Posted on 02/02/2018 1:49:01 PM PST by EdnaMode
CBS is adding a twist to the classic TV character of Thomas Magnum in his return to television. I hear CBS’ intention is to pursue a non-white actor for the title character in its Magnum P.I reboot, a role originally played by Tom Selleck.
Additionally, I hear Lacey in CBS’ reboot of Cagney & Lacey, also is likely to be non-white. The character was written in the pilot script as a woman of color, sources say. In the Emmy-winning original, the title roles were played by Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless.
The trio of witches at the center of the original Charmed series (Shannen Doherty/Rose McGowan, Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs) also is expected to look a lot more diverse in the reboot underway at the CW, which also has a Mexican American girl at the center on its Roswell reboot.
This is part of an across-the-board effort by the broadcast networks this year to have casts that represent the diverse makeup of America. What’s more, while non-white actors had often been relegated to supporting roles in the past, judging by early buzz, some predict that we may have one of the most, if not the most diverse group of broadcast pilot leads ever.
A number of pilots went into casting with non-white leads already attached or written into them.
ABC’s The Greatest American Hero is re-imagining Steven J. Cannell’s 1981 cult classic, in which the unlikely (super)hero at the center Ralph Hinkley was played by William Katt. In the reboot, it is Meera, an Indian American woman.
ABC also has a Get Christie Love reboot starring Kylie Bunbury and Untitled Holmes Sisters drama, which explores the lives of five African American sisters. NBC has a Gabrielle Union-led Bad Boys offshoot, with the female co-lead opposite her also likely to be non-white. Fox has comedy pilot Rel toplined by Lil Rel and the Lee Daniels-produced Out People, about an African American man whose fiancée is from the Midwest. CBS has multi-cultural comedy pilot History of Them starring Ana Villafañe and comedy pilot Pandas In New York, about a family of Indian doctors.
In addition to going in a different direction on Thomas Magnum, CBS also is changing the makeup of his all-male team in the original series. In the new version, one of the members will be a woman, whose casting I hear is open to any ethnicity.
The networks have taken a diverse route in rebooting famous titles before. Fox employed the strategy with its 24 revamp, 24: Legacy, which had Corey Hawkins play a new character taking the mantle from Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer. And CBS a couple of years ago reconceived Nancy Drew with a pilot, in which the character was played by Sarah Shahi.
“Hollywood is now literally saying “Whites Need Not Apply” to several of their lead roles.”
But you know almost all the bad guys will be white males.
Hummina, hummina, hummina!!!!!
More interested in who will play Cagney and Lacey. The go to casting now is for a couple of hot gals regardless of color. Daly and Gless were hardly hot. Daly easily passed for the working Queens wife with kids. Gless wouldn’t be tossed out of bed, but she’d hardly be the first gal talked to at the bar. Look at the gals in the 5-0 and Macgyver reboots and you will see what the show runners want.
Is Obungo the Producer?
Maybe the fake ex-president can issue an EO making not watching them a Federal felony
Wait.
Never mind...
I got it.
Make BET channel carry them. They are really hurting for viewers. Their instamatic broke down, and the highly awaited SOTU response by Maxine Waters hasn't been yet aired and it's been two days!
She really needs the money, too, since her wigs were stolen.
The FBI has been unable to help so far... and her 90 million fans can't wait forever!
Looting and burning due to begin any minute now...
...or a black spouse/best friend....
The new Magnum will be played by Bruce Jenner while Cagney and Lacy will be black and white male fags.
Welcome to Hollywood 2018. Is it any wonder we are doomed?
The Charmed one could work if they don’t make them sisters like the original. A coven a young good witches has some appeal.
Get Christie Love’s main character was black in the original, so that wouldn’t be an issue. Side note, I loved the original series as a young man and thought Theresa Graves was sexy!
The Magnum series will fail with a black lead for sure, and so will the Cagney and Lacey one, most likely. I see they may just make one of the side characters in Magnum, PI a woman and that could work, but Magnum is so tied to Tom Selleck, why even call it Magnum, PI?
The Greatest American Hero wasn’t that big a hit to begin with, so this reboot with an Indian American woman sounds like a disaster.
The Bad Boys spinoff might work with Gabrielle Union since she was in the 2nd movie and I used to think she was super sexy to boot, but its been years and may have lost its mojo.
Diversity is our murderer.
The few times I’ve watched network TV in the last 8 years, I came away with the impression that 90% of the population in the US is either black or queer.
I really liked “Luther”, as wierd and as creepy as it was sometimes.
There will never ever be a satisfactory replacement for Tom Selleck. But if they’re going to have a black Magnum, Idris A. Would be my first choice. He’s probably too old for the role, but I don’t care. I like him as an actor.
Get Christie Love reboot starring Kylie Bunbury
Kylie Bunbury is black so this goes against diversity. She must be at least “Hispanic” wherever that country is.
Thomas Magnum open to any ethnicity..... yeah right.
I’ve binge-watched Luther and never noticed any problems. Supernatural is a great show, iZombie is a great show, pretty much that’s it on this side of the world, Rizzoli and Isles is pretty OK, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine has its moments. Other than that BBC America is the thing to watch. TV seems to be full of boring shows that are predictable, preachy, and juvenile. They appear to be assembled like legos, and then glitter-bombed with whathaveyou. Two words for you, “Sleepy Hollow.”
Let a white girl play Esmerelda in the Hunchback of Notre Dame and SJWs go nuts. Blackwash classic TV shows and the libs don’t give a F***.
Don’t look now but white males are becoming a rarity in commercials while blacks are in virtually every one. Pay attention and it becomes obvious we are being replaced.
Another trend I've noticed lately is commercials with older white people with their grandchildren, and the grandchildren are obviously half black.
Luther does NO police work. He doesn’t run down leads, rifle through old mug shots, or anything real cops do. No, he finds the perp by watching to see if the suspect blinks or not. And that ridiculous would be lover who killed her parents and got away with it. Because no one found the bullet in the dead dog. The entire show would have been better without her absurd character.
Luther has a good premise, some good actors, but suffers from one of the worst sins a show can commit. Characters who don’t act like real people.
He does not act like a cop, you’re right, at least any of the ones I have known. Luther does get into workplace politics, though, and then exaggerates them, and that is going to resonate with a heck of a lot of people.
Alice works because she taps into a vigilante impulse (she routinely defends the good guy) while at the same time keeping some distance because she’s a sociopath. She’s brilliant, accomplished, posh, and very bad-ass.
The show meets people where they are.
You might have a backstabbing “friend” for example. Watching a worst case scenario with the “friend” killing one’s ex, framing one, and trying to get one shot dead by one’s co-workers... well. It’s hard to feel sorry for yourself about your own situation after running through a scenario like that :)
Alice doesn’t work on any level. Her character is preposterous and so overreacted she makes Anthony Hopkins playing Hannibal Lecter look restrained by comparison..
Didn’t they try that with “24” and achieve little success, ending the reboot after one season ?
Mr. wear-the-skin-of-other-people and all but cackle by the light of the blood moon, look restrained by comparison to Alice Morgan? No, I will have to disagree with you here FRiend :)
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