‘Vanderpump Rules’ VanderFires some VanderRacists

by Therese Odell, posted in Uncategorized

Welcome to Tuesday.

George Floyd is having his final homegoing service here in Houston as I type this. More Confederate monuments are continuing to be pulled down — and not those to the Founding Fathers — because most people can distinguish between memorializing Founding Fathers for creating this nation (even though they were slave owners) and memorializing treasonous racists for the singular and sole reason that they were treasonous racists. And President Dipshit is accusing the 75-year-old man who was assaulted by the police in Buffalo of being a member of Antifa and faking his injuries.

All political reporters need to head to Congress today armed with this:

My job is to talk about TV, so let’s talk about some TV. First, I have a homework assignment for you: Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas. The former Daily Show correspondent had a show for two seasons on HBO, each season devoted to a systemic societal problem. The first season was all about police brutality and how to fix policing, the second season was about education. At the time it aired, I remember being blown away by how thoughtful and thought-provoking both Cenac and the series as a whole was. The series doesn’t come up with easy answers or fixes, because there are none, but it does expose just how deep and entrenched some of these problems are. Both seasons are on HBO Max or you can watch them on YouTube for free, so if you’re looking for a guide through this discussion we are having about “defunding” or reforming the police, I strongly recommend you give the first season a looksee.

This was a segment that really resonated with me when it originally aired:

Vanderpump Rules has fired Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute for calling the cops on Faith Stowers. Earlier it was reported that Stassi Schroeder had been dropped by her agents and manager.

kristen doute surprise vanderpump rules

Watch your backs, Jax and Brittany.

More people, including JoJo Fletcher, Ben Higgins, Arie Luyendyk Jr., Desiree Siegfried, Tyler Cameron, Bibiana Julian, Dustin Kendrick, Olivia Caridi, Onyeka Ehie, Devin Harris, Alayah Benavidez, Mykenna Dorn, Amanda Stanton, and Ashley Spivey, are calling for ABC to finally cast a black Bachelor. Here’s a petition you can sign to join the call:

Justice for All, a primetime special hosted by Gayle King, will air tonight on BET and CBSN.

PBS is adding documentaries about racial injustice to their schedules. I Am Not Your Negro and The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution will air tomorrow night.

The Black Power Mixtape is available to stream on Amazon and Apple TV+ for free through June 12.

Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, S.W.A.T.‘s co-creator and showrunner, who also happens to be black, wrestles with TV’s handling of the police in this fascinating piece:

As the descendants of Dragnet have grown into successful franchises like Law & Order, CSI, and NCIS, we’ve seen the rise of the vigilante anti-hero cop—the cowboy cop, who often has seemingly understandable reasons for doing questionable things, sometimes to the detriment of black people. Respected shows like The Shield and NYPD Blue feature this concept. But even these shows have found their way into police worlds mostly through the eyes of white cops, leaving the point of view of people of color mostly as an afterthought.

In the TV industry, diversity is often claimed to be addressed through casting, but if the voice behind the characters remains consistently and almost exclusively white, diversity is literally only skin deep. The goal should be to increase perspectives, both in front of and behind the camera. It would be great to see more police officers portrayed as having the power to empathize, or at least a humility and desire to acquire such an ability.

Byron Allen writes about what needs to happen now.

Oh, Alia Shawkat.

MTV’s The Challenge has cut ties with their contestant Dee Nguyen after she posted some offensive tweets about Black Lives Matter.

Chris Redd and Sam Richardson are some of the Second City alums calling for an investigation into the institution’s history of racism and sexism.

Little Britain has been pulled off of Netflix because it uses blackface.

And speaking of, Adam Rapoport, the editor in chief of Bon Appétit, has resigned after an old Instagram post of him in brownface emerged.

NASCAR’s only black driver at the highest level, Bubba Wallace, is calling for a ban of the Confederate flag at all races. God bless and good luck:

Rachel Adedeji, formerly an actress on the British series Hollyoaks, called out racism she witnessed on set. Channel 4 is investigating.

And for my Real Housewives folks out there, Vulture‘s terrific Real Housewife recapper, Brian Moylan, has an offer for you:

Sonya Winton-Odamtten and Jonathan Kidd the creators of the upcoming HBO series Lovecraft Country, launched #FeedBCHW Challenge to help health care workers in underserved black neighborhoods. Here they talk about the pandemic and the impact on black communities.

Anthony Mackie is launching the United for Grocery Workers Relief Fund in New Orleans to support struggling grocery store employees during COVID-19.

Vancouver is making steps towards restarting TV production. It probably won’t come back until after July 1, but this bodes well for many of The CW’s productions (and specifically for Supernatural to be able to film their final episodes). And, in fact, filming on The Outpost is resuming in Serbia this week.

The MTV Movie & TV Awards has been postponed with no new date set. Maybe December?

CBS Sports is bringing the PGA Tour back this weekend and it’s a whole thing.

New York City is starting to reopen.

Along those lines, Google Maps will now show travel alerts and predict crowds on public transport. Useful!

All Other TV News

Pete Davidson has no intention of leaving SNL anytime soon, everyone can calm down. (And can I say, I found him much funnier in the music videos he made under lockdown than his Weekend Update bits which can be funny but often devolve pretty quickly into dumb dick jokes.)

Here are the first four minutes of the upcoming Psych movie, which will be available on Peacock on July 15.

Someone appears to be manning Clay Jensen’s Gmail account on 13 Reasons Why.

Rick Riordan knows that the Percy Jackson movies sucked, but he swears the TV series on Disney+ is going to be great:

Cicely Tyson is receiving the Peabody Awards’ Career Achievement Award. She is an icon.

Get well soon, Sunday Burquest.

In Development

  • The Cold War drama Shadow Lines has been picked up by Sundance Now.
  • Line of Duty is coming back to Netflix.
  • Johan Renck, the Emmy-winning director of Chernobyl, is directing the pilot of The Last of Us for HBO.

Casting News

Mark Your Calendars

  • You Should Have Left will be available on PVOD on June 19.
  • Search Party returns on HBO Max on June 25. (Hooray!)
  • Celebrity Show-Off, a talent competition hosted by Malim Bialik, will debut on TBS on June 23.
  • B90 Strikes Back! will debut on TLC on June 22.
  • Welcome to Chechnya will debut on HBO on June 30.
  • Attica, a documentary about the prison riot, will air on Showtime on September 9, 2021.
  • Twogether will debut on Netflix on June 26.
  • Talking Heads will premiere on BBC on June 25.
  • One-Way to Tomorrow will debut on Netflix on June 19.

R.I.P.

Bonnie Pointer, Member of The Pointer Sisters

WATCH THIS

OWN Spotlight: Where Do We Go From Here?: Oprah Winfrey leads a two-night conversation on race and justice that will be simulcast on the Discovery networks. 7 p.m., OWN, HGTV, Food, AHC, Discovery, ID, Science, GAC, DFC, Travel, TLC, Motortrend, DIY, DLC, Cooking, DA

Variety’s Power of Women: Frontline Heroes: A celebration of female frontline heroes — doctors, nurses, teachers, researchers — getting us through this OTHER crisis, because one major crisis is not enough. 7 p.m., Lifetime

Flirting with Disaster: And if you just need something, anything else to take your mind off of all of this, I recommend this now classic, brilliant Ben Stiller/Patricia Arquette comedy. It is one of my favorites. 8:25 HBO Comedy

Late Night:

  • Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, Jonathan Van Ness, Christian Slater, Sia
  • Late Night with Seth Meyers: Brad Paisley
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Chris Wallace
  • The Late Late Show with James Corden: Gordon Ramsay, Kehlani
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live: Josh Gad
  • The Daily Show: The Daily Social Distancing Show
  • Conan: TBA
  • Watch What Happens Live: Porsha Williams, W. Kamau Bell

 

TUES. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC The Conners
(repeat)		 The Conners
(repeat)		 Modern Family
(repeat)		 Modern Family
(repeat)		 The Genetic Detective
(new)
CBS NCIS
(repeat)		 FBI
(repeat)		 FBI: Most Wanted
(repeat)
CW Stargirl
(new)		 Jim Gaffigan: Noble Ape Local
FOX Hell’s Kitchen
(repeat)		 Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back
(repeat)		 News/Local
NBC America’s Got Talent
(new)		 World of Dance
(new)

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