What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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April 26 - May 2, 2020 WHATS UP! T5 BY MICHELLE ROSE TV Media Now in session: After a false start and a month-long wait, "Council of Dads" is ready to reconvene for a sec- ond episode airing Thursday, April 30, on NBC. The network has opted to take an unusual but not un- precedented (not for NBC, anyway) approach to launch- ing this new family drama. The hour-long series was orig- inally slated to premiere on March 10, but it was pushed back to March 24 to give "New Amsterdam" more time in the coveted time-slot after "This Is Us." Why March 24? That's when "This Is Us" wrapped its fourth season, and the finale was supposed to provide "Council of Dads" with a siz- able lead-in audience to get it off to a good start. Of course, that was a month ago and there hasn't been an- other episode since. But don't worry, the mini hiatus was a planned one. In fact, it's the same strategy NBC employed with "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist," which launched in January/February this year. "Council of Dads" stars Tom Everett Scott ("13 Reasons Why") as Scott Perry, a loving father whose cancer diagnosis prompts him to plan for his family's future. He enlists the help of several friends, played by Clive Standen ("Vikings"), Michael O'Neill ("Dallas Buy- ers Club," 2013) and J. August Richards ("Angel"), to provide some male parental guidance to Scott's four children and some support for his wife, Robin (Sarah Wayne Callies, "The Walking Dead"). The series is based on Bruce Feiler's 2010 memoir but will be taking quite a few creative liberties with the story. For one thing, Feiler survived his health scare in real life (he also has three kids); but by the end of the series premiere, we learned that Scott, the charac- ter based on Feiler, had died. We also watched the Council of Dads step in to walk Scott's eldest daughter down the aisle. May movie month: We don't usually see networks fil- ing their lineups with movies in May, which is normally the big month for season and se- ries finales. Then again, these are unprecedented times. Starting next week, you'll want to prep some popcorn on Sunday evenings. With "God Friended Me," "NCIS: Los An- geles" and "NCIS: New Or- leans" all bowing out early due to the coronavirus pandemic, CBS will be getting some pro- gramming help in May by air- ing movies from corporate sibling Paramount Pictures. On May 3, the network will air the 1981 movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the first of the Indiana Jones quartet of films produced by the film studio. The following Sunday, May 10, viewers can tune in to "Forrest Gump" (1994), starring Tom Hanks and Sally Field. On May 17, you can watch Tom Cruise in his first outing as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in the 1996 film "Mission: Impossible." This is the film that launched a fran- chise, which will add two more installments in 2021 and 2022. Ease into Memorial Day with the May 24 airing of "Ti- tanic" — no, not the 1996 CBS miniseries but the 1997 Oscar- winning film from director James Cameron. And on May 31, the May movie marathon ends with "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989). It stars Harrison Ford as the fe- dora-wearing, whip-cracking, snake-fearing archeologist, while Sean Connery is his aca- demic-minded father (though there's only a 12-year age gap between the two actors). This is the kind of program- ming move we'd see for sum- mer lineups. But with TV pro- ductions halted across the board, all networks are scram- bling to fill holes in their schedules right now, and many have even begun to make con - tingency plans for the fall. A lot of different options are ru- mored to be on the table, in- cluding shuffling some sum- mertime favorites that have al- ready completed production to a later date. Just expect more changes to come, be - cause as the outbreak evolves, so, too, does the TV landscape. Fiddy and Starz: It's hard to believe it's been 17 years since "In da Club" first hit the radio airwaves and made Cur- tis James "50 Cent" Jackson a star. Jackson has since sold more than 30 million records world- wide and remains one of the top-selling rappers of all time. But he's also been busy build- ing an impressive list of acting and producing credits. And that list just got a little longer this month. The rapper/actor/producer's latest TV project is "Black Ma- fia Family," which recently landed a straight-to-series or- der from Starz. It's an eight-ep- isode, drug trafficking drama. And it's based on the true story of Demetrius "Big Meech" Fle - nory and Terry "Southwest T" Flenory, two brothers who rose from the streets of Detroit in the 1980s to become one of the most influential crime families in America. This marks the fifth collabo- ration between Starz and Jack- son, who served as executive producer on the cable net- work's most-watched series, "Power." That one wrapped in February after six seasons, but it seems neither the network nor the producer were ready for the story to end, since Starz promptly ordered four spinoffs. Another "Power" alum, Randy Huggins, will serve as both scriptwriter and execu- tive producer alongside Jack- son, who considers "Black Ma- fia Family" to be a passion project. And that passion was evident in Jackson's state- ment. "I told you 'Black Mafia Family' was coming and it's going to be the biggest show on television," Jackson said. "Meech and Terry are legends and I am excited to bring their story to Starz." AMARYLLIS AZALEA BERGAMOT BLOOM BLOSSOM BLUEBELLS BUD BULBS CAMELIAS CHRYSAN- THEMUM DAISIES GROW HYDRANGEA IRIS LAVENDER LEAVES LILAC LUPINE MIMOSA PANSIES PETUNIA POINTSETTIA POLLEN POPPY ROOTS ROSE SAGE SAKURA SEEDS SPROUT STEMS TULIP VIOLETS WILD FLOWERS April Showers Bring... Sarah Wayne Callies stars in "Council of Dads" WORD SEARCH STARS ON SCREEN Solution on page T23