KCRW's THE SPIN-OFF: "The Goldbergs" Star Wendi McLendon-Covey on Smothering, the Emmys and Comedy

On the latest edition of KCRW's The Spin-Off, Joe and I talk to "The Goldbergs" and "Bridesmaids" star Wendi McLendon-Covey:

As an actress who earned her improv chops at The Groundlings, Wendi McLendon-Covey thought she was "too weird for network television." But then,"network television got weird."

McLendon-Covey tells us how after a hilarious turn in Bridesmaids, she was cast in two promising projects that ended up falling apart. Following those disappointments, she ended up landing the part of the smothering mother (better known as a "smother") Beverly Goldberg on the ABC comedy, The Goldbergs. The show will start its third season this fall, but before it was a hit, creator Adam F. Goldberg had several failed attempts to get it off the ground. Despite the struggles for both McLendon-Covey and the show itself, she feels like things eventually worked out the way they were meant to be.

She tells us how she's shaped her career by saying no to roles that feel to similar to parts she's already done and how she once had to fire a manager who constantly shot down her ideas and told her not to audition for Bridesmaids. For McLendon-Covey, a lot of it goes back to the lessons she took away from her time at The Groundlings: "Work your ass off… and show them why you're worthy."

Listen below!

KCRW's THE SPIN-OFF: Listen to TV Guide Magazine's Showrunners Panel from Wondercon

Following up on my post about this year's TV Guide Magazine Showrunners Fan Favorites panel at Wondercon Anaheim, we've taken the audio and posted it as a bonus edition of KCRW's "The Spin-Off" podcast!

The panel included:

Brannon Braga (Star Trek: TNG/Voyager/Enterprise; 24; Cosmos and Salem)
Kerry Ehrin (Moonlighting, Friday Night Lights, Parenthood, Bates Motel)
Adam F. Goldberg (Still Standing, Breaking In, The Goldbergs)
Dan Harmon (Sarah Silverman Program, Rick and Morty, Community)
Alex Hirsch (Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Fish Hooks, Gravity Falls)
Peter Horton (actor; Grey’s Anatomy, Brimstone, The Philanthropist, American Odyssey)
Graeme Manson (Flashpoint, Being Erica, Orphan Black)

The discussion kicked off with an attempt to get the panelists to answer that always tricky question: What exactly does a showrunner do?

Listen below!

Scenes from Wondercon 2015: Showrunners, Lightsabers, Cosplay and More

Another fun Saturday (always during Easter weekend though, what gives?) at Wondercon in Anaheim, and Team TV Guide Magazine was there in force. My colleagues Rich Sands, Damian Holbrook and Rob Moynihan all moderated several panels, our photo guru Geraldine Agoncillo was there documenting it, and I got to once again moderate our annual "TV Guide Magazine Fan Favorite Showrunners Panel."



And it was a good one this year -- as I noted, the cross section of drama/comedy/thriller/sci-fi/animation looked a lot like your DVR. Here's who we had:

Brannon Braga (Star Trek: TNG/Voyager/Enterprise; 24; Cosmos and Salem)
Kerry Ehrin (Moonlighting, Friday Night Lights, Parenthood, Bates Motel)
Adam F. Goldberg (Still Standing, Breaking In, The Goldbergs)
Dan Harmon (Sarah Silverman Program, Rick and Morty, Community)
Alex Hirsch (Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Fish Hooks, Gravity Falls)
Peter Horton (actor; Grey’s Anatomy, Brimstone, The Philanthropist, American Odyssey)
Graeme Manson (Flashpoint, Being Erica, Orphan Black)



Rob wrapped the panel up here. Among the takeaways:

Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, today's showrunners are more accessible than ever before, which sometimes comes as a blessing and a curse when you have fans voicing their opinions. "You're the face of every mistake," Hirsch said. "The more visible you are, the more crazy people are mad at you." Goldberg added that he oftentimes feels like his show's writers are in a bubble when crafting the season, so he embraces social media because, "I can find out what people like and know what people are responding to."

Collider has a nice roundup of the panel here. Among the highlights:

The panel discussed what it means to be a superstar showrunner; making noise and pushing boundaries; Harmon’s big move to Yahoo; how Hirsch gets away with a show that’s one of the most dense animated series ever seen on a children’s network; how social media has changed the game; the premiere of American Odyssey and Anna Friel’s committed performance; how Manson keeps track of every clone and personality while constantly bringing in more; how it’s impossible to shock people anymore; their take on remake mania; where Goldberg gets the content for Erica; the breaks that got them to the next level; and what we can look forward to this next season.

Another nice mention of the panel here by Mr. Rhapsodist.

More pics from the panel:









And how about some pics from the rest of Wondercon:


Alex Hirsch signs posters for "Gravity Falls" fans after the panel.


Lightsabers! Many, many lightsabers.


Yeah, OK, guys, a bit disturbing.


Live makeup demonstration


The Ice King!


Posters!


Outside the convention center

A Time Warp Trip to Moonlight Rollerway, Glendale's Skating Mecca

As I've mentioned, this summer was all about "Back to the Future." The kids became obsessed with the movie and time travel, thanks to multiple screenings of all three movies (as well as our Lego DeLorean set). It was probably only fitting that last week I finally actually took a trip back in time to the 1980s.

That's the experience the moment you walk inside Glendale's Moonlight Rollerway. This place looks and feels like it's still 1987. The video games? Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga. The tunes? The best of the 80s. (At least, during my visit.) There are no flat screens, no updated technological advances from this century. The world of roller rinks may be the last bastion of the 1980s, untouched.



I was there for an event promoting the new season of "The Goldbergs," the ABC sitcom that (of course) takes place in the 1980s, and has actually shot at the Moonlight Rollerway. The rink remains a popular location for TV, film and commercial shoots, precisely because it still looks like it comes from a sweeter, more innocent era.



KCET gave a history of the Moonlight Rollerway last year. An excerpt:

The Rollerway's origins in Glendale date back to the booming aircraft industry that used to dominate this part of L.A. in the interwar wars; its building was originally a foundry for airplane parts. The end of WWII brought a downturn in the industry and in 1950, the factory's owners sold the space to Harry Dickerman who converted it into Harry's Roller Rink, one of several he ran across Southern California.

If you were to visit the Moonlight right this moment, much of it would still resemble what Harry's looked like when it first opened and that includes the 2.5" maple flooring. At a table next to the snack bar, the Moonlight's current owner, Dominic Cangelosi, pulls out a spare piece of flooring, points to the skate area and informs me, "the floor is original. It's solid maple, no nails," and shows me how the tongue-in-groove shaping of each floor piece keeps everything locked in and tight. "People come here because of the floor," he says. "There's a big difference between skating on this floor than skating on cork floor, which is like tiles, or particle board, or plywood floors that are coated. This floor is smooth and because of the subfloor, when there's a crowd on the floor, [it] sort of gives a little bit."

Cangelosi's owned Moonlight since 1985 but his history with the rink goes back far before that. He was the in-house organist here in the 1960s, after Dickerman had sold the rink to Mildred and Clifford Neschke, who already ran a rink in Pasadena, the original Moonlight Rollerway.

It's worth a read. Meanwhile, a few more pics from my afternoon at the Moonlight with "The Goldbergs" cast:







Moonlight Rollerway
5110 San Fernando Rd.
Glendale CA 91204

"The Goldbergs" Season 2 returns Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 8:30/7:30c on ABC.