foolish watcher

The now-canceled ‘Live P.D.’ filmed a black man being killed by Texas cops and then destroyed the footage. It’s bad. This is bad.

Therese Odell
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Apparently, it’s Thursday! OK! So, let’s begin this Thursday with a little spot of joy:

Congratulations, Jared!

Another day, another reality cop show DOWN. A&E canceled their wildly popular series, Live P.D. in the wake of the police brutality protests and also because … HOLY SHIT, they filmed a police-involved death of a black man in Austin back in March, 2019, and destroyed the footage of it.

The story is so much worse than that, though. Javier Ambler was pulled over in Williamson County after a twenty-minute chase because he had his brights on. Cops held him down in the street and as he pleaded for mercy, told them he had congestive heart failure and that he couldn’t breathe, they tased him four times, resulting in his death.

Live P.D. filmed the entire thing through the body cameras the cops were wearing and with the camera crew that was riding along with the officers. The incident did not take place while the show was live, however, and never made it to broadcast. An internal affairs investigation within the Sherriff’s department took place, and you’ll be shocked to hear this, determined the police did nothing wrong. And that’s when Live P.D. destroyed their footage.

A&E’s statement said that Austin investigators had not asked for the video or to interview show producers. “As is the case with all footage taken by Live PD producers, we no longer retained the unaired footage after learning that the investigation had concluded,” the network said in a statement.

The contract between Williamson County and Live PD producers in place at the time of Ambler’s death allowed the show to destroy unaired footage within 30 days unless a court order or other state or federal law required it to be retained.

It’s bad. I urge you to read the Austin American-Statesman piece for the entire story as I only touched upon it lightly for Chron.com because I’m not a real journalist, just a dummy who pays attention to TeeVee nooze. But people are getting sued and the Travis County D.A. is assembling a grand jury, so something is definitely wrong here.

Live P.D.‘s host, Dan Abrams, regrets the tape was destroyed and that it wasn’t aired. OH, I BET YOU DO, DAN.

COPS reruns are also being pulled from TV schedules. GOOD.

Watch your back, Paw Patrol.

George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, testified before Congress yesterday and called for police reform and accountability.

Tucker Carlson is losing advertisers for being an asshole. Disney, T-Mobile, and Papa John’s are done with him.

Lisa Vanderpump has finally responded to the whole Vanderpump Rules mess:

And Faith Stowers has said that she’s pleased by Bravo’s response.

The Mighty Boosh is the most recent British comedy to be pulled from Netflix over blackface. Meanwhile, BAFTA-winning British comedy star and The Windsors actor Harry Enfield ain’t sorry for doing blackface in the past. Ok.

NASCAR is banning Confederate flags at their races. I’m genuinely shocked by this — things truly are changing. I mean, there are people calling for boycotts, so it’s not like racism is over or anything, but it’s a big step forward. Huge step forward.

And Confederate and Christopher Columbus statues are falling everywhere.

And over in Europe:

Meanwhile, President Klan has promised that he will not allow military bases named after Confederates to be renamed, including Fort Hood and Fort Bragg. (I mean, just think of having a Fort Arnold or Fort Rommel or a Fort Bin Laden — THE CONFEDERATES WERE ENEMIES OF THE UNITED STATES. FULL FUCKING STOP.)

And he’s planning on holding a rally on June 19th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is holding a MAGA rally on JUNETEENTH in the city that was the site of the WORST RACE MASSACRE IN UNITED STATES HISTORY …. this is not a dog whistle, this is a full-on racist bullhorn.

Also, he’s shortened “Secret Service” to SS, so that’s concerning.

Oh and Stephen Miller is reportedly writing him a speech to give on race relations, so that should go well.

But in a rare positive development:

President Bunkerbitch’s attack on Milley in 3 … 2 …

Becca Kufrin is having to defend her dumbass fiance again.

Dear Hollywood Actors: Everyone hates this shit. Cut it out. Signed, Literally Everyone.

Going Viral

We’re still in the middle of this pandemic, though it’s easy to forget that, what with everyone being bored with wearing masks and social distancing, but it’s true! And alarmingly, we are still losing somewhere between 800-1,000 Americans every day. At this rate, 200,000 Americans will be dead of the virus by September. And that’s before the fall hits and shit gets real. (By the way, I’m old enough to remember that they once told us we would have 65,000 deaths by August, and that seemed scary.)

BUT YEAH, LET’S OPEN LAS VEGAS BACK UP! LET’S FLING OPEN DISNEYLAND!

Speaking of: Disneyland is planning to reopen on July 17. We’ll see!

Coachella and Stagecoach are officially canceled for 2020.

Comic-Con has announced its virtual event will be held July 22-26, though they have not yet announced the schedule. Stay tuned!

Bradley Whitford discusses how the virus has impacted filming The Handmaid’s Tale and what it will look like when they can get back to the Canadian set (if they can). And in the same issue, Aidy Bryant discusses the impact on both Saturday Night Live and Shrill.

Wendy Williams is waiting for New York to reopen before returning to her show.

All Other TV News

Well, this is the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard: President Binky is threatening to sue CNN because they had a poll that showed Joe Biden leading him by 14 points.

Kobe Bryant is going to receive a posthumous Emmy.

Batwoman is not going to kill off Kate Kane. Stand down.

HBO Max will pull a bunch of their DC movies, including Wonder Woman, Batman, and Justice League next month, which is weird. HBO Max has only been up for a month, why would they remove movies so soon?

Here Padma Lakshmi discusses her upcoming Hulu series, Taste the Nation, and how she wants to explore the idea of what is “American food,” which, of course, is with the exception of Native American cuisines, all immigrant food.  (If this show sounds interesting to you, I also encourage you to watch Street Food on Netflix, in which food vendors in Asia tell their stories. It’s wonderful.)

So I haven’t gotten into this story at all because up to this point it had not been related to TV, but J.K. Rowling is a TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist) and in the past week or so, she’s been tweeting and writing some really ugly and hateful bullshit about trans people and it’s like, NOT NOW, J.K. ROWLING. GO COUNT YOUR MONEY AND BE QUIET. The Harry Potter actors have had to come out in support of trans people, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Eddie Redmayne. I breach it now because the cast and crew of Pose have come out to denounce Rowling’s comments and remind her and everyone else that she’s contributing to stigma and violence against the trans community. And Warner Brothers felt compelled to issue a statement affirming that they believe in inclusiveness.

Byron Allen and Comcast have laid down their fight and reached a settlement.

Wait, there were rumors that Jerry Seinfeld is a Scientologist? WAIT, THEY’RE NOT ENTIRELY UNFOUNDED?

This is a SCATHING but incredibly entertaining takedown of Glee. Sure, its low-hanging fruit, but the author makes a compelling argument for why Glee will not have the sort of nostalgic revival that other comedies of its time have enjoyed.

Patrick Stewart is so creeped out by Kieran Culkin on Succession, he can barely stay in the room when he’s on. HIGHEST COMPLIMENT.The Ruderman Family Foundation has honored This Is Us, See, Atypical, Spare Room, and The Politician for their representations of people with disabilities. You know you’ve made it when you’ve become Jeopardy! question:

Renewals

Cancellations

In Development

Mark Your Calendars

R.I.P.

Jas Waters, Writer on This is Us and Kidding, among others

Roberto Faraone Mennella, Jewelry maker who’s work was made popular on Sex and the City

WATCH THIS

Don’t: Adam Scott hosts this new game show in which contestants are challenged to not do things, like blink, get tired, or drink. Series premiere. 8 p.m., ABC

Man With a Plan: Adam tries to give his wife the perfect 20th wedding anniversary in the series finale. 7:30 p.m., CBS

The Bold Type: Jane returns to Scarlet with new editorial duties in the summer premiere. 9 p.m., Freeform

Whispers: This thriller is the first Saudi series to come to Netflix. After the family patriarch dies, his family is left to deal with his mysterious past which begins to surface. Premiere. Netflix

Late Night:

THUR 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Holey Moley
(new)		 Don’t
(new)		 To Tell the Truth
(new)
CBS Young Sheldon
(repeat)		 Man With a Plan
(new)		 Mom
(repeat)		 Broke
(new)		 S.W.A.T.
(new)
CW Burden of Truth
(repeat)		 In the Dark
(new)		 News/Local
FOX Celebrity Watch Party
(new)		 Labor of Love
(new)		 News/Local
NBC Council of Dads
(new)		 Blindspot
(new)		 Law & Order: SVU
(repeat)
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