‘The Bear’ Should Resume Production in Late-February

Now that the Hollywood strikes have ended, FX has announced that the studio is working on a third season of The Bear, the Chicago-based TV show about the restaurant industry. Deadline reports production will commence in late February or early March.

The trade mag grabbed comments from star Jeremy Allen White who says he hasn’t seen any new scripts. White, who plays Carmen Berzatto, says he’d like to see guest stars like Olivia Colman (She played the chef at a fictionalized version of Chicago’s Ever) and others return for at least one episode, an ensemble episode in the same vein as Season 2’s Christmas-themed offering that starred Jamie Lee Curtis and others.

While some Chicagoans have resorted to the same crankiness Martin Scorsese has exhibited about superhero movies, claiming The Bear fatigue, one of its biggest critics has come around. CBS This Morning aired a segment from Mr. Beef, the River North stand that inspired the show’s creators. Christopher Zucchero, who has been working at the stand since his father, Joe Zucchero, died in 2022, told CBS that he doubted the show’s success and told childhood friend, show creator Christopher Storer, kind of condescendingly: “Oh, I bet it’ll be a big hit.”

​​Christopher Zucchero has told Eater in the past that Mr. Beef’s success was due to family, not just because of attention because of the TV show. In comments to CBS, he seemed to have softened his stance on the show, attributing long lines to The Bear’s popularity: “Now, I’m eating my words,” he said.

Locally, there seems plenty of juice left. Crust Fund Pizza, the alleyway pop-up that sells Chicago-style thin pizza, is pivoting this month. Founder John Carruthers is slinging Italian beef under the moniker “The Original C&D of Chicago.” Carruthers came up with a fun story, joking that he would call the operation “FX’s Hit Show The Bear But Make It Pizza,” but FX’s lawyers objected. Read the Instagram post for the entire humorous — and made-up — story.