Interview: Martha Williamson of “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”

Posted on April 17, 2014 at 8:00 am

Talking to Martha Williamson is pure positive energy and a real treat. The creator of “Touched by an Angel” has a new series on the Hallmark channel. It’s called “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” and it is about a USPS dead letter office where a quirky but very dedicated group of people track down the recipients and change lives by delivering letters. I’ve seen the first two episodes, starring Eric Mabius (“Ugly Betty”) and Kristin Booth, with a special appearance by the effervescent Valerie Harper. It premieres on April 20 at 8/7 central. Carol Burnett will guest star on the series finale.

The first two episodes are great!

Thank you, thank you. They’re both different; I want everybody to realize that there’s a broad world out there of storytelling that we can do. We can get you laughing and crying and we can talk about the serious things with a light touch and the sunny things with a deep touch and we’ll be covering a lot of ground.

Why in the world of texting and IMing and instagram create a television program about old fashioned, analog letter writing?

It is a lost art. Letter writing should not take the place of texting and tweeting and emailing but neither should those things take away the power of the written letter and the written word. I can hold a letter in my hand that my father wrote to me forty years ago and I can still feel what it was like to receive it, I can still hear his voice, I can still look at the little tiny holes in the onionskin paper that he always used for stationary. There’s something so real and so tangible about it. As we stop writing things down on paper we are losing a lot of history. I was just watching last night on TV which is I just stopped for one moment to get my head out of this script and I watched the news and they were talking about global warming and the problems of how long we are going to have electricity.

What happen someday when you can’t boot up and download or upload or recall all those emails that somebody zapped off to you in two seconds? But I can always go to that box of letters from my friends and my family and hold them in my hand. I’m certainly not advocating that we cut down more trees. I’m a big believer in recycling but when you stop to think about what you’re saying with a pen in your hand, you chose your words more carefully. You don’t write things and hit send before you think about it and wish you could retrieve it. You can dash off a letter that you could then put into a drawer and think better about it and not accidentally send it off. There is something about our amazing language and how we are losing our ability to use it effectively that makes me very sad.

Tell me a little about this wonderful assortment of characters you’ve brought together.

Oliver, played by Eric Mabius, is a wonderful fellow from the twentieth century and how he manages to be so young and so old at the same time is really an example of the best of both centuries. This is a guy who was probably raised by old fashioned folks like mine. My dad was born in 1901. He’s a gentleman, he believes in old fashioned values but does not make values a dirty word.

He doesn’t combine values with judgment, he goes to church and sings in the choir but tries to live out his faith more than impose it and he truly tries to do the right thing. And I think more than anything he is kind and that is what draws Shane (Kristin Booth) to him.

Shane is very much a creature of the 21st century and of the new technologies and those are easy things to hide behind. And Oliver is so strong in his gentle mentality and Shane doesn’t quite know what to do with that. You imagine Shane being one of those women who would go to a happy hour with the girls after work. But she would never see Oliver there; this is a guy that she’s never run across before. This is a guy who probably values her more than she even values herself sometimes as a friend and as a person and not as an object. He’s married and has had his heart broken and I think that that’s an important message that our faith does not inoculate us from pain but it does help us get through it and I love that. I just made that up!

And then you’ve got a character with a perfect memory?

Oh yes, Rita Haywith, played by Chrystal Lowe. I love her. Every one of these characters is some part of me that you’ll find everywhere. Rita I think is the most childlike part of me, the part that still wants to believe the absolute best in everyone she meets and is excited about every day. There’s a line in the Bible that says “His mercies are new every morning,” and I just imagine that Rita is the living example of that. That she just wakes up every day so excited that she got another one. And that’s very fun and easy for me to write. I don’t really have a photographic memory although I used to have one that was pretty good, until I had children.

You’ll see later on, she makes a choice to not compete in the traditional way. She can only compete against herself; otherwise it doesn’t matter. It just hit me but I think that’s kind of what I’ve always sort of been.

And Norman (Geoff Gustafson) is somebody who has been deeply hurt, I think. I think he’s the part of all of us who is looking for kindness by being kind, who has an amazing ability for survival, not ability but a facility for survival. And he knows so many things. He loves knowing a whole bunch of stuff and doesn’t always put it in the right order, he always has a cousin who’s connected to something or someone, he can always find a solution but it’s not always going to be the one you’ll expect and it’s going to be fun to watch him come out of his shell. One of the great dividends of this show will be to explore the friendship of men and how they have the opportunity to elevate each other rather than to bring each other down.

I was surprised and very tickled to see that there are musical numbers in the show.

Oh, absolutely! I just wrote a musical member from the special delivery. It’s the funniest thing it goes like “You’re the special delivery, yes you’re our post office queen….”

I can’t wait to see it!

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For Earth Day: A New Series About Climate Change

Posted on April 13, 2014 at 3:59 pm

Some people do not believe scientists or the global community, who are united in the warnings about climate change. Maybe they will believe celebrities. That’s the idea behind this series, “The Years of Living Dangerously.” It premieres tonight on Showtime and the first episode is available below. Harrison Ford, Don Cheadle, and others visit ordinary Americans living with heatwaves and drought and interview scientists about the human causes of climate change.

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Environment/Green Television

Interview: Charles Humbard of UPTV on “The Passion of the Christ”

Posted on April 10, 2014 at 12:09 pm

Charles “Charley” Humbard, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of UP, is a 32-year entertainment industry veteran. Since the network’s inception, he has led the channel’s overall business strategy and growth and maintained the network’s mission to uplift, inspire and entertain viewers through quality entertainment programming. Launched as the Gospel Music Channel and later known as GMC TV, the network changed its name to UP on June 1, 2013 to better reflect its programming mission of Uplifting Entertainment.
Son of the country’s first television minister, Charley Humbard began his career writing music, performing and producing gospel music for Rex Humbard Worldwide Ministries. Today, Mr. Humbard continues to be committed to bringing uplifting family values entertainment to viewers across America through UP. He took time to talk with me about UP’s Holy Week programming, especially the first network television showing of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”

Will this very intense and involving film work well on television?

It is an intense and involving experience. I really believe “The Passion” is most of all a love story, really a love story of a son for his heavenly father and a mother for the support of her son. It is a depiction of what was probably the worst thing that could happen to human being — crucifixion. I mean the Romans did that for a reason, right? It wasn’t the easiest way to kill you but it was definitely a way to make others pay attention. And try to dissuade them from doing things the Romans didn’t want them to do.

So the movie has a lot of very difficult, very tough and challenging scenes. But for all audience and for people out there who really understand the Easter story and try to live their lives and follow the teachings that comes from Christ and from the Easter story, who really feel like it, it is such a powerful movie that can move hearts.

It’s also an opportunity for people to invite other people to church. I really believe this is a moment when you can invite maybe a non-believer to watch and really, I think move their heart in a good place. I think the movie is very powerful that way and as you look back ten years ago when it came out and after some $616 million in the box office, the biggest independent film ever made. People weren’t going to watch just because somebody in it got crucified. People went to that movie because of the real story it tells and the impact it has on peoples’ lives to truly understand the depth and the importance of that story.

So for us I think it’s a perfect way. We like to say that “Easter lives here.” It’s our way of saying to our viewers and others that we get Easter just like we do Christmas in a way you really want to celebrate it. We understand what Easter is really about. It’s kind of a little secret handshake in a way that say it lives here right? So I think this is the perfect movie to be one of the pillars of the entire two weeks. We are on this on Palm Sunday right in the middle of the two week Easter celebration of one of the biggest Bible movies ever. Every night a good Bible story is on, and it would be remiss almost not to have “The Passion of the Christ,” right?

Are you going to be showing it with limited interruptions? Are you editing it at all?

We’re showing it with limited commercial interruptions. The guidelines on how this movie is allowed to be aired is really set by Mel and the distributor. And they have very specific guidelines for us on how many commercial breaks they will allow us to air. We didn’t want to do it with a lot anyhow so it kinda fit beautifully, I think there’s only four breaks in the entire two hours so that fit very well with how we would have desired to have it. And they also will not allow you to edit past the re-edit they did, so the second edit Mel Gibson had done back when he first released the movie to make it more appropriate for a television audience is the version we are airing.

What are some of the other movies that you are going to be showing during this week?

All week, two weeks really, beginning the week before “Passion” and going all the way through Easter, we’ve got the greatest stories of the Bible: “Peter and Paul,” “Solomon,” “The Story of David,” “Barabbas,” “Jeremiah,” “The story of Ruth,” “The 10 Commandments,” “The Book of Ruth,” “Esther,” – it’s just like mega Bible movie mania! “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “The Passion of the Christ,” “Mary, Mother of Jesus,” “The Story of Jacob and Joseph,” “Judas,” “King of Kings,” and “Jesus,” which was a great miniseries and our highest rated ever on our network that was aired last year for Easter. Also “The Robe,” “Demetrius,” “The Gladiators,” “The Apostle Peter,” and “The Last Supper.”

Is there a Bible story that has not been made into a movie that you would like to see?

I have never really thought about it at that angle. We in the past have traditionally made these types of movies, these are movies we acquire. The movies we make a more modern and contemporary in theme. Though next year, in 2015 we’ve partnered with the BBC and we are creating “Noah.” So that will of course be a real Bible movie. We were kind of timely with Noah coming out this year as a theatrical release.

How do you see your audience? Do you see your audience as believers?

Here’s what we know from research. Our research tells us that faith is very important to our viewers. Our viewers, people who watch us today, faith is an important part of their lives and how that faith plays out in their values and therefore their entertainment choices. That we know. We know our audience, from the recent Nielsen research, is the audience that believes those things and is seeking programming like ours is in excess of 42 million. So that’s a substantial… It’s a huge audience. As a matter of fact, in the three groups that Nielsen identified, they are the largest group, bigger than the reality seekers, bigger than what I would like to call my “Breaking Bad” audience out there that is kind of anti-this kind of programming. I think that shows in the success of our growth and distribution and also in the continued ratings growth, quarter after quarter year after year. So we know our audience is seeking programming that aligns with their faith and values right. But is also seeking programming that affirms and inspires those values. So we do know that our audience is a more faithful audience but the thing that’s nice about the programs that we would like to use and maybe the movie “The Blind Side” as a good example, what’s nice about the movies we make; even if you are not someone who is practicing faith in your life every day, who doesn’t like a great inspirational story?

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Farewell to HIMYM

Posted on March 31, 2014 at 8:00 am

Ted has met the woman who will become the mother of his children, Barney and Robin are married, and after nine seasons it is time for the beloved series How I Met Your Mother to come to an end. Fans are already bidding farewell and recalling their favorite legendary moments.

Photo: Richard Cartwright/CBS ©2014 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

I especially enjoyed the Hollywood Reporter’s list of HIMYM’s best musical moments. Though for me, the best will always be Robin Sparkles.

HIMYM was the “Friends” of the last decade, that show about young people negotiating their post-college years with the kind of close, committed friendships that help them weather everything from unfortunate tattoos, job disappointments, broken hearts, and the loss of a parent. Architect Ted (Josh Radnor) was the eternal optimist, always looking for love. His best friends from college, Marshall (Jason Segal) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) were the stable, forever-committed couple (I’m just going to forget the misbegotten episodes where Lily left Marshall to pursue her art career). Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) was the debonair lady-killer of the group, unapologetically committed to as many one-night stands as possible. And Robin (Cobie Smulders) was a television journalist from Canada, sometime love interest for Ted but ultimately marrying Barney in the show’s season-long wedding weekend. What made it stand out was the narrative innovation, with unreliable narration and nested story-telling and the genuine chemistry between its cast members. Plus some great catch (wait for it) phrases and useful life lessons. In the Washington Post, Emily Yahr wrote about what made the show so meaningful to its audience.

In addition to capturing nostalgia, there are many reasons the show caught on with the younger crowd: It launched a thousand catchphrases (“Legend – wait for it – dary”), pick-up lines (“Haaave you met Ted?”) and teachings for 20-something life (“Nothing good ever happens after 2 a.m.”). Overall though, “HIMYM” offered a much more valuable lesson about the importance of adult friendship, as the intense bonding in post-college years means that those friends essentially become your family.

And if you want to catch up on nine years of HIMYM in time for the grand finale, here’s your cheat sheet (not to mention that you can pretty much catch it at any time in syndication). The characters may be gone, but the slap-bet, bro code, woo girls, suiting up, and of course the goat go on forever. And a spin-off, “How I Met Your Dad,” is set to premiere next fall.

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Television

Tonight on PBS: The Story of the Jews

Posted on March 25, 2014 at 5:57 pm

Starting tonight on PBS: Simon Schama hosts #StoryofTheJewsPBS – 3000 years of Jewish history, culture & identity.

Prize winning author of fifteen books and Emmy-Award winner Simon Schama brings to life Jewish history and experience in a new five-part documentary series The Story of the Jews with Simon Schama premiering Tuesdays March 25th 8-10 p.m. ET (episodes 1 and 2) and April 1st, 8-11 p.m. ET (episodes 3, 4 and 5) on PBS (check local listings). The five-hour series follows Schama – who has written and presented 50 documentaries on art, literature and history and is a Contributing Editor of the Financial Times, as he travels from Russia and the Ukraine to Egypt, Israel and Spain, exploring the imprint that Jewish culture has made on the world and the drama of suffering, resilience and rebirth that has gone with it.

The series is at the same time, a personal journey for Schama who has been immersed in Jewish history since his postwar childhood; a meditation on its dramatic trajectory, and a macro- history of a people whose mark on the world has been out of all proportion to its modest numbers.“If you were to remove from our collective history” said Schama, “the contribution Jews have made to human culture, our world would be almost unrecognizable. There would be no monotheism, no written Bible, and our sense of modernity would be completely different. So the history of the Jews is everyone’s history too and what I hope people will take away from the series is that sense of connection: a weave of cultural strands over the millennia, some brilliant, some dark, but resolving into a fabric of thrilling, sometimes tragic, often exalted creativity. “

The Story of the Jews draws on primary sources which include the Elephantine papyri, a collection of 5th century BC manuscripts illuminating the life of a town of Jewish soldiers and their families in ancient Egypt; the astonishing trove of documents – the Cairo Geniza – recording the world of the medieval Jews of the Mediterranean and Near East; the records of disputations between Christians and Jews in Spain, correspondence between the leader of the Arab revolt during the First World War, Emir Feisal and the leader of the Zionist movement Chaim Weizmann.

PBS has made a wide range of online resources available to supplement the series and is sponsoring a high school essay competition to encourage high school aged students across America to examine how stories shape our identities. Some of the local affiliates have produced their own supplemental programs about the Jews of their communities as well.

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Television