What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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August 23 - 29, 2020 WHATS UP! T5 BY MICHELLE ROSE TV Media Stars on 'Simpsons': How do you keep things fresh when you've been on the air for over three decades? That is both the enviable and unenviable position in which the creative team behind "The Simpsons" now finds itself — "enviable" because it's the lon- gest-running scripted show of all time and "unenviable" be- cause it puts a heck of a lot of pressure on the writers. Luckily, celebrity guest stars have been spicing things up since Tony Bennett "appeared" as himself in Season 2 (although technically, Marcia Wallace, who voiced Edna Krabappel, was the first to be credited as a guest star). You can count on Season 32 to keep this long-standing tra- dition alive by featuring a few famous names, er, voices, in- cluding singer/actor Ben Platt ("The Politician"), standup co- median Hannibal Buress and the world-traveling "Monty Py- thon" legend Sir Michael Palin. "Stranger Things" star David Harbour is also on board as the voice of an alternate version of Mr. Burns, as is Olivia Colman ("The Crown") as a femme fa- tale. They'll be adding their names to a very long list of guest stars — in fact, "The Simpsons" holds the Guinness World Record for Most Guest Stars Featured in an Animated TV Series, with a total of 810 celebrity cameos as of April 22, 2020. And a few of those guest stars, notably Kelsey Grammer ("Frasier") and Anne Hathaway ("The Dark Knight Rises," 2012), even won an Emmy for their vocal work on the series. During a Comic-Con@Home panel, writer David Selman was especially excited about Palin, who has already recorded his lines. Selman described him as the guest "who I always wanted to get and who we finally did get." Meanwhile, showrunner Al Jean teased that another "Py- thon" member had passed on the opportunity, though he de- clined to name the person. (Giv- en that Terry Jones died earlier this year, Graham Chapman died in 1989 and Eric Idle has already made an appearance, it stands to reason it was either Terry Gil- liam or John Cleese.) The vaccine race: While the world waits for a safe and effec- tive vaccine to safeguard us against COVID-19, the pharma- ceutical race has inspired at least one potential TV project. "Succession" executive pro- ducer Adam McKay and HBO appear to be teaming up for a new limited series based on the book "The First Show," written by New York Times and The At- lantic writer Brendan Borrell, who has been covering vaccine trials for a number of different publications. The book pulls back the cur- tain on the companies and indi- viduals who are doing every- thing they can to find a vaccine that works. It also delves into the science behind it all and the risk of protectionism that could pre- vent equal access. The "Untitled Vaccine Proj- ect" will be produced by McK- ay's Hyperobject Industries, which was launched last year af- ter his amicable split with long- time producing partner Will Ferrell ("Saturday Night Live"). It's also part of McKay's five- year, first-look deal with HBO; his first project under that deal was another limited series cen- tered on the Jeffrey Epstein case, while his 1980s L.A. Lakers dra- ma (starring John C. Reilly, "Holmes & Watson," 2018) is still in the works. There's also a possible TV adaptation of the Oscar-winning film "Parasite" and a climate change-themed anthology series, "The Uninhab- itable Earth." Mob time: If you've ever dreamed of a TV show that com- bines "The Sopranos" with "Goodfellas," you may soon get your wish. Terence Winter, who won four Emmys and three Writer's Guild of America Awards during his time as writer/executive pro- ducer of "The Sopranos," is teaming up with "Goodfelllas" writer Nicholas Pileggi to bring a new mob drama to Showtime. Winter will pen the screenplay based on Pileggi's in-depth his- torical overview of organized crime and corruption in Ameri- ca, as seen through the eyes of a Mafia family. Hollywood mega- producer Brian Grazer ("Arrest- ed Development") will also serve as executive producer. It's a world that both Winter and Pileggi know well. Winter, who wrote more than a quarter of all "The Sopranos" episodes, was the creator and executive producer of HBO's period mob drama, "Boardwalk Empire." He's also working on an upcom- ing crime drama, "Tokyo Un- derworld," though his work on non-mob dramas is equally im- pressive: his screenplay for the 2013 film "The Wolf of Wall Street" earned him an Oscar nomination; he co-created the HBO series "Vinyl" with Mick Jagger, Martin Scorsese and Rich Cohen; and he's working on a DC drama set in Gotham City. As for Pileggi, his "Goodfel- las" screenplay earned him (and co-writer/director Martin Scors- ese) an Oscar nomination and was based on his book "Wise- guy." They teamed up again to write the script for the 1995 film "Casino," which was based on another of Pileggi's books, and Pileggi co-created the CBS se- ries "Vegas." BAY BEACH BOARDWALK COAST CONCH CORAL COVER-UP CRAB DOCK FAMILY FISH JETSKI JETTIES KAYAK KELP KITE LAKE LOUNGER OCEAN PARASOL PICNIC PIER REEF RELAXING SAND- CASTLE SCUBA SEA SALT SHORE SUN HAT SURFING TAFFY TANNING TIDE TOWEL TRIP TRUNKS VACATION WATER WAVES WEEKEND WHARF Beach Day! Hannibal Buress is set to guest star in "The Simpsons" WORD SEARCH STARS ON SCREEN Solution on page T23