Rich Heldenfels, Pop Culture Wanderer

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In case you missed it Thursday, ABC had this announcement: “The Conners” (working title), a spinoff of the groundbreaking family comedy “Roseanne,” has been greenlit to series with an order of 10 episodes for fall 2018. After a sudden turn of events, the Conners are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before. This iconic family – Dan, Jackie, Darlene, Becky and D.J. – grapples with parenthood, dating, an unexpected pregnancy, financial pressures, aging and in-laws in working-class America. Through it all, the fights, the coupon cutting, the hand-me-downs, the breakdowns – with love, humor and perseverance, the family prevails. The series, featuring John Goodman (“Dan”), Laurie Metcalf (“Jackie”), Sara Gilbert (“Darlene”), Lecy Goranson (“Becky”) and Michael Fishman (“D.J.”) as their beloved Conner characters, is set to air Tuesdays (8:00-8:30 p.m.). Additional cast members and a premiere date will be announced later. Roseanne Barr wi...

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(Photo from Netflix) Years ago I did a phone interview with an actress who had a new series, and it was a rapid chat, her answers coming as quickly as I could ask a question. At the end I told her she'd been fast. "Do you know how many of these I've done today?" Our talk, it was clear, was not a conversation; it was a transaction, her getting publicity, me getting enough for a story my readers might like. I did a lot of transactional interviews during my career, more than I like to remember now. More often than not an interview had a specific purpose, and a fixed amount of time, and did not go much beyond either. Not always, especially when a remark took us down a different road. (I've told students more than once that, as thoroughly prepared as you are for an interview, you also have to listen to the person you're interviewing -- don't be too bound to the questions you've prepared.) Molly Shannon and I once began comparing some personal notes wh...

The George Clooney "Ocean's" movies were marked by the coolness of Clooney and Brad Pitt, two guys who were as unflappable as they were criminal, whom we enjoyed watching not only for their style and their capers but because, in the amoral world they inhabited, there were still people worse than they were (Andy Garcia, for one, Al Pacino for another). "Ocean's 8" gets the first part of that formula. Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett are themselves cool, albeit with a key tonal difference from the male-led "Ocean's." It never seems that Clooney et al. need the money from their crimes; they're just by nature rule-benders. The women of "Ocean's 8" cut corners because they have to -- because that's their main path to fortune; they're more working-class than their male predecessors, since as the movie often argues crime is no different from the rest of the world in its favoring men. Bullock's character -- the sister o...

Anthony Bourdain, left, with the Black Keys, on his show "No Reservations" in 2012. Photo from RollingStone.com. The writer, food expert and television has died, reportedly a suicide. I was a fan of his book "Kitchen Confidential," and of the short-lived TV series it inspired. And Bourdain himself was a cool guy when I met him in 2005. He was wearing a Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt, which led us to talking about music, including his admiration for bands from Akron. Of course, the Pretenders came up. In 2012, he would have the Black Keys on his show , even if he also called Akron "a breeding ground for serial killers." Still, I enjoyed our meeting, and his amiable edginess. Below is my 2005 interview. BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Anthony Bourdain has put aside his apron, but not his fork. The star chef became a sensation in the food industry with the book "Kitchen Confidential," a behind-the-scenes expose of the restaurant game. Bourdain as well was a ...

The official word: Legendary actress Pam Grier returns to Bounce to host a week-long series of classic blaxploitation films pulled straight from Brown Sugar, Bounce's popular subscription video-on-demand service. Mon. June 11 – Bucktown starring Grier and her frequent co-star Fred Williamson, who finds himself battling the racism and police corruption that ended his brother's life. Tues. June 12 – The Mack headlined by Richard Pryor and Max Julien as "Goldie" - the most notorious pimp in Oakland. Weds. June 13 – Black Belt Jones - Jim Kelly plays a martial artist who must battle the Mafia to protect a karate school. Thurs. June 14 – Super Fly directed by Gordon Parks, Jr. and starring Ron O'Neal as New York City drug kingpin "Priest." Fri. June 15 – Three the Hard Way featuring Williamson, Kelly and Jim Brown banding together to foil a racist plot. Viewers can find these movies and hundreds more on Brown Sugar along with complete seasons of top-...

"Hey, does my being in the foreground hint how this movie should have been?" It's not enough to call some movies sequels, or prequels, when they collectively form an enormous narrative thread, a novel in many parts . Now, those parts may be out of sequence (recalling in a way Julio Cortazar's novel "Hopscotch"). They may also revise the previous narrative (as, for example, the "Star Trek" reboots have done in recycling old characters but reframing the story from the previous series and film; or the past-changing events in the "X-Men" films). But they still demand that the audience be aware of everything that has gone before; I was rewatching "Avengers: Age of Ultron" over the weekend and realized I had forgotten how it brought in the Infinity Stones and Thanos, which of course became central to "Avengers: Infinity War." But, as much as DC and Marvel and "Star Wars" and others ask us to keep trac...

Welcome to my new blog. This will consist of short and long items about issues in pop culture, mainly TV and movies, but with occasional forays into books and other topics. Right now there is no schedule for postings, but I hope to get going with a few this week. I hope you enjoy.