March welcomes the return of television viewers’ favorites like House of Cards, The Americans, Bates Motel, Mr. Selfridge, Quantico, The Last Man on Earth, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, and Dancing With the Stars. In their absence, however, recent entries have staked claims on their coveted timeslots and there are no signs of easing up.

March is a prime example with Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder’ creator Shonda Rhimes sealing her domination over Thursday evenings with the cat-and-mouse caper thriller titled The Catch. ABC also unfurls an ambitious Biblical saga titled Of Kings and Prophets, while director-actor Tyler Perry recounts the last hours of Jesus Christ’s life in a live reenactment of The Passion set against the backdrop of modern day New Orleans.

Fresh off its Oscar win, director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” debuts March 7 on HBO. Examining the tensions between modernism and tradition in Pakistan, the documentary recounts the experiences of one woman, who lived to tell about the attempted honor killing at the hands of her own family. Her offense was marrying a man her uncle deemed below the family’s stature.

Perhaps the biggest vote of confidence for television’s future comes from Spike Jonze, who temporarily abandoned his theatrical career in order to launch the entirely new channel – Viceland. Replacing the History Channel’s offshoot H2, Viceland’s thought provoking and sometimes controversial content tackles topics like marijuana, and LGBTQ travel fresh out of the gate.

Giving an advanced heads up, here’s some of the highlights from March’s schedule:

March 1: Viceland – Noisey, a music docu-series hosted by Zach Goldbaum, plus Weediquette outlining everything you’ve ever wanted to know about marijuana. Building momentum, subsequent programs include Balls Deep with Thomas Morton, F—, That’s Delicious with rapper Action Bronson, and Flophouse inhabited by comedians.

March 3: ABC’s The Real O’Neals. The family sitcom stars Martha Plimpton (Raising Hope) and Jay Ferguson as image conscious Irish Catholics, whose son (Noah Galvin) comes out of the closet in the pilot episode, while another son is battling anorexia. Compounding their situation, the parents are contemplating divorce.

March 3: ABC’s The Family. Joan Allen portrays the manipulative mayor of fictional Red Pines, whose son was kidnapped a decade earlier. Upon announcing her candidacy for governor that missing offspring Adam (Liam Jones) suddenly reappears. Suspicions soon surface, however, as to whether Adam is the genuine article. This The Family airing is billed as a special premiere before settling into its regular Sunday timeslot.

March 6: PBS’ Downton Abbey. Rather than a debut, this airing marks the finale for Masterpiece’s beloved upstairs-downstairs drama after six seasons. Lord Grantham and company will be sourly missed.

March 7: A&E’s Damien. Lifetime’s The Omen’s sequel Damien takes up residency at A&E with Bradley James playing the grown up Damien Thom. Initially he’s unaware of the satanic forces surrounding him, but Barbara Hershey checks in to insure that Damien fulfills his dark destiny during the 10-eposide run.

One for the pint-sized set – PBS KIDS premieres Rollin’ on the Riverboat: Parts 1 & 2 as part of a week of new programs from The Jim Henson Company’s Dinosaur Train.

March 8: ABC’s Of Kings and Prophets. Based on the Biblical Books of Samuel, faith, ambition, and betrayal are the cornerstones of the story told through the perspective of a battle weary monarch, a power yielding prophet and a resourceful young shepherd, whose paths will intertwine. Heading the cast are Ray Winstone as King Saul and Olly Rix as David. Be forewarned that writers Adam Cooper and Bill Collage expressed their intentions to push the boundaries of sex and violence.

March 13: Lifetime’s And Then There Were None. Having sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, Agatha Christie’s crime novel makes its United States premiere in two parts. The all-star cast boasts names like Douglas Booth, Charles Dance, Sam Neill and Maeve Dermody.

March 14: HBO’s Ebola: The Doctors’ Story, Body Team 12 and Orphans of Ebola debut back-to-back recounting extraordinary stories of courage and perseverance amidst the West African Ebola pandemic that claimed tens of thousands of lives. The trilogy spans an eight month period from the initial outbreak, the height of the epidemic, and its waning.

March 19: OWN’s For Peete’s Sake turns the cameras on the husband-wife duo of Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete in the new comedic, dramatic and intimate docu-series. She’s a veteran of movies like 21 Jump Street, while he was an NFL quarterback for 16 years.

March 20: FOX ushers in Easter Week with The Passion, a live two hour musical event, hosted by actor/writer/producer/director Tyler Perry. The recreation of Christ’s last hours features names such as Jencarlos Canela, Chris Daughtry, Prince Royce, Seal, and Trisha Yearwood. An inspirational The Passion: New Orleans soundtrack is being released March 18^th.

March 24: ABC’s The Catch turns the tables on fraud investigator Alice Martin (Mirelle Enos) and the culprit is her own fiancé. Aside from her quest to track down the rascal, Alice is busy unraveling the cases of her clients.

March 25: Showtime’s Spring Broke transports viewers to Daytona, Fla. For that annual ritual known as Spring Break, executive producer Alex Gibney retraces the evolution of the infamous spring vacation revelries. If there’s the slightest chance one’s parents might get a gander at some past transgressions it might be wise to hide the remote control.

About the Author

Winnie Bonelli is a former entertainment editor for a daily metropolitan New York City area newspaper. She is passionate about movies and television and loves to take readers behind the scenes.

American Masters on PBS has produced an amazing film about Loretta Lynn. This woman has had an interesting life and a long-running career. In her 80s now, she is still singing, performing, and writing. Loretta Lynn: Still a Mountain Girl explores her Appalachian roots, her marriage, her family, and her career. This is one woman who has had an enormous impact on the world of country music and music in general.

The 1980 film Coal Miners Daughter starred Sissy Spacek as the famous singer/songwriter. The title was taken from Lynn’s popular song about her early life. “I liked Coal Miner’s Daughter, the movie,” Lynn told the media. “I really did. And I thought Sissy did a great job, you know, and I thought Tommy Lee did too.” Lee played Lynn’s husband Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn.

Lynn and her family associate themselves with her hometown of Butcher Holler, and even one of her daughter’s says the family’s roots in the tiny town is engrained in all of them.

The film includes interviews with Lynn, some of her children and granddaughter, as well as others in the business like Willie Nelson, Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks, and Reba McEntire. Lynn is called “The Queen of Country Music,” and rightly so. Her songs strike a chord in people. She writes about real people and deep feelings.

She entertained the media with a story about how she wrote one of her hit songs. “Well, you know, when I write a song, it’s usually something that I’m going through that day, or that week, or that month, or somebody that I know that’s going through that problem. Like, when I wrote ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough,’ this little woman come backstage, and she said, ‘Loretta, my husband didn’t bring me to the show tonight.’ She said, ‘He has got a girlfriend, and he brought her.’ And she says, ‘She’s sitting out in that second row with my husband.’ And we kind of pulled the curtain back and looked at him, and I looked around at that lady that came backstage, and I said, ‘Honey, she ain’t woman enough to take your man.’ I went in the dressing room right then and wrote that song before the show ever started.” Talk about the ability to put pen to paper. This woman can do it in a blink of an eye.

Lynn is a hard-working woman with a new album being released the first week of March. “I ain’t never stopped touring. I work all the time. I couldn’t sit down and quit working if I wanted to.”

Lynn admits the worst part of touring was being away from her children. She had 6 children, four of which were born before she was 19 years old.

Most of her songs were written about her husband. “But every time I’d write a song, and it would be about him, and he would look at me and grin, you know. He knew I was writing it about him,” she said with a smile to the media gathered to hear from this iconic woman. He definitely gave her a lot to write about. Their children discuss how volatile their relationship was through the years, but they continued to stay married. After all, because she was away so much, the distance did their marriage good.

In the film Lynn discusses her tragic loss of their son and her husband’s life and the loss of the man who had been her constant admirer.

The documentary is an exceptional in-depth look at the life and career of Loretta Lynn. With insights from the family as well as singing by Lynn, her family, and others in the business, this is a film that is the true story of this woman whose influence on the music industry will last forever.

For those interested in more about Loretta Lynn, after the movie make a reservation to visit Hurricaine Mills, Tennessee. It’s a small town west of Nashville and owned by, you guessed it! – Loretta Lynn.

Loretta Lynn: Still a Mountain Girl premiers on American Masters March 4, 2016 on PBS. It’s the quintessential story of the Queen of Country Music.

About the Author

Francine Brokaw has been covering all aspects of the entertainment industry for 20 years. She also writes about products and travel. She has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines as well as Internet websites. She has written her own book, Beyond the Red Carpet The World of Entertainment Journalists, from Sourced Media Books.

Follow her on Twitter

 

For many of us we know exactly where we were the first time we heard Carole King’s landmark album Tapestry. That album spoke to us. Carole King was singing just to us. Her voice, the lyrics, and the melodies combined to make an album that has lasted 45 years and is still considered one of the very best in music history. Carole King: Natural Woman is a documentary exploring the life, loves, and mostly the music of this amazing singer/songwriter.

In the 1950s the idea of a singer/songwriter was unique. People either wrote songs or sang them. King began in New York as simply a songwriter, with her husband Gerry Goffin supplying the lyrics. They were a great team, at least when they were writing songs. The history of their writing careers is an interesting and enlightening story.

“One Fine Day” written for the Chiffons, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” written for the Shirelles, “Take Good Care of my Baby” written for Bobby Vee, “The Loco-Motion” written for Little Eva, “I’m into Something Good,” for Herman’s Hermits, “Up on the Roof” for The Drifters, “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and more were from the talented songwriting team of King/Goffin. Songs we never knew were penned by this team are part of our lives, not simply the songs sung by King herself. Even “Chains” which was written for someone else was picked up by the Beatles and made it onto one of their albums.

King had an interesting life, which was anchored in her music. She has two daughters and admits in the film that the hardest part of her career was when she had to be on the road.

From the time she was a child, King was a musician and stood out in every way. She knew what she wanted to do and she went ahead and did it. She is an inspiration to women everywhere. When her personal life crumbled, her music never suffered. She is definitely amazing and one of the truly talented songwriters in American history.

Tapestry was an album that was produced 45 years ago this month. The album has become a staple in many households and continues to be a favorite among music lovers. Carole King’s mark on the industry was made well before the release of this album, but Tapestry permanently cemented her in the hearts and souls of listeners.

This documentary will enlighten viewers to the life and amazing career of Carole King while bringing up many nostalgic moments. It’s difficult to believe this one woman wrote so many fabulous and memorable songs, but watching the film viewers will understand the true talent she has.

Carole King: A Natural Woman premiers on American Masters on PBS February 19, 2016.

About the Author

Francine Brokaw has been covering all aspects of the entertainment industry for 20 years. She also writes about products and travel. She has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines as well as Internet websites. She has written her own book, Beyond the Red Carpet The World of Entertainment Journalists, from Sourced Media Books.

Follow her on Twitter