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Since 1975 nearly a thousand hosts have graced the stage at Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center for “Saturday Night Live.”

Actors, comedians, musicians and even politicians have taken the stage to make America laugh on Saturday night for 50 seasons. Twenty five of these hosts have been inducted into the “Five Timers Club.” The club was first introduced during Tom Hanks’ 1990 monologue, featuring Steve Martin, Elliott Gould and Paul Simon.

During Martin Short’s December 2024 appearance, several Five Timers Club members popped up on the show to welcome him into the club, including Emma Stone, Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig and more, to give him the ceremonial robe.

Alec Baldwin has hosted the show 17 times, the most in the series’ history, with Martin, Hanks, Buck Henry and John Goodman following close behind.

As the show celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, we have rounded up every person who has hosted the sketch show.

Even the most original shows aren’t created from nothing. Saturday Night Live, like every comedy show before or since, can point to funny ancestors that helped draw up the blueprint for its success. Here are five comedy classics that formed the template for the show that became SNL…

[subtitle]1Your Show of Shows [/subtitle]

“Saturday Night Live always had its roots showing,” wrote Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller in their oral history Live From New York. Those roots began in the golden era of live TV in New York, especially Your Show of Shows featuring Sid Caesar and his troupe. The comedy was enhanced by the thrill of the live broadcast, a “this is happening now!” quality that had disappeared from television before SNL brought it back in 1975.

When Dick Ebersol made his initial Saturday Night pitch to NBC, Your Show of Shows was one of his examples of what SNL would try to emulate,...

Paramount’s free streaming service, Pluto TV, has revealed its December highlights. The Pluto TV December 2024 lineup includes the “Season’s Greetings” category, which features festive TV and movies all month long on channels like Pluto TV Christmas, Hallmark Movies and More Holiday Favorites.

Special programming, like a Hanukah Menorah and Kwanzaa Kinara on the service’s Crackling Fireplace channel, will also be available. Be sure to check out new channels such as Dinos 24/7 and The Twilight Zone as well.

Pluto TV is the leading free streaming television service, delivering hundreds of live, linear channels and thousands of titles on-demand to a global audience. The Emmy Award-winning service curates a diverse lineup of channels in partnership with hundreds of international media companies.

The Most Streamable Time Of The Year

This December, Pluto TV is serving up a sleigh-load of Christmas classics, holiday episodes, movies and more. Don’t miss their “Season’s Greetings” category,...

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To this day, Rod Serling's sci-fi anthology series "The Twilight Zone" regularly tops lists of the best TV shows of all time. Serling, and a team of some of the best sci-fi authors of the 1950s and 1960s, conceived of 156 miniature morality stories, usually with a supernatural bent, and in so doing changed the very face of television. Sci-fi and horror were considered more commercially viable, inspiring a new slew of imitators and a shift in the public's attention. Serling also introduced a unique form of storytelling efficiency with "The Twilight Zone," proving that an entire, closed morality fable could be wrapped up in a mere 25 minutes (or 51 minutes in the show's fourth season). Serling was also careful to explicitly state a moral in every episode, making "The Twilight Zone" a fantastic social commentary. 

"The Twilight Zone" ran from...

Eagle-eyed “Saturday Night Live” fans immediately spotted something was amiss before the show’s musical guest Stevie Nicks’ second performance. After a landslide of internet comments, it turns out there was indeed a technical issue that was resolved quickly.

The seemingly smooth episode for the 50th anniversary season (which featured Oasis impersonations and a fantastic monologue from host Ariana Grande) hit a speed bump right before Grande was set to re-introduce Nicks for her next song. The issue caused the show to put up a Nicks billboard for around 50 seconds while the emergency was attended to and then leapfrogged into an ad break.

When things were fixed, Grande appeared and introduced the legend again. Shortly after the iconic guitar intro from “Edge of Seventeen” begins, you can see Nick fiddling with her mic pack on her right side, but ultimately didn’t affect the singer’s performance.

This was not...

Stevie Nicks returned to Saturday Night Live for her first appearance in 41 years, serving as the musical guest on the show’s October 12th episode hosted by Ariana Grande. The Fleetwood Mac singer performed her new single, “The Lighthouse,” along with her classic anthem, “Edge of Seventeen.”

Saturday’s appearance was only Nicks’ second time performing on SNL, and her first since 1983. That episode, hosted by comedian Flip Wilson, saw Nicks perform “Stand Back” and “Night Bird.”

As far as what’s next for Nicks, she recently confirmed a one-off stadium show with Billy Joel, which will take place in Detroit, Michigan on March 29th, 2025. Tickets are available here.

Elsewhere during last night’s episode of SNL, Grande impersonated Céline Dion in a UFC promo—a nod to the singer’s recent Sunday Night Football appearance—and starred in a parody of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” You can find those...

Saturday Night Live fans are in for a wickedly good episode this evening as actress and singer Ariana Grande returns to Studio 8H for the fourth time in promotion of this November’s Wicked, in which Grande stars a Glinda.

Given Wicked doesn’t hit theaters until Nov. 22, it’s honestly a bit surprising Grande’s hosting stint is coming so early in the season; however, Universal has been heavily promoting the film already so clearly it’s part of a strategy to help the film continue to gain momentum ahead of its release.

Funny enough, the promo for the episode saw Grande telling several SNL cast members she’d prefer to do nothing Wicked or Wizard of Oz related – though we have a pretty good sense we’ll definitely get some sort of skit inspired by the franchise or perhaps a cameo by her Wicked costar Cynthia Erivo.

Regardless...

Steve Lawrence, a king among easy-listening crooners who rocketed to fame in the ’50s and ’60s as half of the duo Steve and Eydie, died Thursday at age 88. Lawrence died at home in Los Angeles, and the cause of death was complications from Alzheimer’s disease, according to a spokesperson for the family, Susan DuBow.

Lawrence’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis had finally put an end to his touring career in 2019, after a run in the public eye that spanned six and a half decades.

Lawrence was preceded in death in 2013 by his wife, Eydie Gormé, with whom he enjoyed nearly unparalleled success as a performing couple during their heyday as touring artists and TV stars in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. The couple had continued to tour together through 2009.

His colleagues began to weigh in Thursday. “Steve was one of my favorite guests on my variety show,” Carol Burnett said,...

“Variety shows are complicated,” Tom Smothers told Rolling Stone in 2015. The occasion was the launch of Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris, the ultimately short-lived attempt to revive the long-standing song-dance-and-skits format for TV.

Few knew how thorny such undertakings could be than Smothers, who died this week at age 88. With his brother Dick, he injected topical anti-war humor and rock guests like the Who and George Harrison into prime time on the legendary Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967-1969), a daring approach that ultimately led to its cancellation. With...

Byron Allen’s media company Entertainment Studios, also known as Allen Media Group (Amg), is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, a major milestone for one of the most visible Black-owned media companies in the U.S. Amg has championed several diversity-related initiatives over the years, including the recent launch of the streaming service Hbcu Go. The free, ad-supported streamer delivers sports content to audiences from the country’s 107 historically Black colleges and universities.

Allen, a preeminent Black entertainment mogul, has upheld equality and inclusivity as core values of his company for decades. Some of Amg’s assets include the Weather Channel, the Weather Channel en Español, Local Now, Hbcu Go, TheGrio, comedy.tv and sports.tv, among other networks. Allen’s umbrella also includes the distribution banner Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures.

Though Allen Media Group has significantly expanded in the past three decades to include thousands of employees, Allen’s...

After making it known in September that he’s interested in acquiring ABC from Disney for a price tag of $10 billion, Byron Allen assures Variety he still has his eyes set on ABC and promises he’s ready play ball when Disney is ready to sell.

“I think ABC’s a real possibility. They say they’re not ready,” Allen said at the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery’s Visionary Ball on Wednesday night. “When they’re ready I’m going to chase it down like a lion chases down a gazelle.”

Allen’s original bid was targeted at ABC, eight local TV stations and Disney-owned cable networks FX and National Geographic Channel. But, he’s since considered downsizing the ask.

“The one thing that needs to be in the shopping cart to keep my interest is ABC and the ABC owned-and-operated stations — and I wouldn’t mind if they threw...

Richard Pryor did more than reinvent comedy, he changed culture, and not only in America. The five-time Grammy Award-winner, actor, writer, director, and standup icon underwent a series of self-discoveries which he revealed to audiences from the inside out long before co-writing Blazing Saddles, and conquering every aspect of showbiz. He did it without compromise. Listeners can study the growing genius of his most transformative years, 1968 through 1973, on newly remastered vinyl reissues of Pryor’s early live albums released through Stand Up! Records along with Omnivore Records and Pryor’s production company Indigo. Richard Pryor (1968), ‘Craps’ (After Hours) (1971), and the vinyl debut of Live At The Comedy Store, 1973, along with the bonus material, shows the artist’s evolution into a revolutionary force.

As the recordings will attest, Richard Pryor is his own theater troupe. Even without the visuals, we can visualize him inhabiting each and every character. He plays them with love,...

Norman Steinberg, who co-scripted Mel Brooks’ comedy classic Blazing Saddles with and won an Emmy for Flip Wilson’s 1970s variety show, has died. He was 83. The WGA East said Steinberg died March 15 but did not provide other details.

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Whoopi Goldberg Pushes Back On Claims 'Blazing Saddles' Is Racist: "Don't Make Me Come For You" Related Story Carol Arthur Dies: 'Blazing Saddles,' 'Hot Stuff' Actress & Wife Of Dom DeLuise Was 85

Steinberg was a disgruntled lawyer met Brooks in the 1960s at a Manhattan coffee shop, where he would run into the future Egot winner regularly. After repeatedly telling him that we wanted to be a comedy writer, Brooks relented and told Steinberg to submit a script for his James Bond-spoofing sitcom Get Smart! The series was canceled, but Brooks told the would-be scribe that...

If J.B Smoove had it his way, he’d cast himself as the lead in a biopic about the late comedian Dick Gregory. “In another world, another life, if I was 20 years younger, I would love to play that man,” says the Emmy-winning actor and stand-up comic. “He really had an amazing, fascinating life.”

Smoove (né Jerry Brooks) did a deep dive on Gregory’s life when he narrated the six-part Audible Originals podcast Funny My Way, uncovering the lives of six Black comedy legends: Gregory, Flip Wilson, Paul Mooney, Moms Mabley, Rudy Ray Moore and Redd Foxx. His performance has earned the Curb Your Enthusiasm star an Ambie nomination for best podcast host.

When Conan O’Brien — whose podcast production juggernaut, Team Coco, developed the show — approached him with the idea, the veteran comedian was intrigued primarily as a fan of the series’ legendary subjects. “It’s like what Mike Tyson...

Exclusive: J.B. Smoove is to pay homage to six Black comedians in a comedy docuseries podcast for Audible.

The audio service has ordered Funny My Way, hosted by the Curb Your Enthusiasm star.

The series will profile Paul Mooney, Flip Wilson, Rudy Ray Moore, Moms Mabley, Dick Gregory, and Redd Foxx, who have broken barriers in the entertainment industry. It will shine a light on everyday struggles in the Black community, and these iconic comedians’ fight for equality while being their authentic, raw selves. It will also give listeners an impactful look into comedy history – one that goes far beyond the punch lines.

Funny My Way, which launched on the platform on August 4, comes from Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco and Ayr Media.

Exec producers include Matt Powers, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs and Willie Navarre for Team Coco, Aliza Rosen for Ayr Media and Toni Judkins.

It is the latest...

George Carlin’s American Dream presents George Carlin as standup comedy’s greatest wordsmith. Seven of these words made him infamous and earned him a place in legal history. Directors Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio’s two-part documentary highlights how Carlin’s brain-droppings started conversations which carry on today.

The “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” bit defines Carlin in ways which go beyond comedy routines. The documentary shows how language, subterfuge, and identity are chosen, carefully selected to create a body of work which defies classification. Carlin had an elastic face and a knack for funny noises, but words are at the bottom of it all. When Carlin was a young comedian, he couldn’t embrace the counterculture commentator lurking beneath the surface on television. The documentary points out how he had to use code words. The Hippy Dippy Weatherman didn’t only forecast darkness at night,...

Entertainment mogul Byron Allen’s résumé lists Fairfax High and USC as the Los Angeles educational institutions of his formative years. Not to diminish their importance, when you hear Allen describing his youthful days when his single mother “couldn’t afford daycare” and plopped young Byron down at NBC where she worked, it’s quickly obvious that Allen had the world’s greatest showbiz teachers in the halls of a network television production center. The list of mentors Allen encountered and learned from at an early age includes Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, Freddie Prinze, Flip Wilson, Redd Foxx, George Burns and Dean Martin.

“As a kid,” recalls Allen, “I was able to watch how television was made and I thought, ‘What a wonderful way to go through life, making people laugh and making television for the world.’ I had that epiphany when I was a very, very young kid. ‘This...

View of Mister Kelly’s marquee featuring Joan Rivers and Adam Wade, Chicago, Illinois, circa 1968.

In the 21st century, it seems that a near-unlimited supply of entertainment is at our fingertips, or at least at the click of a mouse. That flow seems constant with a staggering variety of options. But what did folks do around 75 years ago? Sure, radio was still dominant, though this new “gizmo” called television was making inroads. And of, course the movies were there. As for live entertainment, many performers played at regional venues like state fairs and auditoriums. If you were looking for something more intimate, the big cities had nightclubs. And in between meccas like LA (with Ciro’s and Slapsy Maxie’s) and NYC (with the “Copa” and the Latin Quarter), there was the “Windy City”. When the vaudeville and burlesque venues began to shutter, lots of big-name talents, in music and comedy,...

Before “All in the Family” debuted, there was a profound gap between real life and what was being depicted on TV series.

In his autobiography “Even This I Get to Experience,” Norman Lear wrote, “Until ‘All in the Family’ came along, TV comedy was telling us there was no hunger in America, we had no racial discrimination, there was no unemployment or inflation, no war, no drugs, and the citizenry was happy with whomever happened to be in the White House.”

When Lear and Bud Yorkin pitched “All in the Family” to CBS, that network’s executives were looking for something different — but maybe not That different.

A week before the un-publicized sitcom debuted on Jan. 12, 1971, Variety’s Les Brown summed up the first four months of the new season for the three networks. Brown wrote that CBS had a lock on “the rural middle-American viewership” with its “rustic sitcoms,...

Wanda Sykes got to play comedy icon Moms Mabley on the third season of Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” The actress is an Emmy winner who has received nominations every year since 2017.

Sykes recently spoke with Gold Derby senior editor Susan Wloszczyna about her history with Mabley as a comedian, what it meant to play her and what she’s working on next. Watch the exclusive video interview above and read the complete transcript below.

SEEAmy Sherman-Palladino Interview: ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’

Gold Derby: I would guess this was a great honor for you to portray her because she was one of a kind. She’s basically the mother of Black comedians and set the standard. But I just wonder, I’m old enough to have seen her on “Ed Sullivan” and “The Smothers Brothers” but did you see her while you were a kid?

Wanda Sykes: Yes, I...

Discovering Sy Rogers was a big deal for me. As a gay kid in Pensacola, Fl, I learned early on that my “same-sex attraction”––as it’s often called in conservative Christian churches––was not acceptable in my community. Rogers previously identified as trans and led international ministries based on the idea that if God can change Rogers from being transgender, he can also change one’s homosexuality. This assumes it’s wrong to be gay and that being transgender is even worse. But I didn’t want to be gay, so I walked in Rogers’ footsteps. For the first half of the 2010s, I believed ex-gay theology and it took the second half of the decade in therapy to unravel it. Telling my story is not easy, but the truth is more powerful than pretending my past never happened.

While watching Sam Feder’s new documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,...

Wanda Sykes had quite a streak on television last year, between “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s ‘All in the Family’ and The Jeffersons,’” her Netflix comedy special “Not Normal” and her recurring role on “Black-ish.” She is a nine-time Emmy nominee, winning 21 years ago for writing on “The Chris Rock Show.”

But this funny lady had a very special personal connection to the real-life comedy legend, Moms Mabley, that she vividly brings to life for a new generation on the Season 3 finale of Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Sykes recalls seeing Moms with her saggy house dress, funny hat and toothless smile on TV variety shows as a kid. “Yes, yes, I remember her on the ‘The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,’ Flip Wilson, Ed Sullivan, ‘Laugh-In.’ She definitely was influential and just stood out for me. And I’m 100% sure that if it hadn’t been for her,...

In the past decade, African American actors and actresses made several inroads with the annual Emmy Awards. Among the winners: Donald Glover took home Best Comedy Actor in 2017 for FX’s “Atlanta,” as well as for directing the “B.A.N” episode that year. Sterling K. Brown won for his supporting role in the FX limited series “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” in 2016 and then Best Drama Actor the next year for NBC’s “This Is Us.” And the openly gay Tony Award winner Billy Porter won that latter award in 2019 for FX’s “Pose.

Five years ago, Viola Davis made history as the first African American to win Best Drama Actress for ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder.” Regina King, who will probably be nominated again this year for HBO’s “Watchmen,” won for her supporting role in the ABC’s limited series...

Paul Cooper, who served as a senior executive alongside several record industry legends during his 50 years in the business, has died. Cooper passed on March 26 at age 76. No cause of death was revealed Cooper served as a Universal Music Group Vice President, at Atlantic/Warner Records as Senior VP and General Manager, and at A&m Records in its early years. A Los Angeles native, Cooper attended USC, where he began managing music artists. Music executive Doug Morris, who worked with Cooper for many years, issued a statement calling him “a dedicated and a loyal friend. Truly, one-of-a-kind, and I am going to miss him.”

Cooper started in public relations, handling such acts as Trini Loper, Monte Kay and Flip Wilson. He then joined Atlantic Records as a national director of publicity in 1978, becoming the right hand-hand to Morris while becoming the senior vp/West Coast general manager.

From there, he...

Lee Mendelson, the producer behind more than 50 animated TV specials featuring Charlie Brown and the “Peanuts” gang, died on Christmas Day at his home in Hillsborough, Calif., after a long battle with cancer. He was 86.

Mendelson also wrote the lyrics to “Christmas Time Is Here,” a song featured in “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the 1965 special that turned “Peanuts” into a TV staple. “Charlie Brown Christmas” brought Mendelson the first of his 12 Emmys. The last came in 2015 for “It’s Your 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown.” Mendelson’s work with animator Lee Melendez also brought him four Peabody Awards, an Oscar nomination and two Grammy noms.

A lifelong fan of jazz, Mendelson had the inspiration to hire musician Vince Guaraldi to create original music for “Charlie Brown Christmas,” a touch that helped make the specials stand out with viewers young and old. Over the years Mendelson worked with other notable musicians such as Dave Brubeck,...

When “Laugh-In” debuted on NBC in 1967, creator George Schlatter could have very well gotten away with murder. The network didn’t often understand what the producer was trying to accomplish with his quick comedic snippets, his fresh-faced cast who often stumbled over their lines (which were sometimes purposely transposed on the teleprompter), or his ragtag group of oddball writers, which included a political science professor, a 16-year-old, and a young Lorne Michaels. But the Peacock was willing to experiment in order to sock it to CBS juggernaut “I Love Lucy” in the competing timeslot.

A year and a Richard Nixon appearance later, and “Laugh-In” became the place that every star and aspiring comedic yearned to be. From Orson Welles, Michael Cain and Kirk Douglas, to Cher and Flip Wilson, a wide-range of personalities popped up in various capacities, including in the famed Cocktail Parties or on the larger-than-life Joke Wall.

Actor Kristoff St. John, who played Neil Winters on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless for the past 28 years, passed away on February 3. He was 52.

A cause of death has not been released. Sarah Ardalani, a public information officer with the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, told CNN that St. John was found dead at a home in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. There were no signs of homicide or foul play, and there is no criminal investigation, Aguilar said.

CBS and Sony Pictures Television, the studio that produces The Young and the Restless, released a statement Monday saying "The news of Kristoff St. John's passing is heartbreaking."

"He was a very talented actor and an even better person," the statement read. "For those of us who were fortunate enough to work with him on 'The Young and the Restless...

Nancy Wilson, one of the most revered jazz singers of the 20th century, has died, her manager told the Associated Press. She was 81.

The singer passed away at her home in Pioneertown, a small California community north of Palm Springs, after a long illness, according to manager Devra Hall.

Wilson’s three Grammy awards spanned a more than 40-year period, with her first coming in 1965 in the Best Rhythm & Blues category for her Capitol single “How Glad I Am.” Her last was in 2007, awarded for Best Jazz Vocal Album for “Turned to Blue,” her final release. (She had seven nominations in all.) Wilson’s recording career actually dates back to 1959, when she released “Like in Love,” an album arranged by the legendary Billy May.

Outside of the music intelligentsia, Wilson may be remembered by millions of TV viewers who recall her 1974-75 NBC variety series, “The Nancy Wilson Show,.” She...

Thaddeus Q. Mumford, a pioneering African-American TV writer-producer who worked on shows ranging from “Mash” to “The Electric Company” to “Blue’s Clues,” has died after a long illness. He was 67.

Mumford died Sept. 6 at his father’s home in Silver Spring, Md., according to his sister-in-law, Donna Coleman.

With his longtime writing partner Dan Wilcox, Mumford worked on the final three seasons of “Mash,” as well as such shows as “Maude,” “Good Times,” “Alf,” “B.J. and the Bear,” “Coach,” “The Cosby Show,” “A Different World,” “Home Improvement,” and “Judging Amy.”

Mumford was a quick wit who had a knack for coming up with jokes and punch lines. “He was incredibly fast with a fully formed joke,” Wilcox told Variety. “Sometimes you wondered where they came from.”

Wilcox recalled an episode of “Mash” in which David Ogden Stiers’ stuffy Major Charles Winchester character balks at trying acupuncture to treat his back pain.

Bilal Abdul Kareem is an expert in staying alive.

Born Darrell Lamont Phelps, he grew up just north of the Bronx in Mount Vernon, New York. He did what lots of kids in his neighborhood were doing in the late Seventies and Eighties: He spent his time rolling on the floor laughing to comics like Flip Wilson and Richard Pryor.

Later, after college at Suny Purchase in Westchester, he decided to try stand-up himself. Hecklers were a problem.

In upscale white clubs where he sometimes performed, audiences would clap politely if his jokes missed.

Trimark Pictures

Everybody has to start somewhere in the movie industry. Whether it’s running to fetch coffees for the cast of an instantly forgettable rom-com or taking a bit role that is guaranteed to embarrass your parents when they insist on watching “your big break,” most burgeoning actors have to endure a little humiliation before they make it big.

Still, it’s hard to suggest that any of the actors mentioned in this list would go back and change anything about their debut, especially considering that they’ve all made millions of dollars and became household names. But…maybe they’d do a better job of destroying all the copies of the film after they became famous.

9. Patrick Swayze – Skatetown, U.S.A.

Columbia Pictures

The Movie: A skating-related rivalry comes to a head in a showdown at a Los Angeles roller rink, where the two hunky skaters battle it out in…...

Chicago – Before the days of 24/7 internet access to every form of entertainment that exists, there were eras of radical performance expression that changed the landscape of attitudes toward everything – think of The Beatles evolving music and also changing social culture. The roots of another evolution, especially in comedy, began with a modest humor magazine that brought together the right mix of anarchists and misfits. What they did would influence comedy for years afterward, and their story is told in “Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of National Lampoon,” directed by Douglas Tirola.

“National Lampoon” Magazine was a national publication founded in 1970, that was spawned from the Harvard Lampoon, and brought together a team of 1960s-influenced comic radicals that changed the way humor was conveyed. No sacred cows existed on their pages, and the magazine also broke out into signature comedy records, stage performances and radio shows. This cottage industry featured...

When Neil Patrick Harris returns to TV next week, he won't be cracking jokes in another sitcom. Best Time Ever With Neil Patrick Harris (debuting on September 15th on NBC) marks the return — overdue or not — of the variety show, that long-dormant format in which kooky skits, musical guests, and frenzied production numbers are jammed into an hour of family-friendly entertainment. "When you think of the variety shows we all grew upon — Sonny and Cher and Donny and Marie — those [programs] all said, 'Sit on the couch, be entertained with a little song,...

From The Good The Bad And The Ugly.Ca,  Sneak Peek 'the good, the bad and the ugly' in director Michael Mann's new thriller "Blackhat", starring Chris Hemsworth, Wei Tang and Viola Davis:

Michael Stevens For 'The Good':

"In director Michael Mann's "Blackhat", furloughed convict 'Nick Hathaway' (Hemsworth) with American and Chinese partners, hunts down a high-level cybercrime network connecting Chicago, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Jakarta.

"Mann delights in exploring CG 'digital trails', plunging into physical networks, following power surges while mapping out a glowing high-tech world, in contrast to the grimy digs used by a sweaty, terrorist hacker.

"Thor" actor Hemsworth, looking every inch an action star, knows how to use a gun (as opposed to a hammer) and effortlessly takes out gaggles of baddies, using 'MacGyver'-like prison smarts to street-fight his way out of confrontations.

"Actress Wei Tang as 'Chen Lien', is also good,...

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Mel Brooks' 1968 comedy classic The Producers was originally deemed unreleasable because of its tasteless content. It sat on a shelf for two years before finally seeing the light of day. When the movie hit theaters, critics praised it, Brooks won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and helped launch a major career for him in feature films. By 1974, tastelessness was not a barrier for Brooks' cinematic projects. Blazing Saddles, his insane send-up of the Western movie genre, came along at exactly the right time. Ten years earlier, the film would have been impossible to make. However, pop culture had matured light years between the mid-1960s and 1970s and so did audience's tolerance of envelope-pushing humor. Indeed, by the time Brooks brought this movie to the screen Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice had already shown the humorous side of swinging and Robert Altman's M*A*S...

Ralph Waite, who played John Walton Sr. on The Waltons for nine seasons, died Thursday at age 85. While he’s best known for his Emmy-nominated role as the patriarch on the long-running 1970s CBS drama, Waite has had recent recurring roles on NCIS, Bones, and Days of Our Lives.

EW spoke with Waite last year for our annual Reunions Issue, bringing the Walton family back together more than three decades after their show went off the air. “What has moved me the most is the mail I’m still getting,” Waite told EW at the time. “They tell me that I was their surrogate father,...

TV One is spinning off its popular and successful series Unsung, launching an offshoot titled Unsung Hollywood, which will premiere on February 26, 2014.  Unlike the network's successful Unsung, which is a music biography franchise (and which returns on January 29), Unsung Hollywood's focus will be on the stars of film and television primarily.  Already lined up as subjects of individual episodes are Pam Grier, Robin Harris, Kadeem Hardison, Dick Gregory, Flip Wilson and others.  As is the case with Unsung, episodes of Unsung Hollywood will include the usual talking head interviews and archival clips. Here's a preview of what's coming:...

Of the great actor/directors in cinema, Sidney Poitier.s name comes up less often than most - and that.s largely because 1990.s Ghost Dad would have killed anyone.s career, dreams, livelihood, etc. As disastrous as that movie was, however, he and Bill Cosby also gave us the great 1974 crime comedy Uptown Saturday Night, which really should be a cult classic at this point. (Richard Pryor and Flip Wilson!) Will Smith and Denzel Washington have been attached to star in a remake for years, the project most recently attracting Anchorman director Adam McKay, and now The Muppets co-writer Nicholas Stoller has stepped in to take over script rewriting duties. There's an interesting ticking click involved with this development, however. After years of kicking around both Smith and Washington.s schedules, the goal is now to get this film into production by next summer. If Stoller is unable to...

Sidney Poitier played the lead alongside Bill Cosby, Harry Belafonte, Flip Wilson and Richard Pryor as well as directed the 1974 comedy Uptown Saturday Night. Poitier starred as the leader of two pals (Cosby played his bud) who lose their wallets at a nightclub robbery, one of them holding a winning lottery ticker, and fight the crooks to retrieve their big money ticket. Variety reported today that Warner Bros. inched closer to a starry remake with Nicholas Stoller, writer of The Muppers and Gulliver’s Travels and writer/director of Get Him to the Greek and The Five-Year Engagement, joining the project as screen writer. Stoller joined director Adam McKay (Anchorman 2) on the film with Will Smith and Denzel Washington in line to reprise the roles made famous by Poitier and Cosby.

There's great news for Dean Martin fans and lovers of classic comedy. Star Vista Entertainment/Time Life have released the entire broadcast collection of Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. These shows were "must-sees" in their original telecasts in the 1970s, as an astonishing array of Hollywood and political legends came together on stage to roast the man or woman being "honored". Taking on the format of a Friar's Roast (without the obscenities), the shows became extraordinarily popular as off-shoots of Dean Martin's long-running variety hour on NBC. Each roast was held before a large live audience in Las Vegas and no "honoree" emerged unscathed. The packaging warns that in today's politically correct society, much of the racially-charged humor might seem shocking but keep in mind, this was the norm in the day with comedians, both black and white, taking good-natured pot-shots at each other. Additionally, people who were arch political...

Ten more dames. Ten more billiards lounge renditions of songs that your great-grandmother can safely die to. And about four or five that ruled. Let's rank 'em! 

10. Zoanette Johnson, Tina Tuner's "What's Love Got to Do With It?"

Well, here's the good news: Now Lil Rounds can claim her rendition of "What's Love Got to Do With It?" from season eight isn't the single worst version in Idol history. Zoanette is truly a mesmerizing, popcorn-worthy spectacle deserving of P.T. Barnum's time, but you knew she'd fall apart the minute actual singing was required of her. Mariah can claim that her take on "The Circle of Life" worked because of "her backstory" (uh, in Liberia? That's why Zoanette's a natural at crooning about lion birth?), but it was really thanks to the instrumentation's campy grandeur, which tonally matched Zoanette's Wendy Williams-meets-Pagliacci hissy-fit theater. I appreciate that she thrusted about...

Hot off the announcement that Adam McKay and crew are finally going to make Anchorman 2 comes word that the director has another project in the works, this one a strange choice for a filmmaker mostly known for absurdist comedies starring Will Ferrell. Deadline Coconut Grove is reporting that, after McKay finishes up shooting on the next Anchorman film, he’s negotiating to begin work on a remake of the 1974 Sydney Poitier film Uptown Saturday Night. For those of us whose memories don’t go all the way back to 1974, Uptown Saturday Night was a comedy that Poitier starred in himself, alongside Bill Cosby, that saw the two of them playing in over-their-head everymen faced with the task of hunting down some shady criminal types. On a whim, the duo go to a seedy nightclub where their wallets are promptly robbed by some thug types. Problem is, one of the wallets contains a winning lottery ticket, so...

Exclusive: Adam McKay is in negotiations to develop to direct Uptown Saturday Night, the Warner Bros remake that the studio hopes will star Will Smith and Denzel Washington. Smith and James Lassiter’s Overbrook Entertainment has been developing the project. Tim Dowling wrote the most recent draft. The idea is for McKay to helm the film after he completes a sequel to Anchorman, the Will Ferrell-starrer that Paramount has set for an early 2013 start and 2014 release. McKay and Ferrell wrote that script and Judd Apatow is producing. McKay most recently helmed The Other Guys, and before that Talladega Nights. He’s repped by Wme. The 1974 comedy starred Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier as pals who visit an illegal nightclub, and are forced to hand over their wallets to thieves. Turns out one of them contains a winning lottery ticket, emboldening the duo to bump up against the criminal element to get back the wallet.

Every Friday night, my kids, my wife and I boot up the TV and watch a week's worth of our favorite shows. We don't all like everything the same. Personally, I feel like Glee has jumped the shark, and it took a while for my kids to warm to the pitch black humor of Louie. Still, we watch it all, together (usually over Thai food). It's an important time for our family in which issues arise that normally would not. Sometimes my wife and I must answer questions we'd rather not, and sometimes my kids get questions they'd rather avoid. But after a long, rushed, hectic week apart, this "TV Time" brings us closer. Unfortunately, in this digital age, this is a rarer occurrence than you might think.

Once upon a time, in "the days before the 'Net," families all over America gathered together, in front of an electronic hearth,...

Sketch comedy on television has a very defined life cycle: few shows survive their first year. Though there are a few notable exceptions (Your Show Of Shows, Flip Wilson, Mr. Show, Kids In The Hall), most sketch-comedy shows (with the exception of Saturday Night Live) rarely live past four or five seasons. Pop-culture references change. Ensemble players become stars. Staff writers become head writers. Sunrise, sunset.  Nearly eight years ago, we saw the cycle play out for Dave Chappelle and his own show. The show's sharp-tongued wit, fearless social commentary, and subsequent popularity rekindled an interest in sketch comedy, if a temporary one. After Chappelle's departure, Comedy Central tried again with Carlos Mencia, who later went on to be the most hated man in comedy. More recently, they tried again with ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, but his racism in puppet form wasn't a success either.  Today, Keegan [...]...

Actress Raven-Symon&#233 stars in a brand new series entitled State of Georgia, which debuts tonight, June 29 at 8:30 Pm Et on ABC Family. The actress recently participated in a conference call to discuss her new show. Here's what she had to say below about the show and her character, Georgia.

How easy was it for you to get into the character with Georgia, since you're originally from Atlanta?

Raven-Symon&#233: Well, actually Georgia and I would have grown up in different parts of Atlanta, and so it was actually interesting being able to play someone that - I guess her and I would have been a little bit different ends of the school. So it was fun actually getting to play that character and blending it in to who I am now and finding a happy medium, so I'm no longer mad at the cheerleaders that I grew up with,...

Best known for her role in the Emmy nominated comedy series That's So Raven for the Disney Channel, Raven-Symoné garnered three NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Performance in a Youth/Children's Series/Special, two Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards for Favorite Television Actress and a Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Performer. That's So Raven received the 2008 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children's Series/Special and was nominated for two primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children's Program in 2005 and 2007. Raven was named producer for the series' fourth season, which aired in 2007.

Raven's film credits include Roger Kumble's College Road Trip, opposite Martin Lawrence, Garry Marshall's The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, opposite Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, and Dr. Dolittle and Dr. Dolittle 2, opposite Eddie Murphy. Her role in Dr. Dolittle 2 earned her two award nominations, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Youth Actor/Actress and...

So… I vaguely recall watching episodes of The Flip Wilson Show when I was a kid, growing up in the 80s (I know it was an early 70s show, but I didn’t get it until the 80s… at least, that’s when I remember watching it). Although, it wasn’t something that my parents approved of myself and my siblings watching, for various reasons.

Anywho… I recently started reacquainting myself with the variety show, thanks to Netflix, and I was very quickly reminded of one of his most popular and loved characters – Geraldine! Those of you who’ve seen the show will remember Geraldine – essentially, Flip Wilson in drag. She was what you’d call “sassy,” and “sexual;” she also had a boyfriend named Killer who was usually serving time in prison.

It struck me that I haven’t really heard Flip Wilson’s Geraldine character mentioned in discussions about Tyler Perry’s Madea,...

I met one of my first boyfriends on a swim team. He’s one of the butchest men I’ve ever dated, and apropos of nothing, he looked absolutely amazing in (and out of) a Speedo.

One day, he announced to me that he’d received an invitation to do drag and that he wanted to do it.

“You?” I said. “You’re the last person in the world I would’ve thought wanted to do drag.”

“That’s why I want to do it!” he said eagerly. “Come on, let’s go shopping for some mascara!”

Truthfully, I found this to be a total turn-off, because one of the things I found sexy about him was the fact that he was so butch. Literally the last thing in the world I wanted was the image of his strapping, Speedo-ready body squeezed into some frilly frock and size eleven pumps.

'I had to find somebody who I could match and who could match me,' Mc says of his comedian co-headliner.

By Shaheem Reid

Snoop Dogg

Photo: MTV News

LL Cool J went from Hollis to Hollywood, and Snoop Dogg plans to take it from Long Beach to Las Vegas. The hip-hop legend starts a tour of casinos on April 30 in San Diego along with co-headliner Mike Epps. The Dogg says the two performers' worlds will combine well onstage.

"Mike Epps is exceptional," Snoop said. "He's the equivalent to Snoop Dogg in comedy. People love him. They respect his comedy, his views, his vision. He's not too political, he's not too raunchy. He's not too offensive. When you say Mike Epps, people laugh. They smile. They associate him with funny. When you say Snoop Dogg, people get excited and start singing songs and thinking about certain moments in time when...