What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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T22 WHATS UP! February 6 - 12, 2022 The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Not everybody is showing up to work these days. According to the most recent jobs reports, in November, "the number of peo- ple quitting jobs hit an all-time high" in what is being called the "Great Resignation." When reached for comment on the Great Resignation, one econo- mist said, "Ask somebody else. I quit!" Restaurants are also filling their jobs with robots, such as "Flip- py," from Miso Robotics, which "uses artificial intelligence sen- sors, computer vision and robot- ic arms to fry fast food." This thing is capable of solving the most complex mathematic cal- culations and it's frying fast food. It's a scientific break- through: They've invented a synthetic grad student! Amazon's Alexa may soon be going to space. ... A spokesper- son for Amazon says that the de- vice could "allow astronauts to obtain real-time data" ... [and] could also communicate with Earth "to retrieve all sorts of in- formation, such as news, that would help astronauts to feel less lonely." Yes, because if there's one thing that always cheers me up when I'm feeling down, it's the news. Everybody is saying that if you're vaccinated, [the] Omi- cron [variant of COVID-19] is very mild. Well, OK, but if that's the case, then why do we have a record-breaking 145,000 COVID hospitalizations, with experts predicting a peak in the "300,000 range"? Soon there's going to be almost as many hospitals as there are TV shows about hospi- tals. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon According to the CDC, only one in 10 adults in the U.S. eats enough fruits and vegetables. ... Yup, the CDC says adults should eat two to three cups of vegeta- bles a day. Wait, now they're say- ing four to five. No, wait. No, now they're saying only one. Some Honda and Acura models have been hit with a bug that re- sets their clocks 20 years in the past. The company could tell something was up when drivers seemed happy. A federal judge just ruled that U.S. cheesemakers can still make Gruyère cheese, even if it doesn't come from the Gruyère region of Switzerland. However, the judge said Velveeta still must come from the Velveeta region of France. ... If this case is ap- pealed, it could make it to the Nacho Supreme Court. The Late Late Show With James Corden Senate Democrats have official- ly announced that they are put- ting President Biden's signature climate and social spending bill on hold. There simply aren't enough Democratic votes to get Build Back Better through the Senate at this time. It's a real Build Back Bummer. Biden's disapproval ratings have hit a new high. According to a new CNBC poll that came out today, 60% of respondents don't approve of Biden's handling of the economy. On the bright side, at least voters have forgotten about Afghanistan. Jimmy Kimmel Live! I honestly have no idea how I haven't been infected with [the Omicron variant]. It's starting to feel like I felt before I lost my virginity. Everyone else had. I know I probably will eventually, and when I finally do, I just hope it goes as fast as losing my vir- ginity did. The reason the Globes were a no-go this year is because, among other things, it was re- vealed that the Hollywood For- eign Press — which was a phony and corrupt organization in the first place — didn't have a single Black member: 84 members [and] zero of them were Black. It was like Flag Day at Mar-A- Lago. The CDC, you know, they issue these travel warnings and now they issued a "Do Not Travel" warning to Canada, of all places. They're warning us not to go to Canada. Canada was like, "Fine with us! Do not come. We were about to suggest the same thing!" LATE LAUGHS BY MICHELLE ROSE TV Media 'Life Goes On' goes on: A hit for ABC in the early '90s (1989-93, to be exact), "Life Goes On" was the drama series that broke new ground by featuring a main character with Down syndrome (played by Chris Burke, "Mona Lisa Smile," 2003). It also gave actress Kellie Martin ("Christy") her big break. Now 30 years later, Martin is set to return to her most famous TV role in a followup series, one developed by NBC and not ABC, surprisingly. The sequel had been shopped around late last year, but just re- cently, Peacock gave it a "put pi- lot" order, falling just short of a formal pilot order. While that means this is all a work in prog- ress, it also means a significant financial penalty for the net- work if NBC decides to pass on it. "All American" showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll will write and (co-)executive produce the "Life Goes On" sequel under her eight-figure overall deal with Warner Bros. Television, which actually owns the IP — the stu- dio licensed "Life Goes On" to ABC in the '90s. Series creator Michael Braverman ("Beverly Hills, 90210") will serve as exec- utive consultant. As for Martin, the star is also on board as a producer along- side Chad Lowe ("24"), who won an Emmy in 1993 for playing Becca's HIV-positive boyfriend (also a groundbreaking storyline in its time). According to the official log- line, the sequel "will revisit a grown-up Becca Thatcher [Martin], now an accomplished doctor, and her extended family as she returns to her home- town." No word yet on whether Burke will reprise his role as Corky or if the sequel will in- clude appearances from on- screen parents Bill Smitrovich ("The Event") and Patti LuPone ("State and Main," 2000 ). Back to Degrassi: Continu- ing with the reboot theme, War- nerMedia Kids & Family — the family-oriented arm of Warner- Media — recently greenlit a new teen drama series inspired by the popular Degrassi franchise, a cornerstone of Canadian televi- sion since 1980. Like the original series (and several others that followed), this new "Degrassi" will be a character-driven drama that fol- lows teen students and school faculty as they experience events that both bind them and tear them apart. It's scheduled to begin filming in Toronto this summer, with Lara Azzopardi ("The Bold Type") and Julia Co- hen ("Riverdale") serving as both showrunners and execu- tive producers. In a statement, Azzopardi and Cohen explained, "What excites us maybe the most about reviv- ing this beloved franchise is turning it into a truly serialized one-hour drama. We're honored to be given the opportunity to lead this evolution and bring this iconic series back into people's homes." There's more. In addition to this new 10-episode series (which should land on HBO Max in 2023), the streamer also picked up the U.S. rights to all 14 seasons of "Degrassi: The Next Generation," including the sev- en seasons that featured Drake before he rose to fame as a rap- per ("The Vampire Diaries" ac- tress Nina Dobrev also got her start on the series). Those epi- sodes should be available for viewing this spring, while the original series should pop up on Cartoon Network later on. FX casting: Domhnall Glee- son ("Ex Machina," 2014) is soon to be "The Patient." The limited series from FX had already found its lead in Steve Carell ("The Morning Show") when the project was greenlit and formally an- nounced last October. We knew that the frequent Emmy nominee would play a psychotherapist held prisoner by a serial killer with an unusual request: Curb his homicidal urg- es. What follows over the course of 10 episodes is Carell's charac- ter attempting to unwind his pa- tient's mind while under duress and dealing with his own re- pressed troubles. But who would be playing said "Patient"? That question re- mained largely unanswered un- til recently when FX announced Gleeson's addition to the cast as the co-lead. Other additions to the cast include Linda Emond ("Succession"), Laura Niemi ("This Is Us") and Andrew Leeds ("Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist"). Though some may know him as Bill Weasley from the Harry Potter films or bad guy Gen. Hux from the Star Wars sequel trilo- gy, Gleeson has amassed a long list of film, TV and stage credits. A Tony nominee, Gleeson re- cently starred in the play "Medi- cine" and will next appear in the five-part HBO limited series "The White House Plumbers" opposite Woody Harrelson ("True Detective") and Justin Theroux ("The Mosquito Coast"). As for "The Patient," the psy- chological thriller hails from writer-producers Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, the creative duo behind the hit series "The Americans." Another "Ameri- cans" alumnus, Chris Long, has been tapped to serve as an exec- utive producer and will direct the first two episodes. Production is already under- way. Kellie Martin to star in "Life Goes On" sequel STARS ON SCREEN