Archive for May, 2017

Gordon Ramsey Is All Fired Up! The Super-Chef Gets Summer Cooking With Gas With His Hot New Live Competition Show

Get your mind out of the gutter! According to international superchef Gordon Ramsay, the F in his new Fox series, The F Word, stands for “food” and “family.” But we’ll see about that. With this latest TV venture, the hilariously temperamental potty mouth—whose string of hits includes Kitchen Nightmares, Hotel Hell, Hell’s Kitchen, MasterChef and MasterChef Junior—is boldly going where he’s never gone before. This is live TV, people! And the stress and anxiety will be off the charts. Each episode pits two groups of amateur cooks against each other—they’re families, friends, coworkers—and they must take over a state-of-the-art restaurant and prepare a dazzling meal for over 80 nitpicky guests. The winners pocket $100,000. But will they survive the wrath of Ramsay? We corralled the bodacious Brit to get a taste of what he serves up best: hot dish!

Plenty goes wrong on all your TV shows. In fact, you’ve made a fortune yelling profanities at cooks who screw up. What makes going live so different? It’s uncharted territory. I’ve never been this excited about a show! This is the first time the public will truly experience the electrifying buzz of a happening, functioning restaurant. Professional chefs go live every night—and it’s so theatrical! Our restaurant opens half an hour before we hit the air so that, at exactly five seconds past 9 o’clock, the viewers will be thrown right into the energy and excitement. [Laughs] We’re also live because I enjoy putting people on the spot.

Admit it. You also love to torture the censors. I like nothing better than when I do a cooking segment on one of the morning shows and they say, “We’re live!

Also in this special Summer Preview issue:

  • Best of Summer: Dramas: Meet the thespians behind Still Star-Crossed, the Romeo & Juliet-inspired latest from ShondaLand; Jessica Biel makes a bloody return to the tube with The Sinner.
  • Best of Summer: Game Shows: Mario Lopez hosts an all-new Candy Crush, this time on your TV screen!; an all-new Gong Show fulfills your need to watch amateur talent peddle their wares.
  • Best of Summer: Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Who will rule them all in the penultimate season of Game of Thrones?; Preacher gets holy once again; Midnight, Texas—from the author of True Blood—is ready to scare up some summer thrills.
  • Best of Summer: Comedies: Niecy Nash bares some Claws in TNT’s newest; Sutton Foster clues us in on the newest Younger shocker.

• Plus: Matt Roush names his early picks for the best of the fall, an early look at Ray Romano and Chris O’Dowd in Get Shorty, Prison Break‘s Mark Feuerstein tells us his TV favorites, a remembrance of character actor Powers Boothe, Master of None writer/producer Alan Yang weighs in on his impressive résumé, and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.

On newsstands May 10, 2017

The Return of ‘Twin Peaks’! Kyle MacLachlan and David Lynch on the Cult Series’ Legacy and What Fans Can Expect

When David Lynch and Mark Frost’s surreal Twin Peaks debuted on ABC in April 1990, the nascent World Wide Web was not yet a delivery service for instant feedback—or spoilers. Audiences found themselves frustrated yet intrigued with having to wait, week after week, to learn clues about the trippy show’s central mystery: Who bumped off small-town bad girl Laura Palmer (played by Sheryl Lee)? But even in today’s era of information overload, Showtime has unveiled only the most cryptic of teasers about the much-anticipated 18-episode revival, leaving fans waiting yet again.

Returning star Kyle MacLachlan, who revisits his lead role as unorthodox FBI special Agent Dale Cooper, also has remained mum on what Coop’s beat will be. Is there a new murder? is java-loving Agent Cooper still seeing apparitions? Will anyone’s deceased soul find its way into a drawer’s knob? (Yes, that actually happened— along with jazzy dance breaks, soul-stealing supernatural entities in jean jackets and lots of ebullient appreciation of doughnuts and sandwiches.) “I wish I could tell you more,” the actor says with a laugh. “I’m just incredibly excited about what people’s response is going to be.”

Here’s what’s known: It’s now 25 years after the northwest community of Twin Peaks parsed out the demise of homecoming queen Palmer, with her last seven days rumored to provide a crucial clue to the new narrative. Lynch is directing and cowriting—with producing partner Frost—all 18 installments of the limited series. so how was it to be back in the director’s chair? “Close to heaven on earth,” says Lynch. “It’s like a feature film divided into parts, so in order for it to hold together, it should be [made] by the same bunch.”

Also in this issue:

  • Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Ellie Kemper’s chipper gal takes on higher education in the third season of the hit Netflix comedy. Also: the show’s five funniest episodes!
  • Dirty Dancing: Get Baby out of that corner and back on screens! ABC remakes the classic 1987 film with Abigail Breslin, Colt Prattes, Debra Messing and Kate Sagal taking on the Housemans and beyond.
  • The Wizard of Lies: Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer lend their star power to HBO’s event movie about the rise and fall of shady businessman Bernie Madoff and his scorned wife Ruth.
  • Live With Kelly and Ryan: Seacrest in! The popular morning show finally has a cohost in the form of a very familiar face of American Idol.

• Plus: NCIS and its harrowing season finale, Amy Brenneman talks some Leftovers, Law & Order: SVU keeps it topical in a two-part season ender, a look at which of your favorite shows may not return for the 2016-17 TV season, diving into the controversy that has emerged out of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.