The Watchman: Firefighters Hot for ‘Tacoma FD’, Cub Reporter on Apple TV+ and Fowl Play on Disney XD

Season two of Tacoma FD starts on truTV March 26. Steve Lemme and Kevin Heffernan play firefighters in rainy Tacoma, Washington. The creator pair said they hear from plenty of first responders who dig the show. “We are told it’s the most accurate firefighter show on television,” said Lemme. “There’s plenty of hijinks and comedy.”

'Tacoma FD'

'Tacoma FD'

Well-regarded comedies today tilt toward dramedies, but Tacoma FD sticks to the yuks. “We create a world that people want to hang out in,” said Heffernan.

The season has 13 episodes, after season one had 10. Heffernan sees it as a vote of confidence from truTV. “I think it was a test run last season,” he said, “and we passed the test.”

Joe Pantoliano guest stars. The season’s highlight? Heffernan “shaking his tail feather,” said Lemme, in a salsa lesson. “It’s an incredible dance sequence,” he added. Noted Heffernan, “I will tell you — things go awry.”

Home Before Dark is on Apple TV+ April 3. It’s based on the gumshoe endeavors of Hilde Lysiak (see Review, page 8). When she was 9, Lysiak broke the news about a murder in her neighborhood in her Orange Street News. “From that moment on, for her it was, this is who I am, and this is what I have to do with my life,” said Dana Fox, showrunner/executive producer.

The series is far more than a “plucky little girl who solves crimes,” said Fox. “She takes the job of finding the truth very seriously.”

Brooklynn Prince plays Hilde. Fox called her “a complete revelation.”

Home Before Dark is a bingeable mystery, said Fox, and fun for the whole family. She compares it to watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Goonies with her family as a girl. “You see exciting, wonderful, scary things,” she said. “And at the end of the day, you’re OK.”

Fowl Play on Disney XD

On April 4, it’s season three of DuckTales on Disney XD. The Duck family embarks on a globetrotting hunt for the world’s greatest lost artifacts. Huey, Dewey and Louie work side by side this season.

DuckTales

DuckTales

“We never had a season where the whole family shares a goal,” co-executive producer Francisco Angones said of them taking on Fiendish Organization for World Larceny (F.O.W.L.).

Danny Pudi voices Huey, Ben Schwartz handles Dewey and Bobby Moynihan is Louie. Exec producer Matt Youngberg said each actor puts his own stamp on his duck. “Each has such a distinct voice, but they meld so well together,” he said.

Youngberg and Angones said it’s the characters that keep viewers watching DuckTales. “Once viewers have emotional resonance with the characters,” Youngberg said, “they want to see what happens to them.”

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.