Television
TV: The Women-Created Network Shows in Contention for Fall 2014
The Hollywood Reporter has published a running list of all the network pilots in contention for the 2014–2015 season. About 40% of them (11 of 26) feature women creators, showrunners, and/or...
Happy Holidays
We’re going to take some downtime this week. Hope you have a happy holiday.
TV Superlatives of 2013
All this week, Women and Hollywood will run our own “Best of” lists to honor and celebrate the year’s best women-directed and women-centric movies and TV shows. See our previous posts on the...
Blood-Boiler of the Day: TV Show Canceled for Having Too Many Smart, Interesting Girl Characters
Hollywood execs can get awfully creative when they need to come up with excuses for why film and TV should stay so male-centric. Boys won’t watch stories about girls? Wrong. Women and girls...
Infographic: Women and Hollywood — Better Luck Next Year…Or Next Decade
Change is the keyword in Hollywood these days. A globalizing marketplace, the exportation of work from Los Angeles to every other corner of the world, the replacement of celluloid by digital, and the...
TV: New Black Comedienne to Join SNL (Finally)
Public protests from castmembers, widespread media scrutiny, and the existence of many talented black comediennes have finally convinced longtime SNL producer Lorne Michaels to add an...
Golden Globe Noms Reflect the Status Quo of Hollywood Sexism
The 2014 Golden Globe Awards have us excited about Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s return to hosting duties and… that’s about it. With no women directors (minus Frozen co-helmer Jennifer Lee) or...
Judy Blume and Lena Dunham on What It’s Like to be Pioneers in Sexual Frankness
Lena Dunham and Judy Blume interviewed each other for a book called Judy Blume and Lena Dunham in Conversation: Two Cultural Icons Discuss Writing, Feminism, Censorship, Sex, and a Sixth-Grade...
We Are Mis-Represented
Great video from the folks at The Representation Project proving that there is still so much work to do. Here’s to a world with better media representation of women. It’s what we all need. Way...
Nikki Finke Gets the Last “Toldja” in Funny or Die video
When Nikki Finke started writing Deadline back in the days of the writers strike it was a revelation. Here was a woman pushing the envelope all across Hollywood — agitating and...
Katie Couric is the New Face of Tech
Silicon Valley is a boys’ club — some might even call it a Fortress of Boy-itude. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg made herself one of the few female public figures in San Jose (AKA “Man...
TV: Oprah Winfrey and Diablo Cody to Partner for HBO Comedy
In her last major role, Oprah Winfrey played against type as an alcoholic, adulterous housewife in The Butler. Winfrey will continue to show an edgier side with her most recently announced project,...
TV Trailer Watch: Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’ Season 3: “I’m Someone Who Can’t Keep My Mouth Shut”
“Everything that’s been so terrible and so painful in the last few months is leading me to this point. It’s amazing to realize I hold the keys to the prison that is my mind,” says Hannah...
TV: Maya Rudolph to Return to NBC in Variety Show
SNL comedienne and Up All Night actress Maya Rudolph is the latest entertainer to attempt a resuscitation of the primetime variety show. She and SNL producer Lorne Michaels have sold a vehicle for...
Quote of the Day: Shonda Rhimes
Today in “duh tinged with schadenfreude,” Shonda Rhimes reveals that gray-haired male ABC execs have no idea what women are like or what they want to watch. In an interview to NPR,...
Lena Dunham and Mindy Kaling Talk Feminism, Role Models, and Being the Boss
Yesterday, RollingStone.com published a revealing excerpt from Rookie: Yearbook Two, the second book from Tavi Gevinson’s teen site, in which Lena Dunham (HBO’s Girls) interviewed Mindy Kaling...
TV Roundup: Patricia Cornwell, Zooey Deschanel, and Nahnatchka Khan Sell Shows to Networks
Bestselling author Patricia Cornwell, New Girl star Zooey Deschanel, and Don’t Trust the B — — in Apt 23 creatorNahnatchka Khan are among several women who recently announced...
Essence Magazine Launches Short Film Competition
In the November issue of Essence, the magazine published a study on how black female audiences viewed their counterparts on the big and small screens. Unsurprisingly, the results were dispiriting....
Ellie Kemper to Headline Tina Fey Written Comedy
We’ve been following all news about the multiple television projects that Tina Fey has in the works. And one of those projects just got a straight to series order at NBC along with a star for...
Ellen DeGeneres and Liz Feldman Developing Lesbian Sitcom for NBC
Ellen DeGeneres and Liz Feldman will be developing a lesbian sitcom for NBC. Written by Feldman, the sitcom will focus on a lesbian who gets pregnant with her straight male best friend just as he...
Octavia Spencer to Murder She Wrote Reboot, Melissa McCarthy to Produce Sitcom and Other TV News
In the most exciting TV news of the week, NBC has given a put pilot commitment to a Murder She Wrote reboot starring Oscar winner, Octavia Spencer. Alexandra Cunningham will write and executive...
The Disrespecting of Parks and Recreation
A furor went through the ranks of tasteful television-lovers earlier this week with the announcement that NBC was moving three episodes of Parks and Recreation, bringing the show back for two weeks,...
America Ferrera Heads Back to Television
America Ferrera is heading back to television screens in her first leading role since Ugly Betty. Ferrera will headline Damascus, playing a nun in law school who uses her studies to benefit the...
Susan Sarandon to Star in Mother-Daughter Sitcom at NBC
Susan Sarandon joins the growing list of actresses heading to the small screen. She will star in a mother-daughter sitcom for NBC alongside her daughter, Eva Amurri Martino. Martino will write...
Meg Ryan to TV
Another movie star (or former movie star) is taking to the small screen. Meg Ryan will soon be heading to television screens with a new NBC comedy from Marc Lawrence. Ryan will play a former big...
Smallville’s Super Girl, Laura Vandervoort, to Produce Series About Girl with Superpowers
Laura Vandervoort, who played Supergirl Kara on Smallville, has created Super Duper Deelia, a series for young girls. Vandervoort, who will also executive produce, explained her motivations for...
Halle Berry Heading to TV with CBS Series
We have all noticed the recent trend of actresses like Anna Faris and Toni Collette trying their hand at network TV. It seems to be the medium where women can work and play interesting characters....
How Will We Remember ‘Breaking Bad’s Skyler White?
In the lead-up to the final half-season of Breaking Bad, AMC’s much-admired show about an Albuquerque chemistry teacher who began cooking and selling methamphetamine when he received a cancer...
DGA Report: Women Represent Only 14% of TV Directors
The DGA has released its annual report tracking the statistics of directors on episodic TV shows for the 2012–2013 season, and the news is that there is no news. The numbers have remained pretty...
CNN and NBC Cancel Hillary Clinton Projects
After both CNN and NBC announced that they were both developing projects about Hillary Clinton — a documentary and a miniseries respectively — it caused a panic to say the least. The...
Must Watch: SNL Girls Parody with Tina Fey
Over the weekend, Tina Fey hosted the first new episode of the latest season of Saturday Night Live. One of the highlights of Fey’s hosting was a parody of Girls with Fey playing Blerta,...
TV Trailer Watch: Homeland Season 3
The official trailer for season 3 of Homeland has been released just in time for the season premiere. The new season focuses on the repercussions of the CIA headquarters bombing. Carrie (Claire...
Why Characters Like Masters Of Sex’s Virginia Johnson Matter
On September 29 at 10PM, when Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) walks briskly through the halls of a St. Louis hospital as she goes about her duties as the assistant to Dr. William Masters (Michael...
2013 Emmy Wrap-up
When did watching the Emmy’s become so painful? It wasn’t that I was offended like I was at the last Oscar telecast, but I found the whole thing a bit of a bore. I hate that...
Fall TV Preview – The Best and Worst So Far
It’s September, which means it’s time for a new television season. But the plethora of new shows arriving this year can be equal parts gift and curse. Before you start setting your DVRs...
Nine for IX: The Runner Directed by Shola Lynch Premieres Tonight
The latest Nine for IX documentary The Runner directed by Shola Lynch (Free Angela and all Political Prisoners) will premiere tonight at 8pm on ESPN. The film tells the story of the...
Cross Post: Fostering Our Future
The new fantastic, flashy, female-fronted shows of the season have received seemingly endless and endlessly deserving ink. We all love “Orphan Black” and “Orange Is the New...
Gwyneth Horder-Payton: A Woman Who Specializes in Directing Men
At a panel of directors who work on FX shows at the Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles on Sunday, one of the reporters in the room asked newly-minted Directors Guild of America...
Nine for IX: Let Them Wear Towels Directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern Premieres Tonight on ESPN
The latest film (the third) in the series Nine for IX is a historical look at the women who broke the barriers for women to cover sports. It is directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern and...
The Hollywood Reporter’s Emmy Drama Actress Roundtable
Last week, The Hollywood Reporter released their kickoff Emmy roundtable–highlighting the achievements of actresses in a drama. Some of our favorite women were on the panel which consisted of...
Trailer Roundup: Women Created Fall TV Shows
We’ve been reporting quite a bit about the Fall TV pick ups recently. Only 8 women created shows were picked up among all the networks which is a really depressing number. However, at least we...
Why Women in Power Positions Matter
While we are still digesting the bad news from yesterday with the release of statistics on the low amount of women onscreen in films, TV continues to be the bright spot regarding women’s...
Watch This: Barbara Walters Officially Announces Retirement
As we previously reported, the rumors swirling about Barbara Walters’ retirement in 2014 were growing. Finally, the journalism legend confirmed and announced her retirement on The View...
Pilot Watch: The CW Is Clear Early Winner for Women, NBC and Fox Order No Women Written Shows
This is crunch week in TV land where current shows either get picked up for next season or cancelled and some happy pilot writers get a series pickup. As of this morning, NBC, Fox and The...
Don’t Forget: Kristen Wiig to Host SNL This Weekend
You know you’re excited. We sure are. Might be a good live tweet occasion.
Olive Kitteridge Gets HBO Miniseries Treatment with Lisa Cholodenko and Frances McDormand
Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitizer winning novel, Olive Kitteridge, is set for a four-hour miniseries at HBO. Adapted by Jane Anderson, Olive Kitteridge tells the story of a small New England town...
Talking Shonda Rhimes’ Scandal on Melissa Harris-Perry
On this last week’s Melissa Harris-Perry show she devoted a whole segment to Shonda Rhimes’ show Scandal. In the segment she is joined by Andrea Plaid, Heather McGee, Joy-Ann...
Melissa McCarthy on SNL
Melissa McCarthy hosted SNL for the second time this past weekend. While I don’t think that this show was as strong as her first hosting gig, it was far better than so many of the other...
Watch This: Jewel as June Carter Cash in Lifetime’s ‘Ring of Fire’
Singer Jewel will be starring as June Carter Cash in Lifetime’s television movie, Ring of Fire. Directed by the great Allison Anders (director of Gas, Food Lodging), the press materials...
Thank you Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters may be leaving our television screens next year. The legendary television personality is reportedly retiring in 2014, and leaving her co-created show, The View after co-hosting it for...
Krysten Ritter, Margo Martindale and Melanie Lynskey Nab New Pilots
Some of our favorite underappreciated actresses have been cast in pilots for the upcoming Fall TV season. The hilarious Krysten Ritter of the dearly departed Apartment 23 has been cast as the lead in...