News

"Community" was always a great show, but the moment it elevated to god-tier status was when it introduced the concept of a Paintball Episode (an idea that, sadly, the "Community" movie will not revisit when/if it comes to pass). That's when an otherwise-normal sitcom suddenly has its characters start shooting at each other with paintball guns, complete with genuinely impressive action cinematography. Why doesn't every sitcom do stuff like this? Because they lack the audacity.

"Community" would do three more paintball episodes throughout its run, all of them featuring at least one moment that's so cool it'll make you forgive the show for any of its other faults. Are you mad at how the series dragged out the romance between Jeff (Joel McHale) and Annie (Alison Brie) for six seasons? Well, at least the scene where the Dean (Jim Rash) recreates the "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" elevator fight...

One of the funniest comedies of the 2000s will soon become available to watch for free as fans await its long-gestating film adaptation. The award-winning sitcom, Community, lands an imminent streaming debut on Tubi.

Tubi confirmed that Community will begin streaming on its free-of-charge service on Mar. 1. This is good news for fans of the hit series who aren't Peacock subscribers as the show has been available on the NBCUniversal streamer since last April. Also, it allows Tubi's growing viewership base to see the sitcom, considering over 97 million active users were on the Fox Corporation-owned service in 2024.

RelatedAlison Brie & Dave Franco's Body Horror Film Sells to Neon After Debuting at Sundance With 100% Rt Score

Dave Franco and Alison Brie's new body horror film is a Sundance breakout hit with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score.

Running for six seasons between 2009 and 2015, Community is set in the fictional Colorado town...

Have you ever noticed that some concepts are so prevalent in popular culture that you’re already familiar with them long before you engage with the stories that spawned them? For example, I can almost guarantee that your very first exposure to vampires was not through a vampire movie, but instead something more innocuous like a cereal mascot or a surprise cameo in a Saturday Morning Cartoon.

I’ve been thinking about this phenomenon ever since filmmaker Robert Eggers publicly acknowledged that Count Orlok’s brief yet unforgettable appearances in SpongeBob SquarePants were responsible for introducing Nosferatu to a whole new generation – something that undoubtedly contributed to his new film’s success. And in honor of this surprisingly influential cameo, we’ve decided to compile a list celebrating six other memorable Nosferatu appearances in media. After all, some horror legends are simply too powerful to be contained by a single medium!

Joel McHale confirms the Community movie has funding, which is a huge step for the project. McHale did not provide an update on when exactly the filming would start. Production delays have occurred due to WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and cast members' busy schedules.

Community star Joel McHale provides an update on the upcoming movie's timeline. McHale played leading character Jeff Winger in the acclaimed sitcom, which covers a distinct group of community college students and the antics they get into. In addition to McHale, Community's talented leading cast included Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, Chevy Chase, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Ken Jeong, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jim Rash, Richard Erdman, Dino Stamatopoulos, and Erik Charles Nielsen.

Speaking with GQ, McHale addresses the status of the Community movie. The actor confirmed that the film "hasn't been shot yet" and said that he could not offer "a definitive update." On a more hopeful note,...

Dana Carvey, the great impressionist and comedian from Saturday Night Live, The Dana Carvey Show, and much more, suffered a terrible tragedy back in November. As he announced in a joint statement on Instagram with wife Paula Zwagerman on Nov. 17, “Last night we suffered a terrible tragedy. Our beloved son, Dex, died of an accidental drug overdose. He was 32 years old. Dex packed a lot into those 32 years. He was extremely talented at so many things — music, art, film making, comedy — and pursued all of them passionately.” His full Instagram post from then can be found below.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dana Carvey (@thedanacarvey)

The rest of the message reads as follows:

"Dex packed a lot into those 32 years. He was extremely talented at so many things — music, art, film making, comedy — and pursued all of them passionately. It's not an exaggeration to say that Dex loved life.

Joel McHale expresses his desire for Owen Wilson and Charley Koontz to return as recurring characters in the upcoming Community movie. Recurring characters such as Leonard, Star-Burns, "Fat" Neil, and Magnitude are top contenders for a return in the movie. The inclusion of recurring characters in the Community movie presents a challenge in balancing fan service without overcrowding the story. Fans are hopeful that Dan Harmon and co-writer Andrew Guest will find a meaningful way to bring back these beloved characters.

With most of the original cast already confirmed to return, Joel McHale reveals which Community recurring characters he'd like to see in the upcoming movie. Development on a feature adaptation of the Dan Harmon sitcom had swirled for years before finally being confirmed in late 2022. McHale is confirmed to reprise his role of disbarred attorney Jeff Winger alongside fellow leads Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Jim Rash, Ken Jeong,...

Community season 4, known as the "gas leak year," suffered a significant drop in quality and became the worst season of the series. The decision to replace showrunner Dan Harmon after season 3 led to behind-the-scenes drama and a decline in ratings for Community. While season 4 was widely criticized, it ultimately helped breathe new life into the show, with the return of Harmon and an uptick in quality in seasons 5 and 6.

The Community gas leak year resulted in season 4, which is regarded by most as the weakest of its 2009-2015 run. So notable was the dip in quality that in season 5 Community decided to blame all the fourth season on a gas leak — though there was a different explanation behind the scenes. Much of the show's success is attributed to Community creator Dan Harmon, who was fired after season 3. With Community getting lower ratings with every season and behind-the-scenes drama, it made...

Creatives are frequently their own toughest critics, but "Community" creator Dan Harmon is even tougher on himself than most. While speaking at PaleyFest in 2011, Harmon shared that while reviewing an edit of one episode of the cult series, he thought he might have actually "broken television." That's a bit melodramatic, especially given that "The Tom Green Show" had already aired and ended by that point and if anything was going to "break TV," that was it, but it gives us a good look into Harmon's creative process and just how dedicated he was to making the series sing.

The episode in question is season 2's "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design," which follows an A plot with Jeff (Joel McHale) and Annie (Alison Brie) trying to solve a conspiracy for Jeff's conspiracy class with Professor Professorson (Kevin Corrigan) and a B plot where Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Danny Pudi) create...

For a brilliant and wildly entertaining series, "Community" went through a lot of ups and downs. The show had season premiere delays and times when it was taken off the schedule, leading fans to extreme campaigns, such as flash mobs singing "O' Christmas Troy" and a whole lot of #sixseasonsandamovie hashtags sent to NBC executives and social media accounts. The sixth season wasn't even on NBC but ended up on a new streaming platform Yahoo! was trying to get off the ground (and which subsequently crashed).

Chevy Chase, who played the curmudgeonly Pierce Hawthorne and creator Dan Harmon, also spent a lot of time feuding, and Chase left the series early in season 5. Donald Glover who played Troy Barnes left in the fifth season as well. The biggest change, however, was when Dan Harmon was fired before season 4, then hired back for season 5. 

There were a lot of reasons that...

In “Renfield,” an outrageous new take on Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” told from the point of view of the count’s perpetually put-upon manservant (played here by Nicholas Hoult), the notion of being too over-the-top is considered and then hastily breezed by. In the opening sequence alone, an ancient curse is placed on the dark prince; when Dracula is freed he turns into a vaporous mist and explodes a priest from the inside. Then Dracula catches on fire and is turned into a crispy skeleton.

The sequence is telling both for its bold tonal shifts and for the manic approach to action. It’s the type of scene you would say could only be devised and executed by a man well-versed in animation. (The crispy skeleton bit could have been out of an old “Looney Tunes” Roadrunner cartoon.) And you would be right. “Renfield” was brought to life by Chris McKay,...

It is a miracle that Dan Harmon's groundbreaking sitcom "Community" lasted more than a half-season on NBC. The series about seven misfits who form a study group at the fictional Greendale Community College was aggressively dense in its world-building and proudly esoteric in its references. How esoteric? In only its second season, the show turned what was set up as a "Pulp Fiction" homage into an invigoratingly cerebral riff on "My Dinner with Andre" provoked by a character's extra work on Bill Lawrence and Kevin Biegel's "Cougar Town." Not so shockingly, "Community" ranked a dire 138 in the Nielsen ratings that year.

Harmon and a crack staff of writers that included Megan Ganz, Dino Stamatopoulos, Liz Cackowski, Chris McKenna, and Andy Bobrow shredded the outside of the envelope of what was acceptable on a network sitcom. It made "Seinfeld" look like "Full House." Critics and a cult following kept...

There are many types of performances that leave an impression on their actors, but a particularly wacky one stood out for "Community" star Danny Pudi, who played pop culture-obsessed Abed Nadir. Doing a Reddit Ask Me Anything back in 2011, the actor was asked about his favorite scenes in the series. At that point, the series was still only in its second season, and he would still have plenty of ridiculous scenes to experience. But there was one that rose above the rest, from a very Abed-centric episode. 

In season 2, episode 19, "Critical Film Studies," Abed asks his friend and fellow study group member Jeff (Joel McHale) out to a fancy dinner, while Jeff is trying to surprise Abed for his birthday by throwing him a "Pulp Fiction"-themed party. Abed explains to Jeff that he's trying to live a life more removed from pop culture references and that he's trying to grow up,...

Can you imagine a world without "The Dana Carvey Show?" To be fair, you probably can, as the ABC series only lasted for a meager eight episodes during the spring of 1996. While the show itself has gained a cult status over the decades, the real legacy of the series isn't about the show's impact on pop culture, but rather its bringing together of talent that would soon go on to impact pop culture.

Consider this staggering list of names involved: Robert Smigel, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Spike Feresten (writer for David Letterman and "Seinfeld"), Robert Carlock (future showrunner of "30 Rock"), Dino Stamatopoulos (future writer of "Community" and Starburns himself) and Charlie Kaufman were all among the people helping Carvey bring his surreal sketch comedy show to the small screen.

Yet the series may not have happened at all had Carvey not been smarting after a short-lived career as a...

On Feb. 7, 2013, after delays and significant drama behind the scenes, Community debuted “History 101,” the first episode of the long-awaited fourth season, and the first under new showrunners David Guarascio and Moses Port. Fan reaction to the outing was mixed, to put it mildly, while critics were downright savage. Soon enough, cast and crew began to express their misgivings, too. The entire season was later written off in-universe as the result of a gas leak, never to be spoken of again.

Was that a fair assessment, though? Countless other “bad” installments of pop culture have been revisited over the years, only for perceived faults to be found not quite so damning as audiences initially thought. With an entire decade of hindsight and objectivity to reflect upon, was the fourth season of Community really that bad?

Kind of, yeah!

There is, quite simply, something off about the entire season. Guarascio and...

Community season 4 was the first season without showrunner Dan Harmon, but even if he was involved, it was still doomed from the very beginning. Although Community's quality does fluctuate across its six seasons, season 4 is often considered to be the worst, with its derivative storylines and poorly written characters making it stand out from the rest of the show. Many claim that the decline in Community season 4's quality is due to Harmon's firing. However, the show's downfall was set in stone regardless.

Community follows the antics of a dysfunctional study group at Greendale Community College, with each episode following the wacky antics that occur on the bizarre campus. While Community's first 3 seasons were met with critical acclaim, showrunner Dan Harmon was actually fired before season 4, leading to the season being the show's worst by far. Season 4 was so bad that Community referred to it as the "gas leak" year,...

The Walking Dead finally ended its 11-season run, and many fans find themselves breathing with a sigh of relief. The show had become an altogether different beast from what it had once started as. Of course, that sort of longevity (and controversy) makes change inevitable.

While there’s no predicting if a show’s going to be amazing or disappointing in the long run, the one thing that shows are guaranteed to have is change. Sometimes though, that change is so massive that the show doesn’t even feel like the same story anymore, be it because of genre shifts or plain bad writing.

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead started as an intimate survival horror drama, where both the Walkers and other survivors were terrifying sources of tension. Around the time Frank Darabont and his writing team left, the show started its shift to what was an action-packed zombie soap opera.

“Epidemiology,” the season 2 Halloween episode of Community, is a watershed moment for the college-set series, breaking open the sitcom’s world for all the homages and darkest-timeline shenanigans that would follow. It’s a perfect treat for the spooky season – but, more than that, it’s a perfect zombie movie, too. Cribbing from classic horror flicks, both directly and indirectly, the show turns in the quintessential tale of a frightening flesh-eater uprising. And it does it all in 20 minutes.

Following in the footsteps of season 1’s action-movie pastiche “Modern Warfare,” “Epidemiology” finds Greendale Community College thrown into chaos after tainted taco meat turns the students into shambling, bloodthirsty zombies. The library, home of the school’s Halloween party, quickly becomes a haunted house of costumed cannibals. The study group finds itself in a race against the clock to save their own skins, and – if a doctor in a banana costume...

Exclusive: Syfy continues the rapid slate expansion of its Tzgz weekly late-night animation block with one more series orders and three pilot greenlights.

Tzgz is going two-for-two with with its first internally developed animated pilots ordered in January, the 15-minute Wild Life and Devil May Care. Syfy has given a seven-episode series pickup to Devil May Care, starring Alan Tudyk (SyFy’s Resident Alien) and Asif Ali (BoJack Horseman). It follows the six-episode series order for Wild Life in April.

The newly greenlighted 15-minute Tzgz pilots are The Chronicles of Frank, From ShadowMachine, The Black Hole from Starburns Industries, and The Pole, from Yeti Farm Creative,

Airing on Syfy every Saturday at midnight-ish, Tzgz is a 90-minute block of adult comedic, animated, genre-based programming of varying lengths. Since its November 2019 debut, Tzgz has grown...

Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you have not yet watched the sixth episode of “Better Call Saul” Season 5, titled “Wexler v. Goodman.”

Selling the dramatic cliffhanger at the end of Monday night’s episode of “Better Call Saul,” titled “Wexler v. Goodman,” proved a challenge for even star Bob Odenkirk. In a lively chat on “Variety After-Show” on Instagram — where Odenkirk answered questions from fans — following the episode’s airing, he also revealed that one of the season’s last two remaining episodes was particularly taxing.

“I almost got killed doing one of these episodes. Just shooting the entire thing almost killed me,” he said.

Here are the top five revelations from Variety’s interview with Odenkirk. Watch the interview in the video above.

1. Fans who suspect Kim’s marriage proposal serves an ulterior motive aren’t wrong. By the end of “Wexler v. Goodman,” it’s clear that...

Community creator Dan Harmon has exited Starburns Industries, the innovative production company he co-founded in the summer of 2010 along with Dino Stamatopoulos, Joe Russo II, James Fino and Duke Johnson, Collider has exclusively learned. "Dan stepped away from Starburns some time ago to focus his time and attention on Rick and Morty," an individual with knowledge of Harmon's decision told Collider. It's unclear when, exactly, Harmon left Starburns, but his weekly live show/podcast Harmontown came to an end last month. The show hailed from Starburns Audio, which is also behind the popular podcasts Dumb People …...

Exclusive: Hellboy creator Mike Mignola is partnering with Ben and Max Berkowitz of Not a Billionaire and Starburns Industries (Rick & Morty) to construct The Forever House, an eerie showcase described as a “high-concept anthology series inspired by international folklore.”

The live-action show will center on the title abode, a mysterious piece of un-real estate and a one-of-a-kind repository for otherworldly objects and international artifacts with dark histories. The logline: “Existing somewhere between reality and nightmares, The Forever House will encapsulate the feeling of an ancient tale told by the fire as we explore the disturbing and the macabre from the mind and sketchbook of Mike Mignola.”

Mignola is a superstar artist and IP creator in the comic book world thanks in large part to Hellboy, the hard-luck supernatural hero introduced in the pages of Dark Horse Comics in 1994. The pimento-colored Hellboy has been the title character of three theatrically released feature films,...

Exclusive: Xyz Films and Rick and Morty producer Starburns Industries are teaming to produce Welcome to My Daydream, a biographical feature-length documentary about Oscar-winning stop-motion animation icon Will Vinton. Marq Evans (The Glamour & the Squalor) is set to direct, with Xyz handling worldwide sales.

The docu will feature new original claymation scenes using characters Vinton helped design before his death in October.

Vinton won the Oscar for Animated Short in 1975 with Bob Gardiner for Closed Mondays, the first of four noms in the category. He also was co-nominated for the visual effects in Walter Murch’s Return to Oz in 1986. Vinton’s creations hit the mainstream thanks to advertising campaigns led by the Marvin Gaye-signing California Raisins and Domino’s Pizza’s Noid. His Portland-based Will Vinton Studios eventually was acquired by Nike’s Phil Knight and morphed into Laika, the stop-motion studio headed by Travis Knight that has...

Stephen Colbert’s Rolling Stone cover-story interview covered a lot of ground, from his battle with anxiety to why Donald Trump is a “heretic against reality.” But there was even more to the conversation.

On the lessons he learned while working on The Dana Carvey Show

I still will pull out things that Dana said about that show. On the show now, sometimes I’ll say, “Right down the pipe,” as Dana. He’s like, “Do the show right down the pipe. Look right down the pipe of the lens.

There are few communities as obsessive as Adult Swim fans. The Cartoon Network nighttime programming block debuted in 2001 as a subversive spin on the animated channel’s daytime fare, and soon grew into a catch-all for bold creators. It eventually shook off its animated-only ethos to allow for surreal visions and adventurous filmmaking that fostered some of Hollywood’s most off-the-wall thinkers, and even brought in game celebrities to join in the insanity. Nearly every As title has disparate cults to fight for the programs that speak to them, whether it’s the rockers who ride for “Metalocalypse,” the Tim & Eric faithful who crowd the duo’s live shows, or the chemically enhanced who get their kicks on “Off the Air.”

Here are our picks for the network’s top 20 original comedy series, taking cultural influence into account alongside laughs.

20) “Robot Chicken” (2005–present)

Seth Green and Matthew Senreich’s long-running...

On Sept. 27, 1992, The Ben Stiller Show premiered on Fox, showcasing the titular star’s now well-known talent for emulating celebrities and crafting original characters. The sketch comedy series was abruptly canceled before its first season finished airing, but almost a year after it debuted, the show won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program.

“We had no idea,” Stiller told Et backstage at the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards. Apparently, none of the show’s writers had attended the ceremony with the notion they might beat out comedy institutions such as Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman. At some point leading up to the night, Stiller thought maybe he should put together a few words, just in case. “And then at the last minute, I thought, You know, I'm not gonna prepare a speech, because I'll feel like such a jerk when I don't win.”

Created by [link...

Two very creative comics are about to get animated. TBS has ordered a new animated TV series called The Cops (at least for now) that's created by Louis C.K. and Albert Brooks. They'll also star in the comedy show as well as executive produce it. The Cops will premiere some time in 2018.Here's the press release from TBS Greenlights Animated Series The Cops (working title) Starring Louis C.K. and Albert BrooksTurner's TBS has greenlit ten episodes of the animated series The Cops (working title), starring and co-created by Louis C.K. and Albert Brooks. The two also serve as executive producers on the series with Greg Daniels, Dino Stamatopoulos, Dave Becky and Howard Klein. The Cops is produced by FX Productions, Louis C.K.'s Pig Newton and Turner's Studio...

Bad boys, bad boys: TBS has picked up 10 episodes of Louis C.K. and Albert Brooks’ new animated comedy “The Cops,” which had previously been set up at FX.

Louis C.K. and Brooks will voice the show’s lead characters, “Lou” and “Al,” two Los Angeles patrolmen “trying their best to protect and serve, sometimes failing at both. Ride with them as they patrol one of the biggest cities in the world, then go home with them and be glad you’re not married to either.”

The show will premiere in 2018; the two will also executive produce along with Greg Daniels, Dino Stamatopoulos, Dave Becky and Howard Klein.

Read More: Louis C.K. & Albert Brooks Co-Writing & Starring In Animated Pilot For FX

FX Productions will continue to produce the show, along with Turner’s Studio T and Louis C.K.’s Pig Newton.

“We have made the bold decision to put Louis C.K.,...

TBS has ordered 10 episodes of animated series “The Cops” (working title), which stars and was co-created by Louis C.K. and Albert Brooks. The duo serve as executive producers on the show alongside Greg Daniels, Dino Stamatopoulos, Dave Becky, Howard Klein and 3 Arts. The series is produced by FX Productions, Ck’s Pig Newton and Turner’s Studio T, and is slated to premiere in 2018. “The Cops” follows Al (Brooks) and Lou (C.K.), two Lapd patrolmen trying their best to protect and serve, sometimes failing at both, per the official TBS description. Ride with them as they patrol one of the biggest.

Drama wins feature, screenplay and audience prizes. Manchester by the Sea’s Casey Affleck is best actor and Elle’s Isabelle Huppert best actress.

Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight (pictured) won a record four awards at the Independent Filmmaker Project Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York on Monday.

The acclaimed drama, which last week got six Film Independent Spirit Award nominations, won the Gotham Award for best feature and its script, with a story by Tarell Alvin McCraney and a screenplay by Jenkins, won in the screenplay category.

The film also won the Gotham Audience Award and cast members Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monáe, Jaden Piner, Trevante Rhodes and Ashton Sanders were presented with the previously announced Special Jury for Ensemble Performance.

In other Gotham Award categories, Casey Affleck was named best actor for his performance in Manchester by the Sea, another leading awards contender, and [link=nm...

Kicking off the onslaught of awards this year, as always, is the Gotham Independent Film Awards, which celebrates its 26th anniversary. Usually a strong slate highlighting some of the year’s best films, 2016 is no different as Manchester by the Sea leads the pack with four nominations. Close behind is Moonlight (which will also pick up a special ensemble award) and Paterson with three each overall.

Rounding out the Best Feature line-up, along with the three aforementioned films, is Certain Women and Everybody Wants Some!!. As for the Best Documentary line-up, Cameraperson, I Am Not Your Negro, O.J.: Made in America, Tower, and Weiner all made the cut. With Krisha, The Witch, The Fits, Elle, Morris From America, Jackie, and more also getting nods, the list makes for the ideal what-to-watch-before-the-year-is-over rundown.

Check out the full list of nominations below.

Best Feature

Certain Women

Kelly Reichardt, director; Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino,...

Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson aren't exactly the most obvious of creative pairings. Charlie Kaufman is an Oscar-winning screenwriter (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), while Duke Johnson is best known for his work in stop-motion animation with Moral Orel, Mary Shelley's Frankenhole and directing the Community stop-motion episode Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas. Thankfully, they both came together to create the truly unforgettable Anomalisa, which was my favorite movie of 2015 (check out my full review), and is now available on Digital HD.

The story follows a successful self-help author named Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) who can't escape the mundane nature of his life while on a business trip to Cincinnati, until he meets a unique young woman named Lisa (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh). Literally every other character in the movie is voiced by Tom Noonan, which is just as strange as it sounds. If you haven't seen the movie,...

Adult Swim and Dan Harmon's acclaimed and well-rated animated sci-fi comedy series "Rick and Morty" is coming back for a third season later this year.

Appearing at Magic City Comic Con in Miami Florida in January, at a panel which has only now just gone online, Harmon and Dino Stamatopoulos confirmed a third season of fourteen episodes will come around the end of this year.

They also said at the time "nobody blog about this," admitting that the season was coming earlier than expected. The fourteen episode count is up from the ten of the second and eleven of the first.

The series has avoided callbacks to earlier episodes in its first two seasons, that will change with the third which is expected to reference old jokes and characters.

Source: Inverse...

For a film that, in many ways, embraces its own imperfections, Anomalisa (which enjoys a wide release this week) is nearly flawless in what it sets out to achieve: Using the under-utilized medium of stop-motion animation to tell a story more human than most live action films.

The film follows middle-aged customer service expert Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) who, after arriving in Cincinnati for a conference, checks into a classy hotel hoping for a quiet night of Belvedere martinis and casual infidelity. It becomes clear early on that Michael hears and, for the most part, sees everyone else (literally all voiced by Tom Noonan) in the same way. His voice is the only unique voice in the world. That is until he hears a woman with a beautifully unique voice in the hotel hallway and rushes to investigate. Here he finds Lisa (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh).

While...

facebook

twitter

google+

It's the final entry in Wesley's top 100 Christmas TV episodes of all time list, numbers 20 to 1. Merry Christmas to all!

Read entries 100 - 81 here, entries 80 - 61 here, entries 60 - 41 here, and entries 40 - 21 here.

Since the medium’s infancy, viewers have enjoyed sharing holidays with their favourite television characters. We grow invested in our friends on screen over the years; spending Christmas with them is a rite of passage, a chance for us to share tradition from our world with the fictional ones we see on screen. Some shows embrace the season wholeheartedly, characters in good spirits and enjoying the trappings of the season; others skew a little darker, bringing the more oppressive, burdensome side of the holidays to life. Either way, Christmas episodes tend to demonstrate the strengths of our favourite series, and it’s long been a festive ritual of mine to wheel out old...

Todd Haynes is in the running for best director and both Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are in contention for best female lead alongside Room’s Brie Larson as Carol earned six 2016 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations in Los Angeles on Tuesday.Scroll down for full list of nominations

Close behind were Spotlight and Beasts Of No Nation on five apiece, followed by indie darling Tangerine and Anomalisa on four each.

Not even a glitch that saw the list of nominees temporarily appear on the Film Independent website prior to the official announcement could spoil what turned out by and large to be a recognition of independent film in its myriad forms.

Besides the more predictable contenders like Carol, Spotlight and Room, there was plenty of love for Tangerine, shot on an iPhone, and Beasts Of No Nation from Netflix, whose day-and-date release (and what that portends) infuriated large swathes of the exhibition sector but has clearly...

Todd Haynes is in the running for best director and both Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are in contention for best female lead alongside Room’s Brie Larson as Carol earned six 2016 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Close behind were Spotlight and Beasts Of No Nation on five apiece, followed by indie darling Tangerine and Anomalisa on four each.

Not even a glitch that saw the list of nominees temporarily appear on the Film Independent website prior to the official announcement could spoil what turned out by and large to be a recognition of independent film in its myriad forms.

Besides the more predictable contenders like Carol, Spotlight and Room, there was plenty of love for Tangerine, shot on an iPhone, and Beasts Of No Nation from Netflix, whose day-and-date release (and what that portends) infuriated large swathes of the exhibition sector but has clearly impressed critics.

Magnolia Pictures earned...

Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the La Film Festival and Film Independent at Lacma, announced nominations for the 2016 Spirit Awards this morning. Film Independent President Josh Welsh presided over the press conference held at W Hollywood, with actors John Boyega and Elizabeth Olsen presenting the nominations.

Nominees for Best Feature included Anomalisa, Beasts of No Nation, Carol, Spotlight and Tangerine.

“This year’s nominees are a testament to the strength, vitality and diversity of independent, artist-driven filmmaking,” said Film Independent President Josh Welsh. “It’s an astonishingly strong group of films and performances this year and we look forward to celebrating them all at the Spirit Awards.”

Spotlight was selected to receive the Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. The Altman Award was created in 2008 in honor of legendary director Robert Altman...

There is a common movie marketing technique that I call "title-checking," which is often employed when a filmmaker/producer's movies have more recognition than the people who made them. For example, one of the Paddington trailers states "From the producer of Harry Potter," which certainly says a lot more to your average movie-goer than "From producer David Heyman." I bring this up because, if such a tactic would ever be used for the stop motion masterpiece Anomalisa, it would make for one of the most bizarre and wide-ranging promotional blurbs in cinematic history. Check this out: "From the writer of Being John Malkovich and the producers of Community, Robot Chicken and You're Next..." These are the diverse minds behind Anomalisa, a ray of cinematic hope for originality in Hollywood that very well may be one of the best movies of the year.

Seven years after making his directorial debut with Synecdoche,...

facebook

twitter

google+

As Bob Odenkirk and David Cross reunite for Netflix's W/Bob & David, we revisit the pair's original comedy series, Mr. Show...

“Hey, everybody! It's Bob and David!”

This Friday, Netflix will release four episodes of W/Bob & David, a new sketch show that reunites the cast of HBO's ground-breaking comedy series Mr. Show With Bob & David. For comedy fans of all stripes, this is unspeakably good news.

Mr. Show ran for 30 episodes (plus two clip show specials) between 1995 and 1998. It didn't set the world alight in terms of audience figures, but its weird and wonderful stylings mark it as a forerunner to shows like The Sarah Silverman Show, Portlandia, Key & Peele, Inside Amy Schumer and Tim & Eric Awesome Show! Great Job. To many of the alternative comedians currently working and coming up, Mr. Show is nothing short of the American answer to Monty Python's Flying Circus.

In...

Anomalisa

Directed by Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman

Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman

2015, USA

The original Anomalisa was a “sound play” by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation), performed before an audience only twice. The “sound” aspect referred to the fact that its main character has a disorder that makes him see everyone with the same face and hear the same voice. Character actor Tom Noonan (The House of the Devil, Manhunter) acted out this sea of parts on stage opposite David Thewlis’ (Naked, Restoration) Michael Stone. Stone, famous in the world of customer service, is a married motivational speaker struggling with depression and the need for intimacy when he lands in a Cincinnati hotel for a contracted engagement. There he ruminates about a love he threw away and finds hope in a new woman named Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Thanks to Dino Stamatopoulos (writer, animator, perhaps best...

The studio is understood to have paid more than $5m for worldwide rights to Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s Venice Grand Jury Prize winner.

Anomalisa has built a head of steam since its Telluride world premiere and remains one of the few films to generate genuine buzz in an exceptionally slow Toronto buying scene.

Wme Global and CAA jointly handled Us rights to the stop-motion dark comedy and Hanway Films the rest of the world.

The film was partially funded on Kickstarter and is a Starburns Industries, Snoot Entertainment production produced by Rosa Tran, Johnson, Kaufman and Dino Stamatopoulos.

James A Fino, Dan Harmon, Joe Russo II, Keith Calder, Jessica Calder, Aaron Mitchell, Kassandra Mitchell, Pandora Edmiston, David Fuchs, Simon Ore, David Rheingold and Adrian Versteegh serve as executive producers.

Screen International critic Lee Marshall called Anomalisa, “…a wistful, resonant film, a bracing, wry, honest dose of cinematic melancholy…”...

The studio is understood to have paid more than $5m for worldwide rights to Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s Venice Grand Jury Prize winner.

Anomalisa has built a head of steam since its Telluride world premiere and remains one of the few films to generate genuine buzz in an exceptionally slow Toronto buying scene.

Wme Global and CAA jointly handled Us rights to the stop-motion dark comedy and Hanway Films the rest of the world.

The film was partially funded on Kickstarter and is a Starburns Industries, Snoot Entertainment production produced by Rosa Tran, Johnson, Kaufman and Dino Stamatopoulos.

James A Fino, Dan Harmon, Joe Russo II, Keith Calder, Jessica Calder, Aaron Mitchell, Kassandra Mitchell, Pandora Edmiston, David Fuchs, Simon Ore, David Rheingold and Adrian Versteegh serve as executive producers.

Screen International critic Lee Marshall called Anomalisa, “…a wistful, resonant film, a bracing, wry, honest dose of cinematic melancholy…”...

It's a film that blends a surprising realism with a surreal sense of reality falling apart, one herky-jerky movement at a time. Its hero — if you could call the fucked-up pop-psychology author at its center a "hero" — is a middle-aged man with a sagging body who drinks too much, booty-calls up old flames and wears his neuroses on his tattered blazer's sleeve. There's explicit sex, profound sadness, jokes about the Cincinnati Zoo and hotel-door keycards, heartbreak, hilarity, and a half-naked Japanese automaton that both sings and spits out bodily fluids.

Lucky Louie, Season 1, Episode 5: “Long Weekend”

Written by Dino Stamatopoulos

Directed by Andrew D. Weyman

Aired on July 10th, 2006 on HBO

If nothing else, “Control” makes for a very focused episode of Lucky Louie. In a series crammed full of B plots and skits that feel forced in because Louis C.K. didn’t know where to put them (i.e. the “Why” sketch from the cold open in “Pilot”), it’s refreshing to see an episode which clearly develops a single idea. Whereas other half-hours have felt trapped between half-baked gags, there’s something enjoyable about seeing an episode which devotes its running time to exploring a specific concept and how it affects various members of the ensemble.

It’s too bad, though, that writer Dino Stamatopoulos doesn’t use the focus of the episode to examine a fresher topic. By looking at dieting, and specifically Louie’s desire...

Community season 6 returns to an activity it knows and loves: the meta-film referencing game of paintball...

This review contains spoilers.

6.11 Modern Espionage

“If I tell you, then I'll end up pretendsies-dead.”

We're far closer to the end of that “six seasons and a movie” thing than the beginning and somehow it felt like paintball might be the basis of a pretty decent movie. After all, season one's Modern Warfare was a watershed moment for the show and the following season's two-part finale A Fistful Of Paintballs and For A Few Paintballs More stand as two of the best ever episodes- the show is seldom more cinematic than when it's splattered with paint.

Aside from a cloying reprise at the end of the much maligned fourth season, Modern Espionage marks the first time we've seen it since then and it's not without reason. But far from the campus-wide carnage of previous games,...

The team behind the late 1990s cult hit "Mr. Show with Bob and David" are collaborating on a new project. Writer/star Paul F. Tompkins has posted a photo on his Twitter account teasing "something new from the Mr. Show gang in the new year."

This year will mark the 20th anniversary of the series' debut back in 1995, but no further details are available at this time. The show ran for four seasons.

"Breaking Bad" star Bob Odenkirk and "Arrested Development" actor David Cross created the series and appear in the photo alongside Scott Aukerman, Jay Johnston, Eric Hoffman, Bill Odenkirk and Brian Posehn.

Other cast members and writers on the series included Sarah Silverman, Jack Black, Tom Kenny, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Jerry Minor and Dino Stamatopoulos.

Eight men out... of the 1990s. Maybe something new coming from the Mr. Show gang in the new year? #MrShow pic.twitter.com...

Although it only ran for four seasons between 1995 and 1998, Mr. Show with Bob and David has gained a devoted cult following. Mr. Show writer/star Paul F. Tompkins sent out a photo to his Twitter followers earlier today, teasing "something new from the Mr. Show gang in the new year." Naturally, 2015 would be the perfect time for Mr. Show to come back in some incarnation, since it marks the 20th anniversary of the series' debut, but we have no further details at this time.

The photo features Paul F. Tompkins flanked by Scott Aukerman, Jay Johnston, Eric Hoffman, Bill Odenkirk, Brian Posehn and series creators/stars Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. It isn't exactly clear why this group is all together, who all either wrote and/or starred in Mr. Show, but there are several pens and pads of paper seen in the image, leading some to believe they are...

If you aren’t familiar with Rick & Morty, now is your chance to catch up on the Adult Swim animated show that is taking over conversations everywhere. If you’re already a fan, you need to pick up the first season release. With an exclusive comic book, commentaries, and great featurettes, this is a release worthy of the hilarious show.

Check out all the info on the release below, as well as several clips.

Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty: The Complete First Season to Make Emergency Landing on Blu-ray™ and DVD

Available October 7, Series’ Blu-ray and DVD Debut Includes Exclusive Comic Book, Guest Commentaries, Behind-the-Scenes Featurette, Animatics and Creator Commentaries for Every Episode

It’ll be out of this world, Morty! This October, Adult Swim’s interdimensional – and unsuspecting – space crusaders Rick and Morty will make their home entertainment debut with the release of Rick and Morty: The Complete First Season.

“Community” creator Dan Harmon was joined by castmembers Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash and Dino Stamatopoulos, as well as writer Chris McKenna, for a panel discussion on the show's upcoming sixth season on Yahoo TV. He even teased the “and a movie” portion of the show's signature hashtag: #sixseasonsandamovie While Yahoo TV had previous teased a possible fall return for the show, Harmon told the assembled audience that it was more likely going to be “probably sometime after Christmas.” He said the plan was to start writing in the fall, according to the Associated Press. Also read: Dan Harmon Responds to ‘Anxious.

It's been a busy day already in Comic-Con's Ballroom 20. We welcomed Jack Bauer back for "24." We tolerated 45 minutes of "Under the Dome" discussion. We watched "Scorpion," a.k.a. "Katherine McPhee: Nerd Wrangler," which was surprisingly well-received by the crowd. Now, after some quality time with Adelaide Kane and "Reign," it's time for the panel most of the crowd has been waiting to see... "Community" is back... 2:10 p.m. Our panel today will be creator Dan Harmon and Ep Chris McKenna, along with Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash and Dino Stamatopoulos. And, once again, there may be guest appearances. Of course, I predicted guest appearances for "24," but they let us down. 2:17 p.m. We begin with a sizzle reel from the first five "Community" seasons. Season 4 is acknowledged only with a clip of the characters holding their breath to avoid a plume of noxious gas. After the fifth season.