“Mouth of Mayberry” to headline a comedy series

August 01, 2019

I enjoyed watching the British TV series “Broadchurch”. A black crime drama, starring David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker. I found this remarkable because, at different times, Tennant and Whittaker played this famous time traveler, Doctor Who.

“Doctor Who” first appeared on the BBC in 1963. The sci-fi program has remained popular, now starring Whittaker as the 13th actor to play the eponymous Time Lord who travels the universe in a machine time traveling that looks like a blue British police force. box (a telephone booth for police use).

Called TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), the word found its place in the Oxford English Dictionary due to the popularity of the show.

The transition from actor to actor is written into the scripts, allowing the Time Lord to transform into a new body when the old one is badly injured.

The 10th actor to star in the role, Tennant was a much-loved incarnation of Doctor Who. He says it was his ambition to play Doctor Who since he was a little boy.

“The End of Time” was a two-part storyline that aired between December 2009 and January 2010. Doctor Who learns that their nemesis, a renegade alien known as The Master, has returned, marking the end of time. The Doctor must destroy a diamond in order to break the link and make the Master disappear. But in doing so, he hears the prophesied “four knocks” that signal his own demise. Make way for the 11th Doctor Who.

This marked David Tennant’s last appearance in the role. The story has been described as “huge and epic, but also intimate”. It is considered a classic.

So it’s no surprise that Fathom Events is celebrating the 10th anniversary with a one-night presentation of “Doctor Who: The End of Time”.

You Whovians (as Doctor Who fans are sometimes referred to) will want to attend this special screening on August 7 at Regal Grande Stadium 16 in Greensboro at 7 p.m. ET. It also features a new interview with Tennant.

Doctor Who fans included Stephen Hawking, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, Tom Hanks, Michael Chabon, Mark Hamill, and David Duchovny. Steven Spielberg said, “The world would be a poorer place without ‘Doctor Who.’ “

TV Guide ranked “Doctor Who” as the # 6 and # 18 most cult science fiction TV show of all time.

Yes, I admit it. I am a Trekkie, Warsie, Avatard, Gater, Achiever, Buffista and Aspiring Baker Street Irregular. Add to that that I am also a whovian.

‘Hobbs & Shaw’ is the new spin-off of ‘Fast & Furious’

Movies steal concepts from television. Take fallout, for example. “Lavern and Shirley” was a spin-off of “Happy Days”. “Knots Landing” was a spin-off of “Dallas”. “Phyllis”, “Rhoda” and “Lou Grant” are from the “Mary Tyler Moore Show”. “Star Trek” has spawned a number of television series. “JAG” spawned “NCIS”, which derived “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “NCIS: New Orleans”. The Law & Order series gave us a total of 10 spinoffs.

The radio did too. “Fibber McGee and Molly” gave us our very first spin-off when a supporting character got a comedy program called “The Great Gildersleeve”.

The “Fast & Furious” movie franchise did the same. After eight films (with two more in the works), this street racing, spy and heist series has its first spin-off, an action adventure titled “Hobbs & Shaw”. It is alternately called “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”.

Previous “Fast & Furious” movies starred (intermittently) Vin Diesel and Paul Walker as a couple of outlaw street racers who did impossible car stunts while taking on the bad guys.

Along the way, former wrestler (and even bigger movie star) Dwayne Johnson appeared in “Fast Five” as Luke Hobbs, a DSS agent and bounty hunter. Martial artist (and popular antihero movie star) Jason Statham joined the fun in “Fast & Furious 6” as a British Special Forces assassin and mercenary named Deckard Shaw.

With this new movie – “Hobbs & Shaw” – Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw become unlikely allies as they team up to protect the sister of Shaw Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), an MI6 agent who is pursued by heavily armed thugs led by a rogue spy named Brixton Lore (Idris Elba). They are assisted in their fight by Madame M (Eiza González), a mysterious black billionaire arms dealer.

Considering the physique of the two stars, the film offers more punches than fast cars, although racing fans won’t be disappointed.

The spin-off is reinforced by a few familiar faces. Dame Helen Mirren is reprising her role as Shaw’s mother. Charlize Theron returns as Cipher. Eddie Marsan appears as Professor Andreiko. Kevin Hart and Ryan Reynolds make a final appearance.

“Hobbs & Shaw” will smash heads and burn rubber starting tonight at Creekside Theaters with screenings at 7pm, 7:45 pm and 9:45 pm

As it happens, this spin-off beat the ninth “Fast & Furious” movie on the 2019 calendar. It caused “tension” between Vin Diesel and Johnson, with Diesel posting a dissident Johnson Instagram.

Fans of “Fast & Furious” do not shy away from the controversy between the two muscular stars. They would love to see a smackdown between the former bouncer and the 10-time wrestling world champion.

Meanwhile, “Fast & Furious” spawns yet other spinoffs: a future film that will focus on female characters; an animated television series called “Fast & Furious: Spy Racers”; Universal theme park attractions, one of them titled “Fast & Furious: Supercharged”. Even “Fast & Furious Live,” a road tour that combines acrobatic driving, pyrotechnics and projection techniques to recreate scenes from the movies.

“Fast & Furious” is ranked as the 10th highest grossing film series of all time, with a gross total of over $ 5 billion. And that’s without counting this spin-off of “Hobbs & Shaw”… and other films to come.

Top 10 film spinoffs

With “Hobbs & Shaw”, the new spinoff from the “Fast & Furious” series, I started to think of other spinoffs from another.

I mean movies that took one or more characters or other elements from the original movie and then went in a new direction – not just a sequel.

Here are my Top 10 favorite movie spinoffs:

10) “Minions” (2015) – These sweet little villainous Gru’s little yellow sidekicks in the “Despicable Me” animated movies stand on their own little feet in this story about how they met their master.

9) “Puss In Boots” (2011) – The fairytale cat (voiced by Antonio Banderas) in these animated films “Shrek” has its own swashbuckling story.

8) “Get Him to the Greek” (2010) – This silly comedy starring Jonah Hill and Russell Brand is actually a spinoff from that cute romantic comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”. Here, Brand reprise his role as Aldous Snow, an obnoxious British rocker who is late for a big performance.

7) “This is 40” (2012) – This sneaky comedy king Judd Apatow brought back two minor characters (Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann) from “Knocked Up”, giving us a spin-off that no one noticed was a spin-off.

6) “Creed” (2015) – Is this a spin-off or a sequel to the “Rocky” movies? We’ll go with the fallout as Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) hands the boxing gloves to Apollo Creed’s son (Michael B. Jordan).

5) “The Lego Batman Movie” (2017) – I’m not a huge fan of toy-based movies, but the Lego folks did get it, especially when they made this spin-off featuring a toy version of Batman, the caped superhero. Credit the voices of Will Arnett, Ralph Fiennes and the rest of the cast.

4) “Night Train to Munich” (1940) – The Caldicott and Charters comedy crew (Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford) were so popular in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes” that they appeared in five more. films in the same roles.

3) “A Shot in the Dark” (1964) – The original movie “Pink Panther” was about a cat burglar (David Niven) by that cuddly nickname, but the goofy Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) was so funny that the producers brought him back for more movies.

2) “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” (2016) – In this charming spin-off from the Harry Potter blockbusters, we meet Newt (Eddie Redmayne), who is sort of a cryptozoological zookeeper in the same wizarding world.

1) “Deadpool” (2016) – A spin-off from Marvel’s “X-Men” films, this sarcastic, self-aware anti-superhero was successful as described by Ryan Reynolds. After Reynold’s poorly received film “Green Lantern”, it was a welcome return for him to the comic book world. I’ll admit I’m biased in that I gave Deadpool his first eponymous comic when I was a Marvel editor.

Your favorite spinoffs? There are plenty more to choose from. Films never hesitate to take a detour when the public asks for it.

Rhoades