DUers, and their families, might enjoy a new TV series from WB, "Jack & Bobby," created by, among others, one of the creators of "West Wing," and a former Clinton staffer. The series is about a single mother of two boys, one of whom will become President in 2040. It premieres tomorrow night, Sunday, 9/12, at 9 Eastern. This LA Times article tells more about it:
FALL TV PREVIEW
The making of a president, circa 2040
THE WB'S 'JACK & BOBBY,' A TALE OF NASCENT GREATNESS, IS A CRASH COURSE IN POLITICS AND CURRENT EVENTS. BUT WILL ANYONE ENROLL?
....the people behind the WB's "Jack & Bobby" are pushing the family drama in decidedly untraditional directions.
Premiering...Sunday (9/12), the series focuses on Jack McCallister, a natural leader and high school sports star, his less-assured younger brother, Bobby, and their brilliant but flawed mother, Grace. To that point, it resembles many family dramas, not the least being the WB's own "Everwood."
But one of these boys is going to be elected president in 2040 — and not just any commander in chief, but a heroic leader with touches of John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. The other will die young (which is revealed at the end of the first episode). Themes explored around the McCallister dinner table read like a course outline for a current events class: racism, sexuality, religious intolerance, the Patriot Act. It's not a simple sell as prime-time TV entertainment....
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"The question now is: How do you create scripted shows that are more provocative, more honest, more in-your-face? I don't think too many people get thrown off television for being too provocative," says executive producer Thomas Schlamme, whose work on "The West Wing" and "Sports Night" won him an armful of Emmys. "You get thrown off of television for not being provocative enough."...
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The names "Jack & Bobby" may evoke the Kennedy clan, but given (the background of creator Steve "Scoop" Cohen, who worked for Bill and Hillary Clinton from 1992 to 1998) and the politician-from-a-broken-home motif, it's impossible not to see something of Clinton in the characters.
Cohen acknowledges that the germ of the idea sprouted after he spent time with Clinton in the former president's hometown of Hope, Ark., hearing him talk about his childhood....
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-ca-taylor5sep05,1,6608958.story
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