TCA News: Gays On "Ringer" and "Big C," Michael Patrick King Plays Defense and Shemar Moore's Towel

During last week’s Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, the CBS, Showtime and CW networks had two days to present their newest series as well as revisit some of their biggest hits to talk about the future. Between the multitude of panels and the end-of-day cocktail hour with the network executives and showrunners, AfterElton grabbed an abundance of news of what’s to come in the coming months on some of your favorite shows.

The CW drama Ringer may not have been a home run out of the gate, but co-creators/Executive Producers Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder said that now that Siobhan (one of two twins Sarah Michelle Gellar plays on the show) has returned to the Big Apple, expect things to amp up when new episodes kick off January 31st. Charmelo explained, “the second half of the season is going to be Siobhan manipulating, but instead of overseas she’s in New York, and there’s going to be a lot of interplay between the sisters, unbeknownst to Bridget.”

Could Mike Colter's Malcolm have a bigger secret than Bridget (Sarah Michelle Gellar) on Ringer?

Any gay characters or stories coming up on Ringer? The answer is YES! “We definitely have a gay presence on the show in the second half of the season,” said Snyder, “but it’s no one you would expect.” Snyder teased that it is someone we already know on the show. Charmelo added, “The theme of the show is about people’s duplicitous nature [and] that transcends to sexuality as well, so it’s one of those things where the mask you portray in public is often different from the one you portray behind closed doors.”

My personal hope (that I shared with the producers to their delight) is that sexy Mike Colter’s Malcolm is the one we find playing for our team. Charmelo and Snyder wouldn’t confirm (or deny) that but they did say we’d be seeing more of Malcolm, meaning his very fit body. Sign. Me. Up.

Charmelo, who is gay, was asked if he had any concerns about making this yet-to-be-revealed character good or bad since some raise their hackles when a gay character is villainous (it's working just fine for Revenge, right?). “I’m not of the belief that you have to portray all gay men as heroes. I know plenty of really awful gay people! [laughs] As well as straight people, too! My point is that one’s sexuality does not dictate one’s moral backbone. The two are separate and one’s sexuality doesn’t feed into how we portray them on the show. It’s how that characters serves a purpose and if they’re going to be a protagonist or antagonist.” (And if not Malcolm, who do YOU think is gay on the show?)

Michael Patrick King, Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs during the 2 Broke Girls panel.

The bi-annual TCAs (there is a winter and summer tour) are generally a polite, fun affair but things got a little heated with Executive Producer Michael Patrick King during the panel for his freshman CBS hit sitcom 2 Broke Girls. Challenged by some critics on both the sexual and ethnic jokes in the show at such an early timeslot, King laid it all on the line by saying, “It's 8:30 on Monday on CBS in 2012. It's a very different world than 8:30 on Monday on CBS in 1994. And I feel no need... I consider our jokes really classy dirty. I think they're high lowbrow. I think they're fun and sophisticated and naughty, and I think everybody likes a good naughty joke. I also think if the show existed only in naughty jokes without pathos, I would not be happy. So I feel no need to pull away from the brand of 2 Broke Girls, which is basically in your face girls. It is ballsy. It is right in your face and hopefully funny."

"I did Sex in the City for many, many years. That was a completely different vibration of comedy, and the one thing that they have in common, to me as the writer‑creator of the show, is people pull away from something if it's not in good taste. People lean into something if it's okay, and week after week, more and more people are leaning into 2 Broke Girls. So there's something there that they feel okay about, not something there they feel offended about.”

In her Executive Session, CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler isn’t above saying positive things about the competition, including a new NBC series that could take a bit out of her popular CBS Monday sitcoms. “As far as Smash goes,” she said, “in my heart I love musical theater. I love musicals. I'm a big Glee watcher. I hope it does well for them. I think it's important that in all of our respective jobs that we continue to explore, try to do new things. I feel looking at development for us into the fall we've got some really unique, clever ideas, some with music, some not. But what's most important not only for Smash but for Glee, for 2 Broke Girls, Person of Interest is that as networks, we continue to explore, expand, try new things but always, again, very respectful of our audience and keep our focus on making sure that we fortify the existing hits and continue to introduce hits every season.”

Don Cheadle's Marty has no clue how to handle his son (Donis Leonard, Jr),
who likes girls' clothes on House Of Lies.

If you have yet to check out the new Showtime comedy House Of Lies starring Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell, you’ll notice the young character of Roscoe Kaan (Donis Leonard, Jr), an eleven year old who just happens to enjoy wearing girl’s clothes. His father, Marty (Cheadle) may be a leader in his field of business, but he has no clue how to deal with his son’s attire.

Executive Producer/Director Stephen Hopkins explained that it’s not a black and white answer as to the sexuality of the young boy. “He asks his dad the question, ‘Dad, what happens if I like a boy and a girl?’ and Marty doesn’t know what to say.” The question won’t necessarily be answered this season either, but things will get more complicated for Roscoe. “He kisses a boy at school and gets in trouble for it. He hasn’t decided on his sexuality yet. He’s not old enough. He’s 11, so he doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Asked how the young actor was explained the role and Hopkins said, “It was awkward, and I didn’t know how to approach it but his mother and his grandmother were really into this. He was actually the first kid that we saw out of hundreds of kids and he came in dressed like that, dressed like a girl, and, you know, kids don’t judge this stuff. He’s playing a character. He loves the clothes. I said ‘Aren’t your friends at school going to make fun?’ and he said ‘I don’t care. It’s great!’ He sees Roscoe as a flamboyant kid who gets to express himself and dance.”