TV Guide Magazine April 15, 2019

@TVGMMattRoush I enjoy watching NBC’s Superstore every week and have always wondered if the show is filmed at an actual store or on a Hollywood soundstage. I’m amazed at the amount of inventory that is seen in the background. It’s very realistic—or someone has gone through an awful lot of work to purchase and display all of the goods. —Ray MATT ROUSH: Ah, the magic of TV and the underrated craft of production design. The pilot episode of Superstore was indeed filmed in a repurposed Kmart in Burbank. But once the show was ordered to series, an expansive Cloud 9 set was built—and at the end of Season 2, when a tornado swept through the store, partially destroyed—on soundstages on the Universal lot. Since The CW picked up Supergirl from…

GAME TIME I really enjoyed your multiple covers for Game of Thrones [April 1]. It is a great issue. I liked seeing Jon and Daenerys on the cover together looking like a potential Targaryen vs. Targaryen setup. I am thinking that in the final season, House Targaryen will really be on fire! —Patti GOOD GOD TBS has performed a true miracle with Miracle Workers. Insanely creative! A heavenly cast! Steve Buscemi rules as no one else can. —Mimi LAST CALL? Jeers to Abby’s, a Cheers wannabe that misses the mark by a mile. I wouldn’t want to know anyone’s name in this place. —Sharon HOT TAKE Julian McMahon is coming back to my TV screen? And in an FBI spinoff? Woo-hoo! Is it fall yet? —Cindy [Editor’s note: The backdoor…

LAST YEAR, MARISKA Hargitay had an emphatic response when asked if she wanted her Law & Order: SVU to surpass the 20 seasons posted by mother ship Law & Order. “You know I do!” she told TV GUIDE MAGAZINE. The star got her wish. NBC just renewed the ripped-from-the-headlines sex crimes procedural for a record-breaking 21st season, making it the longest-running primetime live-action series in TV history. (Law & Order and Gunsmoke both ran for 20 seasons.) Not bad for a drama dealing with felonies not often talked about in polite society. Dick Wolf, creator of the L&O franchise, first believed the original series would hold the title. “When Law & Order was in its 12th season, I started thinking about a record that appeared to be unbreakable—Gunsmoke’s 20-year run,”…

APPLE’S PLANS FOR world domination continue. On March 25, the company held an exclusive event at its Cupertino, California, headquarters to tout the new Apple TV + streaming service, set to launch this fall (for a yet-to-be-announced fee). A cavalcade of big names—Oprah! Steven Spielberg! Jennifer Aniston!—introduced their series. Here are five we can’t wait to see. The Morning Show Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell? Yes, please! In this drama about a daytime TV news program, the Friends alum (in her series TV return) and Carell play anchors, while Witherspoon’s character works behind the scenes. “We pull back the curtain on the power dynamics between men and women in the high-stakes world of morning news shows,” Witherspoon previewed. Two 10-episode seasons have been ordered. Amazing Stories The 10-episode revival…

PREMIERES No Good Nick April 15, Netflix Bargain Mansions April 15, 9/8c, HGTV Duff Takes the Cake April 15, 10/9c, Food Network The Big Interview With Dan Rather April 16, 8/7c, AXS TV Bless This Mess April 16, 9:30/8:30c, ABC Breakthrough: The Ideas That Changed the World April 17, 10/9c, PBS Life in Pieces April 18, 8:30/7:30c, CBS Bosch April 19, Prime Video Cuckoo April 19, Netflix Ramy April 19, Hulu I Ship It April 19, 9/8c, The CW Portals to Hell April 19, 9/8c, Travel Channel Murdoch Mysteries April 20, 7/6c, Ovation Restaurant: Impossible April 20, 9/8c, Food Network Jeremy Wade’s Dark Waters April 21, 9/8c, Animal Planet Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition April 21, 9/8c, Food Network Live Rescue April 22, 9/8c, A&E Gentleman Jack April 22,…

WHEN CAROL BURNETT wrapped the final taping for her eponymous variety show in 1978, she sat alone on a darkened stage and spoke directly to the audience. “Change is growth,” she said. “It’s hard, because all of us around here truly did become a second family…. And I know the love that we have shared can never be measured by time.” Fans weren’t the only ones riveted. Producers of the 1979 ABC TV movie Friendly Fire were also watching. Her frank, heartfelt farewell led them to cast her in the gripping true story of Peg and Gene Mullen (Burnett and Ned Beatty), Iowa parents determined to learn how their soldier son Michael (Dennis Erdman) had been killed in Vietnam during a training exercise gone wrong. (The couple’s search for answers—and…