Amazon's Good Girls Revolt is set almost a half century ago, but the show, about a group of female researchers at a news magazine fighting against a policy that states only males can be reporters, feels pretty timely. There was plenty of locker room talk at the fictitious News of the Week in 1969, as there is today. “Women are having a bit of a tussle with our presidential candidate,” deadpans executive producer Lynda Obst.
Dana Calvo, another exec producer, keeps her daughter in mind when crafting story lines. “She doesn’t need to be deputized as a feminist,” says Calvo. “She just needs to ask questions [like], ‘Is that fair?’ If every girl and woman said that, we would live in a different world.”
Speaking of daughters, Gail Berman admitted she was nervous before her reimagining of The Rocky Horror Picture Show rolled on Fox. Berman decompresses by watching Project Runway with her kiddo. They may be in different parts of the country, but watch “together” by either chatting or texting as the episode runs. “It’s been our favorite show for so long,” Berman says.
Charles Barkley gave a shout-out to his daughter onstage at the Waldorf-Astoria as TNT’s Inside the NBA show was inducted into the B&C Hall of Fame on Oct. 18. The Round Mound of Rebound’s offspring is studying at Columbia University. “Barkley brains are taking over the world!” gushed Sir Charles.
Finally, a new series on Sprout also has impressionable young brains in mind, as Dot helps kids—and parents, for that matter—find the right balance with technology. We grabbed java—the coffee, not the programming language—with creator Randi Zuckerberg the other day. As a kid, Zuckerberg’s TV tastes included PBS science show 3-2-1Contact and Jem, about the badass singer of a band called the Misfits. These days, Zuckerberg, the mother of two, is raving about Orphan Black, Black Mirror and Orange Is the New Black, along with a few other shows that don’t have Black in the title.
“I love shows with strong women,” Zuckerberg says.
Then she might just like Good Girls Revolt, which debuts Oct. 28.
