Directing Amy Reviews
Ahead of Comedy Central's “Inside Amy Schumer” premiering Tues (10:30pm), we caught up with executive producer and showrunner Dan Powell to discuss the show's format, production challenges and women in comedy today. For the most part, Season 2 had a single director, Ryan McFaul. But you and Amy both direct a couple of scenes. What compelled you to do so? We both had very specific visions on how we wanted to shoot them. Ryan had an absolute beast of a job. We had 50 sketches to shoot and 7 weeks, and since we're a modestly budgeted show, unless a sketch takes place in a single location, we're working backwards. We don't shoot them in chronological order. It was almost as if shooting a movie actually–200-some-odd pages of material. Is that specifically a directing challenge? Yes, in terms of keeping everything organized. We don't really consider production parameters too much when we're writing. The goal is to get the funniest material, that speaks most to Amy's voice and point of view, and things that Amy and Jesse [Klein] find interesting and funny and want to talk about. And then when we get to pre-production and the realities of production start to set in, there are certain changes we have to make, if there's a venue we can't get or something like that. Was there an occasion where it didn't work out? Jesse wrote a sketch that took place on a plane. It was a parody of Virgin Airlines. We had no idea how expensive and nearly impossible it is to shoot on a plane in New York City, until we started exploring that. I guess in L.A. they have sound stages that are available that look like planes. But here in NY they don't really have that at a reasonable cost, so unfortunately that was something we had to set aside. For the full Q&A, go to CableFAX.com. — Kaylee Hultgren
“Eva Marie Saint: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival,” Mon, 8p ET, TCM. Listening to Eva Marie Saint talk to Robert Osborne about her six-decade career is pure pleasure and plenty of insight. 88-years young, Saint is as entertaining a storyteller as any. And what material. Who else won an Oscar in their 1st film and can talk about working with Brando, Grant and Hitchcock? Kudos to TCM for whetting our appetite to view (or re-view) Saint hits “On the Waterfront” (9p) and “North by Northwest” (3:30a). — “Dark Minds,” Season 3 premiere, Wed, 8p, Investigation Discovery. Think Showtime hit “Dexter” was fiction? You won't after watching the Dexter-like exploits of Israel Keyes. Seeming to be a nice guy by day, he killed at night. Even his girlfriend and young daughter were clueless. This gripping special uses FBI footage to get face-to-face with Keyes and ponders how many others he killed. — “The Man Who Went Looking for Freedom,” Sat, 10:10p ET, BBC World News. In '83 Ion Bugan, a married TV repairman with children, peacefully protested in Bucharest against Ceausescu's dictatorship. Jailed for 6 years, Bugan and family eventually emigrated. They returned to Romania recently for a cathartic visit, seeking to come to grips with Ion's actions. A terrific piece of history, beautifully told. — Seth Arenstein