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Back in 2020, many outlets, including /Film, reported that Rob McElhenney's crass sitcom "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" had, with its 15th season, officially surpassed "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" as the longest-running scripted live-action sitcom of all time. As of this writing, the series has completed its 16th season, and it has been renewed for at least two more, so it has beaten "Ozzie and Harriet" by a substantial margin in terms of longevity. Of course, given the way modern TV is shaped, seasons are a lot shorter than they used to be. "It's Always Sunny" seasons run anywhere from seven to 15 episodes, while "Ozzie's" seasons back in the 1950s and 1960s ran anywhere from 26 to 39 episodes. "It's Always Sunny" may have lasted longer, but "Ozzie and Harriet" has way more episodes at 435.

Still, 18 seasons of anything is impressive by any measure, and one can indeed commend "It's Always Sunny...

Fans that lament Orson Welles' many career frustrations will flip over this Spanish-filmed masterpiece. Not well distributed when new and Mia for decades, its serious audio problems have now mostly been cleared up. It's great -- right up there with Kane and Touch of Evil, and it features what is probably Welles' best acting. Chimes at Midnight Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 830 1966 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 116 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Falstaff, Campanadas a medianoche / Street Date August 30, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Orson Welles, Keith Baxter, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, John Gielgud, Norman Rodway, Marina Vlady, Walter Chiari, Michael Aldridge, Tony Beckley, Alan Webb, José Nieto, Fernando Rey, Beatrice Welles, Ralph Richardson. Cinematography Edmond Richard Film Editor Fritz Mueller Original Music Angelo Francesco Lavagnino Produced by Alessandro Tasca Directed by Orson Welles

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

It's even better than I remembered. Sometime during film school I went with UCLA friends Clark...

Alex Westthorp Sep 19, 2016

We revisit Tom's Midnight Garden, Moondial, The Chronicles Of Narnia and a few lesser-known UK children's TV series...

Read our look-back at UK kids' fantasy dramas 1980 - 1984 here.

By 1985 British TV's children's drama had really hit its stride, achieving "a balanced diet of programmes" as Edward Barnes, the head of the BBC children's department observed. The late 80s, arguably, saw a new golden age for spooky and magical kids drama. Excellent production values, improved significantly by well-honed special effects work using Quantel, Paintbox and Harry, and moreover some interesting casting - often of very talented newcomers - produced some of the most memorable dramas of the era.

The second half of the decade saw the BBC riding high on the back of the success of their state-of-the-art adaptation of John Masefield's Box Of Delights. Meanwhile, anthology series Dramarama was going from strength to strength on ITV.

Constance Cummings: Stage and film actress ca. early 1940s. Constance Cummings on stage: From Sacha Guitry to Clifford Odets (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Flawless 'Blithe Spirit,' Supporter of Political Refugees.”) In the post-World War II years, Constance Cummings' stage reputation continued to grow on the English stage, in plays as diverse as: Stephen Powys (pseudonym for P.G. Wodehouse) and Guy Bolton's English-language adaptation of Sacha Guitry's Don't Listen, Ladies! (1948), with Cummings as one of shop clerk Denholm Elliott's mistresses (the other one was Betty Marsden). “Miss Cummings and Miss Marsden act as fetchingly as they look,” commented The Spectator. Rodney Ackland's Before the Party (1949), delivering “a superb performance of controlled hysteria” according to theater director and Michael Redgrave biographer Alan Strachan, writing for The Independent at the time of Cummings' death. Clifford Odets' Winter Journey / The Country Girl (1952), as...

Actor best known as the haughty department store supervisor Captain Peacock in the TV comedy Are You Being Served?

The actor Frank Thornton, who has died aged 92, had a flair for comedy derived from the subtle craftsmanship of classical stage work. However, he will be best remembered for his longstanding characters in two popular BBC television comedy series – the sniffily priggish Captain Peacock in Are You Being Served? and the pompous retired policeman Herbert "Truly" Truelove, in Roy Clarke's Last of the Summer Wine.

Robertson Hare, the great Whitehall farceur, told him: "You'll never do any good until you're 40." And, said Thornton, "he was quite right." In the event, he was 51 when David Croft, producer of another long-running British staple, Dad's Army, remembered the tall, long-faced actor from another engagement and decided to cast him as the dapper floor-walker in charge of shop assistants played by Mollie Sugden, Wendy Richard,...

This BBC version of the timeless classic anthology The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis would be really entertaining to me if it were a 6-12 year old in 1990. It mixes 2D animation with live action, animal characters in beaver and fawn costumes, and an over-the-top, fantastically theatrical evil White Witch (Barbara Kellrman) who you’d swear was Angelica Huston at first glance. It’s like a cross between 1998’s dramatic TV miniseries Merlin starring Sam Neil and Helena Bonham Carter and Zoobilee Zoo.

In the first installment which most of us are familiar with, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” Precocious youngster Lucy and her siblings Edmund, Peter and Susan are sent to live in a countryside mansion during war time. The house is owned by the sage-like kook Professor Digory Kirk (Michael Aldridge) who welcomes them with whimsy and a wink. While exploring their new house, Lucy stumbles upon an old wardrobe,...