News

"Fantasy Island," Gene Levitt's ABC series that ran from 1977 to 1984, had a simple enough premise for it to be contained entirely within the show's title. An island where people come to live out their fantasies was enough of an idea to spawn two made-for-tv movies and seven seasons of fantasy drama, anchored by the great Ricardo Montalbán, who played the mysterious and distinguished Mr. Roarke. Roarke hosted the island's many guests and oversaw their fantasies coming to life, accompanied initially by his assistant Tattoo (Hervé Villechaize).

"Fantasy Island" became popular during its seven years on the air, and Tattoo's catchphrase "The plane, the plane," which he delivered at the top of every episode, was absorbed into the cultural lexicon. The show's popularity hasn't endured quite as well as some other series from the era, though, which is probably partly why Blumhouse's terrible horror getaway version of "Fantasy Island" failed...

Marshall Brickman, the writer and director known for co-writing some of Woody Allen‘s earlier works, died November 29 in Manhattan. He was 85.

The Oscar winner’s daughter Sophie Brickman announced that her father died Friday in Manhattan, following more than 50 years of writing, directing and producing for the stage and screen.

A cause of death was not provided, according to The New York Times.

After teaming up with Allen on the 1973 sci-fi comedy Sleeper, they co-wrote the hit satirical romantic-comedy Annie Hall together, earning both men an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The duo also collaborated on Allen’s 1979 followup Manhattan, which earned them another screenplay nomination. They teamed again on the 1993 dark comedy Manhattan Murder Mystery.

Born Aug. 25, 1939 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Brickman studied science and music with plans to become a doctor. After joining folk band The Tarriers in 1962, recording a banjo album that would later become...

Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote hit films with Woody Allen including Annie Hall, and the musical Jersey Boys, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 85. His daughter Sophie Brickman confirmed the news to The New York Times.

Born in Rio de Janeiro and raised in Brooklyn, Brickman originally wanted to be a musician and graduated from University of Wisconsin with degrees in science and music. He was in the folk group the Tarriers, playing alongside Eric Weissberg and they scored the hit single, “Dueling Banjos.” Several of their songs from their...

Marshall Brickman, who won an Oscar for writing “Annie Hall” alongside Woody Allen and also collaborated with him on “Sleeper,” “Manhattan” and “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” died Friday in Manhattan. He was 85.

His daughter Sophie confirmed his death to the New York Times.

Brickman co-wrote Broadway musicals “Jersey Boys” and “The Addams Family” and started out writing for “Candid Camera” and “The Tonight Show,” where he developed the famous Johnny Carson character, Carnac the Magnificent. He also worked on the pilot for “The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence,” which later became “The Muppet Show.”

Brickman and Allen’s script for “Annie Hall” became one of the most frequently quoted and well-remembered screenplays ever, winning numerous other awards in addition to the original screenplay Oscar. “‘Annie Hall’ contains more intellectual wit and cultural references than any other movie ever to win the Oscar for best picture,” wrote Roger Ebert in a 2002 appreciation.

Fred Roos, the Oscar-winning The Godfather Part II producer and longtime executive producer for Francis Ford Coppola and Sofia Coppola, died Saturday in Beverly Hills at 89, four days shy of his 90th birthday.

The news about Roos, who won his Godfather Part II Oscar and later was nominated for Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, comes as Francis Ford Coppola is here at the Cannes Film Festival, 45 years after winning the Palme d’Or for Apocalypse Now. Coppola is in town with his $120 million passion project Megalopolis, which had its world premiere last week. Roos is billed as producer on Megalopolis.

The news also comes after Coppola’s wife of 61 years, Eleanor, died April 12. Roos was an executive producer on Hearts of Darkness, her famed documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now that won them both an Emmy in 1992.

Roos was Francis Coppola’s co-producer on The Conversation, The Godfather Part II and Apocalypse Now,...

Mick Fleetwood, drummer of Fleetwood Mac, made a cameo in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 episode "Manhunt" as an alien ambassador. Fleetwood was a big Star Trek fan and requested to be part of the show, shaving his beard for the role and beaming on board the USS Enterprise-d. Many musicians have made surprise appearances in Star Trek, including Michelle Phillips, Iggy Pop, and Tom Morello, showcasing the franchise's appeal to diverse celebrities.

Classic 1970s rock band Fleetwood Mac has a surprising connection to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Beginning with its two-episode premiere in 1987, Tng brought live-action Star Trek back to television for the first time since the cancelation of Star Trek: The Original Series. While many fans of Tos were initially nervous about a Star Trek series that didn't feature Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) or Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Star Trek: The Next Generation went...

Though the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation became as iconic and legendary as any in the universe, the guest stars changed the show for the better. Longtime fans wanted to take part in the new show set in Gene Roddenberry's universe. Legacy actors helped to make The Next Generation feel connected more completely to The Original Series.

While there are too many wonderful guest appearances to list in a single sitting, Star Trek: The Next Generation was changed for the better by some of them. These stars created fun behind-the-scenes legends, gave depth to the characters or, perhaps most importantly, gave closure to longtime stories. Below are some of the most influential guest stars on The Next Generation that elevated the series in unexpected ways.

Legendary Rockstar Mick Fleetwood Played a Fish-Man Appeared in "Manhunt"

Season

Episode

Character

Actor

Season 2

Episode 19

Unnamed Atedian Ambassador

Mick Fleetwood

Related...

Throughout "Star Trek," Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) has engaged in precious few romances. Early in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," he reunited with an old flame (Michelle Phillips) in the episode "We'll Always Have Paris," and it was implied that he had a fling years earlier with a lawyer (Amanda McBroom) in "The Measure of a Man," but those relationships concluded before "Next Generation" began. Of course, Picard had a wild dalliance with Vash (Jennifer Hetrick) in "Captain's Holiday," lived out a life with his imagined wife (Margot Rose) in "The Inner Light," had a time-travel fling with a classmate (J.C. Brandy) in "Tapestry," and had a very palpable romance with Lieutenant Commander Nella Darren (Wendy Hughes) in "Lessons." 

Oh yes, and Picard was very clearly attracted to Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett), and throughout "Next Generation," Picard and Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) shared a professional regard through a definite romantic undercurrent.

Owen Elliot-Kugell remembers the last time she saw her mom. It was the summer of 1974, and the seven-year-old was on an airplane departing London. Just like that scene in Almost Famous, Elliot-Kugell said goodbye through the window. “She puts my seat belt on and kisses me and says, ‘Look in the window,’” Elliot-Kugell tells Rolling Stone. “I’m going to go to the airport terminal, and I’m going to wave. Go wave! Go wave!’ That’s the last time I saw her.”

Elliot-Kugell’s mother, the one and only Cass Elliot,...

In the late 1960s, Gram Parsons, fresh from leaving The Byrds and becoming close pals with the Rolling Stones, signed on to star in a sci-fi film, Saturation 70.

Directed by Anthony Foutz, who worked with the likes of Orson Welles and Richard Lyford and was the son of a very early Walt Disney exec, the film was shot across Joshua Tree and Los Angeles.

But Saturation 70, which also featured the work of Douglas Trumbull, the pioneering special effects wizard behind 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner, was never finished, and the footage subsequently vanished.

But a new book tells the wild story of a possible lost classic.

Chris Campion, who rediscovered the film while working on a book about The Mamas & The Papas, is putting together Saturation 70: A Vision Past of the Future Foretold, raising money via Kickstarter for the project with a view to publish next spring via Wolf+Salmon.

Taylor Swift packs a lot into one show, doing her best to rationalize the absolute dumpster fire that was pre-sale to her “The Eras Tour.” But even despite all the financial and emotional toils, many Swifties are claiming that they’ve experienced “post-concert amnesia” after their respective shows on the tour.

Dr. Michelle Phillips, a senior lecturer in music psychology at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, told BBC that this phenomenon is really normal. If you’re so excited and immersed in a highly stimulating environment — like, say, a spectacular 40-song arena show from one of history’s biggest pop stars — it’s fairly easy for your brain to omit key moments from your memory.

It’s not that fans are forgetting they ever attended the show: “In fact, it’s likely to be one of the things they remember attending for the rest of their lives,...

What do Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, and a top-down convertible ride on a cliff in Majorca have to do with folk-rock legend Cass Elliot?

The answer — like most things nowadays — involves a new meme sweeping TikTok. Taken from a scene in the 2022 film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the short clip features a scowling Cage looking at a cheesing, completely unbothered, nothing-behind-the-eyes, Pascal — all set to the tune of Elliot’s 1969 song “Make Your Own Kind of Music.” Since February 2023, it’s become part of a meme on TikTok,...

Chances are you’re being bombarded right now with Christmas songs, and among those the classic “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey. Her iconic hit has kept her name alive to younger generations, who might not know as much about the rest of her impressive career and the accolades and acclaim she’s gotten throughout. But such an extraordinary career had to start somewhere. Let’s take a look at Carey’s legendary debut era and how it all culminated in the Grammy for Best New Artist, one of the best wins in that category ever.

SEEChristmas queen Mariah Carey cements status as supreme leader of the Billboard charts

The world’s introduction to Mariah Carey was “Vision of Love,” her debut single. Written by Carey herself with Ben Margulies, the song was an instant success, eventually topping the Billboard Hot 100, the pop charts, and the R&b charts.

Warning: Massive spoilers ahead for the Season 8 finale of “The Masked Singer”

Season 8 of “The Masked Singer” has come to a close, and it was a fierce competition between the final two acts. In the end, though, only one could take home the title. And that one was…

…the Harp! The golden string instrument took home the Golden Mask trophy, making the Lamb trio the runners-up for the season. Harp and Lambs quickly became frontrunners after their debuts on the show, and the latter marked a historical milestone for the show, as their advancement to the finale marked the first time a group act ever made it to the top two in the competition.

Also Read:

‘The Masked Singer': Snowstorm Is Ready to Pursue a Real Singing Career Thanks to the Show – And Bob Saget

So, who was under the masks? Let’s start with the second place finishers.

The Masked Singer season 8 semi-finals crowned Harp and Lambs as the finalists. Harp was a front-runner from the start. Most fans assume she'll take home the masked trophy. Snowstorm was also a semi-finalist, but her vocals weren't strong enough to beat the Harp or Lambs.

Snowstorm debuted during Comedy Roast night and had a lot of jokes for the panelists and host Nick Cannon. Panelists assumed she was a comedian, but only Jenny McCarthy guessed Nikki Glaser. She was pretty easy to guess as she gave some obvious clues. Fans also have a pretty good idea who's behind Harp and Lambs.

Related:How Amber Riley On The Masked Singer Could Bring Attention To The Show

Harp's Clues Lead To This Glee Actress

Harp offered many clues that give away her identity. Harp says she was rejected from a world-famous TV show but was later offered another show that changed her life.

Wilson Phillips’ last single was 2012’s “Good Vibrations,” which isn’t shocking considering it’s a cover of a song co-written by the father of two of the band’s members. But now the California trio have completely branched out for their first new song in 10 years: a rendition of Harry Styles’ “Boyfriends.”

The penultimate Harry’s House track is a three-minute gem containing Ben Harper’s slide guitar, with Styles’ gentle vocals woven throughout. Wilson Phillips nail it so perfectly it could be their own song, applying their signature...

The Lambs debuted during The Masked Singer Muppets night, and the clues that they gave seem to point to a 90s girl group. The trio competed against Robo Girl, who debuted the episode before and moved on to the next round after beating Mermaid in a battle royale. Beetle also joined the group during the episode. Beetle was revealed as TV host Jerry Springer, and Robo Girl was revealed as The Vampire Diaries actress Kat Graham. Lambs performed "Hot N Cold" by Katy Perry, but none of the panelists' guesses matched the most popular one that fans had been spreading online.

Fans knew from The Masked Singer's Lambs performance preview clip that the 90s girl group Wilson Phillips was behind the costume. The girl group was popular in the 90s and early 2000s. It consists of Carnie and Wendy Wilson, the daughters of The Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson,...

Michelle Phillips, the lone survivor of 1960s Mamas & the Papas has opened up about the band’s dark history.

Formed in 1965, the four-piece folk-rock group – comprised of Michelle, John Phillips, Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty, and best known for their hits “California Dreamin’” and “Monday, Monday” – shared a wealth of melodrama that would eventually contribute to their 1968 breakup.

In a wide-ranging new interview with Rolling Stone, 78-year-old Michelle revealed new truths about the band’s dramatic love quadrangle, her former marriage with John and his alleged incestuous relationship with daughter Mackenzie – whom he shared with his first wife Susan Adams.

After meeting years before the band’s establishment, John and Michelle got married. However, later during the group’s active years, she engaged in an affair with Doherty.

“John didn’t actually find us having sex, but he did come downstairs, and I was sitting on Denny’s bed in my nightgown,...

There’s a modest home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Cheviot Hills, with a stucco roof, a jacaranda tree out front, and a 1989 Mercedes 560Sl in perfect condition resting in the driveway. Beyond a front porch with wind chimes and a couch pillow that reads “This is our happy place,” past a kitchen with copper pots hanging above the sink, you’ll find a living room with a floral stained-glass lamp standing in a corner. It’s the very lamp that Michelle Phillips seized from her Bel Air mansion...

"Cool World" director Ralph Bakshi's 6-episode HBO animated science fiction TV series "Spicy City", is hosted by 'Raven' (Michelle Phillips):

In "Love Is a Download", a woman seeking escape from her abusive boyfriend finds true love in a virtual world in the guise of a 'geisha', while a one-armed former boxer tries to save her.

"Mano's Hands" follows a bongo player terrorizing civilians after losing his arms to the underworld.

In "Tears of a Clone" a detective on a search to find a rich man's daughter, returns with her 'clone' instead.

In "An Eye for an Eye" female cop 'Margo', known for her striking blue eyes and penchant for abusing power, plots to blackmail the near-sighted judge of 'Spicy City', while her partner 'Ernie' is determined to stop Margo once and for all.

In "Sex Drive", a female police detective, mistreated by her coworkers, teams up with a 'cyborg'.

One afternoon last month, Chynna Phillips sat down on a lawn in upstate New York, took out her iPhone, and told more than 25,000 people about the time she crashed into a bus while on Quaaludes. Wearing an embroidered hot-pink tunic and a Larimar necklace, Phillips reflected on her teenage mishap, shaking her head, while the words “Cringeworthy Moment: 4” flashed across the screen.

This is a typical day for the Wilson Phillips lead singer, who has uploaded more than 300 videos on her YouTube channel, California Preachin, over the past two years.

"Cool World" director Ralph Bakshi's 6-episode HBO animated science fiction TV series "Spicy City", is hosted by 'Raven' (Michelle Phillips):

In "Love Is a Download", a woman seeking escape from her abusive boyfriend finds true love in a virtual world in the guise of a 'geisha', while a one-armed former boxer tries to save her.

"Mano's Hands" follows a bongo player terrorizing civilians after losing his arms to the underworld.

In "Tears of a Clone" a detective on a search to find a rich man's daughter, returns with her 'clone' instead.

In "An Eye for an Eye" female cop 'Margo', known for her striking blue eyes and penchant for abusing power, plots to blackmail the near-sighted judge of 'Spicy City', while her partner 'Ernie' is determined to stop Margo once and for all.

In "Sex Drive", a female police detective, mistreated by her coworkers, teams up with a 'cyborg'.

Robert Sacchi, the actor who so closely resembled Humphrey Bogart that he starred in the 1980 20th Century Fox comedy The Man With Bogart’s Face, died June 23 in Los Angeles after a brief illness, according to a family spokesperson. He was 89.

The Rome-born, Brooklyn-raised actor played Bogart or Bogart look-alikes in several films, TV shows and commercials, including on the series Fantasy Island, Sledge Hammer! and Cybill and Tales From the Crypt on which he lent his voice. He also played Bogart in Phil Collins’ 1990 music video for “I Wish It Would Rain Down.”

Sacchi also starred in a one-man show, Bogey’s Back, and in touring productions of Play It Again, Sam. He even had a top 10 hit single in Germany with 1982’s “Jungle Queen,” a rap performed in Bogart-ese.

In The Man With Bogart’s Face, directed by Robert Day and based on Andrew J. Fenady’s book, Sacchi starred as Sam Marlowe,...

Actor Robert Sacchi, known for his close resemblance to Humphrey Bogart, died June 23 at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles after a brief illness. He was 89.

Sacchi played the title role in the 1980 feature “The Man With Bogart’s Face.” He also appeared in many films, TV shows and commercials playing Bogart or a Bogart look-alike. That list includes appearances on the sitcom “Cybill,” a Phil Collins musicvideo and “Fantasy Island,” as well as his one-man show, “Bogey’s Back” and touring productions of Woody Allen’s comedy “Play It Again, Sam.”

He also played other characters in such works as the Mike Hodges-Michael Caine movie “Pulp,” the Anthony Quinn-Yaphet Kotto drama “Across 110th Street” and “Die Hard 2,” among others. He also had a top 10 hit in Germany with the 1982 single “Jungle Queen” and authored the book “Willie Pep Remembers … Friday’s Heroes.”

“The Man With Bogart’s Face...

It doesn’t matter how pure a sound is when it catches the ear’s attention, someone in the music industry will find a way to infect it. Pop music is infectious by design, and Netflix’s This Is Pop, reveals the delivery system. The eight-part docuseries focuses on some of the less unexamined moments of the most scrutinized genre in music. It is as depressing as it is exhilarating, and it barely skips a beat.

Much like the recent Apple TV+ series 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything, This is Pop shows how pop music reflects and influences culture. Music has always been a great unifier, both for listeners and musicians. Regardless of race, faith, or sexual preference, everyone has a favorite song, and people are drawn to the art of music from every background. What starts as a neighborhood sound moves beyond the streets, and for every Boyz II Men,...

Shania Twain, Chuck D, Abba’s Benny Andersson, T-Pain, Brandi Carlile, Boyz II Men, and more artists, producers, and songwriters delve into the historical resonance of pop music in Banger Films’ This Is Pop. The eight-part docuseries hits Netflix on June 22nd.

Each episode explores pop music beyond its musical aspects, examining its societal impact as well. Racism, sexism, classism, queer politics, and social injustice are addressed, according to a statement.

Episodes are grouped by style, era, and/or genre. The Boyz II Men Effect features Boyz II Men’s Nate Morris,...

Polish-born filmmaker Filip Jan Rymsza, the producer of Venice Film Festival entry “Hopper/Welles,” which he is presenting this week at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, will follow his latest directorial outing “Mosquito State” – also a Venice premiere this year – with “Object Permanence,” Rymsza tells Variety. Partially set in Berlin and shot in English, it will be another Polish co-production, most likely with Germany.

“’Object permanence’ is something that people were aware of already, they just didn’t know how to define it: It’s the understanding that objects continue to exist even if you can’t see them or hear them, or otherwise sense them,” he says, adding that while “Mosquito State” looked at the recent past, this will look into the near future.

With another project, set in Japan, currently put on hold due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, Rymsza will once again try to focus on one protagonist.

“The Last Movie,” Dennis Hopper’s infamous directorial follow-up to “Easy Rider,” is a counterculture touchstone in its own right, even though it wasn’t given a national release for decades after its short-lived 1971 bow. Even longer in coming: a soundtrack album. This Saturday, nearly five decades after the movie first touched screens, a companion LP is arriving. The vinyl on the label Earth Recordings, distributed by Light in the Attic in the U.S., will be released for Record Store Day on August 29, in a limited edition of 1000. A CD version will be forthcoming.

Variety invited the album’s two producers to weigh in on “The Last Movie” and its music, then and now. Jessica Hundley, who knew Hopper, shares firsthand memories of the filmmaker and how the movie’s shelving affected him. Pat Thomas, one of the music industry’s foremost archival producers, tells what to expect from...

Rock star David Crosby likens it to Paris in the 1930s, or even the Italian Renaissance.

The creative flowering that grew out of the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles in the 1960s produced some of the greatest music of that or any other era, changing the culture and the lives of some of rock & roll’s most gifted talents.

“We used to call it Oz,” remembers Johnny Echols of the band Love.

“It’s little rabbit runs,” Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas tells Deadline of the neighborhood that threads through the Hollywood Hills. “Everyone was very accessible. All you had to do was walk down the street and you were at somebody’s house and they had a guitar or a piano. It was very communal.”

Members of The Mamas and the Papas, Love, The Byrds, The Doors, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Monkees, The Eagles...

Laurel Canyon is a very real place, but it comes off almost as a Brigadoon-style dream in the commemoration of the L.A. rock scene of the late ’60s and early ’70s that is director Alison Ellwood’s “Laurel Canyon.”

The first half the two-part docuseries on Epix, which premiered May 31, threw a spotlight onto the Byrds, Doors, Buffalo Springfield, Mamas and the Papas, Love, Frank Zappa and others who drove the counterculture in the years leading up to Woodstock, and how they were folksy neighbors in L.A.’s least urban enclave. In part 2, which bows Sunday night, Ellwood delves into the world of Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Linda Ronstadt, the Flying Burrito Brothers and, of course, the nascent band that previously was the subject of her “History of the Eagles” doc.

Variety spoke with Ellwood between the twin premieres about the making of the ravishingly well-received doc.

Directed by Alison Ellwood (History of the Eagles), Laurel Canyon is a docuseries that centers on the community of artists who lived in the Los Angeles area throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.

The project features all new interviews with Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Michelle Phillips, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, and The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn.

We sat [...]

The post ‘Laurel Canyon’ Docuseries Explores A “Magical Place” Where Musicians Thrived appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

Epix’s two-part docuseries Laurel Canyon, directed by Alison Elwood, explores the musical community which nestled into the wooded area right outside the Sunset Strip. Chris Hillman, the first member of The Byrds, moved in after creating folk rock. The Monkees’ Mickey Dolenz threw ping pong tournaments next door to Alice Cooper. Frank Zappa planted his freak flag on the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Lookout Mountain. And Michelle Phillips and John Phillips moved onto Lookout Mountain in 1965.

Their band, The Mamas and the Papas, practically invented the Southern California hippie sound, and Michelle was the catalyst. After hearing John Sebastian strum a tune which would become a major hit for his band The Lovin’ Spoonful, Michelle saw the direction the New Journeymen–the band she was in with her husband and other future Papa Denny Doherty–should go. Both sonically and geographically.

Michelle finished up John Phillips’ song...

The Eagles, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Linda Ronstadt, and others appear in the new trailer for Laurel Canyon, a docuseries airing in two parts on Epix, May 31st and June 7th at 9 p.m. Et.

Directed by Allison Ellwood — who recently worked on The Go-Go’s and the 2013 critically acclaimed History of the Eagles documentary — the 30-second clip features the legendary artists that inhabited the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in Los Angeles during the late Sixties and early Seventies.

“We were at the very center of this beautiful bubble of creativity and friendship,...

The 10th annual Hollywood Music in Media Awards rewarded a diverse crop of composers, songwriters and music supervisors who contributed to film, TV and videogames over the last year, from scorers Alan Silvestri, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Marco Beltrami and Michael Abels to tunesmiths Cynthia Erivo, Bebe Rexha and the Avett Brothers to Quentin Tarantino’s longtime music sidekick, Mary Ramos.

The ceremony also included several performances, with rockers Jakob Dylan and Michelle Phillips (of the Mamas and the Papas) offering a sample of the ’60s pop that helped “Echo in the Canyon” win the award for best music documentary; composer Kris Bowers performing an excerpt from his music for Netflix’s “When They See Us,” which won him best original score for TV/limited series; veteran writer Charles Fox doing a medley that included his vintage themes for “Happy Days” and “The Love Boat”; and a rendering of Diane Warren’s...

Forty-five years ago today, the world lost “Mama” Cass Elliot, member of the Mamas and the Papas and a pivotal figure in the 1960s California rock scene. She was found dead at the infamous 1 Curzon Place, a London apartment that Harry Nilsson had rented out to the star. (Four years later, Keith Moon would die in the same apartment, also at 32 years old.)

Contrary to a nasty urban legend, Elliot did not die from choking on a ham sandwich, which London celebrity doctor Anthony Greenburgh originally told the Daily Express.

[Editor’s note: The following post contains spoilers for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”]

Quentin Tarantino’s good guys might not always win, but the filmmaker has never been interested in letting bad guys prosper. Tarantino’s particular brand of revisionist history and righteous anger has long been occupied with righting monumental wrongs, wrapped in uproarious violence that barely conceals his apparent contempt for the darker chapters of modern history.

With “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” however, finds Tarantino entering new territory. The movie combines his two modes of vengeance story — imaginative riffs on historical tragedies and personal tales of reprisal — into his most emotional movie yet.

In Tarantino’s fictional universe, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) doesn’t just live through the August 1969 murders that rocked Hollywood; she isn’t even subjected to the terror of the Manson Family breaking into her house and upending everything she loves. Instead, the “family” members go to the house next door to her infamous residence on Cielo Drive,...

According to Mary Ramos, Quentin Tarantino’s longtime music supervisor, the process for selecting songs for one of his films starts in a record store—which happens to be in his Hollywood home. What Ramos describes as Tarantino’s “record room” looks like a vinyl boutique, with LPs separated into bins labeled by genres like soul and soundtracks. “In the past, when we’ve started preparation,” she says, “he invites me over and I madly scribble as he’s talking a mile a minute and pausing to put the needle down on records.

Jakob Dylan had never conducted an interview before Echo in the Canyon, the new documentary he hosts on the Sixties Laurel Canyon music scene, which hits theaters nationwide this week. But Dylan — who breaks down the film and his musical career on the new episode of our podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now — has an easy rapport with the music legends he gently interrogates, among them Ringo Starr, Michelle Phillips, Brian Wilson, Eric Clapton, Roger McGuinn and, in his last filmed interview, Tom Petty. (The only awkward moment: David Crosby mentions...

Chicago – Rock royalty is coming to town, both in the presence of Jakob Dylan (The Wallflowers) and in a new documentary where Dylan explores the roots of the California rock sound of the 1960s, entitled “Echo in the Canyon” (many of the rockers back then lived in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Laurel Canyon). Director Andrew Slater will join Dylan for the film perspective, and Dylan will perform after the screening, taking place on June 21st, 2019, at the historic Music Box Theatre. For more information and tickets, click here.

So much ink and retrospective media space has been taken up with the British Invasion of America, starting with The Beatles in 1964. Well, finally there is a documentary that goes back to the good old USA during that era, to give that folk/rock “California Sound” its due. It begins with the first jingle-jangle of the 12 string electric guitar from Roger McGuinn...

As the classic song goes, “Rock and roll is here to stay…”. That’s true at the clubs, the arenas, the stadiums, and, for the last year or so, the movie theatres. We’ve seen a love story, a couple of biographies, and now a feature documentary. Now those bios told the story of music superstars of the ’70s, so many younger fans may wonder about the artists that inspired them in the decade before. And not those from the home turfs of Elton and Freddie, but rather some home-grown American icons. Those influencers are remembered and celebrated by their works that still reverberate all through the years from a never silenced Echo In The Canyon.

This nostalgic rock odyssey is mainly helmed by two men: the film’s director, and head of Capitol Records Andrew Slater and musician Jakob Dylan. Oh, the canyon in the title refers to Laurel Canyon,...

Tony Sokol May 28, 2019

Andrew Slater's documentary Echo in the Canyon twiddles the knobs in the Laurel Canyon studios that gave birth to the California Sound.

Before forming the Byrds, Roger McGuinn backed up Bobby Darin, the "Dream Lover" who let "Mack the Knife" swing. The Bronx-born rock and roll legend was adding folk and protest music into his live shows and saw McGuinn playing guitar and making faces behind the Chad Mitchell Trio when they were opening for Lenny Bruce at the Crescendo night club on Hollywood's Sunset Strip. By the time The Beatles hit, McGuinn played, sang harmonies and trained as a professional songwriter under the rock and roll innovator. After the British Invasion, McGuinn consolidated the folk rock sound, first by playing Beatles' songs on solo guitar in folk clubs and then by plugging a 12-string guitar onto a Bob Dylan song. Andrew Slater's loving documentary...

There are probably four or five documentaries’ worth of material to pull from the Laurel Canyon music scene and the cultural movements of late 1960s Los Angeles, but even if “Echo in the Canyon” feels slightly anemic at 85 minutes or so, there are worse ways to revisit this epochal artistic moment than via Andrew Slater’s affectionate, intimate documentary.

Though Wallflowers frontman Jakob Dylan is not an especially warm or generous interviewer, anecdotes and observations from musical luminaries past and present help paint a vivid portrait of the impact of that time and place upon the sound of popular music and the industry as a whole.

Combining reminiscences from the likes of Stephen Stills, Brian Wilson, Eric Clapton and the late Tom Petty with insights, opinions, and eventually, performances from contemporary figures such as Cat Power, Beck and Fiona Apple, “Echo in the Canyon” offers a halcyon survey of the...

Arguably the most sturdily crafted and entertainingly anecdotal documentary of its kind since Denny Tedesco’s “The Wrecking Crew,” a similarly nostalgic celebration of artists who generously contributed to the soundtrack of the baby boomer generation, Andrew Slater’s “Echo in the Canyon” offers a richly evocative and star-studded overview of the 1960s Laurel Canyon music scene.

Audiences old enough to have many of the epochal LPs referenced here stashed in their closets will know they’re in good hands right from the start, as the iconic first chords of the Byrds’ “Turn! Turn! Turn!” resound during the darkness of the film’s opening moments. But wait, there’s more: The songs of Buffalo Springfield, the Mamas and the Papas, the Beach Boys and other L.A.-based hitmakers of the era are also featured in a doc that shows how music that defined the California Sound of a half-century...

Jakob Dylan and Jade Castrinos appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to perform their collaborative cover “Go Where You Wanna Go.” The classic tune, by the Mamas and the Papas, comes off the soundtrack to upcoming Laurel Canyon music documentary Echo In the Canyon.

In the performance, the track takes on a gritty rock feel thanks to the band’s rollicking performance. In a second clip, the musicians also perform the Mamas and the Papas’ “Dedicated to the One I Love,” where Castrinos, a former member of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes,...

The upcoming film Echo in the Canyon captures the creative explosion that happened in Southern California in the mid-Sixties, with Jakob Dylan interviewing heroes like Tom Petty, Michelle Phillips, Brian Wilson and more. “The music that came out of the Laurel Canyon scene was inspiring to my generation of songwriters,” said Dylan who also executive produced the project. Added Beck, who also appears, “These records come all of the sudden, like an avalanche, and there’s nothing like them before.”

The film also features covers by a younger generation of songwriters.

Jakob Dylan unveiled a bustling cover of the Mamas and the Papas’ 1965 classic, “Go Where You Wanna Go,” that will appear on the soundtrack to the upcoming documentary about the Laurel Canyon music scene, Echo In the Canyon. The soundtrack arrives May 24th via BMG, the same day the film opens in Los Angeles.

Dylan (who also produced the film) recorded the track with former Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes member, Jade Castrinos. The pair share vocal duties over an elaborate arrangement bursting with orchestral elements that still leaves...

"You guys ready to go to the 60s?" Greenwich Entertainment has debuted an official trailer for indie music documentary Echo In the Canyon, which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year. Featuring Jakob Dylan, the film explores the beginnings of the Laurel Canyon music scene in L.A. "Dylan uncovers never-before-heard personal details behind the bands and their songs and how that music continues to inspire today. Echo In the Canyon contains candid conversations and performances with Brian Wilson, Ringo Starr, Michelle Phillips, Eric Clapton, Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Roger McGuinn and Jackson Browne as well as contemporary musicians they influenced such as Tom Petty (in his last film interview), Beck, Fiona Apple, Cat Power, Regina Spektor, and Norah Jones." Yet another new music doc connecting an iconic location with iconic musicians. Seems like a good time, with plenty to look back upon. Here's the official...

In his final on-camera interview for the upcoming documentary “Echo in the Canyon,” Tom Petty spoke about the magic of the Laurel Canyon music scene in the 1960s.

“California was like this legendary paradise,” the “Free Fallin'” singer said in the trailer.

The documentary features a collection of interviews from legendary musicians including the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, the Beatles’ Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton, who describe the folk music scene as it developed.

Also Read: New Tom Petty Clip 'Keep a Little Soul' Features Vintage Footage, Silly High Jinks, Nipples (Video)

The interviews, which were conducted by Jakob Dylan of The Wallflowers, also were with Stephen Stills, The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Graham Nash, The Mamas and the Papas’ Michelle Phillips and Jackson Browne. Other musicians not from that specific era who spoke of that scene’s influence include Beck, Fiona Apple, Cat Power, Norah Jones and Regina Spektor.

The just-released trailer for Andrew Slater’s Echo in the Canyon is intended to reverberate with the signature sounds of 1960s era Southern California but it also echoes with the memory of a later rock icon: Tom Petty, the late, great Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who gave his last filmed interview for the music documentary.

Echo in the Canyon, which opens May 24 at Arclight’s Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, puts a spotlight on the robust music scene centered in leafy Laurel Canyon in the 1960s, when the Byrds, the Beach Boys, the Buffalo Springfield, and The Mamas & the Papas were thriving.

Petty, a devoted disciple of the Byrds legacy, speaks in admiring tones about the musical moment and the influence of the California Sound, as do Jackson Browne, Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, Eric Clapton, Beck, Michelle Phillips, David Crosby, Cat Power, Lou Adler, Stephen Stills and others.

Tony Sokol Apr 4, 2019

Los Angeles captured the reverberation of the sixties and the new doc Echo in the Canyon drops the mix.

Throughout the history of rock and roll, the echo has a mystical place. Bands have been searching for the perfect ambiance long before the invention of reverb boxes. Doo wop bands in the fifties would practice in the bathrooms, the tiles bouncing the sound. The new movie Echo in the Canyon, finds those reverberations. Echo in the Canyon was directed by former music journalist, record producer and label executive Andrew Slater, and executive produced by Jakob Dylan, Bob's son and former frontman of the Wallflowers.

“The best test of songwriting is that it transcends its moment in time and there is no doubt that the songs we explore in this film are as powerful today as they were in 1965,” Jakob Dylan said in a statement.

Echo in the...