Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
What if you could go back in time? Would you stop one of the biggest assassinations in history?
On Presidents' Day, Hulu debuts the new series, "11.22.63," based on the Stephen King book of the same name.
James Franco stars as Jake Epping, a modern day teacher who finds a time portal that deposits people in the 1960s.
Epping then develops an elaborate plan to save President John F Kennedy from being shot.
"This story is wearing the coat of a thriller, but underneath it it's a love story," says executive producer Bridget Carpenter. "There's this idea of going back – of wishful thinking. The idea of going back to the day before, or the year before, or when I was in high school if I only let that guy know that I really liked him, maybe life would be different."
"11.22.63" is steeped in nostalgia for America's past, too. Even the food is tastier and more flavorful than today's meals, as seen when one character bites into and marvels at a cob of corn.
"I do think that there was a purer energy and optimism of that time," says Carpenter. "My desire for this entire for this series was to have you feel like you were vacuumed into a documentary of the 1960s."
Carpenter, also a playwright, collaborated on the series with King as well as producer J.J. Abrams, but she admits that cramming 849 pages into an eight-part series was both a blessing and a curse.
"With this book, it's a doorstop of a book. And yet at the same time, it's a barn burner," she says. "You have this incredible high-class problem of there's too much story which is, in fact, the problem that you want as an adapter."
"11.22.63" debuts February 15th, 2016, on Hulu.