News

Kaitlin Olson says her family is a big fan of people calling her “bird,” but we already knew that — Dennis laughs at that bit every time.

Longtime sitcom actors know that a sense of humor about yourself is a prerequisite for lasting long in the TV comedy business. Whatever flaw, imperfection or vague resemblance your appearance bears to a non-human animal can and will come up in the writers’ room, and you need to get comfortable hearing superficial slams and shallow put-downs that could very well hit a nerve if you’re insecure. However, stretching back to Jackie Gleason on The Honeymooners, there’s no better way to become an audience favorite than being the plus-sized butt of the joke.

That goes double for women on sitcoms, especially the lone woman on a sitcom, and especially the lone woman on a sitcom where all the characters explicitly hate women — even the woman.

From April 4 to May 23, 2001, Comedy Central ran eight episodes of a 30-minute sitcom called "That's My Bush!," a sendup of the then-active George W. Bush administration. The premise of the show was as broad as possible. George W. Bush (Timothy Bottoms) was in the White House, but his life was more akin to that of an old-fashioned, 1980s-era workplace sitcom than that of a sitting president. There was a noisy, obnoxious laugh track paired with bright, even TV lighting, making the show look deliberately old-fashioned and artificial. Kurt Fuller played the buttoned-down killjoy Karl Rove, while Carrie Quinn Dolin played Laura Bush.

More than being a spoof of the Bush administration, however (and there was plenty to spoof), "That's My Bush!" was a satire of all-American sitcoms. Show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker (of "South Park" fame) merely used the White House as a backdrop to mock dated sitcom...

As 2024 comes to a close, we here at JoBlo.com would like to take a moment to pay tribute to some of the people who sadly passed away this year. Our deepest respect goes out to everyone in the industry we have lost, and our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of those who died in 2024. These talented individuals will always be remembered for their impact on the world of film and television.

In Memory Of…

David Soul

David Soul died on January 4th at the age of 80. The actor was best known for playing Detective Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson on Starsky & Hutch alongside Paul Michael Glaser.

Although Starsky & Hutch would become one of the most iconic shows of the ’70s, Soul and Glaser had no clue it would become as successful as it did. “We didn’t have a clue it was going to be so successful.

Born 100 years ago today, Rod Serling was a television man. He came up in the 1950s, at the dawn of the medium, during the days of live televised plays—Kraft Television Theatre, Lux Video Theatre, The Motorola Television Hour, etc. Big names would star in meaty productions without the opportunity for a second take,...

The best Twilight Zone episodes offer a strong mix of sci-fi, horror, fantasy, and speculative fiction shorts that often play out as morality tales. The series was one of the original anthology television shows and is easily the most influential. Every anthology series that followed owes a lot to Rod Sterling's masterful collection of thought-provoking, often frightening, and disturbing tales of terror. Whether it was horror, sci-fi, or the fear of an unknown future, The Twilight Zone mastered it all.

There have been a few reboots of the series, including a critically acclaimed one by Jordan Peele. However, the original remains the best, and that series alone (running from 1959 to 1963) created some of the most haunting, frightening, scary, and sometimes hopeful and empathetic short films in genre television history. With major celebrity names like William Shatner, Jack Klugman, Burgess Meredith, and Jackie Gleason, the best Twilight Zone episodes are...

Today, Robert Downey Jr. is a bona fide blockbuster star with an array of incredible performances under his belt. Thanks to his career-defining turn as the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist Tony Stark, aka the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Iron Man, he's one of the most beloved and respected actors working in Hollywood. But back in the mid-2000s, Downey was still earning back the trust of both show business and the audiences that fell in love with him in the 1980s and 1990s, after they watched him descend into tragedy with multiple arrests for various possessions of illegal substances and several jail sentences between 1996 and 2000.

Thankfully, Downey was able to piece his life and career back together. Key roles in the TV series "Ally McBeal" and movies like "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," and "Good Night, and Good Luck" helped the actor's profile rise. Despite skepticism from Paramount Pictures, director Jon Favreau...

Last Friday, comedian Sebastian Maniscalco had Madison Square Garden roaring with laughter with bits about Amazon deliveries scaring him when they arrive at midnight, the total oddness of New York City’s so-called rat czar, the voracious moles devouring his yard, and his wife’s (allegedly) bad driving. He pulled faces, changed his flat Chicagoland patter into silly voices, and contorted his body into knots to bowl over the sold-out crowd. At the end of the night, he warmed everyone’s hearts by inviting his mom and dad, both immigrants from Italy,...

Female friendships have been at the center of some of television’s most memorable and iconic shows — from comedy highs to dramatic lows. Here are TV’s Top 10 BFFs.MEGALaverne and Shirley on 'Laverne & Shirley'mega

Schlemiel! Schlimazel! They might be polar opposites, but as roommates and co-workers at Milwaukee’s fictional Shotz Brewery, Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) constantly lifted each other’s spirits as they got in and out of trouble!

Ethel and Lucy on 'I Love Lucy'Prime Video/YouTube

In one of the most legendary sitcoms in TV history, Lucille Ball as Lucy and Vivian Vance as Bff Ethel made audiences howl with laughter over their hilarious antics.

Mary and Rhoda on 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'mega

The classic opposites attract couple of polite local news producer Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) and her brash best friend and upstairs neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) became a...

Nearly ten years after director George Miller returned to the post-apocalyptic wasteland and redefined the action genre with Mad Max: Fury Road, the Australian auteur returned to replace Charlize Theron with Anya Taylor Joy to tell the origin story of the warrior who helped Mad Max cross that fury road in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. And regardless of how underwhelming its box office may be, this high octane prequel will surely stand the test of time alongside the rest of the Mad Max saga, certainly more so than another follow-up from Warner Bros. to a car racing franchise way back in 1984, when the late great Burt Reynolds bid farewell to the formula comedy genre that made him a superstar alongside an all-star cast (Jackie Chan! Frank Sinatra! Tony Danza!) with Cannonball Run II.

The original Cannonball Run was just one of many hit movies between Burt and his stuntman...

Lo, the enduring miracle of the film awards year. Just when things begin to look hopeless—and it was looking pretty bleak a month ago—intriguing, maybe even watchable, prospects suddenly sprout. The movies are like Osiris, that old Egyptian resurrection god: You just can’t keep ‘em down.

As August arrives, more than a few adult viewers, unattuned to the ongoing fantasy-and-animation boom, are now peeking around the corner at Saturday Night, Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night Live origins story. The film was scheduled last week by Columbia Pictures for release on Oct. 11—the 49th anniversary of NBC’s first SNL broadcast, back in 1975.

As historical moments go, that may or may not impress the film Academy’s growing body of foreign-based Oscar voters. But for the domestic crowd, especially those in upper age brackets, the birth of an American comedy phenomenon, still alive some five decades later, is compelling.

June Walker Rogers, a singer, dancer and comedian who performed on Broadway and television and wrote several musicals and a book about how to survive in show business, has died. She was 97.

She died July 8 at her home in Westport, Connecticut, her family announced.

Born in Steubenville, Ohio, and raised in Queens, June L. Walker started dancing at age 5 and soon had a nightclub act, appearing on bills with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Louis Prima, Don Rickles, Rodney Dangerfield and, when he was known as the singer “Calypso Gene,” Louis Farrakhan.

After being placed in an accelerated pilot program for gifted children in the New York school system, she graduated from high school at 15. She accepted a scholarship to Columbia University but left college to make her Broadway debut in 1944 in the comedy revue Laffing Room Only, starring Ole Olsen & Chic Johnson.

The platinum blond returned...

It was a surprise to many of her admiring fans that the legendary Carol Burnett was not already immortalized with her handprints in the iconic Hollywood cement. That fact finally changed on Thursday as she was surrounded by friends, co-stars and family at a brief ceremony outside of the Tcl Chinese Theater.

Before cementing herself for decades of tourists to visit, she said, “I grew up just a few blocks from here, Yucca and Wilcox. It was a block north of Hollywood Boulevard. And when I was a little girl, I can’t begin to count the times my grandmother and I would walk up her to Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Betty Grable was one of my favorites, and I remember bending down and putting my hands on her handprints, never dreaming that someday I’d be putting my hands here 80 years later.”

See‘Palm Royale’ scene stealer Carol Burnett...

Murray Hill wants to bring a little fun and camp to a gumshoe series.

The actor who plays Fred Rococo on HBO’s comedy Somebody Somewhere told the New York Times that he is developing a detective show called Shorty Big Time. In fact, he’s currently scouting locations in Palm Springs for the project, which still needs a buyer.

But “nobody’s getting killed” in this series, promises Hill, who went on to share this sample plotline: “Someone took somebody’s teeth at the nursing home, and they call me in. Or the gay rodeo’s in town, and the chaps are missing. Just fun and campy. We need it. Things are rough out there.”

“Now that I have some outside validation,” Murray continued, “I feel like it’s my duty and my obligation to do this show and get it made. You know, RuPaul is the mother, and I’m the father.

Hiram Kasten, renowned for his memorable roles in television, including his appearances on ‘Seinfeld’, has passed away at the age of 71. Kasten battled multiple health issues over the last seven years, including prostate cancer and Crohn’s disease. In recent months, he privately disclosed to loved ones that he was terminally ill. Despite his health challenges, he continued to receive support and affection from friends, who engaged with him through frequent Zoom calls, which his wife Diana credited with extending his life by approximately two months.

Hiram Kasten began his entertainment career in stand-up comedy in 1978, making a mark in the New York City and New Jersey comedy scenes. He was notably passed by Jerry Seinfeld at an audition at ‘The Comic Strip’, marking a significant milestone in his career. Known for his distinctive style and charisma on stage, Kasten was admired for his homage to comedy greats like Alan King,...

Who is the best male TV star of all time? Our photo gallery above takes on the tough task of ranking the 50 greatest actors and performers. Agree or disagree with our choices?

With over 70 years of television to consider, we had to provide ourselves with a few rules to help simplify things. One of those was that every man in our gallery must have been an ongoing leading star at some point, preferably more often than not. That’s why you will not see such classic supporting actors as Art Carney, Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Peter Dinklage and more. We also do not include any news/sports anchors or journalists such as Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Peter Jennings, Howard Cosell since they are not performers.

In order to place them in the rankings, we were looking at a combination of quality (top rated shows with the public or critics...

Quite a few of your favorite television performers have plenty of Emmy Awards on their shelves… Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Allison Janney, Cloris Leachman, Tina Fey. Other TV legends like Henry Winkler and Bob Newhart just picked up their first and only statuettes in recent years. But how about the many others still waiting for their trophy? Tour through our photo gallery above featuring the Top 30 greatest TV stars who have never won an Emmy (arranged in alphabetical order). We only chose people with long-running television careers without reaching this one singular achievement. Congratulations to Jason Bateman for finally getting off of our list in 2019!

Several people in our gallery are still actively working, with some of them on this year’s Emmy ballot seeking another shot at the gold. Those names include Tim Allen (“Last Man Standing”), Kristen Bell (“The Good Place”), Steve Carell, Don Cheadle (“Black Monday”), Lauren Graham (“Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist...

Bandit is a relatable antihero driven by money and fun, not forgiveness. Sheriff Buford T. Justice's stupidity and idiocy make him lovably funny. Smokey and the Bandit combines impressive stunts with hilarious, memorable lines.

As one of the biggest comedy movies of the 1970s, there are endless Smokey and the Bandit quotes that solidify its legacy. Starring Burt Reynolds and comedy legend Jackie Gleason, the 1977 comedy was a light-hearted and hilarious ride about a fast-driving outlaw driving a trailer full of beer across state lines with a determined sheriff on his tail. The best of the collaborations between Burt Reynolds and director Hal Needham, Smokey and the Bandit is full of great car stunts and catchy songs as well as some of the most memorable lines ever to be heard on film.

Though most people might remember the over-the-top and thrilling action scenes the most, these quotes bring back memories of the movie's great comedy.

Roman Gabriel, who still holds the Los Angeles Rams team record with 154 touchdown passes, died Saturday at his home in Little River, South Carolina, at 83. His death came from natural causes, according to his son, Roman Gabriel III.

Gabriel was the No. 2 draft pick of the Los Angeles Rams in 1962 out of North Carolina State. He was the first Filipino-American quarterback in the NFL and the league Mvp in 1969.

He played in four Pro Bowl games, three with the Rams in the late 1960s and another with the Eagles in 1973. But he reached the postseason only twice, and his Rams were eliminated in the first round both times.

“We mourn the loss of Rams legend and football pioneer, Roman Gabriel,” the Rams said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Gabriel was a two-time player of the year in the Atlantic Coast Conference for North Carolina State. He was inducted into...

Billy Gardell is opening up about his healthy journey and the current struggles he has with eating.

The 54-year-old Bob Hearts Abishola actor lost over 150 pounds in the last few years with the help of bariatric surgery.

In a previous interview, Billy revealed that he weighed 370 pounds about a decade ago and he was down to about 205 to 210 pounds in April 2023. That means he lost between 160 and 165 pounds!

“I went from a young Jackie Gleason to an old Paul Newman,” Billy said on Live with Kelly and Mark this week.

Keep reading to find out more…

“The last three years, I had to make some changes because when Covid hit, in the words of Richard Pryor, I went in the house. I had a lot of the dangerous [conditions]. When they made that list of, you know, overweight. Type 2 diabetes. Smoker. Asthma. I’m like, ‘Check! Check! Bingo!’” he said.

“I said to my wife,...

Billy Gardell got candid about his weight loss journey during an appearance on ABC‘s Live with Kelly and Mark as the Bob Hearts Abishola star dropped by the talk show. When Gardell sat down for the interview, Mark Consuelos noted, “Billy, you look great!” That prompted to comedian and actor to say, “Yeah, I went from a young Jackie Gleason to an old Paul Newman.” The comment elicited laughter from both the hosts and the audience. But Kelly Ripa continued with the topic, prompting that Gardell has been on a health journey for a while. He confirmed as such as he said, “Yeah, like the last three years. I’ve had to make some changes because when Covid hit in the words of Richard Pryor, ‘I went in the house.'”  Gardell went on to mention how he “had a lot of the dangerous” conditions that could cause bigger problems if he caught Covid.

Jerry Seinfeld is one of the most distinguished standup comics and has been active since the late ‘70s. The actor-writer is known for his timeless sitcom Seinfeld, which is often considered to be one of the greatest comedies on TV. The show ran for nine seasons and has often been regarded as the defining sitcom of the era.

While many sitcoms have been aired since then, few have come close to the popularity and pop cultural impact Seinfeld had. The show is still loved by audiences with its signature theme being parodied and referenced on multiple occasions. When asked what was the secret behind the show’s longevity, Jerry Seinfeld had a simple answer.

Jerry Seinfeld’s Simple Reason For Seinfeld’s Longevity A still from Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David co-created the sitcom Seinfeld, basing many of the stories on their own experiences. Seinfeld played an exaggerated version of himself,...

Jerry Seinfeld is the man. Known for being one of the greatest comedians of an entire generation, he has carved out quite a reputation for himself in the industry. His antics and comic timing have made him iconic, but that isn’t the only thing that makes him a comedian who is in his own league. The star of Seinfeld might be one of the most highly-rated comedians out there, but he doesn’t give a f**k about what others will think of him for saying a particular thing.

Jerry Seinfeld is a comedian like no other

Jerry Seinfeld is an anachronism in this age

An all-rounder, Jerry Seinfeld has done it all in his life. He has won an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a couple of Screentime Actors Guild awards. He is already royalty in the industry. And as if that wasn’t enough to stamp his authority,...

Jerry Seinfeld is a master comedian, writer, and producer, best known for his work on the sitcom named after himself. The show, which ran for nine seasons, changed the landscape of comedy shows at large and expanded the scope of storytelling.

Seinfeld took inspiration from a lot of mundane places, but he was capable of weaving it into something extraordinary. This is a testament to his comic genius, as proven by the fact that even reruns of the show are popular, even if they seem ordinary. Moreover, he went The Honeymooners‘ way with his answer when asked about the longevity of his work.

Jerry Seinfeld’s show is an important piece of media (Source: Seinfeld)

Jerry Seinfeld answers why his show is still so popular

Jerry Seinfeld has been in the show business for nearly five decades. In that time, he has managed to evoke laughter like no other, and...

In his feature directorial debut, actor and comedian Jerry Seinfeld also stars in an upcoming comedy movie titled Unfrosted: The Pop Tart Story, based on a screenplay he co-wrote with a team of writers. His team of writers included Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, and Andy Robin. The movie stars Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, James Marsden, Hugh Grant, Dan Levy, and more, in addition to Seinfeld leading the cast.

The movie, which is scheduled to make its debut on Netflix in May, is loosely based on the true story of the creation of Pop-Tarts toaster pastries. The actor-comedian reportedly deconstructed his Pop Tart stand-up bit from his last Netflix special, 23 Hours to Kill, and explored it into a giant comedy movie. The debutant director talks about casting Hugh Grant in the movie.

Hugh Grant in Dungeons and Dragons

Jerry Seinfeld talks about British actor Hugh Grant’s casting as...

BayView Entertainment have released the documentary Top Ten Mind Blowing UFO Crash Cases which is out now on Digital Platforms worldwide including to rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video in the UK and USA.

Top Ten Mind Blowing UFO Crash Cases will arrive on AVOD Digital Platforms worldwide on 30th April 2024.

Alien and UFO docs continue to top the watch lists of all platforms!

Synopsis:

Ten amazing cases of documented UFO crashes across the world is a deep dive into the secrecy and strategic actions by the military and governments to cloak the truth from the public. These mind-blowing accounts include the most famous case of all, the Roswell crash and the extraordinary confessions of a first-hand witness, Philip Corso, to Jackie Gleason’s account with captured aliens, the flurry of UFO crashes in Mexico, New Mexico’s suppressed crash event that rivaled the Roswell case and more, exposing actions...

Will Hanna and Joe Barbera might be credited for popularizing a form of animation that allowed it to be produced at a tremendously rapid clip. Looking at the producing pair's early works like "The Huckleberry Hound Show" and "The Quick Draw McGraw Show," one can see "limited animation" at work. That is: characters were designed in such a way that only parts of them would need to be animated to complete a scene. Faces were conceived at three-quarters, letting characters look to the side or full front depending only on their eyes. Necks were covered by ascots or ties, allowing heads to be animated while bodies remained static. 

Because of this design, Hanna-Barbera could produce multiple animated series on a notoriously fast TV production schedule. Hanna-Barbera exploded in the late 1950s, and dominated Saturday morning through the early 1980s. 

The crown jewel in their output was, of course, "The Flintstones,...

Ridley Scott’s Very Expensive Roman Holiday

With accidents on the set, complaints about animal abuse and now reports that the production went wildly over budget, sources tell Rambling Reporter that Ridley Scott’s long-anticipated Gladiator sequel is leaving Paramount execs feeling a bit like Joaquin Phoenix’s Emperor Commodus — “terribly vexed.” Initially budgeted at $165 million, sources say that figure has ballooned to something closer to $310 million. (Paramount insiders insist the net cost of the 49-day shoot was under $250 million.) “It’s a runaway,” says one source. “It’s not being managed.” The strikes account for some of that money; the shutdowns starting in July reportedly cost $600,000 a week, or a total of about $10 million, until Scott resumed shooting in December (though there were reports he kept cameras rolling during the work stoppages, shooting extras at crowd scenes in Malta, where he built a Coliseum set). But even before the walkouts,...

With 22 seasons and more than 400 episodes, Family Guy is one of the longest-running animated series ever. It launched Seth MacFarlane into the stratosphere of American pop culture. After a cancellation, the show’s cult status only grew, forcing the show to return to Fox, where it continues. And as far as creator McFarlane is concerned, the show will keep going.

Speaking with The Wrap, McFarlane said that Family Guy hasn’t really been given a reason to go off the air. Even after its numerous controversies — mostly concerning critics targeting the show’s supposed transphobia and misogyny, not to mention its warped “hot takes” on pop culture, at different points of its run — the show continues to have a following. “It’s still surviving and thriving. It still has a sizable audience and is a perfect example of there being an appetite for something. So we continue to feed the beast…...

In the "Twilight Zone" episode "A Game of Pool", Jack Klugman plays a would-be pool champion named Jesse who feels that he would be more widely recognized for his billiard skills, were he not living in the shadow of the late pool champion James Howard "Fats" Brown. Jesse posits that if he had had the opportunity to play against Fats, he would definitely win. In a supernatural twist, Fats (Jonathan Winters) arrives from the afterlife to accept the challenge. The ensuing game, however, comes with a stipulation: if Jesse wins, he will indeed be granted the lifelong reputation as the greatest pool player of all time. If he loses, he'll die in obscurity. Jesse accepts.

Throughout their game, Fats points out that living well and happily is more important than the hard-edged fame of being a great pool player. Jesse doesn't listen. He wants fame.

Jesse, perhaps shockingly, wins the game.

Joyce Randolph, the last of the surviving cast members of The Honeymooners, has died. Her son confirmed her death, of natural causes, at her Manhattan home on Saturday night to the Associated Press. She was 99.

From 1955 to 1956, over what is known as The Honeymooners’ “Classic 39” episodes, Randolph starred as Trixie Norton, the patient, supportive wife to doltish sewer worker Ed Norton, played by Art Carney. Together as the Nortons, they were the upstairs neighbors and de facto best friends to loudmouthed bus driver Ralph Kramden and his long-suffering wife Alice,...

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton on the classic sitcom “The Honeymooners,” and was the last surviving member of the cast, died Saturday in New York City. She was 99.

Randolph was in hospice care at the time of her death and died of natural causes, her son, Randy, told TMZ.

Randolph’s character was married to Art Carney’s Ed Norton on “The Honeymooners.” They were the neighbors of Ralph and Alice Kramden, played by Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows.

Born Joyce Sirola to a Finnish American family in Detroit, she got her start in show business when she joined a touring production of “Stage Door” while working at a department store, then moved to New York where she acted in theater and on television in shows such as “Buck Rogers.”

Gleason noticed her in a commercial and cast her in “The Honeymooners” in 1951. It first appeared as a sketch...

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton on the television classic The Honeymooners, died Saturday at her home in New York City, according to multiple reports. She was in hospice care at the time of her death, which was from natural causes.

Randolph played the wife of sewer worker Ed Norton, played by Art Carney. The couple were the best friends and neighbors of Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), and Alice Kramden (Audrey Meadows).

Randolph was tabbed for the role after Gleason saw her on a chewing gum commercial.

Trixie was married to a sewer worker, and I guess she considered herself a little better than the character of Ed Norton,” Randolph said in a 1999 interview with the Television Academy Foundation. “But she was just a housewife — she and Alice didn’t have jobs. They stayed home all the time, which was kind of amazing, but the husbands didn’t want them to work.

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie, the wife of Art Carney’s goofy sewer worker Ed Norton, on the classic sitcom The Honeymooners, has died. She was 99.

Randolph, the last surviving member of the famous foursome that also included the stars Jackie Gleason (as Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden) and Audrey Meadows (as Ralph’s level-headed wife, Alice), died Saturday at her home in New York, her son, Randy, told TMZ.

Gleason spotted Randolph doing a commercial for Clorets and hired her to play Trixie on his DuMont network variety show Cavalcade of Stars, which premiered in 1951 and featured the Kramdens and the Nortons — neighbors in a rundown Bensonhurst apartment building — in a recurring skit.

Randolph continued on CBS’ The Jackie Gleason Show and then on The Honeymooners when it was spun off in 1955-56 as a half-hour sitcom recorded in front of a live audience. That season is known for...

Joyce Randolph has sadly passed away.

The last surviving cast member of The Honeymooners died Saturday (January 13) at the age of 99 at her home in New York City due to natural causes, her son confirmed to TMZ on Sunday (January 14).

She famously played the role of Trixie Norton, the wife of Art Carney’s Ed Norton. The sitcom ran from 1955 to 1956 on CBS, following Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and his wife Alice (Audrey Meadows), and Trixie and Ed.

Keep reading to find out more…

The character originated on The Jackie Gleason Show in 1952, which she appeared on until 1957.

The sitcom also got a 2005 film adaptation starring Cedric the Entertainer, Gabrielle Union, Mike Epps and Regina Hall. Just recently in 2022, CBS announced it was developing a female-driven “reimagining” of the comedy series, via TVLine.

She would also appear on shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, The Plainclothesman, The Doctors and the Nurses...

Joyce Randolph, best known for starring as Trixie Norton on The Honeymooners, has died at the age of 99. The actress passed away on January 13 in her home in New York City of natural causes, her son, Randolph Richard Charles, told TMZ. She had reportedly been in hospice care. Randolph played Trixie Norton, the loyal, strong-willed and bossy housewife of Ed Norton (Art Carney) on The Honeymooners, a working-class comedy that ran one season from 1955 to 1956. She did not appear in every episode (while her co-stars did) but brought a hilarious realism to her character that made her memorable to audiences even when she wasn’t onscreen. She was the last surviving cast member of The Honeymooners — Jackie Gleason passed away in 1987, Audrey Meadows in 1996, and Carney in 2003 — and remained one of the most iconic actresses from the Golden Age of television. Randolph was born Joyce Sirola on October 21, 1924 in Detroit,...

Joyce Randolph, the last surviving cast member of The Honeymooners, has died. She was 99.

Randolph passed away Saturday at her New York City of natural causes, Randolph’s son confirmed to TMZ Sunday.

More from TVLineAlec Musser, All My Children Actor and Fitness Model, Dead at 50Peter Crombie, aka Seinfeld's 'Crazy' Joe Davola, Dead at 71 The Cleaning Lady Co-Stars Remember 'Amazing' Adan Canto: 'I Was Honored to Be Your Castmate'

On The Honeymooners, Randolph played Trixie Norton, the wife of Art Carney’s Ed Norton. The sitcom, which ran from 1955 to 1956 on CBS, followed the day-to-day life...

As part of Variety‘s 100 Greatest Television Shows of All Time issue, we asked 12 of our favorite creators of television to discuss the series that inspire and move them. Check out all the essays, and read our full list of the best TV shows ever made.

“The Twilight Zone” came on the air in 1959 — my freshman year in high school. And it made a mammoth impression. No one had ever seen anything like that. From the opening, where writer Rod Serling came out in his herringbone jacket with his cigarette and introduced the show: That, in itself, was entertaining. I just wanted to hear what Rod had to say about the mystery of the universe this time out.

Now, if you’re 13 years old, you could be easily scared by the stories “The Twilight Zone” told. But even now, as an adult, if you watch an episode, you would get the chills.

"Smokey and the Bandit" was a delightful '70s action-comedy movie; it spawned two sequels, the first of which was pretty damn good. For a modern audience looking back, the series was also remarkably star-studded. It featured beloved late actors like Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, Patrick McCormick, and Mike Henry, most of whom are still fondly remembered over forty years after the first movie came out. Although the series itself isn't quite as well-known among today's young viewer as we'd probably prefer, most of its cast certainly is.

But what about the actors in the series who are still alive today? What are they up to? Let's check in on the lives and careers of the remaining "Smokey and the Bandit" cast, and see how they're holding up. We might never get to see that Seth MacFarlane-penned revival series we heard about back in 2020, but it's not time to...

Mort Engelberg, a producer of the films Smokey And The Bandit and The Big Easy, has passed away. Engelberg was 86, and he died in Los Angeles in the company of his wife, Helaine Blatt, a success herself as a high-end jewelry broker.

Engelberg was producing films when he took time away from his day job and organized a famous bus tour taken by Arkansas governor and presidential aspirant Bill Clinton and his running mate Al Gore through numerous states the summer after the Democratic Convention in 1992. Engelberg served a similar role previously for candidates Walter F. Mondale in 1984 and Michael Dukakis in 1988. For Clinton, the bus tour was a rousing success. It bonded Clinton, Gore and their wives, and presenting the amiable presidential candidate as an everymen who thrived mixing with real people in cities across the country. It would become a trademark for Clinton’s successful two presidential runs.

In the new Hulu comedy-drama “Quiz Lady,” the shy Anne (Awkwafina) has found solace since childhood from her irresponsible mother, Mia father and her boring job watching a “Jeopardy”-esque game show every weeknight. And she even envisions the host (Will Ferrell) as a father figure. Though game show fans don’t usually have such high drama in their lives, most of the contestants on “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” are literally lifelong aficionados. But not every quiz or game show is a “Jeopardy!” “Wheel of Fortune” or even a “Family Feud.”

There have been a lot of quiz and game show series that were offbeat, short-lived or downright hideous, like CBS’ “You’re in the Picture,” which premiered Jan. 20, 1961, the same night as President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. The show was hosted by none other than Jackie Gleason, who was one of the biggest stars on the Tiffany...

Robbin Bain, who was known as the “Today Girl” handling fashion and beauty segments on the NBC-TV morning show, died Oct. 21 in Southampton, N.Y., on Long Island. She was 87 and had breast cancer, according to her daughter.

Her public career began in 1959, when she was named as Miss Rheingold, then the most popular beer in the New York region. For her win, she received $50,000 and spent the next year making appearances in the United States and Europe.

She turned to modeling, appearing in ads for Helena Rubinstein and Revlon. She was also one of four women, called “Portrettes,” who introduced Jackie Gleason on his television variety show, The Jackie Gleason Show, in 1956 and 1957.

Early in her career, she changed her first name to Robbin to avoid confusion with the actress Barbara Bain.

In late August 1961, Bain joined NBC as the “Today Girl,” working alongside the host John Chancellor...

Clockwise from top left: Grease 2 (Paramount), Jaws: The Revenge (Universal), Exorcist II: The Heretic (Warner Bros.), Batman & Robin (Warner Bros.)Image: The A.V. Club

In 1997’s Scream 2, self-proclaimed film geek Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) rants about sequels in his college film class. “Sequels suck! By definition alone they’re inferior films,...

For just about every decade that there has been a sitcom on television, it’s been easy to identify those stars who shine bright as the current face of comedy. In the ’50s, it was Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball. In the ’60s, it was Dick Van Dyke and Andy Griffith. The ’70s brought us Bob Newhart, Mary Tyler Moore and Bea Arthur, followed by Sherman Hemsley, Bill Cosby and Michael J. Fox in the ’80s, Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne Barr and the cast of Friends in the ’90s, Charlie Sheen and Bernie Mac in the early aughts and Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jim Parsons in 2006 and beyond.

But ever since Veep and The Big Bang Theory went off the air in 2019, the spotlight has remained surprisingly vacant — the result of an expanding and ever-changing business in which multi-camera sitcoms have become vestiges of the past while contemporary comedies have...

Herbert J. Siegel, the billionaire entertainment-industry mogul whose blockbuster deals included the sale of 10 TV stations to Rupert Murdoch and the merger of Warner Communications and Time Inc., died Saturday at his home in Manhattan, The New York Times reported. He was 95.

A Philadelphia native, Siegel was the son of an immigrant garment manufacturer who turned his inheritance and boyhood fascination with the film industry into a fortune through investments in Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox.

He started his career while still in college, with a failed attempt to purchase a stake in the Philadelphia Eagles football team. When that bid was unsuccessful, he bought an interest in Official Films, a company that packaged television programs and had connections to the CBS network.

A consummate deal-maker, Siegel invested in a range of industries but always kept his hand in entertainment. In 1962, he bought General Artists Corporation, a talent agency...

This article first appeared as part of Jenelle Riley’s Acting Up newsletter – to subscribe for early content and weekly updates on all things acting, visit the Acting Up signup page.

There’s a long history of great actors who have never won an Emmy Award. Hugh Laurie has a total of 10 Emmy nominations with zero wins for his work but the most glaring oversight is that after six nominations for his iconic role on “House” he never took home the prize. But that’s nothing compared to Angela Lansbury, who went home empty-handed a whopping 18 times. But they’re in good company – including the likes of Jackie Gleason, Desi Arnaz Jr. and Phylicia Rashad.

With Emmy voting starting, I wanted to highlight some shows and performances that have so far gone overlooked by the Emmy Awards. Most of the programs I chose have been completely shut out by the Academy.

“Reverse the Curse,” the second movie written and directed by David Duchovny, is based on Duchovny’s 2016 novel “Bucky F*cking Dent,” and whether or not the story is autobiographical, it feels autobiographical, and I mean that as a compliment. Set in the summer of 1978, it’s framed around one man’s obsession with the Boston Red Sox — meaning, of course, the curse of the Bambino, going back to 1918, the last time (until 2004) the Sox won the championship.

The man is Ted Fulilove, which is a terrible last name for a movie character, though he’s played by Duchovny as a cussed crab apple with an amusing misanthropic put-down for every occasion (like: “Closure’s for morons”). “Reverse the Curse” has a handful of characters, but it’s essentially a father-son two-hander — one of those dramadies in which the dad is a heartless-on-the-surface coot who was no good when it came...

Pat Cooper, the brash Italian-American stand-up from Brooklyn whose anger real and imagined provided fuel for a long career in comedy, has died. He was 93.

Cooper died Tuesday night at his home in Las Vegas, his wife, Emily Conner, announced.

A mainstay in nightclubs from Atlantic City to Las Vegas, Cooper opened for Ginger Rogers at the Desert Inn and Frank Sinatra at the Sands. He said he once refused to take out a joke about an upside-down St. Anthony statue that Sinatra wanted excised and never worked with the singer again.

Also known for his nonstop, rapid-fire delivery, Cooper appeared as himself on the 1996 Seinfeld episode “The Friars Club” — he participated in many a roast at that famed comedic establishment in midtown Manhattan — and made regular appearances on late-night talk shows, for Ed Sullivan and, starting in the 1980s, on Howard Stern’s radio program.

The bespectacled comic played...

Glenn Farr, the Oscar-winning editor known for his work on “The Right Stuff” and “Commando,” has died. He was 77.

Farr died on May 25 due to complications from a brain tumor, said his friend and fellow editor Janice Hampton.

In 1984, Farr won the Academy Award for editing with Philip Kaufman’s “The Right Stuff,” a historical drama film based on Tom Wolfe’s 1979 novel of the same name. Farr shared the win with fellow editors Lisa Fruchtman, Tom Rolf, Stephen A. Rotter and Douglas Stewart.

“This is truly a beautiful, wonderful moment for each one of us,” Farr said in his Oscar acceptance speech. “We are privileged to be a part of it and the experience will long live in our hearts. We must thank our marvelous, beautiful director — we love you Phil Kaufman — for his leadership and dedication and the vision he gave to us.” Farr also offered a thank...

There’s something about gambling that makes us want to see it on the big screen. Whether it’s a comedy, crime drama, or romance, there’s something special about watching our favourite actors and actresses play around with cards and dice. In honour of this topic being quite popular lately (and because we just love movies and casino royale film locations), we’ve compiled a list of popular casino film titles in New Zealand. If you need a recommendation for your next movie night, take a look!

Nr 1 Casino Movie: The Hangover

Playing at casinos has always been a popular form of entertainment for many, and The Hangover is a classic comedy film that captures the fun and excitement of a trip to Las Vegas. Whether you’re a fan of online casinos or prefer the real-life experience of playing at a brick-and-mortar establishment, this movie is sure to resonate with you.

Some actors and comedians from the King of Queens cast are still huge stars to this day, while others have played notable supporting roles on other TV shows. Styled as a modern-day take on the classic Jackie Gleason sitcom The Honeymooners, The King of Queens told the story of a childfree middle-class couple living in New York. The show ran for nine seasons on CBS from 1998 to 2007, airing a total of 207 episodes. Over the course of its run, The King of Queens was a ratings success and earned positive reviews from critics. Much of the critical acclaim focused on the hilarious work of the series’ all-star cast.

From standup comics like Kevin James and Patton Oswalt to legendary sitcom staples like Jerry Stiller, the King of Queens cast is full of gifted comedic performers bringing the show’s zany characters to life. Most of the award nominations received by The King of Queens...