Boilerplate: “An inside look at the lives of the people who help America wake up in the morning, exploring the unique challenges faced by the women and men who carry out this daily televised ritual.”
What are the best films ever made about the TV news/entertainment business? Network and Broadcast News, right? But those were informed by a guy perspective, and written by the brilliant Paddy Chayefsky and James L. Brooks, respectively. You can tell right away that The Morning Show, an Apple TV web series that will launch sometime this fall, is coming from a Type-A female perspective, and that it’s going to focus on ego, status and power games. (“Don’t you ever question my integrity in my own house ever again” is one of the overheard lines.)
Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon (who also exec produce) are the stars. And you know Steve Carell is probably going to play some kind of pompous asshole, or perhaps an odious character based in part on Matt Lauer. Out of the show’s seven executive producers, only one (Michael Ellenberg) is a guy. The costars include Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Billy Crudup, Néstor Carbonell and Mark Duplass,
What’s the worst or least successful backstage drama along these lines? Correct — Switching Channels.