Gloria Calderón Kellett and Norman Lear are about to launch the fourth season of Calderón Kellet’s Latino version of One Day at a Time, a mere 45 years after Lear’s original series become a mainstay on the network from 1975 to 1984. Calderón Kellett developed ODAAT, the series with co-creator Mike Royce, which ran three seasons on Netflix, then it was cancelled. After a social media outrage and a call for the return of the much loved show, it was picked up by POP TV but cut short because of the Covid. Then the news came that the series was picked up by CBS, making a full circle back to the television network where it began. Home again.  Originally scheduled to premiere on October 5th, it was pushed back to October 12th at the last minute.

With the trajectory of ODAAT Calderón Kellett and Royce are the TV show creators that could…three times! The season four they shot for POP TV is what will be airing on CBS. Calderón Kellett took to social media to once again elicit the help of ODAAT fans. This season is crucial for the beloved sitcom if they are to get a season 5 on CBS.

If Calderón Kellet has shown anything, it’s that she is resilient and a survivor. And so she recounts her journey to being one of the most sought after show runners on television. Calderón Kellet recalls, “My parents are Cuban. I was raised in Oregon and San Diego, so I guess we are West Coast Cubans. Yeah, they do exist. I was a singer, dancer and actor at a very young age. In the first grade I was performing at malls and retirement communities.  The writing came a little bit later. It really emanated from a deep frustration I felt after coming to Hollywood and going out on auditions. I was stunned by the limited roles that they had for Latinos. ‘Where’s a Latino teacher, a lawyer or a doctor?’ The roles were always gangbangers or girlfriends of gangbangers. This was only fifteen years ago. That really frustrated me, so I figured that the people holding the power are holding the pen. So, I gotta hold the pen.”

Calderón Kellet was doing standup comedy at the time and noticed there were very few Latinas doing standup. “It was very male dominated,” she says. “I was consistently told that women had no place in comedy. So, I put together a one woman show of 15 short monologues for women of various, diverse backgrounds. It was a very simply staged production, just an actor on a small blank stage and a single light. The first night I gave tickets out to all the local charities that I supported and to the businesses around the theater. We were sold out and the rest of the run we had a line going around the block. People seemed to want to see a woman being funny. This is how I got my agent and my manager. I put up another show called Baggage the next year.  Then I wrote a book, Accessories – 30 Monologues for Women, a compilation of the monologues I did in those two shows. And that is really what started my career. That is the thing that caught fire for me and allowed people to see what I could do and make them want to hire me.” 

The once aspiring young singer, dancer and comic moved forward as a writer, actress, story editor and co-producer on the CBS series, How I Met Your Mother. Then she moved on to writer and supervising producer on Rules of Engagement, Lifetime’s Devious Maids, ABC’s Mixology and the ABC series, United We Fall.  In her current series, she has modeled the lead role of Penelope (played by Justina Machado) on herself.  

“It’s true,” she admits. “Our lead character is a veteran and a nurse.  I am not a veteran and I am not in health care. But the way she thinks and feels about the world is me. She is balancing between her mother (played by Rita Moreno), who is much more conservative and her daughter (played by Isabella Gomez) who is very liberal. Penelope is really trying to keep her balance between these very powerful women. She serves as our moderate.”

Calderón Kellett is not finding a huge difference between creating a series for streaming television and having it air on network television. “It really isn’t different at all,” she exclaims. “What is so beautiful about this show is, we were always making a Norman Lear sitcom. On Netflix, the episodes got to be a little bit longer, which was lovely, but this was always in the tone and style of what Norman has been doing for 45 years. It is really glorious to now be on a network which is what this format was designed for. It is having a discourse with your audience and saying, ‘Welcome to this Latino couch.’  The sitcom is a proscenium, a theater, a play. And the couch is the center of every great American sitcom because that’s where the conversations are happening. To be able to do that in the Norman Lear style on CBS so many years later is just a gift. And I am so proud to have it seen through the Latino lens.” 

When asked about the makeup of the writers room and how many are on staff, Kellett explains, “Every year it varies a little bit. I believe this year there were 12 of us. It’s normally between nine and twelve. It is a glorious room to be in.”

There are a lot of Latinos in there. We are heavily Latino and we also are heavily queer because one of our main characters is from the LGBTQIA community. It’s a lot. And we also have various ages amongst the writers which is also very important to us because the show spans so many ages. That is what happens when you put a Latina in charge.  We’re very intentional in making change.” 

As far as filming in front of a live audience, Kellett goes on to say, “Lear’s series featured live audiences. And, yes, we did most of ours live.” But then, the whispers about COVID started, so our sixth episode did not have an audience. The six episodes are what CBS has signed on for this season. We did a seventh animated episode, the ‘Election Episode,’ which we are praying CBS will let us air just before the Presidential election. We wrote this entire fourth season for Netflix but only got to shoot half of it. The hope is that CBS will love it and we can fold the remaining shows we have written for season four into season five. That is our deep wish and desire.  However, the great hope is that our community will come out and really show up big on October 5 to 19. That will be a clear statement to the network that the public wants to have the show on the air and we’ll be able to provide the series for many years to come.”

Aside from One Day At a Time, when asked about any other projects she’s working on, Calderón Kellett laughs. “I have many projects I am working on. I don’t know how many I am allowed to talk about yet.  My new deal is with Amazon. They have already greenlit several pilots for me. Then I have a movie with Natasha Rothwell, an incredible African American actress and writer. She and I have a movie called We Were There Too, being produced by Greg Berlanti’s company for HBO Max.”   

Wondering if Calderón Kellett ever missed her old days as a performer, she tells us, “I do but of all the things that I do, the writing, directing and producing have had the most impact. So, right now, that is where my focus is. I certainly love acting, being able to pop over and do somebody else’s show or do one of my own. But my priority is still the pen. Once I get another show on, I am sure I will make an appearance in it. There are a lot of very talented Latina actresses out there but not a lot of Latina writers and directors who are given the opportunity to create. So, I f eel that is where I need to put my focus at this moment.”

The post Gloria Calderón Kellett Leads Latinized “One Day At a Time” Back To CBS first appeared on .

by Luis Reyes

Last week at a star studded ceremony in Beverly Hills the National Hispanic Media Coalition held its 23rd Annual Impact Awards honoring the significant and impactful contribution of Latino content creators, producers and actors in Hollywood and in American popular culture. 

America Ferrera, honored for Outstanding Series Producer for Netflix’s Gentefied said in her acceptance speech, “We are content creators and agents of change, changing the narrative….and now we are not doing it alone.” She dedicated the award to the late actress Lupe Ontiveros with whom she worked with on her debut film, Real Woman Have Curves Ferrera added, “Ontiveros over her career had few opportunities to share the depth of her extraordinary talent.” 

Jay Hernandez who was honored for Outstanding Television Performance as the titular hero of Magnum P.I., commented upon receiving his award, “We get to tell the story of who we are with humanity, dignity and grace in these important times.” Hernandez tackled one of the most iconic characters in recent television history and made it his own.

 Roberto Aguirre- Sacasa is the writer and executive producer of three hit series Riverdale, Kathy Keene and Chilly Adventures of Sabrina. He received an award for Outstanding Executive Producer for his accomplishments presented by Vida producer Tanya Saracho. Saracho acknowledged him for inspiring her pursuit of a writing career as a beginning playwright in Chicago, noting that they share many of the same cultural touchstones in their writing.  “We have a rich past and there is positive change for authentic and accurate representations.” explained Aguirre. For this season of Starz Vida, Saracho proudly revealed that she hired all female Latinx directors.

Amy Lippman co- created the original Fox series Party of Five (1994-2000) about a group of Anglo kids who lose their mother and father in an accident and are left to fend on their own.  Twenty years later Lippman updated the material with social relevance for today’s audiences about a Latinx family whose parents are deported from the U.S. and the kids are forced to cope on their own. Party of Five with an all Latinx cast is currently on Freeform television and executive produced by Lippman who received an Impact award.

Isabella Gomez was awarded for her Outstanding series performance as Elena Alvarez on the beloved “One Day at a Time, about three generations of a Cuban-American family living in the same house. The Netflix show now on Pop TV was co-created by Gloria Calderon Kellett who presented Gomez with the award.

Dany Garcia is described as a “Billion-dollar producer” for the number one worldwide box office star Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and she runs a vast portfolio of entertainment companies. She is the founder, chairwoman and CEO of the Garcia companies and TCG Management and co-founder of Seven Bucks companies,

The daughter of Cuban Immigrants, Dany has produced with her executive team and studio partners an amazing array of diverse content for a global audience with productions that include several successful film franchises. Garcia in a moment of reflection said, “I believe No Latinx woman has been there before me.”

 She has amassed 1.5 billion in box-office receipts this year alone and more than $4 billion to date. Her productions include Jumanji, Jumanji: The Next Level, Hobbs and Shaw and the upcoming Disney’s Jungle Cruise.

Garcia received an Impact award for Outstanding Film Producer and it was presented to her by her brother Hiram Garcia, who runs her Seven Bucks film production unit.

Ozzie Areu, who rose from security guard at Warner Bros. studios and personal assistant to Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt to running Tyler Perry Studios is now Founder and CEO of his own studio facility, Areu Bros studios in Atlanta, Georgia. He received a Trailblazer Award as the first modern Latino studio owner following in the footsteps of Desi Arnaz who founded Desilu Studios with his wife Lucille Ball with the phenomenal success of their 50’s TV sitcom I Love Lucy.

Warner Bros. Chair and CEO Ann Sarnoff was given a Visionary award for greenlighting, producing and releasing Lin Manuel Miranda’s upcoming film version of his Tony Award winning musical drama In The Heights directed by Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) that opens in theaters nationwide on June 26^th. It features a largely Latinx cast of young rising performers and established artists.

Sitcom stars Jacob Vargas (Mr. Iglesias) and Justina Machado (One Day at a Time) served as hosts for the awards ceremony and kept the proceeding lively and fast moving.

Unlike the Oscars, the Emmy’s or the Golden Globes, the Impact Awards brought to the forefront, by their mere presence alone, a young empowered collective group of professional entertainment industry Latinx women. They were recognized for creating mainstream entertainment that reflects the world we live in and for telling stories that deserve to be told that reflect our various communities and experiences as Americans.

At the beginning of the decade of the 80’s and 90’s it was proclaimed by the media to be “The Decade of The Hispanic” and although there were notable gains made by filmmakers and talent (Luis Valdez, Robert Rodriguez, Gregory Nava, Edward James Olmos, Salma Hayek, Andy Garcia, Benicio del Toro, George Lopez etc.) the “Decade” never did materialize.  Now into the beginning of the second decade of the 21^st century, it seems like the work done by past generation is making way for the new Latinx generation to come of age in Hollywood. We are living in an era of Latinx talent across all the entertainment platforms. As one presenter commented,

 “We have proven that together with artists and crafts people there exists beautiful content that celebrates our lives and values and voracious audiences [for the content]”

Netflix has a scripted series Selena currently in production on the early years of legendary Tejana singer, in addition for the first time in history, there are ten (10) Latino themed and cast series currently on broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition NHMC is a national media advocacy and social justice organization for the advancement of Latinx and the annual Impact Awards recognizes talent and executives who advance equality and opportunities for the Latinx community in media and entertainment. Brenda Victoria Castillo is the president/CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

The post NHMC 2020 Impact Awards Honors Latinx Generation Talent In Beverly Hills first appeared on .

By Bel Hernandez

The fact that Gloria Calderon Kellett, Executive Producer/Showrunner (One Day At a Time) signed an “overall deal” with Amazon Studios this past week is a major “Big Deal”. For starters, this would be a major accomplishment for any woman in Hollywood, the fact that she is Latina puts her in an elite group.

This is not Calderon Kellett’s first TV deal. Her hit show, the adaptation of Norman Lear’s One Day At A Time, she worked with writing partner Mike Royce, falls under their current overall deal with Sony Pictures TV, which lapses in June 2020. At the time of this deal’s lapse, her three-year overall deal with Amazon begins.

Calderon Kellett belongs to an elite group of Latinas that have secured deals at TV or cable networks. Other Latinas who have had or still have production deals are America Ferrera with a deal at NBC/Universal; Salma Hayek with an overall film deal at Lionsgate; Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) has a TV overall deal with CBS; Zoe Saldana whose deal with DreamWorks Animation’s AwesomenessTV is to produce original content for the company’s forthcoming Awestruck service; and Eva Longoria who has had two deals, one with ABC under which she produced Telenovela and one with Fox Studios under which she produced the recent Grand Hotel which also aired on ABC.

However, Calderon Kellett’s Amazon deal has the distinction of being a three-year deal and she is the first-ever Latina writer/creator to sign an eight figures deal.

Calderon Kellett began her career in entertainment as a playwright whose scripts went on to win distinction and awards. She did stand up, writing her own comedy routines before turning to a career writing for TV. In 2005 she joined the writer’s room on How I Met Your Mother and she has worked herself to the top of her game from there.

Calderon Kellett is not only making news as an Executive Producer/Showrunner she has also joined the small ranks of woman directors in Hollywood and is one of only a handful of Latinas who have taken their turn directing for TV. While on hiatus from producing One Day at a Time, she directed an episode of the reboot series Mad About You. Her other directing credits include having directed episodes on One Day At A Time and Mr. Iglesias on Netflix.

When Netflix canceled One Day at a Time earlier this year after the third season, there was a social media uproar with audiences and critics alike calling for its return. Netflix did not reverse the cancellation, however, the series was picked up by POP TV giving them a fourth season which is set to premiere in the Spring of 2020.

With Latino TV writers as a whole only making up 2.8%  of all writers staffed on TV shows, the percentage of Latinas, derived from that percentage is much smaller. With that in mind, what Calderon Kellett has accomplished becomes even more impactful as this twice Emmy nominated and Peabody Award nominee only getting started.

The Latino community is lagging when it comes to TV writers and more specifically executive producers/showrunners. This community needs a prolific writer/showrunner with not just one, but several Latino series on the air. Longoria has been leading in this area, with having had two series in the past five years go to series. Both Telenovela (under the ABC deal) and Grand Hotel under the FOX deal aired on ABC. Both these series starred an all Latino cast, however, both were canceled after only one season.

Calderon Kellett’s One Day at A Time already a three seasons series will premiere its 4th season on POP TV. And, if Calderon Kellett chooses to produce more Latino themed content under her Amazon deal, she would be the front runner for the title of “the Latina Shonda Rhimes”. It’s a tall order, but given Calderon Kellet’s track record, it could well be a possibility.

The post Gloria Calderon Kellet Is A “Big Deal” at Amazon first appeared on .