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Stephen Colbert was struggling to get through the opening line of his telecast on Thursday, announcing that his turn behind the desk of The Late Show was coming to an end, as well as the fact that CBS was ignominiously axing its storied late-night franchise altogether.

His wife, Evie Colbert, who was watching the taping, was visibly emotional, according to audience members, a group that erupted into boos as the comedian revealed the news that left the fans of his show, the 200 people that work on it and the wider late-night community in a state of shock.

Colbert was told of the cancelation on Wednesday and informed his staff ahead of the taping.

It was a stunning reversal from May when George Cheeks, Co-CEO Paramount Global and President and Chief Executive Officer of CBS, told Deadline that he “really likes our hand” at 11:30pm. Cheeks, who came up in...

For a goofy sitcom on which a Professor could make a lie detector out of bamboo and coconuts, yet couldn’t figure out a way to patch a hole in a boat, Gilligan’s Island creator Sherwood Schwartz sure had some highfalutin ideas about the show’s core concept.

“There’s a great deal of sociological implication in Gilligan’s Island,” Schwartz explained in The Unofficial Gilligan’s Island Handbook. “It takes a group of very carefully selected people who represent many different parts of our society and shows how in a circumstance — being shipwrecked together — they have to learn to get along with each other. I mean, none of these people had anything in common with each other, and that’s quite deliberate.”

That’s the reason why the show’s opening theme song describes the characters in such broad terms: a Skipper, a Millionaire, a Movie Star, a Professor. They...

Good Night, and Good Luck, the new play by George Clooney and Grant Heslov directed by David Cromer, has announced that it has recouped its initial investment of $9.5 million in only 7 and a half weeks on Broadway. The acclaimed new play broke history many times over and recently announced that it holds the all-time record for the highest grossing play in Broadway history and is the first play to surpass a gross of $4 million in a single week (week ending 5/4/25).

Good Night, and Good Luck is currently playing at the Winter Garden Theatre and recently received 5 Tony Award nominations, including Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Clooney. In addition, it was recently announced that, in partnership with TodayTix, 2,000 tickets are being subsidized by the production to New York City Public School students – including those studying journalism.

The play, with commensurate high ticket prices, has been reeling...

Good Night, and Good Luck, the new play by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, and directed by David Cromer, has broken its own all-time record for highest grossing play in Broadway history and is the first play to surpass a gross of $4 million in a single week.

For the week ending May 4 2025, the production grossed $4,003,482 for 8 Performances.

Good Night, and Good Luck is currently playing at the Winter Garden Theatre, where it surpassed the previously held record by The Music Man (with 9 performances) and is now the highest-grossing production in the history of the Shubert Organization.

The production recently received 5 Tony Award nominations, including Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Clooney. In addition, it was recently announced that, in partnership with TodayTix, 2,000 tickets are being subsidized by the production to New York City Public School students – including those studying journalism.

Based on the 2929 Entertainment and Participant...

Television was a whole different ball game when "Gilligan's Island" premiered on CBS in 1964. There were prestigious programs like "Playhouse 90" and "Kraft Television Theatre," but the medium was largely viewed as lesser than cinema. Movie stars wouldn't dare diminish their larger-than-life, big-screen stature by taking a role in an hour-long drama, let alone a sitcom. Television is where washed-up actors went to finish out their careers.

Sitcoms could be artfully done in the 1950s and 1960s, as evidenced by classics like "I Love Lucy," "The Honeymooners," and "The Dick Van Dyke Show." On the other hand, they could also result in things like "Mr. Ed," "Car 54, Where Are You?" and "My Favorite Martian." Network executives basically didn't care one way or the other as long as the shows were drawing eyeballs, but when it came to reviews, it's always worth remembering that there are human beings on the receiving end of harsh notices.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the “Wonder Woman” TV series, star Lynda Carter is set to be honored by the Paley Center for Media at the 2025 Paley Honors Spring Gala.

Carter will be feted for acting as a superhero on camera — and off. “Wonder Woman” launched in 1975 and had a lasting effect on pop culture. Off camera, Carter is a dedicated philanthropist and advocate, working with organizations such as the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, City of Hope/TGen’s blood cancer research and the Era Coalition.

“Lynda Carter’s iconic portrayal remains a timeless symbol of strength, courage, and empowerment,” said Maureen J. Reidy, President and CEO of The Paley Center for Media, announcing the lineup of recipients for the nonprofit organization’s highest honor.

The annual New York celebration, scheduled for Monday, May 19 at Ziegfeld Ballroom, will also salute billionaire businessman Joe Tsai; media and...

Once upon a time, in the days before streaming, the goal of television creators was to craft series that would captivate viewers long enough to reach 100 episodes -- i.e. the industry-accepted threshold where a show could be profitably sold into syndication. This is a major reason why the TV landscape, then and now, is riddled with so many unambitious, formulaic shows. While it might be nice to shake up the medium with an out-of-nowhere broadcast sensation like "Twin Peaks," such shows only tend to burn bright for a very brief time. So, if longevity and syndication dollars are your thing (and that 100-episode threshold has now dropped below 50), the history of the medium bellows loud and clear that you should probably pitch a sitcom or procedural of some sort.

This kind of unadventurous thinking may sound cynical, but there's no reason you can't create a cherished, influential show while coloring inside the lines.

Thanks to the earworm that is "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island," most audiences know how Gilligan (Bob Denver) and the other castaways became stranded. Gilligan and the Skipper (Alan Hale) took five passengers on an intended three-hour tour of the Hawai'ian islands when they hit rough weather and were thrown off-course. The ship set ground on the shore of an uncharted desert isle, and the seven castaways had to learn to survive. Because "Gilligan's Island" was broad and cartoonish, however, the survival was never harrowing or even particularly difficult. There were rarely food or water shortages, and everyone brought huge amounts of clothes and supplies. Life actually seemed okay on Gilligan's Island, the utter isolation notwithstanding.

Series creator Sherwood Schwartz said that he intended "Gilligan's Island" to be an idealized microcosm of a well-functioning American democracy. Seven character, all from different classes, are forced to live together by extreme circumstances,...

The TV nominations for the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards delivered a pair of rare double nominations: two posthumous nods in the same category for Treat Williams and Ron Cephas Jones and a performer, Anna Sawai, with two acting nominations for non-English-speaking roles in Shōgun and Pachinko.

Ron Cephas Jones in “MLK/X” and Treat Williams in “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans”

The Supporting Actor In a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television field features Williams and Cephas Jones who died within two months of each other this past summer. Williams is nominated for his role as William Paley in FX’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans while Cephas Jones was recognized for playing Elijah Muhammad in Nat Geo’s Genius: MLK/X. The rest of the nominees in the category include Robert Downey Jr. (The Sympathizer), Hugh Grant (The Regime), Logan Lerman (We Were the Lucky Ones) and...

In the realm of television, shooting a pilot is by no means a guarantee of going to series. The broadcast landscape is littered with failed one-and-done ventures like "Heat Vision and Jack," "Lookwell" and the "Beverly Hills Cop" series starring Brandon T. Jackson. If network executives don't like the way a promising concept plays once its up on its feet and before a camera, they'll nix it without a second thought. So it's important for show creators to put their best foot forward with that pilot, lest they join those aforementioned shows and hundreds of others on the scrap heap.

Amazingly, some shows can slap together a disastrous pilot and still make it to series. "Game of Thrones" famously stumbled out of the gate (forcing the producers to recast Daenerys Targaryen). Meanwhile, on the other end of the tonal spectrum, "Gilligan's Island" encountered choppy waters on its way to smooth...

Sherwood Schwartz scored an unexpected television coup when his cartoony sitcom "Gilligan's Island" premiered on CBS 60 years ago. Though the show only lasted for three seasons, it turned into a syndication sensation with mostly teens and 20-somethings eager to avoid homework and chores around the house. Algebra assignments and the ever-growing grass on the front yard routinely took a backseat to the seven castaways from the S.S. Minnow. Yes, everyone knew they weren't getting off that confounded island, but every episode had a way of sparking false hope; between this and the Professor's fantastic inventions, the Howells' inexplicably lavish bamboo lodgings, and the eternal Mary Ann vs. Ginger debate, "Gilligan's Island" was shamefully irresistible.

The show's boundlessly silly situations and digressions also allowed for surprise guests (like the Harlem Globetrotters) and allusions to other hit series. Schwartz knew his show wasn't changing the face of television (even though it...

Natalie Schafer, who played the prim and positive Mrs. Howell on Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island," notoriously agreed to join the cast merely because she wanted a free Hawaiian vacation. A few of the opening scenes in the pilot and first episode of "Gilligan's" were shot on location, and Schafer figured an acting gig was the best way to sneak her way over there and relax on a beach for a few weeks. All she needed to do was act in a few scenes, collect a paycheck, and relaxation could commence. 

Schafer had been a professional actress for decades, having a career that began on stage in 1927. By 1964, she had hundreds of credits to her name, and Mrs. Howell was a walk in the park; she had played many similar roles in the past, so Schafer didn't have to delve deeply or do a lot of research. Mrs. Howell came naturally.

It's hard to feel something when a TV show you love gets canceled. At least, it is for me at this point. Netflix just announced the end of promising supernatural saga "Dead Boy Detectives" after one enthusiastically embraced season, while bold, sexy "Star Wars" story "The Acolyte" was axed in August after suffering from intense review bombing. Those are two shows of many that have been cancelled this month, season, year. As the number of TV shows available to watch has grown exponentially over the past decade, so have the chances that your favorite will get axed.

Enter cumulative grief: it's a concept that's typically applied to bereavement, but I think it works here too. When you grieve multiple things at once, it can become tougher than usual to process the loss at all. When the number of things to grieve -- in this case, shows that you felt spoke to you,...

The Television Academy has announced that producer Greg Berlanti will be the recipient of the Governors Award at the 2024 Primetime Emmys. The annual honor, meant for an individual, company or organization that has made a profound, transformational and long-lasting contribution to the arts and/or science of television, is specifically in recognition of Berlanti’s sizable impact on television, culture, and representation for underrepresented communities in iconic projects like “Dawson’s Creek,” “Riverdale,” “All American,” “The Flight Attendant,” and “You.”

The prolific creator, writer and/or executive producer of over 45 television shows will receive his Emmy statuette during the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony on Sunday, Sept. 15, at the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live.

“Greg is an extraordinary creator, who consistently delivers characters and stories that are in dialogue with the real world,” said Television Academy Chair Cris Abrego via statement. “From the beginning of his career, his commitment to...

Wcbs-am 880 is dropping its all-news format and instead will become the new home of ESPN New York.

Audacy, the owner of the New York station, announced the change Monday, one that leaves Wins-fm as the only all-news format station in the nation’s largest market. The changes are effective on August 26.

“The headwinds facing local journalism nationwide made it essential to strategically reimagine how we deliver the news for the most impact,” Chris Oliviero, New York market president of Audacy, said in a statement.

According to the Writers Guild of America East, 23 members were laid off.

Audacy will continue to own the 880 frequency, but as part of the deal with Good Karma Brands, which runs the ESPN radio network, the call letters of Wcbs will be changed to Whsq-am.

The station has had an all-news format since 1967, when it was launched at the urging of CBS founder William S. Paley.

The late Treat Williams was nominated for an Emmy Award on Wednesday, thanks to his role in Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.

The actor, who died in a motorcycle accident last month, is among the nominees for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Williams played CBS executive and womanizer William Paley in the FX anthology series.

The Emmy nod marks Williams’ second nomination, his first in 28 years. He was last up for an award in the same category for his role as Michael Ovitz in The Late Shift,...

Exclusive: At the height of Peak TV, Greg Berlanti’s career took off like a rocket. His Berlanti Productions had a record-breaking 15 shows on the air simultaneously, from DC properties like The Flash, Supergirl and Arrow to Riverdale and Blindspot. Berlanti will have six shows on air this fall, which gave him time to launch Fly Me to the Moon, starring Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Woody Harrelson and Ray Romano. The rom-com pairs Johansson as a gifted but shady sales person trying to outrun her past, and Tatum as a fighter pilot-turned-NASA leader trying to help beat the Russians to the moon. She comes to Cape Canaveral at the behest of a Nixon fixer (Harrelson), hired to stage the moon landing for a telecast to run on global TV if things go awry. It’s the first film Berlanti has directed since 2018’s Love, Simon, a crowd pleasing theatrical release.

When Sherwood Schwartz first came up with the idea for his 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island," he was less concerned with its uncharted tropical island setting as he was with cramming people with disparate backgrounds into a situation where they couldn't leave each other. He initially liked the idea of making a workplace drama, but, he felt, that wasn't isolated enough. He eventually figured that if a varied cast of characters was stranded, alone, in a remote location, then comedy and story would naturally follow. 

Schwartz developed his concept into "Gilligan's Island," wherein a tour boat captain (Alan Hale), his first officer (Bob Denver), a millionaire (Jim Backus), his wife (Natalie Schafer), a professional actress (Tina Louise), a farm girl (Dawn Wells), and a scientist (Russell Watson) take a Hawai'ian sea tour, only to be pulled off course by bad weather and stranded on a lost island in the Pacific. The series...

"Gilligan's Island" may be viewed as a classic sitcom now, but when the silly series about a group of island castaways aired from 1964 to 1967, it was far from a sure bet for its home network, CBS. As Laura Morowitz writes in the book "Critiquing the Sitcom," the series was "championed by the public" yet "routinely derided by critics." Anything but a classic in its time, the series ultimately became an enduring part of TV history thanks to its seemingly endless replays in syndication. According to Morowitz, it "would come to be the most repeated series in television history."

During its original airing, "Gilligan's Island" was pushed around the prime-time schedule like brussel sprouts on a picky kid's plate. It switched time slots three times during its relatively short run and was finally canceled in 1967. Except, the cancelation of "Gilligan's Island" wasn't straightforward; by several accounts, it came after the show had already seemingly been renewed,...

Eight years before "Saturday Night Live" started stirring up trouble for NBC, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" was the counterculture bane of CBS' programming existence. And unlike the surprisingly game gang at 30 Rockefeller Center, the suits at the Eye (that's the nickname for CBS' logo) could not be mollified by high ratings.

The enmity between CBS and Smothers was forged by a perfect confluence of time and content. When the variety show premiered on February 5, 1967, the United States was waging two very different wars on two geographically inconvenient fronts. The country had just entered its second year of full-on, boots-on-the-ground combat in Vietnam, and though a slim majority still supported the conflict, the nation's youth weren't keen on getting drafted to fight an enemy that didn't pose an immediate physical threat to America. This unease dovetailed with the unrest at home: anti-war protests, the ongoing Civil Rights Movement, and a...

[This story contains spoilers from episode seven of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.]

American socialite and former magazine editor Babe Paley was married to CBS founder William S. Paley for 31 years. But according to Naomi Watts, who portrays her in Ryan Murphy’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, her relationship with Truman Capote was the deepest romance she’d ever had — minus the sex.

“Babe gave herself to this man and all of her secrets,” Watts tells The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below. “She really trusted him, thinking they were such close friends that he would never dare to expose them.”

It’s for that reason Capote’s actions led to Paley “just [coming] undone,” the star and executive producer had explained earlier in the season to reporters, including THR. As shown in the second season of the FX anthology series, Capote (played by Tom Hollander) reveals the most intimate details of the lives of Paley and the...

[This story contains spoilers from the sixth episode of Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, “Hats, Gloves and Effete Homosexuals.”]

Feud: Capote vs. the Swans is a reunion for Calista Flockhart and showrunner Jon Robin Baitz, who created Brothers & Sisters on which the actress starred during its five-season run. It was an instant yes, says Flockhart, when “Robbie” (as she calls him) and producer Ryan Murphy came to her with the role of Lee Radziwill in season two of the FX anthology — one of the coterie of New York City socialites with whom Truman Capote palled around (and later publicly fought) in the 1960s and ’70s.

Radziwell was perhaps America’s best-known little sister; she was four years younger than Jackie Kennedy Onassis, who always overshadowed Lee despite her own efforts to achieve fame as an actress. But without the trappings of the official title of First Lady, Radziwill was able to flourish socially and was well-connected with the literary,...

It is ridiculous that in episode 3, titled The Secret Inner Lives of the Swans, Truman Capote pops too many pills so that he would never have to worry about waking up again, but death is still so far from his doorstep. Because death sometimes means a permanent freedom from the daily torment of life, and Truman Capote, in this third episode of Feud: Capote vs The Swans, seemed to be someone who didn’t deserve it at all. In the previous episode, Truman Capote called himself Prometheus, as he ignited a fire among the swans, making them turn against each other, but in this episode, he is seen regretting his choices back in 1975, when he dropped the bombshell by publishing his salacious article in Esquire.

Episode 5 opened with a furious Babe Paley finding out about her husband Bill’s affair with Happy Rockefeller, which had just been made public by Capote’s article.

Months after his death, actor Treat Williams was memorialized by the FX series he shot shortly before he died.

Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans remembered Williams with a title card at the end of Wednesday’s episode. It read: “In Memory of Treat Williams 1951-2023.” The actor played media mogul William Paley in Season 2 of the anthology series, which chronicles author Truman Capote’s betrayal of his close female friends — who happened to be members of high society — in the 1970s.

More from TVLineEthan Hawke to Star in FX Drama Pilot From Reservation Dogs ShowrunnerTacoma Fd Cancelled at truTV After...

[This story contains spoilers from the fourth episode of Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, “It’s Impossible.”]

For Diane Lane, the entire premise of Feud: Capote vs. the Swans is full of complexity and layers.

As the FX series depicts the fallout from Truman Capote’s “La Côte Basque” — a chapter from his unfinished novel, Answered Prayers, that was excerpted in Esquire‘s November 1975 issue that caused a giant rift between the acclaimed writer and his “Swans” — the actress can’t help but notice the irony that she’s playing socialite Slim Keith, one of the Swans that was outraged by Capote’s thinly veiled portrait of the elite milieu in which she was a part. “I imagine them sitting on a sofa, enjoying champagne and popcorn, and having the last laugh on all of us,” says Lane, who laughs at the meta nature of the show’s depictions of the secrets, lies and gossip shared between Keith’s wealthy cohort.

Gunsmoke was the longest-running live-action primetime series in history, with the highest number of scripted episodes. Gunsmoke revolutionized the Western genre and launched the careers of future Hollywood stars. The cancelation of Gunsmoke was unexpected and left the cast and crew without a proper series finale.

When the Western drama television series Gunsmoke ended in 1975 after twenty seasons and a whopping 635 episodes, it was the longest-running live-action primetime series in history and had the highest number of scripted episodes. Gunsmoke held the former record until September 2019, when the crime drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit entered its 21st season, while the animated sitcom The Simpsons surpassed Gunsmoke in total scripted episodes in April 2018.

Gunsmoke was unparalleled in terms of how it revolutionized the Western genre and the remarkable consistency of the show’s cast, led by series star James Arness, who appeared in every episode of Gunsmoke as United States Marshal Matt Dillon,...

Plot: Acclaimed writer Truman Capote surrounded himself with a coterie of society’s most elite women – rich, glamorous socialites who defined a bygone era of high society New York – whom he nicknamed “the swans.” Enchanted and captivated by these doyennes, Capote ingratiated himself into their lives, befriending them and becoming their confidante, only to ultimately betray them by writing a thinly veiled fictionalization of their lives, exposing their most intimate secrets. When an excerpt from the book, Answered Prayers, Capote’s planned magnum opus, was published in Esquire, it effectively destroyed his relationship with his swans, banished him from the high society he so loved and sent him into a spiral of self-destruction from which he would ultimately never recover.

Review: It has been six years since Ryan Murphy’s debut season of Feud chronicled the difficult relationship between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. That stellar series was a brilliant...

The cold shoulder is mightier than the pen in Capote Vs. The Swans, a dazzling new edition of Ryan Murphy’s Feud anthology. The first Feud series, which aired in 2017, depicted the juicy rivalry of Hollywood divas Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The gossipy and rarefied New York world of Capote, as sharply written by Jon Robin Baitz (Brothers & Sisters) and mostly directed by Gus Van Sant, takes us back to the 1970s’ “ladies who lunch” culture so memorably skewered by Stephen Sondheim in his breakthrough Company. These “dinosaurs surviving the crunch” are a glamorous if garishly unsatisfied bunch, epitomized by Babe Paley (the stunning Naomi Watts), a statuesque and starched beauty unhappily wed to the flagrantly unfaithful CBS magnate William S. Paley. Like her fellow socialites—an impeccably cast ensemble including Diane Lane (as Slim Keith), Chloë Sevigny (as C.Z. Guest), and Calista Flockhart (as the waspish Lee...

Although Feud: Capote vs. The Swans is only the second installment of Ryan Murphy’s Feud franchise — Bette and Joan aired way back in 2017 — the anthology’s core seems clear enough. To qualify as a Feud season, the focus must be on a rivalry of little to no cosmic importance that’s somehow integral to the very essence of the people involved. It must exist as nothing and everything all at once.

Capote vs. The Swans creator Jon Robin Baitz understands the general assignment. In focusing on the society kerfuffle between Truman Capote and some of the most powerful women of New York’s upper crust, Baitz has a clash that’s entirely inconsequential and yet cataclysmic within its milieu. Unfortunately, a jumbled approach to time and a limited understanding of character make it a story without momentum.

Capote vs. The Swans is eight hours of exceptional performances and interesting formal ideas,...

Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans is the second installment of Ryan Murphy's anthology series exploring Hollywood rivalries. The season is based on Truman Capote's relationships with a group of high-society women known as his "swans." The cast of the series features six accomplished actresses in leading roles, including Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, and Demi Moore.

Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans is the second installment in the Ryan Murphy FX anthology series that examines well-documented Hollywood rivalries. After a successful first season based on the famous feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, season 2 is based on Lawrence Leamer’s best-selling book, Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era. The season will look at what really happened between Truman Capote and his “swans,” a group of six high-society women he exposed in his writings.

Through his successful career as a television writer,...

FX has released the second official trailer for Ryan Murphy’s forthcoming “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.”

Tom Hollander, who plays Truman Capote in the series, faces off against the Swans in the trailer, which teases the story of the elite group of women that the “In Cold Blood” author surrounded himself with and the betrayal that led to their infamous falling out.

The group included grande dame Barbara “Babe” Paley (Naomi Watts), Slim Keith (Diane Lane), C.Z. Guest (Chloë Sevigny) and Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockhart).

“Enchanted and captivated by these doyennes, Capote ingratiated himself into their lives, befriending them and becoming their confidante, only to ultimately betray them by writing a thinly veiled fictionalization of their lives, exposing their most intimate secrets. When an excerpt from the book, Answered Prayers, Capote’s planned magnum opus, was published in Esquire, it effectively destroyed his relationship with his swans, banished him...

Ken Fritz, was a personal manager of Tom and Dick Smothers for the better part of 60 years. In 1964 and recently out of college, Fritz started out as a sort of advance man for their tours before becoming their full-time road manager. Later, he co-managed them with Ken Kragen and eventually assumed solo management for all aspects of their careers. He was also an executive producer on many of their projects, including the groundbreaking The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. His other clients have included Neil Diamond, Peter, Paul and Mary and George Benson. Here, Fritz reflects on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour as well as Tom Smothers as a comedian, businessman and friend.

In 1966 William Morris pitched CBS a new variety show starring The Smothers Brothers and CBS wanted it. We were very firm with the network that they were not going to buy the live versions of the nightclub shows,...

I was 10 when I fell in love with Tommy Smothers, who succumbed to cancer on Tuesday at 86. He was my first television hero. He was funny, he was gentle, he was quietly outrageous. And for a pre-teen kid in the 1960s, he was everything I thought a grown-up should be.

Let me back up for a second to note that I was raised in a houseful of liberals bordering on radicals. My parents and siblings were all proudly antiwar when it came to Vietnam. My older sister was the kind who went to love-ins and hung with the hippies, possibly because she was a hippie herself. My mother would bake pot brownies that my sister took to the love-in. Me? I was too young to do much more than get taken along for the ride, but it was made abundantly clear that if I wanted to be a Richmond, I...

Tom Smothers, who with his younger brother Dick changed the face of comedy with their musical humor and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, died Tuesday in Santa Rosa, California, following a cancer battle. The news was announced by the National Comedy Center, on behalf of Smothers’ family. He was 86.

Tom and Dick Smothers started out as folk musicians in the early ’60s, and soon discovered that, while they were not good enough to be professional musicians, the act worked if they mixed in comedy.

Dick Smothers said in a statement, “Tom was not only the loving older brother that everyone would want in their life, he was a one-of-a-kind creative partner. I am forever grateful to have spent a lifetime together with him, on and off stage, for over 60 years. Our relationship was like a good marriage – the longer we were together, the more we loved and respected one another.

FX has released the first teaser trailer for the upcoming second season of anthology series Feud!

The new season will be titled Feud: Capote vs The Swans, and it tells the story of acclaimed writer Truman Capote and a society of elite women, which the teaser has dubbed “The Original Housewives.”

Keep reading to find out more and watch the teaser…

Here’s a synopsis: Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans tells the story of acclaimed writer Truman Capote, once a confidante to society’s most elite women, whom he nicknamed “the swans.” However, his act of betrayal effectively destroyed those relationships, banished him from high society and sent him into a spiral of self-destruction from which he would ultimately never recover.

The story of sex, money and betrayal features an all-star cast, which includes Naomi Watts (Babe Paley), Diane Lane (Slim Keith), Chloë Sevigny (Cz Guest), Calista Flockhart (Lee Radziwill...

FX has released the first teaser for Ryan Murphy’s upcoming series “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.” The second season of Murphy’s anthology series chronicles the literary scandal that sparked a fallout between writer Truman Capote and a high-society group of women, known as his “Swans.”

Tom Hollander portrays Truman Capote, the “In Cold Blood” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” author who betrayed his close circle of powerful women by publishing a story titled “La Côte Basque, 1965” in Esquire. The “Swans” include Babe Paley (Naomi Watts), C.Z. Guest (Chloë Sevigny) and Slim Keith (Diane Lane), wealthy and powerful women whose secrets are revealed after Capote’s story is published.

Joining the cast are Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, Treat Williams and Molly Ringwald. Flockhart and Moore portray fellow “Swans” Lee Radziwill and Ann Woodward, respectively. Williams, who died in June 2023, plays Watts’ husband, TV executive William Paley, whose indiscretions are detailed in “La Côte Basque,...

Norman Lear, the writer, producer and citizen activist who coalesced topical conflict and outrageous comedy in such wildly popular sitcoms as All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and The Jeffersons, has died. He was 101.

Lear died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by his family who, according to a statement on his official Instagram account, sang songs until the very end.

“Norman lived a life in awe of the world around him. He marveled at his cup of coffee every morning, the shape of the tree outside his window, and the sounds of beautiful music,” read the post. “But it was people — those he just met and those he knew for decades — who kept his mind and heart forever young. As we celebrate his legacy and reflect on the next chapter of life without him, we would like to thank everyone for all the love and support.

Feud season 2, titled "Capote vs. The Swans," focuses on the fallout between Truman Capote and a group of powerful women, exploring high society animosity. The upcoming season will dramatize Capote's betrayal of the women's trust when he published their secrets in a thinly veiled story in Esquire. With a talented cast and acclaimed filmmakers involved, the return of the FX anthology promises to be a big hit and worth the wait to conclude the year.

Feud season 2 reveals its first photos, along with a release window, as the anthology series is set to make a return six years after the premiere of its first installment. Back then, with stellar performances from Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon, Feud dramatized the rivalry between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The eight-episode run received 18 Emmy nominations, winning two. After an extended break, it was announced in April 2022 that the anthology would return to...

Treat Williams who died in a motorcycle crash Monday, had recently wrapped Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans, the second installment of FX’s anthology series from Ryan Murphy, Plan B and 20th Television. This was his final role for the veteran actor, who received an Emmy nomination for portraying uber agent Michael Ovitz in the 1996 TV movie The Late Shift.

Treat Williams and William S. Paley

Williams plays former CBS head and media tycoon Bill Paley in Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans, an adaptation of Laurence Leamer’s bestselling book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era. The miniseries (fka Feud: Capote’s Women) chronicles the tale of the famous wunderkind author as he stabs several of his female friends — whom he called his “swans” — in the back by publishing a roman à clef short story called “La Côte Basque 1965” in...

Jackie Gleason never won an Emmy. Neither did Ed Sullivan. Or Andy Griffith. Or Fred Rogers. Or “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry. Or “Rocky & Bullwinkle” genius Jay Ward. Bob Newhart’s sole Emmy win was as a guest actor on “The Big Bang Theory” in 2013.

Yes, the 74 years of Emmy history are chock full of surprises spanning both winners and non-winners. That extends to the Emmy’s Governors Award as well. The TV academy describes that Governors Award – bestowed generally but not always annually since 1978 – as follows: “The Board of Governors of the Television Academy may, when warranted, recognize an individual, company or organization that has made a profound, transformational and long-lasting contribution to the arts and/or science of television by presenting them with the Governors Award.”

SEE2023 Emmy Predictions: Gold Derby Predicts the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards

The first Governors Award in ’78 went to CBS founder William Paley.

Despite being a seminal comedy, Mash was almost canceled after its first season aired. Mash probably belongs in the dramedy section, because despite employing a laugh track during its early seasons (which the showrunners hated using) it wasn't afraid to explore dark or controversial topics. While it never lost the laughs, Mash became more of a drama as it evolved, and broke ground in both major and minor ways. The season 3 death of Colonel Henry Blake, for instance, was one of the first times a network show killed off a character viewers had grown to love.

Mash's finale is the most watched episode of scripted drama in TV history, which closed out the show after 11 seasons. Mash might have had the advantage of being based on a hit movie, but the TV adaptation toned down the more adult humor of the Robert Altman film. Like any comedy show, it...

Many worthy people are still waiting and waiting for their induction into the Television Academy's TV Hall of Fame. Each year a small committee makes the selection of just a few people to be inducted. You can visit their busts, statues and tributes at the plaza in North Hollywood, California. Our photo gallery above offers up 50 individuals who easily deserve to be included, so please take a look at these choices, esteemed committee members, and let's induct even more this year. Also, because of the overwhelming volume of excellent choices, how about raising the induction number from five to eight per year?

The first induction was held in 1984 and it's been an annual tradition almost every year. That class of legends consisted of actress/executive Lucille Ball, actor/comedian Milton Berle, writer Paddy Chayefsky, writer/producer Norman Lear, journalist Edward R. Murrow, CBS founder William S. Paley, and NBC founder David Sarnoff.

Morrie Gelman, historian and former Daily Variety reporter, died of heart failure August 26 in Palm Desert, CA with his family at his side. He was 90.

Gelman, who covered the TV business, started his 50-year career as a journalist in 1948 in the New York City mailroom of the Mutual Broadcasting System. After serving two years in the Army, he worked for five years at the New York Post as an assistant to famed nationally syndicated columnist Earl Wilson, and later as a police reporter there. After a stint at the Brooklyn Eagle, he continued his career as features editor at Theater Magazine, a national monthly, and was a member of the Drama Critics Circle. Later, he was editorial director at United Business Publications and at the Japanese Dempa Publications.

He spent 12 years as senior correspondent for Broadcasting Magazine (now Broadcasting & Cable), and was the West Coast bureau chief for Advertising Age,...

The Paley Center for Media awarded Bob Newhart, Lily Tomlin, Carl Reiner, Carol Burnett and Norman Lear at The Paley Honors: A Special Tribute to Television’s Comedy Legends on Thursday Night in Beverly Hills.

In the sixth annual Paley Honors for achievements in television, Conan O’Brien introduced Newhart, who shared stories of his attempted careers in accounting, unemployment offices and retail before getting into comedy.

As a petty cash clerk for traveling salesmen, Newhart lamented that he could never quite balance their receipts with his cash total. Rather than spend hours trying to reconcile an extra $1.75, he said he just paid the difference out of his own pocket.

“I swear to you, if I had gone with Enron, they would still be in business,” Newhart joked. “So naturally, what do you do when you leave accounting? Obviously you become a stand-up comedian.”

In the early years, Newhart still took day jobs.