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February 28, 2015

The Daily Star - Stay Tuned

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The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, February 27, 2015 2 By Cassie Dresch TV Media H ello? Hi? Anybody out there? Of course there is, otherwise life would be very, very, very lonely. Fox is taking a stab at the ultimate life of loneliness in the new half- hour comedy "The Last Man on Earth," premiering Sunday, March 1. The premise around "Last Man" is a simple one, albeit a little strange. An average, un- assuming man is on the hunt for any signs of other living people after a virus takes out all of Earth's population. His family is gone, his coworkers are gone, the president is gone. Everyone. Gone. So what does he do? He travels the United States doing things he never would have been able to do otherwise — sing the national anthem at Dodger Stadium, smear gooey peanut butter all over a price- less piece of art ... then walk away with it, break things. The show, according to creator and star Will Forte ("Saturday Night Live," "Nebraska," 2013), sees him get into a lot of really silly shenanigans. "It's all just kind of stupid stuff that I go around and do," he said in an interview with "Entertainment Week- ly." "That's been one of the most fun parts of the job. About once a week I get to do something that seems like it'd be amazingly fun to do: shoot a flame thrower at a bunch of wigs, have a steamroller steamroll over a case of beer. Just dumb stuff like that, which pretty much is all it takes to make me happy." Flame throwers and steam- rollers? Again, it's a strange concept, but Fox is really be- hind the show. As if engaging in a multi-network bidding war for the rights to the show's pi- lot wasn't dedication enough to the idea, a few months after it won the bid, Fox completely skipped the pilot episode pro- cess and ordered a full season without airing a single episode. "It's been really fun and ex- citing because it's such a weird concept and Fox has really em- braced it, giving us their full support," Forte said. "Trying to figure out how to tell a story with one person has been an incredible challenge, but also a really exciting challenge. Figur- ing out how to do it all has been really, really fun. We're re- ally proud of what has come out of it so far." Of course, you have to won- der with the show title worded the way it is: is Forte's charac- ter, Phil Miller, the last man on Earth or is he the last person? While Forte hasn't really opened up about that — there are a lot of aspects of this show being kept under wraps — the answer to that question was let out of the bag at the Televi- sion Critics Association winter press tour in January. Kristen Schaal ("Bob's Burgers," "Toy Story 3," 2010), whose casting announcement was made in December, joined the Q&A ses- sions with Forte and executive producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, lending credence to the idea that maybe she's the last woman on Earth. There are still some well- kept secrets among the crew, however. Mel Rodriguez ("En- listed"), Cleopatra Coleman ("Wicked Science"), two-time Golden Globe nominee Janu- ary Jones ("Mad Men") and Oscar winner Mary Steenbur- gen ("Joan of Arcadia") have all been announced as players in the freshman comedy, but Miller, Lord and Forte have all kept mum on the specifics of each character. It may be kind of confusing, though, how a show that is billed as focusing on one single remaining man could have so many cast members. Miller ex- plained the move at the TCA winter press tour. "There are other actors in the show — and it's kind of surprising how they fit into it, whether by flashbacks, dreams or in the present- day," he said. "It's not just Will [Forte] going around and smashing things for 13 epi- sodes. TV shows are built on relationships, and it seemed kind of odd to make a show without any relationships." One problem with trying to film a TV show about the only man left on the planet is the fact that, logistically, it's difficult to get rid of all the noise from all the hu- mans that currently live on Earth. We make a ton of sound, even indirectly! "Avoiding noise is incredibly hard," Forte said at the TCA press tour. "Obviously, any time you're shooting anything, the sound of an airplane, the sound of a train is really hard [to filter out]." Whatever it is they're do- ing seems to be working, at least for Fox execs. "The Last Man on Earth" may be a strange concept for a 13-epi- sode TV show, but the straight-to-series order and growing list of cast members lends itself to the possibility that maybe — just maybe — this show is a diamond in the rough. Catch the series premiere of "The Last Man on Earth" when it airs Sun- day, March 1, on Fox. Christopher's Coins 2 x 2 coverstory Will Forte as seen in "The Last Man on Earth" One and only Fox tackles the loneliest number in 'The Last Man on Earth' By Adam Thomlison TV Media Q: Why in the world does the entertainment com- munity think older folks don't watch TV? So many good shows have been canceled because the net- works say not enough young people watch. Don't they think older viewers need and want to watch something too? A: This is certainly one of the most frustrating problems in television, and as the saying goes, to get an answer you have to follow the money. Broadcast television, along with most of cable, makes its money from advertising, and advertising studies show time and again that the most lucrative demographic to target is between the ages of 18 and 49. "The older population is seen as brand loyal; it's harder to get them to change their purchasing habits," Lyle Schwartz, a marketplace analysis expert, explained in a study for "Television Quarterly." And so the advertisers hoping to reach the less-loyal, younger demo demand that the networks produce shows that will draw them in. The economics of cable are slightly different, but most ca- ble channels still depend on advertising for the biggest share of their revenue. The difference can be seen in the networks that do not depend on advertising, such as HBO and Showtime. Their programming is far less youth-skewed (compare HBO's "The Sopranos," for example, to CBS's "The Big Bang Theo- ry"). It can also be seen in the newest form of TV-show de- livery: online streaming. Netflix just bucked the trend by picking up "Longmire," which was dropped by A&E. Analysts say it was dropped from the ad-supported cable channel due to the high aver- age age of its viewership. However, Netflix, which does not depend on advertising, doesn't have to care about that: a subscriber is a subscriber for them. It remains to be seen whether "Longmire" will mark a new trend toward online shows that will finally target the older demographic. So far the evidence is mixed: among the new Netflix shows coming out this year are two shows based on com- ic books (pretty youth-skewing), but also a divorce- themed sitcom starring seventy-somethings Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. Have a question? Email us at questions@tvtabloid.com. Please include your name and town. Personal replies will not be provided. hollywoodQ&A

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