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Harris Yulin, the ever-present Emmy-nominated actor who appeared in such films as Scarface, Clear and Present Danger and Training Day and on television in Frasier, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Ozark, has died. He was 87.

Yulin died Tuesday of cardiac arrest in New York City, his family and manager, Sue Leibman, announced.

Although he never found a starring role that made him a household name, Yulin was a familiar face who worked constantly during a career that spanned more than 50 years. “I’m not that high-profile,” he admitted in a 2010 interview with The Irish Times. “I just do the next thing that comes along.”

On Broadway, the character actor performed in 1980’s Watch on the Rhine, 1992’s The Visit, 1997’s The Diary of Anne Frank, 1999’s The Price and 2001’s Hedda Gabler.

He also helmed off-Broadway productions of Baba Goya in 1989, This Lime Tree Bower in 1999 and The Trip to Bountiful...

Kelly Bishop. Alex Borstein. Milo Ventimiglia. Liza Weil. Emily Bergl … and Luke Kirby. When it comes to casting, Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino are nothing if not loyal, and their ensembles inevitably feature more than one familiar face from series past. So after his Emmy-winning turn in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, it comes as little surprise that they would put Kirby center stage in their latest series, Étoile.

In this installment of the Dream Team: Étoile series, the creators talk with their leading man about his first audition, the “lifetime” commitment he made to them, and finally fulfilling his costume wish.

Gold Derby: Luke, how did you first find your way into the Palladino-verse?

Luke Kirby: I had an audition. My agent called me and said, "You have an audition," and it was for Lenny Bruce. And he said, "You could actually maybe get this role because you...

Jimmy Fallon has made his Broadway debut for a special one-week engagement!

The longtime Tonight Show host is appearing in the play All In: A Comedy About Love and he made his debut in the show on Tuesday night (January 28) at the Hudson Theatre in New York City.

Jimmy is appearing in the play alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda, Aidy Bryant, and Nick Kroll.

All In features a rotating cast and will be open through February 16. The play features “a series of hilarious short stories about dating, heartbreak, marriage, and that sort of thing—and read live by some of the funniest people on the planet, with different groups of four taking the stage each week.”

Here’s a fun fact! The Hudson Theatre was the original home to The Tonight Show when the late night talk show began in 1954 with its first host, Steve Allen.

Tickets are on sale now at allinbroadway.

Even though time has no meaning in the world of Springfield (possibly due to some kind of anomaly in the space time continuum), here in the real world, The Simpsons is more than three decades old. Which means that, even though Bart Simpson will never not be a fresh-faced 10-year-old, the show has included a number of jokes that betray its agedness.

Over on Reddit, Simpsons fans have been sharing some of their favorite, most wildly dated references from the series’ long, long history, which those viewers who were born after the fall of the Soviet Union may not even get. Such as the time that the Simpson family randomly burst into the “I feel like Chicken Tonight” song.

This was, of course, a reference to a commercial jingle that’s almost as old as the show itself. In the early ‘90s, Ragu’s line of poultry sauces was sold...

The Amazing Kreskin, the renowned mentalist who had his own TV program, inspired a John Malkovich movie and (perhaps) a Johnny Carson character and performed hundreds of live shows a year, died Tuesday. He was 89.

Kreskin died at his home in Caldwell, New Jersey, his manager, Ryan Galway, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Just what was Kreskin’s talent? “I am not a psychic, an occultist or fortune-teller. I am not a mind-reader, medium or hypnotist. There is nothing supernatural about anything that I do,” he explained in 1991’s Secrets of the Amazing Kreskin, one of 20 books he wrote. “I am a scientist, a researcher in the field of suggestion and ‘extrasensory’ perceptions. I perform what I discover.”

One staple of his stage act was finding the paycheck, hidden by members of the audience, that he was to receive for his performance. If he couldn’t locate the check, he said,...

Jack Jones, the silky Grammy-winning crooner who had hits with “Lollipops and Roses,” “Wives and Lovers” and “The Impossible Dream” before inviting TV viewers to set a course for adventure on The Love Boat, has died. He was 86.

Jones died Wednesday night at Eisenhower Medical in Rancho Mirage, California, after a two-year battle with leukemia, his stepdaughter Nicole Whitty told The Hollywood Reporter.

Jones was born into a showbiz family. His mother, Irene Hervey, was an Emmy-nominated actress who spent more than 50 years in film and on television. His father, tenor Allan Jones, portrayed the romantic male lead in Show Boat (1936) and in the Marx Brothers’ A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937), and he managed a hit song of his own with “The Donkey Serenade.”

For eight seasons and more than 200 episodes of ABC’s The Love Boat starting in 1977, Jones extolled the virtues of...

It’s been announced that The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will now only air four new episodes each week. The change reflects the trend of cutbacks for late-night fare in recent years. That said, Fallon is expected to remain on the show for the next few years.

Four Episodes Per Week Is A Late-Night Norm Across Networks

New episodes of the series will air from Monday through Thursday. Fridays will now be reserved for reruns of the show. Other similar shows have also embraced a four-day work week. These include The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night With Seth Meyers, and The Daily Show.

Jimmy Fallon | YouTube

Despite being the norm, late-night fare has seen a drop in viewership in the past few years, which have likely inspired the cutbacks. Notably, Late Night with Seth Meyers announced it would cut its house band, The 8G Band,...

Unfortunately, we still have fifty-freaking-five sleeps until Halloween. That means weeks and weeks of enduring Jimmy Fallon hawking his multiple holiday side hustles, turning The Tonight Show into his own smirking version of the Home Shopping Network.

Like Target playing Christmas carols right after Labor Day, Fallon started the drumbeat in mid-August for “Jimmy Fallon’s Tonightmares,” a haunted house attraction that Lorne Michaels allowed his protege to run in the bowels of 30 Rock.

For 40 bucks a person (you read that right), you can tour a haunted maze featuring Fallon’s worst nightmares — a scary alien, a vicious werewolf and garden-variety, knife-wielding maniacs.

Forty bucks buys you 10 minutes in the haunted maze, a pretty hefty fee for an experience that lasts less time (and inflicts less terror) than a typical Fallon monologue. But why pay the big bucks when Fallon is running out a new monster every night during his show?...

NBC is making some big changes to The Tonight Show.

On Friday (September 6), it was announced that the late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon will be cutting Friday night episodes, and will now be airing four new episodes per week.

Keep reading to find out more…Moving forward, re-runs of The Tonight Show will air on Friday nights, according to Variety.

The Tonight Show was the last of the major late-night shows to air new episodes of Fridays. CBS’ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers, and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show already operate on a four-episode a week schedule.

The decision come cut late-night shows to a four-night schedule comes due to a decrease in viewership over the last several years.

Despite getting losing new episodes on Friday, NBC isn’t parting ways with Jimmy any time soon.

Eugene Levy and his son Dan Levy continue to make Emmy history. Four years ago, their comedy series “Schitt’s Creek” won a staggering nine Emmys including best comedy series, actor, actress, supporting actors, writing and directing. Even before “Schitt’s Creek,” Eugene was no stranger to the Emmy universe, winning statutes in 1982 and 1983 as a writer on the beloved “Sctv.” In fact, Dan was just a month old when his dad received his second honor.

Eugene’s nominated this year for the 14th time for outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special for Apple TV +’ “The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy.” Now Eugene and Dan will be the first father and son to host the Emmys airing Sept. 15 on ABC. And here’s bit more history: the 77-year-old Eugene is the oldest Emmy host ever.

Having two hosts is nothing new for the Emmys. Back in 1952, the Emmys were hosted by the...

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...

The Emmy Awards grew up on March 7, 1955. For the first time, the ceremony was broadcast nationally on NBC. Steve Allen, the star of “The Tonight Show,” was the host of the 7th annual awards honoring the best of 1954 programming which was telecast from the Moulin Rouge nightclub on Sunset Boulevard.

One of the seminal live dramas of the 1950’s, Reginald Rose’s searing “12 Angry Men,” which aired on CBS “Studio One,” earned the most Emmys that evening winning with three. The taut drama about a jury of a dozen men decided the fate of a young man accused of murder starred Robert Cummings, Franchot Tone, Edward Arnold and Walter Abel. For years, only an incomplete kinescope of the show, which was adapted into the Oscar-nominated 1957 film, existed.

Finally, a complete copy of the show was discovered in 2003. Rose told me in a 1997 L.A. Times interview that he came up...

With the news that Jimmy Kimmel might be leaving his late-night talk show, there is now news about Jimmy Fallon. Both hosts have expiring contracts, and it seemed like there could be a major shakeup on late-night TV. More so, Seth Meyers just signed a new extension through 2028, and Fallon had a decision to make.

Here is what you need to know about Fallon’s future on late-night television.

Jimmy Fallon Reveals Future With The Tonight Show

Jimmy Fallon has been on The Tonight Show as its host since 2014, and with this being his 10-year anniversary as the host, Fallon’s contract was coming to an end. With the Jimmy Kimmel rumors that he would be leaving his talk show at the end of his contract, Fallon’s name was next on the lips of talk show fans.

Jimmy Fallon | YouTube

However, unlike Kimmel, Fallon has already decided to stick it out.

Jay Leno’s mom jokingly took her son down a peg when he took over The Tonight Show—and slightly altered the history of the long-running franchise in the process.

In a recent interview on Dystopia Tonight with John Poveromo, Leno revealed that when he replaced Johnny Carson, he initially planned to call the program The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno. Ultimately, his mom convinced him otherwise.

The use of the word “starring” in the title would have matched the format of the franchise’s previous iterations: Tonight Starring Steve Allen, Tonight Starring Jack Paar, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

“The Tonight Show, when I started, was The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno,” the host recalled before launching into a Scottish-accented impression of his mother, Catherine.

Continue reading Jay Leno’s Mom Called Out Her Son and Changed <i>Tonight Show</i> History at LateNighter.

Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Kenan Thompson, Michael Che and Colin Jost all have hosted the Primetime Emmys in the past 15 years, but the late-night community once again is feeling aggrieved by the TV Academy as it heads into the latest awards season.

The central issue relates to the number of nominations in the Outstanding Talk Series and Outstanding Variety Series categories and the difficulty with fairly judging a wide range of shows that can be very different from each other.

Insiders tell Deadline that there needs to be a change in terms of how late-night shows and variety series are judged at the Emmys. However, no one can really agree what that change is.

As the television world prepares for Emmy nominations to be unveiled on July 17, there are expected to be only three talk shows nominated for an award. Separately, Saturday Night Live and Last...

It all started when Rob Reiner tried to convince Albert Brooks to let him film his own version of “My Dinner with Andre” titled “My Lunch with Albert Brooks.” His high school chum refused. After someone else came to Brooks wanting to make a documentary about him, the financing fell through. Then the men decided to combine the two things.

“There’s about 4000 documentaries now,” said Brooks at an FYC event with Reiner and moderator Judd Apatow this week at the Academy of Motion Pictures. “It’s the way they’re willing to spend money without spending real money. Everyone has a story and 99 out of 100 are done pretty much the same way. Either the person’s no longer living, or they’re being talked about from an off-stage voice. So to be able to do that this way…that’s what makes it special. Because it’s Rob and...

Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, is about to celebrate his 10th anniversary fronting a franchise that first began with Steve Allen behind the desk in 1954, followed by Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien (and Jay Leno again) — and he’s keen to keep it going.

Speaking about Carson’s record as the longest-running (and most-identifiable) host of this seminal late-night show, Fallon said during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Television event, “I’m gonna go, you guys want me? Let’s break the record, let’s go, let’s do 30 years!”

Related: Contenders TV – Deadline’s Full Coverage

Fallon himself has already spent 25 years at NBC in different incarnations. He started on Saturday Night Live in 1998 (“thinking that’s the goal”) and has now “for more than half of my life been at the same building.”

Fallon’s Tonight Show...

Conan O’Brien returned to The Tonight Show last night, reflecting with host Jimmy Fallon about his time on NBC’s late-night shows. The comedian hosted Late Night for 16 seasons from 1993 to 2009, before briefly helming The Tonight Show from 2009 to 2010, when he was fired.

“It’s weird to come back,” O’Brien said. “I haven’t been in this building for such a long time, and I haven’t been on this floor in forever. I was here for 16 years doing the Late Night show before we went out to LA.

Conan O’Brien returned to The Tonight Show for the first time as a guest since he left the NBC show.

However, the comedian largely dodged talking about his stint on the 11:30pm show. O’Brien hosted the between June 2009 and January 2010 but was replaced by Jay Leno’s return to the show.

He briefly mentioned it at the top of his appearance following a standing ovation from the audience. “I know you meant well, but I had The Tonight Show for ten minutes and you ate into my time,” he joked.

O’Brien wasn’t pressed by host Jimmy Fallon about his time on The Tonight Show.

He did, however, reminisce about his time hosting at 12:30am. O’Brien hosted Late Night between 1993 and 2009.

“It’s weird to come back; I haven’t been in this building for such a long time. I haven’t been on this floor in forever.

It was the fall of 1967. The Summer of Love had just drawn to a close. Teens and twentysomethings, when they weren't studying or punching the clock, were down for a revolution. They wanted to change the world, and, in the process, cheese off their parents. And there was no better way to accomplish the latter than to switch on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour."

Dick and Tom Smothers didn't look like troublemakers, but their CBS variety show had quickly become an annoyance for the so-called "Tiffany Network." They were a hit with their target demographic, which was, ironically, the problem. Their hip young writing staff was relentlessly satirizing the increasingly uneasy state of the world, which didn't sit well with advertisers or politically conservative executives. And while it was far from provocative to book edgy musical acts, the artists appearing on the Smothers' show were getting young folks to question...

Carol Burnett is paying respects to her friend and long-time collaborator Steve Lawrence, the singer and Blues Brothers actor who died Thursday, March 7. He was 88. “Steve was one of my favorite guests on my variety show, appearing 39 times. He was also my very close friend … so close that I considered him ‘family.’ He will always be in my heart,” Burnett wrote on Instagram alongside a black-and-white photograph of them performing together on The Carol Burnett Show. Lawrence, best known as part of the music duo Steve and Eydie, passed away at his home in Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, his family confirmed in a press release. His cause of death was a result of “complications due to Alzheimer’s disease.” Born on July 8, 1935, in New York City, Lawrence’s showbusiness career started as a teenager when he was hired by Steve Allen to be one of the singers on his late-night show on Wnbc-tv.

Steve Lawrence, the Fifties and Sixties crooner, actor, and comedian who teamed with his wife Eydie Gormé to form the duo Steve and Eydie, has died at the age of 88.

Lawrence died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles from complications from Alzheimer’s disease, a spokesperson for the family told Variety; Lawrence was forced to retire from touring after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2019.

“My Dad was an inspiration to so many people,” his son David Lawrence said in a statement. “But, to me, he was just this charming,...

Steve Lawrence, the singer who teamed with his wife Eydie Gormé to form one of the most popular nightclub and concert duos of their generation, died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease today. He was 88.

His son, the composer and performer David Lawrence, said in a press statement, “My Dad was an inspiration to so many people. But, to me, he was just this charming, handsome, hysterically funny guy who sang a lot. Sometimes alone and sometimes with his insanely talented wife. I am so lucky to have had him as a father and so proud to be his son. My hope is that his contributions to the entertainment industry will be remembered for many years to come.”

Popularly know as Steve and Eydie, the couple achieved nationwide recognition in the mid-1950s after appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Steve Allen. They continued performing together until Gormé’s retirement...

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,...

NBC has set a two-hour primetime special to celebrate the 10th anniverary of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Fallon announced the special on his show Monday night, saying the past week was officially the show’s 10-year anniversary. The special will air May 14.

“We are so grateful that we get to do this job. I want to thank everyone on our staff and crew and of course all of you for tuning in every single night for the past 10 years to celebrate, really, thank you so much,” Fallon said in his opening. “To celebrate, NBC is going to air a two-hour primetime Best of Tonight Show special on May 14, the best moments of the Tonight Show from the past 10 years featuring some of our favorite sketches, guests and musical performances, from “Tight Pants” with Will Ferrell to me almost dating Nicole Kidman — I still can’t believe that happened...

Jimmy Fallon is coming to primetime, at least for one night.

NBC has set a two-hour primetime special commemorating 10 years of The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. The special is slated to air on NBC on Tuesday May 14, and will stream on Peacock the following day.

Fallon announced the news on the Tonight Show Monday evening.

“We are so grateful that we get to do this job. I want to thank everyone on our staff and crew and of course all of you for tuning in every single night for the past 10 years to celebrate, really, thank you so much,” Fallon told the audience. “To celebrate, NBC is going to enter a two-hour primetime best of Tonight Show special on May 14, the best moments of the Tonight Show from the past 10 years featuring some of our favorite sketches, guests and musical performances, from tight pants with Will Ferrell to me...

Rita McKenzie, known for staging the longest-running one-woman show in theatrical history, died Feb. 17 in Los Angeles days before her 77th birthday. She succumbed to what her family described as a long-term illness.

A powerhouse stage voice and theatrical personality, McKenzie’s 1988 off-Broadway one-woman show, Ethel Merman’s Broadway, became the longest-running one- woman show in theatrical history.

McKenzie had a wide theatrical resume. She played Lita Encore in the Los Angeles premiere of Ruthless! The Musical and reprised the role in the recent New York revival of the show.

She also performed a wide range of stage roles throughout the U..S , including Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes!, appeared in the 50th Anniversary tour of Annie Get Your Gun, played Rose in Gypsy, and starred in a three-year U.S. tour of Neil Simon’s The Female Odd Couple, co-starring with Barbara Eden.

Additionally, she was the opening act...

Rita McKenzie, the actress and singer best known for her boisterous performances in the one-woman show Ethel Merman’s Broadway, died Saturday in Los Angeles after a long illness, her husband, talent agent Scott Stander, announced. She was 76.

McKenzie first starred on stage as the powerful Merman — star of such iconic Broadway hits as Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy and Hello, Dolly! — in New York in 1988.

Belting out tunes like “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “I Got Rhythm” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” McKenzie toured throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia in what many consider the longest-running one-woman show in theatrical history.

She also starred in parts that Merman made famous: Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes!, the gunslinger in a 50th anniversary tour of Annie Get Your Gun and Rose in Gypsy.

Watch her perform here.

A native of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, McKenzie starred...

When they first learned that Succession would be coming to an end after just four seasons, fans of the show might have let out spittle-flecked strings of profanity worthy of Waystar Royco potentate Logan Roy.

In the end, of course, the truncated run worked out brilliantly.

Jesse Armstrong's acclaimed series about a foul-mouthed family of media bajillionaires concluded on an astonishing high note with a twist that raised the dramatic stakes, created new power dynamics, and mined the show's signature brand of dark humor for new mother lodes of comedic gold.

Few series go out on top these days, opting instead to shamble on in zombified states for several years after they've peaked.

For its risks, its eccentricity, and, of course, its brilliantly naturalistic performances -- the likes of which are seldom seen on television or anywhere else -- Succession was rewarded with almost unprecedented acclaim.

The show took...

“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...

Netflix’s Encounters Episode 1, currently streaming on Netflix, is an original documentary directed by Yon Motskin. The several mysterious sightings in Texas perplex the townsfolk, and they narrate their own experiences. As we are taken through their observations, we wonder whether whatever they have reported is true. This series is sure to garner a lot of believers and certain skeptical gazes on the contrary, as the matter that has been brought out still lies beyond our comprehension. Is the government trying to hide something? If UFOs exist in reality, why do we have such little knowledge about them? These aspects are something that we still do not have any answers to. Let us see if we can fish something significant out of this documentary that would leverage our knowledge of extraterrestrials.

Spoilers Ahead

What were the Major sightings?

The year 2008 was crucial, as there were several reports of UFO sightings in the USA.

The Meg movie series takes creative liberties with Steven Alten's book series, including changes to romantic aspects and the Megalodon's name, but stays true to the primary story developments. Jason Statham's first Meg movie adapted the first book, and there are still six more books in Alten's series that could be adapted for future movies. Despite mixed reviews, the success of Meg 2: The Trench at the box office indicates a likelihood of Meg 3 and more movies in the franchise, potentially including other novels in the same universe.

Since The Meg and Meg 2: The Trench's success has left viewers wondering whether the franchise will continue with more sequels, here is a breakdown of how many more of the original Meg books the Jason Statham movie series can adapt. Despite being adaptions of Steven Alten's book series of the same name, The Meg movies take several creative...

John Regis, a comedian and entertainer who performed on talk shows and cruise ships and was a headliner on the Playboy Club circuit, died Aug. 19 in Los Angeles, magician Kerry Ross announced. He was 94.

As a “road comic” in the 1960s and ’70s, Regis was a regular at the Purple Onion and Hungry i nightclubs in San Francisco, toured Canada in a comedy show with Lyle Waggoner and opened for the likes of Bob Hope, Ray Charles, Rosemary Clooney, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman and Peter Marshall during his career.

He also showed up in the 1991 film Joey Takes a Cab, starring Lionel Stander; on talk shows hosted by Steve Allen, Della Reese, David Frost and Alan Thicke; and on stage in regional productions of Kiss Me Kate, Under the Yum Yum Tree, Sunday in New York and other plays.

Born John Ray and raised in the Ozarks, Regis produced “Tops...

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit.

The collision of awards season(s) is about to happen. Just as we get ready to head out to Venice/Telluride/Toronto and the beginning of Oscar season, the Emmy campaigns are on their final sprint.

As the Television Academy reminds its 20,000-ish voters on almost a daily basis, there are only a few precious days left to cast a final ballot for the 75th Emmy Awards. They do not want people to procrastinate like yours truly, who just hasn’t gotten around to it yet (but I will this weekend). All ballots must be in by 10 pm Pt on Monday. Certainly you have to live under a rock not to notice all the visible signs of the campaign around town, particularly with all those FYC ads and more Emmy nominee billboards than I can ever remember.

In any normal year,...

The Emmys have been here before. In 1980, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike for three months. That year’s Emmy telecast happened to fall right in the middle of it.

Actors boycotted the ceremony, but for some reason, the TV Academy went ahead with the Emmy telecast anyway. Famously, only one out of 52 nominees attended: Powers Boothe, who said when accepting his trophy for playing cult leader Jim Jones: “This is either the most courageous moment of my career or the stupidest.”

Steve Allen and Dick Clark (both of whom donated their hosting fees to the SAG emergency fund) hosted that year’s ceremony after original hosts Michael Landon, Bob Newhart and Lee Remick bowed out due to the strike. Variety called that year’s show a “lackluster affair,” and noted that the TV Academy aimed to fill the...

Written by Gary Smart, Neil Morris | Directed by Christopher Griffiths, Gary Smart

Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story picks up with a 12-year-old Robert being sent to theatre camp getting attention from girls and being complimented by talk show host Steve Allen. That, especially the female attention, pointed him toward his career. And really, what better motivation can a young man have?

Best known for playing Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Robert Englund already had a long history in the genre. dating back to Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive in 1976. Who could forget his entrance announcing “My name’s Buck, and I’m here to fuck!” and the criminally underrated Dead and Buried in 1981 as well as Galaxy of Terror and a host of others. And it’s continued well past his time as Freddy, most recently doing voice acting in the bizarre puppet film Abruptio.

Milt Larsen, who wrote for the game show Truth or Consequences for nearly two decades and co-founded The Magic Castle in Hollywood, died Sunday of natural causes in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 92.

Larsen produced TV specials for ABC, CBS and NBC and wrote songs with Richard Sherman, the Oscar winner who partnered with his late brother, Robert, to create tunes for such Disney classics as Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Jungle Book.

He also was the creator and consultant for the $50 million Caesars Magic Empire at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

In 1963, Larsen and his late brother, Bill, founded The Magic Castle in a 1909 French Chateau mansion on Franklin Avenue. With its many stages, labyrinthine corridors and old-fashioned decor, the place would become a renowned private club for magicians.

Larsen wrote five joke books and three books involving The Magic Castle, penned a weekly...

There are many summer blockbusters competing for audiences' attention, from the newest superhero films to massive franchises like "Fast X" presenting their latest sequels. Then there's "The Meg," arguably the purest encapsulation of what summer blockbusters originally were in that it is also a movie about a giant shark attacking a beach, like the original blockbuster, "Jaws." This one, of course, is the bonkers film in which Jason Statham punches a prehistoric shark right in the face, based on the series of novels by Steven Allen that contains eight books, each with new and bigger prehistoric creatures.

"The Meg" knows exactly what it is and what it isn't, which is why our review was rather positive, and why it asked for there to be more than just one movie about a giant shark in theaters. Thankfully, the gods of cinema answered us, because Meg, the megalodon, is back in "Meg 2: The Trench.

“The Meg 2: The Trench” is one of the more under-the-radar tentpoles this summer, even though it may end up being one of the biggest global grossers. Why is that?

Well, “The Meg” earned $155 million in North America and $155 million in China toward a $530 million global total. That cume was bigger than any giant monster movie save for “Kong: Skull Island” ($569 million in 2017) and the various “Jurassic” movies. It was the first and thus-far only big-budget Hollywood/Chinese co-production that qualified as a success on both shores. And now “The Meg 2” will try and repeat that performance.

“They’re back for seconds,” the trailer eventually declares, echoing the tongue-in-cheek tone of the first film’s marketing campaign. The trailer opens with two land-bound prehistoric monsters eating a large bug, with onscreen text warning that for 65 million years one species ruled the world. The T-rex? No, the Meg which eats a T-rex.

Reid Scott might be best known for playing an asshole, so it’s understandable if fans of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” are on high alert this season.

Scott joins the Prime Video comedy in its final season as Gordon Ford, a late-night talk show host and Midge Maisel’s (Rachel Brosnahan) new boss as she tackles the unruly territory of an all-male television writers room. In Episode 3, Gordon tries to kiss her, and in Episode 4 he boldly asks her out despite being married.

“I’m drawn to these characters that have these different sides to them, where you can see underneath the surface,” Scott told IndieWire via Zoom. “And that was the great thing; every script, episode-to-episode, we get to peel back another little layer and learn a little bit more about this guy and it just keeps you renewed and refreshed.”

Scott’s performance is an amalgam of late-night...

This mid-60s detective story has the right ingredients — a good mystery and interesting characters. David Jannsen gets to play a ‘Bosch’- style lone wolf investigator given a public thrashing for a ‘mistake’ that he knows was no mistake at all. Can a ‘bad cop’ redeem himself? The parade of mid-level guest stars — Stefanie Powers, Joan Collins, Lillian Gish, Steve Allen — may resemble a TV movie, but the tense show has a good feel for Los Angeles and the new swingin’ singles lifestyle. It might be Buzz Kulik’s best job of direction, and it has a great music score by Jerry Goldsmith.

Warning Shot

Region Free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] #177

1967 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date October 26, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 39.95

Starring: David Janssen, Ed Begley, Stefanie Powers, George Grizzard, Keenan Wynn, Joan Collins, Lillian Gish, Eleanor Parker, Sam Wanamaker, George Sanders, Steve Allen, Carroll O’Connor, Walter Pidgeon.

Cinematography: Joseph F. Biroc...

Jerry Lee Lewis, the world-famous rock and roll and country musician died at 87. On Friday, Lewis’ publicist, Zach Farnum, confirmed the Hall of Famer’s passing. Lee leaves behind a rocky legacy some musicians can only dream of achieving.

As a singer, songwriter, and pianist, Lewis dazzled crowds with infectious energy and theatrical piano playing technique. On stage, Lewis appeared to merge with his instrument, becoming one with the music he loved to share with the world. Watching Lewis on stage, you’d think he was performing an exorcism on stage, as each note caused his bones to gyrate with rhythm. Famously known for his hit song “Great Balls of Fire,” Lewis dabbled in rockabilly, gospel, country, blues, and jazz. There was scarcely a genre Lewis wouldn’t explore, and he shined while creating unique soundscapes in all categories.

Lewis came onto the music scene in 1956 with a hit called “Crazy Arms.

After bringing us some of the most beloved sitcoms of all time, Dale McRaven died on September 5, 2022 at the age of 83. His son, David McRaven, told The Hollywood Reporter that the creator of "Mork & Mindy" and "Perfect Strangers" passed away due to complications from lung cancer at his home in Porter Ranch, CA.

McRaven was born on March 5, 1939 in Pulaski, Illinois and was the fifth of six children. He lived with his family in Chicago and Phoenix before moving to Hollywood in 1957. Upon his arrival, he sold a script to Steve Allen, but his first major gig arrived in 1964 when he was hired by Gary Marshall and paired with Carl Kleinschmidt as staff writers on the final season of "The Joey Bishop Show" on NBC. After that show wrapped up, the duo would write for "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and win a WGA award for their work before...

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Dale McRaven, the Emmy-nominated comedy writer and producer who created Mork & Mindy with Garry Marshall and then the long-running Perfect Strangers on his own, has died. He was 83.

McRaven died Sept. 5 of complications from lung cancer at his home in Porter Ranch, California, his son, David McRaven, told The Hollywood Reporter.

McRaven also served as a writer on the fifth and final season of CBS’ The Dick Van Dyke Show and as a writer-producer on ABC’s The Partridge Family during that musical comedy’s 1970-74 run. Plus, he and Marshall created the 1979-80 ABC sitcom Angie, starring Donna Pescow and Robert Hays.

Perfect Strangers, from Miller-Boyett Productions and Lorimar Television, debuted in March 1986 and starred Mark Linn-Baker and Bronson Pinchot as mismatched cousins — one an American, the other from the fictional island of Mypos — who live together in a Chicago apartment.

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Pat Carroll, the gregarious Emmy-winning comedienne who was a television mainstay for decades before segueing to a voiceover career that included portraying the villainous sea witch Ursula in The Little Mermaid, has died. She was 95.

Carroll died Saturday of pneumonia at her home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, her daughter Kerry Karsian told The Hollywood Reporter.

Carroll’s perky personality, screwball wit and impeccable timing made her a great second banana, and Red Buttons, Jimmy Durante, Mickey Rooney, Steve Allen and Charley Weaver were among those who called upon her to make their programs funnier. Her antics on Caesar’s Hour earned her an Emmy in 1957, and she was nominated for her work on the classic variety show the following year.

In a 2013 interview with Kliph Nesteroff, Carroll compared Howard Morris, Carl Reiner and Sid Caesar on Caesar’s Hour to the Chicago Cubs’ legendary double-play...

Comedian and actress Pat Carroll, a television pioneer and an Emmy, Drama Desk and Grammy winner, died at her home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts on July 30, while recovering from pnuemonia.

A frequent film actress and television guest star and series regular starting in the late 1940s, her work was seen on the Jimmy Durante Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Laverne & Shirley, ER and many other shows. She voiced Ursula in The Little Mermaid, and voiced several cartoon series.

Patricia Ann Carroll was born May 5, 1927 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was five years old, and she soon began acting in local productions. She graduated from Immaculate Heart High Schol and then attended Catholic University of America after enlisting in the US Army.

Carroll’s acting career started in 1947 with the film Hometown Girl. In 1956, Carroll won an Emmy Award for her work on Sid Caesar’s House,...

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Maureen Arthur, who starred on Broadway and the big screen as the ambitious mistress and secretary Hedy La Rue in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, has died. She was 88.

Arthur died Wednesday of natural causes at her home in Beverly Hills after a long bout with Alzheimer’s disease, her brother Gerald told The Hollywood Reporter.

The vivacious Arthur also portrayed a nudie-magazine cover girl opposite Don Knotts and Edmond O’Brien in The Love God? (1969), a divorced woman who romances Bob Hope in How to Commit Marriage (1969) and an office tramp alongside John Phillip Law in The Love Machine (1971), based on a Jacqueline Susann novel.

Arthur played the bubble-headed Hedy in the national touring company of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which had opened on Broadway in October 1961 en route to a spectacular run of more than 1,400 performances,...

The producers behind CNN’s new eight-part docuseries “History of the Sitcom” knew that trying to tell the complete 70-year history of the TV genre would be an impossible task. So they divided some of the biggest comedies of all time into specific categories — and set out to illustrate how the evolution of the sitcom mirrored real-life advancements in society.

“It was pretty apparent that given the number of sitcoms that have been out there in history that you couldn’t do some sort of comprehensive, start-to-finish history, as though you were in a college course studying it from beginning to end,” says executive producer Bill Carter. “There had to be a way to categorize them and follow them according to some grouping. We have eight episodes; we could have done at least 80.”

“History of the Sitcom,” which premieres Sunday, July 11, with two back-to-back episodes, is the follow-up to CNN...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Don Knotts came to fame with his trademark comedy style of portraying a meek, excessively nervous character. He was Woody Allen before Woody Allen was Woody Allen. Knotts honed his skills on Steve Allen's show in the 1950s, with his "man on the street" Nervous Nellie routine sending audiences into fits of laughter. He co-starred with fellow up-and-comer Andy Griffith in the hit Broadway production of "No Time for Sergeants" and the subsequent film version. When Griffith landed his own TV series in 1960 in which he played the sheriff of fictional small town Mayberry, Knotts imposed upon him to write a small, occasional part he could play as Barney Fife, Griffith's inept but loyal sheriff. Griffith complied and the role made Knotts an icon of American comedy, allowing him to win an astonishing five Emmys for playing the same character. Five years into the series, Knotts...