as one united force in opposition to something that touches lives daily throughout the world.  As they say on the StandUpToCancer website:

1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes. We can change these odds.

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