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Larry Auerbach, former powerhouse agent at the William Morris Agency who segued to a second career helping USC students break into into the entertainment industry, passed away peacefully this morning, Nov. 23. He was 95.

Brooklyn native Auerbach spent 47 years at Wma where he started working part-time in the New York mailroom while still in high school. He began his agenting career with small theater and nightclub booking before launching the agency’s rock music department. He ran Wma’s New York motion picture department and then moved to Los Angeles in 1975 to head the agency’s television division.

Known as “the Man with the Golden Rolodex,” Auerbach booked Elvis Presley his first television performance and also worked with Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin and Sammy Davis Jr. early in his career.

He went on to represent Alan Alda at the height of M*A*S*H, Beatrice Arthur, Agnes Nixon, and prolific TV producer Aaron Spelling.

While Norman Lear produced many of the most successful sitcoms of the 1970s and 1980s, including All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Sanford and Son, the behind-the-scenes squabbling rivaled the fights between Archie Bunker and his meathead son-in-law. Tripp Whetsall, author of the new biography Norman Lear: His Life and Times, recently talked to me about the comedy stars who got into it with Lear.

Comedy stars such as…

Carroll O’Connor

The All in the Family lead and Lear “had a very difficult, contemptuous relationship,” says Whetsell. “It was much more Carroll than Norman. Carroll was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders with Archie Bunker.”

Lear’s “idea of comedy, I think, is at variance with mine,” O’Connor once said. “We’ve disagreed over material from the very beginning of the show over what made naturalistic comedy. I had one idea, and he had another.

With all due respect to Coming to America’s Cleo McDowell — owner of an off-brand McDonald’s featuring a logo with golden arcs, not arches, and a Big Mick burger, not a Big Mac — John Amos’ two most iconic roles came more than a decade prior, in the Seventies. In 1974, CBS debuted Good Times, where Amos and Esther Rolle played James and Florida Evans, parents struggling to keep their kids’ heads above water in a Chicago housing project. After he was fired from the show for complaining that James and Florida...

"The Golden Girls" is basically the perfect sitcom, following the antics of four mature women who share a house in Miami, Florida. The series began in September 1985 and ran for seven seasons before ending in May 1992, and it's only grown in popularity since it first aired. It's a blast to tune in to see what the hilariously horny Blanche (Rue McClanahan), bubbly airhead Rose (Betty White), sarcastic divorcee Dorothy (Bea Arthur), and her smart-mouthed mother Sophia (Estelle Getty) get up to in each episode, and it's pretty easy to hit play on one and end up watching an entire season before you know it. It's really no surprise that the series has found new fans in the streaming era, so when there were rumors of a Disney+ reboot of the series sometime in 2024, people went bonkers. 

Some fans were furious about the idea of doing "The Golden Girls" without the original cast,...

“Hacks” could join an exclusive Emmys club this year by winning both Best Comedy Actress and Best Comedy Supporting Actress, an accomplishment only nine shows have achieved in Emmys history.

This hit HBO Max laffer stars Jean Smart as Deborah Vance, a stand-up who tries to reinvent her act with the help of a young comedy writer — Ava Daniels, played by Hannah Einbinder.

Smart is nominated this year for Best Comedy Actress alongside Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”), Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”), Kristin Wiig (“Palm Royale”), Maya Rudolph (“Loot”), and Selena Gomez (“Only Murders in the Building”). Meanwhile, Einbinder is nominated for Best Comedy Supporting Actress alongside Meryl Streep (“Only Murders in the Building”), LizaColón-Zayas (“The Bear”), Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Abbott Elementary”), Carol Burnett (“Palm Royale”), and Janelle James (“Abbott Elementary”).

We are predicting that Smart will win the again this year. She previously won Best Comedy Actress for “Hacks” in...

It may not be easy to stream these days, but whether you've seen it or not, "Maude" remains an important cornerstone of the sitcom house Norman Lear built. Premiering in 1972, "Maude" was originally conceived as a spinoff to the ever-in-the-zeitgeist sitcom "All in the Family," but it soon took on a life of its own. The show starred a pre-"Golden Girls" Bea Arthur as Maude Findlay, an outspoken, well-to-do liberal feminist with a knack for telling everyone around her what's what.

Maude was also a middle-aged woman, a reality that was never more apparent than in the show's most famous, controversial episode. The 1972 two-parter "Maude's Dilemma" saw Maude contemplate –- and ultimately choose –- abortion after finding herself pregnant in her late '40s. Released before the establishment of Roe vs. Wade, "Maude's Dilemma" was a lightning rod for heated conversations about reproductive rights, and remains an enduring part of the show's legacy today.

There’s a generation who know him as Sheldon’s idol Professor Proton in an Emmy-winning turn on “The Big Bang Theory.” Another generation remembers him as Buddy’s adoptive dad in the film “Elf” (2003). Yet another generation grew to love him as writer-turned-innkeeper Dick Loudon, who’s surrounded by eccentric Vermonters on the sitcom “Newhart” (1982-1990). But before all those memorable characters, Bob Newhart won over audiences as psychologist Dr. Robert “Bob” Hartley on “The Bob Newhart Show,” which premiered 50 years ago on September 16, 1972.

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Emmy-nominated comedy, plus the 93rd birthday of the TV Academy Hall of Fame inductee, by touring our photo gallery ranking the 25 best episodes.

Set in Chicago, Bob splits time between his home life with his loving but sometimes flippant wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette) and their neighbor and friend Howard Borden (Bill Daily), an airline navigator (later co-pilot) who drops in unannounced A Lot.

Matt Bomer and Nathan Lane have been tapped to star in a new roommate sitcom ‘Mid-Century Modern,’ which is being described as like the classic comedy series ‘The Golden Girls.’

The multi-cam series for Hulu will be executive produced by Ryan Murphy and created by ‘Will & Grace’s’ Max Mutchnick and David Kohan.

Bomer is said to be playing the role similar to the ditzy Rose-like character, played by Betty White in the original ‘Golden Girls,’ with Lane taking on the Dorothy (Bea Arthur) of the bunch. Linda Lavin will play Lane’s mother, a la the original Sophia.

Also in news – Will Smith set for sci-fi thriller ‘Resistor’

Nathan Lane as Bunny Schneiderman, Matt Bomer as Jerry Frank, and Linda Lavin as Sybil Schneiderman, Bunny’s mother. A successful businessman with one foot in retirement, Bunny is forever in search of love, but he first has to be convinced he’s worthy of it.

A gay Golden Girls-style sitcom is in the works starring Matt Bomer and Nathan Lane. This will be coming from the brilliant mind of Ryan Murphy and the creators of Will & Grace, Max Mutchnik and David Kohan. So, what else is there to know about the upcoming comedy? Keep reading for more details.

Gay Golden Girls-Style Sitcom In Works Starring Matt Bomer

Over thirty years after it went off the air, The Golden Girls remains one of the most popular sitcoms to date. Set in Miami, it starred Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McLanahan, and Estelle Getty. They were four divorced or widowed women living together, experiencing life as fifty-somethings, with the exception of Getty. Her character, Sophia Petrillo was wise and in her eighties but still liked a good time. They went on dates, lost jobs, lost children, faced money problems, had AIDS tests, and so much more.

It’s not “The Golden Girls,” but get ready for a new, even gayer roommate sitcom.

I can exclusively report that Matt Bomer and Nathan Lane are set to star in “Mid-Century Modern,” a multi-cam series for Hulu executive produced by Ryan Murphy and created by “Will & Grace’s” Max Mutchnick and David Kohan.

Sources reveal that Bomer will take on the ditzy Rose-like character, played by Betty White in the original “Golden Girls,” with Lane taking on the Dorothy (Bea Arthur) of the bunch. Linda Lavin will play Lane’s mother, a la the original Sophia.

The new series will be set in gay mecca of Palm Springs. James Burrows is directing the pilot.

Bomer’s recent credits include “Fellow Travelers” and “Maestro.” He frequently works with Murphy, who directed him to a Golden Globe win for his work in the AIDS drama “The Normal Heart.” Lane, a veteran of television,...

Who is the best female TV star of all time? Our new photo gallery above takes on the tough task of ranking the 30 greatest actresses 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 woman in our gallery must have been an ongoing leading lady at some point, preferably more often than not. That’s why you will not see such classic supporting actresses as Vivian Vance, Doris Roberts or Rhea Perlman.

In order to place them in the rankings, we were looking at a combination of quality (top rated shows with the public or critics), quantity (number of shows and TV appearances), Emmy wins and nominations, plus overall legacy and iconic nature. They also needed to be on television regularly for at least the last 15 years or more.

Norman Lear was not a man to shy away from controversy. If anything, he sprinted toward it, knowing that doing so would help open people’s minds to pervasive American issues related to discrimination, human rights, and more. Through his landmark sitcoms like “All in the Family,” “Maude,” “Sanford and Son,” “One Day at a Time” (twice!), and “Good Times” (also twice!), Lear helped American families address thorny political and social topics by bringing those circumstances into their living rooms every week.

But one episode has long stood out as his most controversial: “Maude’s Dilemma,” a two-part episode airing in the first season, wherein the lead character (played by Bea Arthur) decides to get an abortion. At the time, abortions were legal in the state of New York (where Maude and her family lived), but the Roe v. Wade verdict was still two months away. CBS was wary about...

Last week, I shared a fairly long list of 15 Things That You Probably Don't Know About Wolverine. I had so much fun with it that I decided to focus on Deadpool this week, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale.

Deadpool, also known as Wade Wilson, debuted in 1991's "New Mutants" #98. Created by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Rob Liefeld, Deadpool quickly gained popularity due to his unique combination of dark humor, relentless violence, and a penchant for breaking the fourth wall.

Over the years, he has become a staple in the Marvel Universe, appearing in numerous comic books, animated series, and blockbuster movies. His irreverent attitude and complex personality have endeared him to fans worldwide. Here are five obscure facts about Deadpool that even hardcore fans might not be aware of!

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Explore ‘The Golden Girls’ Cast and Legacy Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux Betty White as Rose Nylund Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo “Thank you for being a friend.”

Airing from 1985 to 1992, with seven seasons in total, The Golden Girls was a smash hit during its entire run. It was popular for addressing a demographic that rarely saw the spotlight on television or in Hollywood: senior women.

Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak, Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo, Betty White as Rose Nylund, and Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux in the 1985 sitcom The Golden Girls (Credit: NBC)

The sitcom was conceptualized by writer Susan Harris. Before The Golden Girls, she was most renowned for creating the series Soap, which parodied daytime soap operas such as The Young and the Restless.

Soap lasted for four seasons and was marred by controversy due to Harris’s insistence on including...

The first preview for the West End adaptation of “Fawlty Towers — The Play,” based on the legendary British comedy series created by and starring John Cleese and Connie Booth, hits the boards later this week. The show is an amalgamation of three of the 12 episodes of the zany resort-set series, one of which is the most famous: “The Germans.”

Most remember that episode for the catchphrase “don’t mention the war,” the talking moose, and Cleese goosestepping around his humble Torquay hotel lobby. But it also included its share of envelope-pushing material. Indeed, the character The Major – an old senile drunk played by Ballard Berkeley – tells a rambling story about his time in India in which someone got their racial slurs confused. The scene includes the use of the N-word, as well as a derogatory term for Indians.

In 2020, UKTV removed it, but later reinstated it after Cleese called the move “stupid.

In the "Futurama" episode "Amazon Women in the Mood", the blustering misogynist Zapp Brannigan (Billy West) takes control of a space-bound restaurant and pilots it through dangerous areas of space, merely because it's more adventurous that way. Naturally, the restaurant is damaged during its voyage and crash lands on a distant, uncharted planet with the Planet Express crew. They discover on the uncharted planet a race of nine-foot-tall Amazon women clad in animal skin bikinis and carrying clubs. The Amazonians rarely see men on their planet and are not exactly sure what men are supposed to be good for.

This premise, of course, is cribbed from any number of pornographic male fantasies stretching back at least to the publication of H. Rider Haggard's "She" in 1886. There is a streak of colonialist fiction that dramatized faraway places (that is: far away from Western Europe) as Edenic locales where women wear...

With the 96th Academy Awards in the history books, it’s time to become obsessed over the 77th Tony Awards. Nominations are April 30th with the awards set to air on CBS on June 16 from Lincoln Center. Among the contenders for Tony nominations are many musicals based on movies including “Back to the Future,’ “The Notebook,” “Water for Elephants” and “The Outsiders”: high profile revivals such as Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” with Jeremy Strong; “Cabaret” with Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne and the Who’s “Tommy”; imports from London and transfers from off-Broadway.

Do you remember the Tony landscape 50 years ago? The 28th annual honors took place April 21, 1974, at the Shubert Theater and aired on ABC. And to say it was a star-studded affair is something of an understatement. Robert Preston, Peter Falk, Cicely Tyson, Florence Henderson hosted; presenters included Al Pacino –-let’s hope he had better...

The actors from the current revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s “Merrily We Roll Along” have skyrocketed in Gold Derby’s combined odds for the 2024 Tony Awards nominations. The prediction center displays commanding leads for Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe to win their respective categories. This is an understandable result considering this revival is the hottest ticket in town and this trio of performers has been ever-present in the media. But how often does a trio of actors from the same production pull off three separate acting victories at the Tony Awards?

It’s quite common for a musical to grab two acting trophies, but three awards is much rarer. To date, only 15 musical productions have earned three acting wins. The first time this feat occurred was at the 1956 ceremony, which was ironically the first time the Tony Awards ever announced a slate of nominees (previously...

The Golden Girls doesn’t seem like a provocative show at first glance. The sitcom was, however, groundbreaking. All living together, the cast of middle-aged women was certainly a fresh idea. For years, fans assumed Rue McClanahan, Bea Arthur, Betty White, and Estelle Getty, the actors who played Blanche Devereaux, Dorothy Zbornak, Rose Nylund, and Sophia Petrillo, respectively, were friends outside of work. That wasn’t the case. While several cast members were friendly, Bea Arthur had issues with one of her co-stars. She took issue with Betty White. In a new book, a writer for the series revealed that Arthur thought Betty White was “two-faced.”

A ‘The Golden Girls’ writer said Bea Arthur thought Betty White was ‘two-faced’

Bea Arthur and Betty White’s on-set feud has been discussed regularly in the years since the groundbreaking sitcom went off the air. Stan Zimmerman, a writer who worked on the series,...

“Good Times,” which celebrates its 50th anniversary on Feb. 8, suffered from an identity crisis during its six-season run on CBS. So much so, the lead actors — Esther Rolle and John Amos — would leave the popular second spinoff of ‘All in the Family”(Rolle would eventually return) because the sitcom changed focus.

Norman Lear ruled the airwaves in the 1970s. He blew up the conception of a family sitcom in 1971 with the CBS sitcom “All in the Family” which focused on a working class family from Queen lead by the bigoted patriarch Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor). During the first season, Bea Arthur guest starred as Maude, Edith Bunker’s (Jean Stapleton) favorite cousin who was the antithesis of Archie-outspoken, much married, ultra-liberal.

And after a second appearance on “All in the Family,” Arthur got her own series “Maude” in the fall of 1972. The breakout performer on that series was Esther...

Sidney Flanigan stars as Autumn and Talia Ryder as Skylar in ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ (Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features)

On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court issued its landmark 7–2 decision in Roe v. Wade, protecting a woman’s constitutional right to choose. Nearly a half-century later, on June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In the year that has followed that decision, a flurry of new legislation on abortion has been introduced, with many women now finding themselves in states where abortion is unavailable or severely restricted. Without federal protections, state legislatures are now determining abortion access, with some states increasing restrictions or even banning access while others are improving and protecting it.

From the silent days to the present, films have tried to reflect changing attitudes toward abortion. But no matter how many stories are told, people complain that the issue has not been covered well enough...

Plot: Behind the scenes of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.

Review: Young people today have no idea how hard it was to see the Star Wars Holiday Special in the days before the internet. I remember only being aware of the Holiday Special in the mid-nineties thanks to the occasional mention in Starlog or Sci-Fi Universe. In about 1996, some friends and I attended a Star Wars Convention in Montreal, and the big attraction was that they would be screening the Holiday Special in full on someone’s bootleg tape. My pals and I were so excited, but after all the years of reading about it and dreaming of what it could be like, we walked out after ten minutes. Nine minutes of unsubtitled Wookie was enough to turn us off, and to this day, I don’t think I’ve ever actually sat through the whole thing.

The fact...

When I heard the news about Norman Lear’s death, I was sitting with my writing team at Abortion Access Front. We had just finished writing this social post when the notification came in on Slack: “Norman Lear died.”

It hit me harder than I thought it would. All my gratitude for how he paved the way for me came rushing to the surface.

All in the Family blew apart the Overton Window in terms of what comedy on TV looked like. I could not have imagined a media world...

TV giant Norman Lear, who died Dec. 5 at 101, leaves behind arguably the single most valuable body of work ever committed to the medium. On seminal series like All in the Family, Maude and The Jeffersons, Lear dared to tackle issues then considered unthinkable sitcom fodder — rape, abortion, homosexuality, racism, alcoholism — with a genius’ eye and ear for capturing their moral complexities while poking at the foibles of the American working class. These six episodes, however, stand out among the rest for having actively moved the needle on public opinion — and in doing so elevated Lear’s work from mere entertainment to timeless agitprop art.

1. All in the Family — Season 8 — “Cousin Liz” — Original Air Date: Oct. 9, 1977

Lear’s magnum opus, All in the Family, tackled the most hot-button issues throughout its nine seasons, from rape to racism to the war in Vietnam. But one particularly resounding episode was “Cousin Liz,” in...

Norman Lear was a man of modest physical stature, standing a trim 5’7″ on a good day. In terms of his impact on television — comedy primarily, but the medium as a whole — he was a giant, who belongs on any Mt. Rushmore of showrunners. He dominated an entire decade of TV like no one before or since, with hit after hit that expanded the boundaries of what could be done with the old-fashioned multi-camera sitcom format (shot on a stage in front of a studio audience), and what kinds of stories and characters audiences would accept.

The feature-length documentary A Disturbance In The Force delves into the bizarre history of 1978’s ill-advised Star Wars Holiday Special. It’s out next month.

Bea Arthur out of The Golden Girls tending the Cantina bar in Mos Eisley. Stormtroopers disco dancing. Kris Kristofferson dressed up as Han Solo for some reason. Yes, 1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special offers up such an array of bizarre, fever dream imagery that it has long since passed into legend.

Initially conceived as a stop-gap to tide fans over during the long wait between 1977’s Star Wars and 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, a mixture of somewhat relaxed quality control and 1970s US television conventions saw the special emerge as a glittery variety show rather than fantastical space opera. The results were so jarring that George Lucas has since attempted to scrub its existence from history (though you’ll still find rough bootleg videos...

Star Wars fans will truly get to feel A Disturbance in the Force when a documentary about the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special — which debuted 45 years ago today, on CBS — is released.

Having premiered back in March at the SXSW Film Festival, A Disturbance in the Force will be released on digital and Blu-ray on Tuesday, Dec. 5, our sister site Variety reports. The 86-minute docu will also play in select theaters across the U.S. ahead of its digital release.

More from TVLineThe Late Ray Stevenson Was Terrific on Disney+'s Ahsoka Series - But Now His Role Should Be...

Neve Campbell (screenshot via Miramax), Janet Leigh (screenshot via Paramount Pictures), Jamie Lee Curtis (screenshot via Compass International Pictures), Danielle Harris (screenshot via Dark Sky Films), Heather Langenkamp (screenshot via New Line Cinema)Graphic: Libby McGuire

Whether they’re called scream queens, final girls, or some other variation on the term,...

Because "Futurama" is set 1,000 years in the future, show creators David X. Cohen and Matt Groening had to invent a sci-fi conceit that would provide an organic reason to include celebrity cameos. Thanks to a special fluid, human heads can be kept alive in jars more or less indefinitely. In the very first episode, the head of Dick Clark hosted a televised New Year's Eve special to ring in the year 3000. Clark played himself. Since then, multiple other celebrities have played their own severed heads, including the Beastie Boys, the cast of "Star Trek," Al Gore, Conan O'Brien, Beck, Lucy Liu, Penn Jillette, and most recently, Bill Nye. 

Of course, Cohen and Groening were more creative than merely storing severed heads in jars, and multiple other notable actors have continued to appear on "Futurama" as robots, aliens, space deities, and other sci-fi creatures. John Goodman, for instance, played the homicidal...

Since 1967, the Best Comedy Actress Primetime Emmy category has seen 13 direct costar showdowns involving seven different combinations of female leads. While this list is three entries longer than the corresponding male roster, the category still falls significantly behind the other 10 lead or supporting ones, all of which boast cast mate battle totals of at least 20. Scroll through our chronological photo gallery to learn more about the 13 cases of dual or triple nominations in the Best Comedy Actress category.

Unlike the Best Comedy Actor list, this female one includes more than just pairs of clashing costars. After “The Golden Girls” actresses Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Betty White blazed a trail in 1986 as the first trio of performers to receive same-year nominations for a single continuing series (and repeated the feat three more times), they were emulated by “Desperate Housewives” stars Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, and Felicity Huffman in 2005. This remained...

Since 1967, the Best Comedy Actress Primetime Emmy category has seen 13 direct costar showdowns involving seven different combinations of female leads. While this list is three entries longer than the corresponding male roster, the category still falls significantly behind the other 10 lead or supporting ones, all of which boast cast mate battle totals of at least 20. Scroll through our chronological photo gallery to learn more about the 13 cases of dual or triple nominations in the Best Comedy Actress category.

Unlike the Best Comedy Actor list, this female one includes more than just pairs of clashing costars. After “The Golden Girls” actresses Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Betty White blazed a trail in 1986 as the first trio of performers to receive same-year nominations for a single continuing series (and repeated the feat three more times), they were emulated by “Desperate Housewives” stars Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, and Felicity Huffman in 2005. This remained...

The '80s were a different time; shoulder pads were in, Reaganomics was taking over the country, and in 1984, a hyper-stylish show called "Miami Vice" was about to become all the rage. Before the Florida-set cop series ever premiered on NBC, though, it had already inspired another series, one that seemed to have very little in common with the Michael Mann-produced action show.

That series was "The Golden Girls," the popular and gut-bustingly funny sitcom about women of a certain age that has only become more beloved in the decades since it ended. "The Golden Girls" is remembered for its positive and honest conversations about aging and its characters' penchant for savage, hilarious quips. It also bolstered the fame of its already-famous stars, Bea Arthur ("Maude"), Betty White ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show"), Rue McClanahan (also "Maude"), and Estelle Getty ("Mask"). Put together around a kitchen table, the four...

With Phil Dunster’s supporting comedy actor nomination for “Ted Lasso” on Friday, the much-decorated Apple TV+ series is now in some rare and esteemed company in having each of its original regular cast members honored with at least a single Emmy nod. Only seven other major shows in television history can make a similar claim: “All in the Family,” “Cheers,” “The Golden Girls,” “Seinfeld,” “Sex and the City,” “Will & Grace” and “Schitt’s Creek.”

Here are the eight nominated performers for “Lasso”: Jason Sudeikis, Brett Goldstein, Nick Mohammed, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple, Hannah Waddingham, Brendan Hunt and now Dunster.

See‘Jury Duty,’ James Marsden, Harrison Ford, other surprises at the 2023 Emmy nominations

The other shows with Emmy nominations for all of its original cast members stack up as follows:

“All in the Family”: Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers

“Cheers”: Ted Danson, Shelley Long,...

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...

The question asked back in the ’80s and ’90s was never, “Have you seen The Star Wars Holiday Special?” It was always, “Have you heard of The Star Wars Holiday Special?”

We’re talking about a 1978 air date, after all. Someone must have owned a Vcr, since bootleg copies of the maligned variety show do exist on the Internet (George Lucas has vehemently denounced the project and even Disney has refused to release a “clean” copy beyond putting the animated segment “The Story of the Faithful Wookiee” on Disney+.) But its existence was akin to legend back then. Just knowing was enough to be cool with details being learned rather than experienced.

So it’s shocking that it’s taken until 2023 to finally receive a “definitive” look at its creation and eventual lambasting. Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak’s A Disturbance in the Force thus seems almost like a miracle...

“Succession” is no stranger to the Emmys. A two-time Best Drama Series winner, the HBO show from creator Jesse Armstrong is gunning for a third win in the category for its fourth and final season, which concluded in May. But it could easily pick up a number of other Emmys along the way. On Wednesday, the show received a staggering 27 nominations, 14 of which were in the acting categories as it tied the acting nominations record it set last year. In doing so, the show made history as the first drama series to earn three nominations for Best Drama Actor in the same year.

Although his role was reduced this season, Brian Cox received his third nomination for portraying Logan Roy, the demanding patriarch of the wealthy Roy family whose death early in the final season initially united his children but created much inner turmoil with regards to who would take...

Succession has made Emmy history with its final season.

Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin are nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, marking the first time ever that the Lead Actor category has seen three actors from the same series simultaneously receive a nod.

Succession raked in an impressive 27 nods for its fourth and final season on Wednesday morning when nominations for the 75th annual Emmy Awards were announced by Yvette Nicole Brown and Television Academy Chair Frank Scherma. The series received 14 acting nominations, as well as Outstanding Drama Series.

Creator Jesse Armstrong was also recognized for writing “Connor’s Wedding,” and Mark Mylod, Lorene Scafaria, and Andrij Parekh all received nominations for directing.

Succession already has 13 Emmys including Best Drama Series wins for its Season 2 and Season 3, the latter of which premiered in 2021. Both Cox and Strong have already competed in this category twice. Strong...

Sheldon Harnick, the nimble lyricist who partnered with composer Jerry Bock to create the songs for some of Broadway’s greatest musicals, including Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello! and She Loves Me, has died Friday. He was 99.

Harnick died of natural causes at his apartment overlooking Central Park on the Upper West Side, spokesperson Sean Katz told The Hollywood Reporter.

Harnick, who credited actress Charlotte Rae for inspiring him to become a Broadway lyricist, had an uncanny knack of making it sound as if the singer were having a conversation with the audience. His lyrics for such tunes as “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Sunrise, Sunset,” “She Loves Me” and “Little Tin Box” were simple and straightforward yet deeply moving at the same time.

“A theater lyricist is a playwright who writes short plays in verse that have to be set to music,” Harnick said in a 2016 interview with the Los Angeles Times.

In last week’s episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race All-Stars season eight we saw Lala Ri and Heidi N Closet really shine as the bumbling duo of inexperience criminals and Jimbo claim the win after performing as an unhindered character dragged into a murderous rampage after being bullied by some popular girls in school! Jimbo keeps up her streak of losing every single lip-sync she had ever competed in on the show as we see the return of Shannel all the way from season one! I do have to say that the performance itself was fairly repetitive with the returning assassin twirling and Jimbo head-banging throughout! We sadly had to say farewell to Darienne Lake after Alexis Michelle essentially blamed the whole team’s shortcomings on her as the dead celebrity island was initially Darienne’s idea. I thought that while the idea was hers initially there was plenty...

“RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” season 8 continued on June 2 with the fifth episode streaming on Paramount+. For the first time ever, RuPaul Charles announced a “second way to win” in addition to earning the coveted crown and $200,000 prize given to the traditional winner. One of the eliminated queens will also be named Queen of the Fame Games and earn a $50,000 cash prize.

The queens still in the running at the start of episode 5 were: Alexis Michelle, Heidi N Closet, Jaymes Mansfield, Jessica Wild, Jimbo, Kahanna Montrese, Kandy Muse, and Lala Ri.

Check out our full recap of episode 5 below to find out what happened when the queens sat down to play “Snatch Game of Love”:

When the girls sat down following Darienne Lake‘s elimination, they counted the lipstick votes to reveal that everyone voted against Darienne except one person, obviously Darienne. Jimbo, having lost the Lip Sync for Your Legacy,...

Happy Emmy season, “you clock-watching fucks” — Logan Roy is still leading the way.

Brian Cox has submitted his performance as Logan Roy, the recently departed Waystar Royco CEO on HBO’s “Succession,” into the lead actor (drama) category. Cox’s team exclusively confirmed to Variety that the actor’s iconic turn as the bold father and media mogul will be considered alongside his two co-stars, Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin, who opted to switch into the category for the show’s fourth and final season.

Cox’s character died in the third episode of this season, “Connor’s Wedding,” which left many pundits speculating the Scottish actor, who received two previous noms in the lead drama actor field, would downgrade to either the supporting actor or guest categories. That won’t be the case, which puts the drama series uniquely positioned to make history in several ways.

With Cox, Culkin...

The force is strong with this one…Peter Quill may be best known for his mixtapes, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have time for movies. Sure, we know the leader of the Guardians loves Footloose (and Earth’s “great hero” Kevin Bacon), but it’s probably less surprising to know he really digs Star Wars and Han Solo.

Asked by a fan whether or not Guardian’s Peter Quill would be a Star Wars fan, Pratt replied, “Of course he would have been…His entire life is based on emulating his pop culture icons and, of course, he would have been a huge fan of Star Wars. And I think Han Solo in particular would have been a large influence on who he ends up being. So yes, there’s certainly a lot of Han Solo in the character of Star-Lord.” Now there’s the crossover we need!

You loved her in Escape From New York. Now, prepare to watch Adrienne Barbeau make another great escape — this time courtesy of the 118.

Barbeau guest stars in Monday’s episode of 9-1-1 (Fox, 8/7c), playing a bride who gets trapped on the way to her wedding, and TVLine has your exclusive first look at her disastrous big day.

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For the unfamiliar, Barbeau’s career has spanned many...

Harry Belafonte, the actor, producer, singer and activist who made calypso music a national phenomenon with “Day-o” (The Banana Boat Song) and used his considerable stardom to draw attention to Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights issues and injustices around the world, has died. He was 96.

Belafonte, recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2014, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his Manhattan home on the Upper West Side with his wife, Pamela, by his side, longtime spokesman Ken Sunshine told The Hollywood Reporter.

A master at blending pop, jazz and traditional West Indian rhythms, the Caribbean-American Belafonte released more than 30 albums during his career and received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy from the Recording Academy in 2000.

Calypso, which featured “Day-o” and another hit, “Jamaica Farewell,” topped the Billboard pop album list for an incredible 31 weeks in 1956 and is credited as...

Iconic actor, musician, and lifelong activist Harry Belafonte has died at the age of 96. The cause, per his longtime spokesman Ken Sunshine, was congestive heart failure.

Belafonte’s singing shaped a musical consciousness for generations of Americans, from traditional folk music and spirituals to Caribbean calypso and protest songs. His acting in films such as “Carmen Jones” and “Odds Against Tomorrow” won praise and helped pave the way for Black performers who would follow. And his activism took him to the front lines of the civil rights movement, where he marched with Martin Luther King Jr., lobbied for the release of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela, and joined other stars to raise money for famine relief on the African continent. Realizing from an early age the power of celebrity to advance social change, Belafonte was among the rare few to have been equally entrenched in the worlds of entertainment and politics with genuine results to spare.

The Battle of Geonosis in "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" featured the most Jedi anyone had seen in one single frame up to that point. It's the special effects centerpiece of the film, a chance for George Lucas to cram as many robes and lightsabers into one giant set piece so he could excitedly show how badass these once-mysterious warrior monks actually are. There are tons of minor characters who briefly pop up and then reappear in future media like Kit Fisto and Ki-Adi-Mundi, but the real shocker is that the boy band Nsync almost became a part of the "Star Wars" extended universe.

Ok, so maybe the members of Nsync would have never gone on to become Glup Shittos, but some of them did almost appear in a cameo during the scene. "Star Wars" has had its fair share of special celebrity cameos, mostly in the post-Disney acquisition era,...

It may have been a staple of the 1980s, but the hit show The Golden Girls still holds a place in the hearts of millions of viewers. To this day, fans love watching reruns of the iconic sitcom and reliving the adventures of Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia. While the four main actors are household names today, it turns out that the breakout star of The Golden Girls wasn’t even supposed to be a main character.

The legacy of ‘The Golden Girls’

Why was The Golden Girls so popular? Viewers looked forward to tuning into the show that featured four older women sharing a house in Miami, and enjoying the hysterical storylines that aired each week. Even more entertaining were the things that fans could expect in almost every episode — the women gathered around the kitchen table discussing their latest problems over a late-night slice of cheesecake, Sophia telling...

Bea Arthur was The Golden Girls star who opted to leave the show after season 7. Her decision ended the show’s iconic run. In an interview, Arthur’s son confided that his mother had tired of the process of filming a sitcom and was ready to slow down when she walked away. Other sources claim Arthur had grown resentful of the constant barrage of insults aimed at her character, Dorothy Zbornak’s looks. Both reasons are completely feasible. They are probably both right. Dorothy was treated awfully by her roommates. The character really did deserve much better.

Dorothy’s roommates were mean to her

Dorothy agreed to room with Rose Nylund and Blanche Devereaux after being cheated on by her husband, Stan Zbornak. Her mother, Sophia Petrillo, moved in soon after. Despite being in a similar position to Rose Nylund and Blanche Devereaux, Dorothy was almost immediately treated as the odd one.

Last year, everyone’s minds were blown when we realized Carrie Bradshaw and her besties were the same age in And Just Like That… as The Golden Girls roomies were when their show premiered in 1985. Times have certainly changed, and how we expect women in their 50s to present themselves has changed, too. They don’t just have their ages in common. There is a deeper connection between Sex and the City and The Golden Girls if you think about it. You can draw a parallel between some of the characters.

The cast of ‘Sex and the City’ | Brian Ach/WireImage Samantha Jones was as unapologetically sexual as Blanche Devereaux

When you look at The Golden Girls and Sex and the City, it’s easy to see the similarities between Blanche Devereaux and Samantha Jones. The two ladies were deeply enthralled with sex and garnering the attention of men. They are the most alike.

Betty White’s death at 99 years old in December 2021 marked the end of an era. She was the last of the main cast members of The Golden Girls to die, and fans mourned the loss. While White’s death closed the book on the series, her legacy and the legacy of her cast mates, Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan, live on in perpetuity. We love watching The Golden Girls still. Still, we can’t help but wonder if there was a better story for the cast that was never written. While The Golden Girls spinoff, The Golden Palace, offered an extension to Rose Nylund, Sophia Petrillo, and Blanche Devereaux’s story, it wasn’t the best one that could have been told. We would have loved to see The Golden Girls head to St. Olaf, Minnesota.

St. Olaf was Rose Nylund’s birthplace in ‘The Golden Girls’

The Golden Girls...