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Gloria Stroock, who played Rock Hudson’s secretary on McMillan & Wife and appeared in films including Fun With Dick and Jane, The Competition and The Day of the Locust, has died. She was 99.

Stroock died May 5 of natural causes in Tucson, Arizona, her daughter, Kate Stern, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Stroock was married to Emmy-winning writer-producer Leonard B. Stern (Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion, The Phil Silvers Show, The Honeymooners, Get Smart and much more) from 1956 until his death in 2011 at age 87.

Her late younger sister was Geraldine Brooks, a Tony nominee and Warner Bros. contract player (Cry Wolf, Embraceable You).

Stroock recurred as Maggie, the secretary of Hudson’s San Francisco police commissioner Stewart McMillan, on the final three seasons (1974-77) of McMillan & Wife, the NBC series created by her husband.

She portrayed the wife of Richard Dysart’s art director in John Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust...

The Terminal List Universe Expands—Prime Video Confirms Season Two, Starring Chris Pratt, and Orders New Taylor Kitsch Led Prequel Series

Season two of The Terminal List to be based on Jack Carr’s New York Times best-selling novel True Believer

Chris Pratt to appear in both series, which are co-produced by Amazon Studios and Civic Center Media, in association with MRC Television

Culver City, California—February 3, 2023—Today, Prime Video confirmed a second season of the hit conspiracy thriller The Terminal List from MRC Television,with season two based on Jack Carr’s New York Times best-selling novel True Believer. Additionally, Prime Video announced today it has ordered a new untitled prequelseries, to be co-created by Carr and season one creator/showrunner David Digilio, focusing on fan-favorite Ben Edwards, portrayed by Taylor Kitsch (upcoming Painkiller and American Primeval, Waco, True Detective).The prequel series featuring additional iconic Carr characters, including...

Prime Video’s The Terminal List starring Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy franchise) has been renewed for season two. Plus, the streaming service has greenlit a prequel focusing on Taylor Kitsch’s character from season one, Ben Edwards. In addition to starring in season two, Pratt will appear in the prequel which currently is untitled.

“I’m excited to announce that the second season of The Terminal List is on its way, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to reprise my role as James Reece. This season promises to be even more intense and action-packed than the first, and I can’t wait for everyone to see it,” said Pratt. “And for those who are fans of Taylor Kitsch’s Ben Edwards, I’m happy to say that we’re also working on a spinoff series that will delve deeper into his story and follow his journey from...

Amazon is going all-in on “The Terminal List.” The action-thriller series has been renewed for a second season at Prime Video. And the streamer isn’t stopping there: Amazon has also ordered a prequel series starring Taylor Kitsch, who plays Ben Edwards (on both).

“The Terminal List,” based on Jack Carr’s thriller novels, premiered in its entirety on July 1; Season 2 will adapt 2019’s “True Believer.”

“The phenomenal summer debut of ‘The Terminal List’ is a testament to the creativity of Jack Carr, David Digilio and Chris Pratt along with the cast and teams who delivered such an original and compelling series,” Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon and MGM Studios, said in a statement on Friday. “With the second season of The ‘Terminal List’ and Prime Video’s new prequel series starring the amazing Taylor Kitsch, we are expanding on the storytelling and characters beloved by so many all over the world.

Prime Video has confirmed Deadline’s report that hit MRC Television conspiracy thriller The Terminal List, headlined by Chris Pratt, has been renewed for a second season, and that the streamer also has ordered an untitled prequel series focusing on fan-favorite Ben Edwards, portrayed by Taylor Kitsch.

Season 2 of The Terminal List, whose first installment was based on Jack Carr’s bestseller of the same name, will be based on Carr’s novel True Believer.

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Additionally, it has been revealed what other Carr characters the prequel series, co-created...

The Terminal List is continuing — and becoming a franchise for Amazon Studios. I have learned that Prime Video has finalized a Season 2 renewal for the hit series starring and executive produced by Chris Pratt, and also has picked up an untitled prequel/Ben Edwards origin series headlined and executive produced by Taylor Kitsch, from The Terminal List creator/executive producer David Digilio.

Related Story We’ll Be Back: Photo Gallery Of TV Series Renewed In 2023 Related Story Prime Video Picks Up Peter Farrelly's 'Ricky Stanicky' Starring Zac Efron & John Cena; Jermaine Fowler Joins Cast Related Story Prime Video Greenlights 'The Ride' Docuseries About Professional Bull Riders

I hear other Jack Carr characters who have or have not appeared yet on The Terminal List, an adaptation of his 2018 novel, will be featured in the prequel, including Pratt’s Navy Seal James Reece and Raife Hastings, a...

In the year 2000, author Leonard B. Stern published a hilarious book called "A Martian Wouldn't Say That!!," a compilation of studio notes written by executives. The book is a litany of absurd demands and strange requests that perhaps made sense in a broader boardroom discussion, but which became complete nonsense when written down and handed to an actual screenwriter. The title comes from a note a studio head gave to the writers of the 1960s sitcom "My Favorite Martian," claiming that dialogue needed to be changed due to its lack of Martian authenticity. Seeing as no Earthling has met a Martian (so far as we know), surely the writers would be granted a sliver of artistic license. Other gems from the book include nonsensical comments like, "Re: 'The Fred Astaire Special' — too much dancing" and "Can you make the rabbi less Jewish?"

All filmmakers working with studio oversight will receive some kind of note,...

Tony Sokol Jan 9, 2020

Buck Henry, who created classic comedy for big and small screens, dies at 89.

Genius comedy writer and actor Buck Henry died of a heart attack at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Health Center at the age of 89, according to Variety. Henry was a frequent host on Saturday Night Live, wrote the screenplays for such comedy classics as The Graduate and What’s Up, Doc? and co-created Get Smart with Mel Brooks.

Buck Henry, who was born Henry Zuckerman on Dec. 9, 1930, was the son of silent film actress Ruth Taylor, who was also the star of the original Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. His stockbroker father was a retired Air Force brigadier general named Paul Steinberg Zuckerman. Given Henry’s penchant for comic corruption, this may have informed the educational subterfuge he mined to adapt, along with collaborator Calder Willingham, Charles Webb's novel The Graduate for Mike Nichols' 1967 classic generational comedy. “I...

The Classic TV series Get Smart introduced the world to Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, secret agent 86, and Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, both working for the secret government agency Control and taking on the world-threatening Kaos. The show itself is a full-blown parody of the spymania boom created by the James Bond films throughout the 1960s, though what's interesting is that a spoof usually comes at the end of a creative cycle, many of them signaling a last gasp of sorts from whatever subject is being parodied. Get Smart, on the other hand, came three years into the boom. When the show premiered in the fall of 1965, there had only been three 007 movies, with things really exploding at the end of that year with the release of the fourth, Thunderball. Donna McChrohan Rosenthal, author of the non-fiction exploration of the show The Life and Times of Maxwell Smart, explains in an exclusive interview,...

By Lee Pfeiffer 

As Cinema Retro gets inundated with DVDs to review during the course of any given year, it's virtually impossible to keep up with all of them in a timely manner. Here are some notable titles you should be aware of:

Cabaret Blu-ray (Warner Home Video): Warner Home Video has inherited the rights to Bob Fosse's classic 1972 film adaptation of the stage production that, in turn, was based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. The Blu-ray comes packaged in one of those irresistible hardback book formats that is loaded with wonderful photos from the movie. The movie itself holds up superbly even after 40 years. The decline of Germany's Weimar Republic amidst the rise of National Socialism in the 1930s is seen through the eyes of nightclub singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) and her constant companions (Michael York, Helmut Griem) . Fosse's decision to emphasize the sleaze elements...

The Sopranos was named the best-written show in television history by the Writers Guild of America, edging out an eclectic collection of some of the most beloved and admired series. Members of the Writers Guild of America, West (Wgaw) and the Writers Guild of America, East (Wgae) voted online for the 101 Best Written TV Series, with David Chase’s iconic “family” drama topping Seinfeld, The Twilight Zone, All in the Family, and M*A*S*H*.

“At their core, all of these wonderful series began with the words of the writers who created them and were sustained by the writers...

In true, lazy journalist cut-and-paste fashion, here is the ultimate question-and-answer session with Bullet in the Face writer and producer Alan Spencer. The upcoming 6-part TV series starring Eddie Izzard and Eric Roberts airs on IFC, and is darkly comedic, or comedically dark, or absurdly thrilling. There’s just no one way to categorize it (read our review here).

What was the impetus for making Bullet in the Face darker and more violent than most comedies?

You mean when compared to the behind the scenes of Two & a Half Men?

When I originally wrote Sledge Hammer! as a feature film during the late seventies, it was actually quite violent in keeping with the spirit of the genre that inspired it, namely lone vigilante cops that took the law into their own hands and strangled it with a vengeance. The people around town who read it back then, agents and executives,...

Dr. Richard Leakey is the first to admit that his friendship with Paul Simon is unlikely. "I really don't like music and he really doesn't like old bones," Leakey told the audience at last night's intimate fundraiser for the Turkana Basin Institute (T.B.I.), a non-profit organization dedicated to assembling a full fossil record of humanity's origins in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Still, the venerable paleontologist and conservationist -- who was introduced last night as "the man many believe responsible for saving the elephant population" of Kenya -- and the legendary folk-rock musician hit it off when the latter paid a visit to T.B.I. about four years ago. Simon's experience there inspired him to propose a benefit concert, which took place last night at the Highline Stages in Manhattan's Meatpacking District.

Real-estate developer Leonard Stern, philanthropist David Rockefeller Jr. and IMAX C.E.O. Richard Gelfond were among the...

The medium of television is often a reflection of our times and sometimes an overly idealized, unrealistic portrayal of American life. As radio programming became nationally broadcast series, they reflected the rural lifestyles and Depression-era standards of its time. As a result, many of these shows were transferred with little change from radio to television. Similarly, as prosperity brighten America’s fortunes, so did the images of life shown in living rooms around the country.

On Tuesday, CBS Home Entertainment released seven samplers of six situation comedies and one drama with the contents selected by the fans themselves. In part one of our review, we’ll be looking at the earliest offerings and seeing what they tell us.

During the 1950s, as conformity and a rising middle class became the norm, those standards became a part of the sitcoms shown on the four networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, and Dumont). While...

While watching “Contraband,” I was reminded of the recent passing of Leonard Stern, inventor of the Mad Libs party game. Mad Libs have entertained people for decades, and no doubt taught countless children the parts of speech, but they seemingly also inspired the screenplay for this dreary, generic movie. Mark Wahlberg stars as a brilliant [Smuggler] who is forced to commit [One Last Job] to save the life of his [Brother-in-law] only to discover that he’s being betrayed by [Character Who Seems Suspiciously Extraneous In The Movie’S First Thirty Seconds]. Directed by...

Rock Hudson Rock Hudson: Dark And Handsome Stranger Documentary The synopsis below of Andrew Davies and Andre Shafer's Rock Hudson: Dark and Handsome Stranger is from the Berlin Film Festival website: Rock Hudson was a dream of a man; the epitome of masculinity: tall, slim and muscular, with a deep, mellifluous voice. His glossy black hair, sparkling eyes, high cheek bones and sensuous lips made Rock Hudson one of the sexiest film stars that Hollywood has ever produced. Twenty-five years ago, shortly before his sixtieth birthday, Rock Hudson died of Aids-related illnesses. He was the first Hollywood celebrity to succumb to the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. But who was Rock Hudson really? This documentary sheds light on a famous actor star who performed a clandestine balancing act between his private and public lives; between the heterosexual world of an extremely manly looking screen idol and a darker side of forbidden...

The world lost a a treasure this week with the passing of Mad Libs creator Leonard B. Stern. Joe Kelly, among others, expressed his thanks to the man, and we at the Report here echo those words.

On another surprising (yet decidedly more upbeat) note, "Duke Nukem Forever" actually appears to be coming out in a few days. Kieron Gillen was all about that on his account. Karl Kerschl, meanwhile, has been playing "Darksiders," a game which inspired to give a shout-out to Joe Madureira. Those posts and Jim Lee's defense of "Game of Thrones" to Bryan Hitch can be found down below.

I'm @brianwarmoth, and this is the Twitter Report for June 10, 2011.

@JoeKellyMOA Rip Leonard Stern. Writer with exceptional TV pedigree + the co-creator of Mad Libs. Thanks for making life more fun one blank at a time.

-Joe Kelly, Writer ("Action Comics," "I Kill Giants")

@pvponline I...

The [adj.] Leonard Stern, Emmy-winning TV writer and co-creator of the popular party game Mad Libs with partner Robert Price, has passed away at the age of 88 in Los Angeles. Stern got his start at 16 years old as a jokewriter for Milton Berle and went on to write for iconic Jackie Gleason sitcom The Honeymooners, Get Smart, The Steve Allen Show and 1952 feature The Jazz Singer.

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The [adj.] Leonard Stern, Emmy-winning TV writer and co-creator of the popular party game Mad Libs with partner Robert Price, has passed away at the age of 88 in Los Angeles. Stern got his start at 16 years old as a jokewriter for Milton Berle and went on to write for iconic Jackie Gleason sitcom The Honeymooners, Get Smart, The Steve Allen Show and 1952 feature The Jazz Singer.

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Filed under: TV News

Leonard Stern made a name for himself writing complete sentences for some of the most iconic TV shows in history, including 'The Honeymooners,' 'Get Smart' and 'McMillan and Wife,' but it's when he co-created a game book that purposefully left words out that his name become known to kids and grown-ups alike. The Mad Libs innovator died Tuesday, June 7 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles following a long illness, his daughter-in-law told the La Times. He was 88.

"A super silly way to fill in the _________!" by Roger Price & Leonard Stern graced the bottom of each Mad Libs, which emerged in 1958. At that point Stern was already a successful writer on 'The Honeymooners,' starring Jackie Gleason.

He began his writing career in film in the early 1950s, but moved on to television. He won an Emmy as part...

The sexy Josh Lucas is now confirmed for the network television adaptation of The Firm in the role that Tom Cruise originated on the big screen. I’m hoping for more nudity than the movie had.

Tennessee continues to pass laws that make me go Wtf? Today it’s a law banning posting pictures that cause emotional distress. It doesn’t even have to be of you – I could post a bad picture of Darren Criss and one of our diehard Gleeks could claim distress, and if I lived in Tennessee I could go to jail and face thousands in fines. Obviously, this law has Constitutional issues.

Leonard Stern, the writer behind many great series like The Honeymooners and a personal favorite of mine, Get Smart, has passed away at age 87. What was surprising to me was that he also invented on of the great joys of my childhood, Mad Libs.

Leonard B. Stern, the man behind classic U.S. TV shows Get Smart and The Honeymooners, has passed away. He was 87.

The writer and producer suffered heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

A three-time Emmy Award winner, Stern started out writing on the The Jackie Gleason Show, where he came up with Honeymooners sketches, which spawned the popular series.

He went on to write 17 episodes of Get Smart and served as executive producer on the spy spoof, which starred Don Adams.

Stern also had a string of film screenplays under his belt, including Just You and Me, Kid and Target.

He is survived by his actress wife of 55 years, Gloria Stroock, a son and a daughter.

Leonard Stern, who created the seminal '50s sitcom The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason and wrote 12 feature films (including two Abbott and Costello vehicles), died on Tuesday at age 88 in Los Angeles. In addition to acting as head writer for The Steve Allen Show and producer of the flat-out funniest show of the '60s, Get Smart, Stern also served as president of the Producers Guild of America. Let's honor his legacy with a clip from one of his first films, a little flick about a dynastic duo venturing overseas.

The Emmy Award-winning writer-producer-director Leonard Stern, who wrote for such legendary shows as “The Honeymooners” and “Get Smart,” as well as the 1952 “The Jazz Singer,” died Tuesday. He was 87. Stern’s television credits stretch to 1956’s “The Steve Allen Plymouth Show.” That same year, he wrote for “The Honeymooners” and “The Phil Silvers Show.” Later in his career, he wrote 40 episodes and executive produced 22 episodes of “McMillan & Wife,” starring Rock Hudson. His movie career included the 1952 “Jazz Singer,” starring Danny Thomas, the 1979 “Just You and Me, Kid,”...

Leonard Stern, a producer, writer and director who helped create The Honeymooners and Mad Libs, died Tuesday of heart failure, Variety reports. He was 88 years old.

A New York native, Stern got his start in Hollywood in the '50s writing film screenplays, including Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion, The Jazz Singer and the Jack Lemmon film Three for the Show. His career shifted to TV, and he began writing for The Jackie Gleason Show.

Stern went on to...

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I wanted this so bad last year. The elevator packaging was one reason. But the main one was that whenever I've caught an episode on TV in the last few years it's made me laugh just as hard as it did when I was a kid watching its initial run. Airing from 1965-1970 Get Smart boasted a writing team that included Buck Henry, Mel Brooks and a young Woody Allen. As an antidote to the obnoxious machismo offered by James Bond and his ilk Max, the Chief and Agent 99 offered plenty of good humor and commentary on the the cold war and the human condition.

Besides all five seasons of the show you get hours and hours of extras done right.

The Collection includes:

• 25 DVDs in special collectors packaging

• 5 eight-page booklets with liner notes written by actor Dave Ketchum (Agent 13) and Alan Spencer, creator of the TV comedy series "Sledge Hammer!

Industry veterans David Milch, Leonard Stern and James Burrows won top honors at the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers and Directors' 22nd annual awards dinner. The event also featured tributes to Fox entertainment president Gail Berman, Warner Bros. Television president Peter Roth, writer-producer Tom Fontana and actor Edward James Olmos. Milch was recognized as producer of the year for his work as creator/executive producer of HBO's Western drama "Deadwood". In accepting the award Thursday night at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Milch joked that he probably didn't deserve such high praise because he'd spent the day on the "Deadwood" set "shooting with two units because we're so far behind." But on a serious note, Milch praised the Caucus as an example of "the collective expression of individuals fighting for our careers."...

Six TV producers, four writers and four directors have been nominated for the 2005 Honors Awards presented by the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors, which made the announcement Tuesday. The producer nominees are Jerry Bruckheimer, Mark Burnett, Marcy Carsey & Tom Werner, David Milch and Gary Smith. Susan Harris, Barry Kemp, Leonard Stern and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason are the writer nominees, while directors James Burrows, Thomas Carter, Mimi Leder and Gene Reynolds also were nominated. The awards will be presented Jan. 13 at the caucus' 22nd annual Dinner & Awards Ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The black-tie event -- co-chaired by Chuck Fries and Lee Miller, with Tom Bergeron (America's Funniest Home Videos) serving as emcee -- is an annual gathering of artistic and creative professionals and executives working in the TV industry who "pay tribute to a producer, writer, director or executive for their innovative, creative and distinctive contribution to the profession." The caucus, chaired by Vin Di Bona, is a multiguild professional organization "that mentors TV producers, writers and directors in their negotiations with the cable and broadcast networks for their creative rights."...

WB Network co-CEO Jordan Levin, the youngest of the broadcast network chiefs, was warmly received by the industry veterans who crowned him Executive of the Year at the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers and Directors' 21st annual awards dinner. Levin told the crowd Friday night at the Beverly Hills Hotel that he picked up a few pointers on how to be a successful television executive early on in his career from one of the Caucus' co-founders, writer-producer Leonard Stern. Levin said he was taught to "build a brick wall around creative people and stand around that wall to make sure no one gets in." He added that it was fulfilling to receive kudos from a group that represents "the people that I admire, people that I respect and that I wish I could be."...