Pop Mid-Season Pilot Review: Hollywood Darlings - Premieres Wednesday (April 12); CMT Renews Nashville for Season 6

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Pop Mid-Season Pilot Review: Hollywood Darlings - Premieres Wednesday (April 12); CMT Renews Nashville for Season 6

Hollywood Darlings - Tuesdays at 8:00PM ET/PT on Pop
Premieres Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at 8:00PM ET/PT

by Pavan

Hollywood Darlings stars three fan favorite child stars of the '90s – Jodie Sweetin (Full House, Fuller House), Christine Lakin (Step By Step) and Beverley Mitchell (7th Heaven). The series follows three lifelong friends who grew up together in "the business," became household names, and now take on even bigger roles as moms, wives and businesswomen. Their social circles include other celebrities, who will make special appearances throughout the series.

Cast Details:

Jodie Sweetin as Jodie Sweetin
Christine Lakin as Christine Lakin
Beverley Mitchell as Beverley Mitchell

Jodie Sweetin (Jodie) is of course best known for her role as Stephanie Tanner on the hit ABC sitcom Full House from 1987-1995. She has reprised the role in the Netflix comedy Fuller House. Other appearances include a guest stint on Party of Five and appearing on the sitcom Valerie.

Christine Lakin (Christine) is of course best known for her role as Alicia "Al" Lambert on the 1990s ABC situation comedy Step by Step. She has appeared on many TV series such as a recurring role on Family Guy, Rita Rocks, Valentine, and guest shots on series like Melissa & Joey, Modern Family, Sons & Daughters, Rodney and more. Movie wise she has appeared in Mother's Day, New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, You Again, Veronica Mars, Georgia Rule, The Game Plan and The Hottie and the Nottie. She had her own comedic webseries Lovin' Lakin, along with judging the internet series Internet Icon and developing her own stage show Worst Audition Ever.

Beverley Mitchell (Beverley) is best known for her role as Lucy Camden-Kinkirk on the television series 7th Heaven. The series lasted a long eleven seasons from 1996-2007. After that series she was a regular on The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She has also guest starred on series such as Melrose Place, Baywatch, and Quantum Leap.

Pilot Plot:

"How Christine Got Her Groove Back" (airs Wednesday, April 12 at 8:00PM ET/PT)

Undersexed, new mom Christine takes an over-scheduled Beverley to Andrew Keegan's Full Circle spiritual church for a day of unconventional relaxation with mixed results. Jodie substitute teaches Andrea Barber’s acting class for kids but quickly learns the kids are interested in a lot more than simple improv games. Guest Stars: Andrew Keegan, Andrea Barber

Analysis:

The '90s are back! Pop has struck gold with this comedy throwing it back to stars of the '90s, but in a new twist. We got to watch five hilarious episodes (of the eight produced) of this comedy that is like Curb Your Enthusiasm with our fave family series stars: Christine Lakin, Jodie Sweetin and Beverley Mitchell. Obviously the three stars are friends in real life and grew up in the business and this series is a satirical look at their lives. Famous faces from their lives make appearances, including cast members from their past shows like Andrea Barber, Patrick Duffy, Staci Keanan and Andrew Keegan. Did you know Andrew Keegan appeared on ALL three of their shows (Step by Step, Full House and 7th Heaven)? Is he the six degrees of separation for these girls? Possibly, as he was hilarious in the premiere episode.

Of the episodes we got to watch, there are lot of funny moments. Christine Lakin shines as the funniest of the three with hilarious one-liners and facial expressions. Beverley Mitchell usually plays with Christine in a tag team comedy show in the episodes we have seen, while Jodie Sweetin gets to showcase her broad range with other players, like Andrea Barber's improv class kids and...Mr. Bear! Darlings takes a general storyline and improvs the heck out of it. If you are a fan of Curb, then this is going to be fun for you. Besides the great guests from their past shows, you will also see their other friends from the business (more '90s stars, too) like: Tamera Mowry, Wanya Morris, Jaleel White, Heather & Nicholle Tom, Lance Bass, Lori Beth Denberg and Soleil Moon Frye.

Conclusion:

This comedy really shows us the range of these three former child stars. The '90s are certainly back in style with these three. It's just fun, exciting and even surprising to see what will happen on these episodes. Pop has had some comedy success already with series like Schitt's Creek and Nightcap, and now Hollywood Darlings will fit in perfectly on this network. Jodie and Christine were in family sitcoms with a studio audience, while Beverley was in a family drama...now they all come together in a new style of comedy that they are not known for and they totally hit a homerun here. They're the center of attention now and we are so glad. Watch out Larry David, there is a new throwback style Curb in town..and it is funny!

Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):

Watchability: 4/5
Funniness: 3.5/5
Overall: 4/5

Discuss the show after you watch it on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at 8:00PM ET/PT on our message board.

Related Links:

Pop Official Site

TV.com

Internet Movie Database

Hollywood Darlings Photo Gallery

Preview:

CMT announced Nashville will return for a new season with 16 episodes premiering early next year. In addition, the network revealed a midseason premiere date of Thursday, June 1 at 9 p.m. ET/PT for the back half of season five. Charles Esten (Deacon) first announced the renewal on Facebook Live on behalf of the entire cast. In the coming weeks, CMT will announce its complete 2017-2018 slate. Long-time SVOD partner Hulu will continue to stream episodes the day after they premiere on CMT.

The devoted "Nashie" fan base has generated record-breaking numbers for CMT. Nashville ranks as the network's highest-rated and most-watched show in the network's history, averaging 2.1M weekly viewers (L+7). Over the course of the first-half of the season, the series notched nearly 16 million total viewers on CMT alone, and nearly 23 million on CMT and Nick at Nite. The news comes on the heels of strong growth for CMT. Original premieres are pacing up 51% among A 18-49 and 79% among W18-49 versus year ago. Total day ratings are up 19% with A 18-49 and 25% with W 18-49. As a result, CMT garnered the biggest year-over-year growth this quarter than any other top 50 channel on cable (excluding news nets).
Rachel Bilson (The OC, Hart of Dixie) and Kaitlin Doubleday (Empire) will join the series in the second half of season five. In addition, fresh off the success of Big Little Lies, Jeff Nordling will recur in the role of Brad Maitland, an extremely successful, charming, egotistical, narcissistic owner of the most successful record label in Nashville. The midseason premiere picks up 10 weeks after the events that unfolded in the midseason finale. Deacon helps Daphne with a school project, but Daphne feels unmotivated. Juliette gives Maddie unsolicited advice about a song. Scarlett and Gunnar receive news about the baby. The series stars Hayden Panettiere as Juliette Barnes, Clare Bowen as Scarlett O'Connor, Chris Carmack as Will Lexington, Charles Esten as Deacon Claybourne, Jonathan Jackson as Avery Barkley, Sam Palladio as Gunnar Scott, Maisy Stella as Daphne Conrad and Lennon Stella as Maddie Conrad. In addition, this season features Joseph David-Jones as Clay, Rhiannon Giddens as Hallie Jordan and Cameron Scoggins as Zach Welles in recurring roles.

Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Wednesday, April 2

The Conners - "Fame, Flying Fists and Cold Feet" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
The Conners get a taste of fame when their family restaurant is featured in a reality TV show, which inspires Becky to become an influencer. Meanwhile, Jackie and Dan meet with a lawyer, and Darlene connects with someone at The Lobo Lounge.

Abbott Elementary - "Ava Fest: Tokyo Drift" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
The Abbott teachers turn their open house into a carwash to help raise money for the school.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of March 31)

Wednesday, April 2

Adam DeVine (The Righteous Gemstones/Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin/Workaholics/Modern Family) - Watch Adam on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Michael B. Jordan (The Assistants) - Michael appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC. He also talks about Sinners on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am and on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
Olivia Munn (Perfect Couples) - Olivia is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) - Hannah stops by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Rob Delaney (Bad Monkey/Catastrophe) - Rob appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Sasheer Zamata (Home Economics/Woke/Robbie) and Greta Titelman (Fantasmas/Search Party/Los Espookys) - Sasheer and Greta are guests on After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
Wanda Sykes (The Upshaws/The New Adventures of Old Christine/Wanda at Large) - Wanda appears on Everybody's Live with John Mulaney at 10pm on Netflix.
Jennifer Lopez (South Central) and Jamie Foxx (Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!/The Jamie Foxx Show) - E! News has interviews with Jennifer and Jamie at 11pm on E!.
Chris Perfetti (Abbott Elementary) - Chris talks about Abbott Elementary on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am.
Jenny Slate (The Great North/Big Mouth/Married/Bob's Burgers) - Jenny talks about Dying for Sex with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Judy Greer (Kidding/Married/Mad Love/Miss Guided/Arrested Development) - NBC's Today catches up with Judy in the 9am hour.
Olivia Munn (Perfect Couples) - Olivia guest co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
Glen Powell (Scream Queens) and Kristin Davis (And Just Like That.../Bad Teacher/Sex and the City) - NBC's Today catches up with Glen and Kristin in the 10am hour.
Tasha Smith (Survival of the Thickest/Tyler Perry's For Better or Worse/The Tom Show/Boston Common) - Tasha, who stars in Netflix's Surival of the Thickest, joins Tamron Hall to discuss how she found her freedom by sharing her story on her own terms and learning to embrace self-love, so check your local listings.
Gabourey Sidibe (Difficult People/The Big C) - Gabourey talks about starring in the new Lifetime movie Give Me Back My Daughter on Sherri, so check your local listings.
Seth Rogen (The Studio/Platonic/Undeclared) - Seth is joining Drew to tell her all about his new show The Studio on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.