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Richard D. James, the Emmy-winning production designer who worked on all but one of the 14 seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager, has died. He was 88.

James died Nov. 11 of complications from an infection at Ut Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, his longtime friend Tom Sanden told The Hollywood Reporter.

For the big screen, the Texas native was art director on Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero (1983), starring Burt Lancaster and Peter Riegert; on Mike Nichols’ Silkwood (1983), starring Meryl Streep, Cher and Kurt Russell; and on Kevin Reynolds’ The Beast of War, starring George Dzundza, Jason Patric and Steven Bauer.

James joined the syndicated Next Generation for its second season (1988-89) and remained through its conclusion in 1994. He then segued to Upn’s Voyager, working on that series for its entire seven-season run (1995-2001).

James received his Emmy (shared with longtime collaborator Jim Mees) in 1990 for his...

The premise of the 1977 sitcom "Three's Company" -- adapted from the 1973 British series "Man About the House" -- would likely never fly in 2024. Roommates Janet (Joyce DeWitt) and Chrissy (Suzanne Somers) require a third roommate to pay rent in their expensive Santa Monica apartment. They stumble across Jack Tripper (John Ritter), an aspiring culinary student whom they get along with. It so happens, though, that the building's landlord, Mr. Roper (Normal Fell), is ultra-conservative and refuses to let unmarried men and women share his apartments. To get around this contrived contingency, Janet and Chrissy tell Mr. Roper that Jack is gay. This satisfies the landlord but opens Jack up to homophobic jibes.

Fell eventually left the series and was replaced by the high-strung Mr. Furley, played by Don Knotts. Mr. Furley, it seems, required the charade to continue. Somers also left the show in its last two seasons and was...

Up until 2014, the public at large didn't know about the extent of sexual crimes committed by comedian and TV star Bill Cosby. Since 2014, over 60 women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault, some of which stretch back to the 1960s. The many, many details of Cosby's assaults, cover-ups, and other crimes have been openly detailed in the news, and in the 2022 documentary series "We Need to Talk About Cosby." 

Cosby's crimes make discussions of the hit series "The Cosby Show" a little fraught. Because the stories of sexual assault hadn't been made public yet, Cosby was easily accepted by mainstream sitcom viewers as a kindly, father-like figure: a perfectly put-upon patriarch of a modern, wealthy Black family. "The Cosby Show" was instantly successful and widely beloved when it debuted in 1984, and it lasted eight seasons and 201 episodes. Everyone watched it. Critics praised the sitcom for presenting a Black experience...

Expensive doesn't always mean successful: Supertrain, Camelot, and Inhumans were all costly shows that flopped in terms of quality and viewership. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the most expensive TV show ever made, but its high budget doesn't necessarily reflect its overall quality. Shows like Joey, The Get Down, Hemlock Grove, Marco Polo, and Terra Nova had high production costs but failed to make a lasting impact or justify their budgets.

As the decades go on and TV becomes a bigger, more profitable industry, studios invest more in new shows, but bigger investments don't always make better shows. Making TV shows is never exactly cheap. To produce one show, several teams of people need to be recruited and paid in order to simply pull an idea together, before getting actors involved, cameraman, lighting, wardrobe, make-up, editing, and so on. The costs rack up quickly, but for the most part,...

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Sony Pictures hopes audiences are all aboard for Bullet Train, David Leitch’s action comedy starring Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock and Brian Tyree Henry that hits theaters Aug. 5.

Trains have a history of transfixing Hollywood, dating back to 19th century silent-film footage of the vehicle that was so realistic, it reportedly caused audiences to flee in fear. But one project that didn’t captivate viewers as expected was the NBC drama series Supertrain.

Launched in February 1979 with stars Edward Andrews and Robert Alda, the show centered on a luxurious, nuclear-powered train and followed in the footsteps of ABC’s popular Love Boat by focusing on passengers’ personal lives — which involved murder, abduction, mystery and romance — amid the cross-country voyage. Skyrocketing costs for the lavish train sets led the network to spend at least 7 million (28.6 million today) on the pilot, making it the most...

When producers or actors new to television claim they’ve just made “a 10-hour movie,” it speaks to the weird inferiority complex TV somehow still has two decades after prestige game-changers such as The Sopranos, The Wire, et. al. But it’s also often a sadly literal comment, suggesting that film people look at a season of TV as “movies, but longer,” producing some shapeless sack of seemingly endless plot rather than figuring out the differences between the two mediums and how to take advantage of the ways that one is unlike the other.

On the latest episode of the “Shoot This Now” podcast, we talk about the infamous failure of NBC’s “Supertrain” — an expensive mix of drama, comedy, murder and disco that proved a massive embarrassment. You can listen on RadioPublic or Apple or Spotify or right here.



“Supertrain” was supposed to be the crown jewel of NBC’s cursed 1978-79 season. But every new scripted show that NBC launched that season failed — with one exception.

That sole show that survived, however, is a sitcom masterpiece.

Also Read: Let's Talk 'Supertrain,' One of TV's Greatest Failures (Podcast)

The writing and acting were solid. The subject matter is still achingly topical. The jokes are still funny.

We’ll give you a few hints. The show talked frankly about race in a way few shows do even today. It didn’t shy away from talking about class, either. Or drugs. Or even,...

In 1979, NBC President Fred Silverman, trying to save the last-place network, fast-tracked a drama called “Supertrain.” It combined railroads, disco and murder, and if you think it sounds terrible, you’re on the right track.

We talk about the “Supertrain” trainwreck in the latest episode of our “Shoot This Now” podcast, and you can listen to on RadioPublic or Apple or Spotify or right here.



Our guest this week is Dan Delgado, who devoted an entire recent episode of his fantastic Hollywood-stories podcast, “The Industry,” to the story of “Supertrain.” You can listen here.

Also Read: Nazi Titanic: The Horrific True Story of the Nazis' $180 Million Propaganda Film (Podcast)

Each week on “Shoot This Now,” we talk about how to turn great stories into movies. Delgado has an excellent idea for how to tell the story of “Supertrain” — he sees it as an Adam McKay comedy populated by the likes of Zack Galifianakis,...

In the 1970s, NBC was the network you could turn to when seeking high concepts series that never lived up to the expectations of its audience. A perfect example was Man from Atlantis, a short-lived concept about a man who could live under the sea.

One of the interesting conventions of the time was that concepts would be allowed to grow and develop through telefilms before a show went to series. In this case, there were four such films produced for the 1976-1977 season before the strong ratings convinced the Peacock Network to let this go to a weekly series. When it arrived in fall 1977, the demands of producing 22 episodes proved too much and the show was weakened, the ratings fell and the series became a footnote; another wreck during the network’s decline (Supertrain anyone?).

Warner Archive has recently released the pilot film on DVD and it’s interesting...

Actress Rue McClanahan was best known for her role as lusty Southern belle Blanche Devereaux on the television sitcom The Golden Girls. She had a successful career on stage, film and television for over fifty years.

She was born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Oklahoma on February 21, 1934. She studied theater at the University of Tulsa and made her professional stage debut at the Erie Playhouse in Pennsylvania in 1957. Soon after, she was performing in off-Broadway plays in New York.

McClanahan began acting in films in the early 1960s, appearing in the low-budget thriller Five Minutes to Live (aka Door-to-Door Maniac) (1961) starring Johnny Cash. She continued her career in such features as the Sherlock Holmsian fantasy They Might Be Giants (1971) with George C. Scott, and the western slasher film Blade (1973).

She starred as Vivian Cavender Harmon, Bea Arthur’s title character’s best friend, in the sitcom Maude from 1972 to 1978. She starred...