PAGE 2 • TV
THE BULLETIN • APRIL 8 - 14, 2021
Catherine Zeta-Jones finds a
TV home in ‘Prodigal Son’
BY JAY BOBBIN
It’s common for television shows to add
regular cast members as they go along.
Adding someone of the stature of
Catherine Zeta-Jones? That’s not as
common.
The “Chicago” Oscar winner and “A
Little Night Music” Tony recipient hasn’t
been a stranger to TV in recent years,
having appeared in the movie “Cocaine
Godmother” and the series “Queen
America” and “Feud: Bette and Joan,”
but it’s still major news for her to join
“Prodigal Son.” The Fox drama introduced
her in its early-March midseason finale,
and she’s fully present as it resumes its
second season Tuesday, April 13. She
plays psychiatric-hospital doctor Vivian
Capshaw, whose new association with serial
killer Martin Whitly (Michael Sheen) –
alias “The Surgeon” – generates unease and
danger.
“I was a fan of the show,” Zeta-Jones
explains. “I gravitate to the kind of nuance
of what I think is so different and powerful
about ‘Prodigal Son.’ It’s pretty good
family drama, and it’s a dark family. And
Michael Sheen (who grew up near Zeta-
Jones in Wales), I’d never met before but
I’ve admired from a distance. Even though
we are the same age and we have all of
these mutual friends, we’d never crossed.
My mom and dad know his dad, so that
was, of course, a huge pull for me. And the
character was intriguing to me.”
Catherine Zeta-Jones is a
new star of “Prodigal Son”
Tuesday on Fox.
The arrival of Zeta-Jones has been a big
deal for “Prodigal Son’s” continuing stars,
including Lou Diamond Phillips, who also
directed the episode that brought her into
the show. “You don’t always know what
you are going to get,” he admits, “and she
is so gracious and so warm and so inclusive
of everyone. From the moment she stepped
on set, it was as if she’d been a part of the
ensemble from the beginning. She came to
play.”
Zeta-Jones has not been the only
member of her household to return to
home screens lately, since her Oscar-
winning husband Michael Douglas also
has done it with Netflix’s “The Kominsky
Method.” She reasons, “Historically in film
and TV, family dramas are very powerful.
Every family can relate to something in
there.”
As it happened, Whoopi Goldberg played
a part in Zeta-Jones entering “Prodigal
Son,” since the fellow Academy Award
winner gave the series an impromptu rave
review on ABC’s “The View” just as Zeta-
Jones was mulling joining the drama.
The latter recalls, “She just randomly
gave it this incredible thumbs-up, and I’m
lying there going, ‘That’s what I’m talking
about! She knows.’ Michael (Douglas) was
there, and he went, ‘Did you know they
were going to say that?’ And I went, ”No.
Great minds think alike, baby.’ That was,
like, the stamp of approval that came from
nowhere.“
Guide to the TV grids
TV Ratings:
‘G’: General audience
‘Y’: Young children
‘7’: Children over 7
‘14’: Children over 14
‘PG’: Parental guidance
‘M’: Mature audience only
PA: Parental advisory
DVS: Descriptive video service
EI: Educational/instructional
D: Dialogue
L: Language
S: Sexual situations
V: Violence
Common symbols :
HD scheduling, please
note:
’:I n stereo
Å: Closed captioning
iTV: Interactive TV program
N: Program is new
Schedules are based on standard-
definition (SD) channels. High-
definition (HD) channels may vary
by three hours when a West Coast
programming feed is not available to
your TV provider. Please refer to your
provider’s interactive TV guide for
detailed HD channel schedules.
For a list of cable and over-the-air
channels by zip code, as well
up-to-the-minute TV programming,
please visit www.bendbulletin.
com/tv. For questions or feedback
please call The Bulletin Circulation
Department at 541-385-5800.