It’s about time that the world caught up with the strong women Barbara Hall has been creating for more than three decades.  On Judging Amy, Hall gave us two generations of fearless women, Tyne Daly’s crusading social worker and her daughter Amy Brenneman’s family court judge.  Hall’s current show, CBS’ Madam Secretary, which concludes its fifth season Sunday, April 21, stars Téa Leoni as Elizabeth McCord.  A former CIA analyst and academic, McCord throughout the series' five-year run has been serving as Secretary of State, but this season resigned to run for President.  Both parties are courting the independent McCord.  A wise woman, impervious to political winds and who, as a mother and wife also balances a family, McCord may well be what this country needs, a brilliant, compassionate diplomat averse to jingoism.

When people reflect on their careers, conversations tend toward the serious.  Even those who love their work can sound coldly detached.  However, when Izzie Pick Ibarra (pictured above), executive producer and showrunner of Fox’s The Masked Singer – the first new hit television series of 2019 -- reflects on work she frequently breaks into laughter, even when talking about difficult times.  Pick Ibarra is, as she puts it, “in a very happy place because I just did a show that I was allowed to let loose on.  I had great support from Fox.  I feel really creatively fulfilled.”