Apple hires veteran producer Michelle Lee to help oversee original TV shows
A years-long veteran of the TV industry, Michelle Lee, has reportedly joined Apple has a creative executive with its Worldwide Video division, which is spearheading a push into high-budget TV shows.
Lee will serve under Matt Cherniss, the development head Apple hired in August, Variety said on Wednesday. For five years Lee has been a partner with True Jack Productions showrunner Jason Katims, giving her executive producer credits on shows like "About a Boy" on NBC and "The Path" on Hulu.
Her new position could give her signifcant influence over Apple programming. Even Cherniss, though, ranks below former Sony Pictures Television presidents Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, who have ultimate control of Worldwide Video short of top-level executives like CEO Tim Cook.
Apple is expected to premiere a small collection of shows in 2019 that will break out of the low-budget reality TV mold established by "Carpool Karaoke" and "Planet of the Apps." The new programming should also be available to most people with an Apple device, possibly through the iOS/tvOS TV app, rather than limited to Apple Music subscribers.
The company is said to be rejecting any risque content, even from well-known creators, meaning that viewers won't see an equivalent of "Dexter" or "Game of Thrones." Two shows that are in the company's stable include a reboot of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" and a morning show drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.
Lee will serve under Matt Cherniss, the development head Apple hired in August, Variety said on Wednesday. For five years Lee has been a partner with True Jack Productions showrunner Jason Katims, giving her executive producer credits on shows like "About a Boy" on NBC and "The Path" on Hulu.
Her new position could give her signifcant influence over Apple programming. Even Cherniss, though, ranks below former Sony Pictures Television presidents Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, who have ultimate control of Worldwide Video short of top-level executives like CEO Tim Cook.
Apple is expected to premiere a small collection of shows in 2019 that will break out of the low-budget reality TV mold established by "Carpool Karaoke" and "Planet of the Apps." The new programming should also be available to most people with an Apple device, possibly through the iOS/tvOS TV app, rather than limited to Apple Music subscribers.
The company is said to be rejecting any risque content, even from well-known creators, meaning that viewers won't see an equivalent of "Dexter" or "Game of Thrones." Two shows that are in the company's stable include a reboot of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" and a morning show drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.
Comments
Personally, I just want to see them do better. Just even thinking about Planet of the Apps makes me cry a little inside.
Also maybe dial it back a notch with your "PC" rhetoric, thanks.
Netflix wouldn't be as great as it is now. Remove all the Original Content Netflix has been putting out, which is a TON. In all areas, including Kids programming. Throw Apple into owning half or more and all that content would never have happened. It would turn into a Family Wonderland that only a tiny market would care about. I'd have dropped them and gone with just about anyone else at that point.
Thank goodness Apple doesn't have a thing to do with Netflix. It would be like Apple buying HBO. Would they have anything left Apple would allow to be played on that service? It would be a shell of it's self. Apple is really doing a whole lot of nothing that has any appeal to a large market when it comes to viewing content. Apple is locked into their own little G/PG world. Does anyone here care about AMAZING STORIES? I remember some of it as a kid. I don't give a crap about it now. It will NEVER be on a TV in my house. It's almost like Apple really doesn't care. It's really all about selling hardware.
Maybe wait, and see what Apple does?
Lots of assumptions and ridicule for a product that doesn’t exist yet. Obviously this will not be another Car Karaoke. I trust that Apple has a direction, might take the scenic route though.
Perhaps, traditional entertainment will not be the end goal. AR entertainment will be a whole new form of content very soon, so don’t underestimate Apple’s true goal post.
Apple just have to set boundaries suitable to their content and they'll come.
Shows like Person of Interest actually played on network TV on CBS of all thing, so its not like it is impossible to do good content without going full R.
Incidentally, I understand Apple has a lot of money and could be making equally enormous and impactful moves. Tim should've bought Disney AND Bob Iger while they had a chance. That can't possibly happen now.
I just had a thought (and this one’s directly related to the thread topic–Apple entering the media production/distribution realm). That whole thing about “not asking what would steve do?” That should have applied to everything except negotiations. Steve grabbed the music industry by the balls and dragged them to iTunes. When he died, the TV moguls pried his hands off theirs and took off for the hills. Now we have an “a la carte” system, all right. “A la carte” being a phrase that just means “you have to buy all content separately from everyone’s own dedicated services at separate prices and formats, because they’re slowly ending licensing and pulling their shit off of aggregate services.”
You know, I’ve found political correctness to be the opposite of that.