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I’m something of a made-for-television movie connoisseur. That means, in operational terms, simply that I watch a lot (a frightening amount) of made-for-television movies. Principally, the scary ones. I’m discussing classics from the BBC and ABC Horror Movie of the Week programming list. Sweetly, I first got into them with my mom, who considered them a cornerstone of my horror education. I couldn’t understand the genre without first witnessing wall-crawling goblins in Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark or being Bewitched by Elizabeth Montgomery in The Victim.

I’ve seen the good, the bad, and even the ugly, and narrowing down my favorites isn’t straightforward. After all, my list looks considerably different than our own Tyler Doupé’s on the same topic. However, I am willing to concede that Richard Lang’s Don’t Go to Sleep ranks among the best. It’s haunted me since I...

Jack De Mave, who portrayed a U.S. forest ranger on Lassie and an unconventional date for Valerie Harper’s Rhoda Morgenstern on the second episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died. He was 91.

De Mave died Jan. 16 in hospice care in Macon, Georgia, his friend Vickie Lovett told The Hollywood Reporter. He had suffered a heart attack on Thanksgiving Day, she said.

The hunky De Mave also appeared in such films as the Rock Hudson-starring Blindfold (1966), 1776 (1972) — as John Penn — and Mel Gibson’s The Man Without a Face (1993), and in the 1970s, he played The Lone Ranger in a series of Frito-Lay commercials that led to appearances in parades and in front of kids as the wholesome lawman.

The stage-trained actor joined the cast of the enduring CBS drama Lassie at the start of its 15th season as Forest Ranger Bob Erickson in 1968 and worked on 23 episodes over two years.

Our odyssey through the work of Michael Caine reaches a grim nadir: the 1984 comedy Blame It On Rio. Brace yourselves, readers.

Michael Caine showed no sign of slowing down as he entered his third decade as a leading man. The 1980s would see him win his first Academy Award (Hannah and Her Sisters), tackle new genres such as horror (The Hand) and shark-based revenge movie (Jaws: The Revenge) whilst continuing to work with interesting new auteurs like Brian De Palma (Dressed to Kill) as well as old friends from classic Hollywood such as John Huston (Escape to Victory).

Film by film, I’ll be taking a look at Caine’s 1980s filmography to see what hidden gems I can unearth alongside the more familiar classics…

Spoilers for Blame it on Rio lay ahead…

Directed by:

Stanley Donen

Tagline:

This had multiple taglines, starting innocuous enough but I became increasingly uneasy as they went on…...

Female friendships have been at the center of some of television’s most memorable and iconic shows — from comedy highs to dramatic lows. Here are TV’s Top 10 BFFs.MEGALaverne and Shirley on 'Laverne & Shirley'mega

Schlemiel! Schlimazel! They might be polar opposites, but as roommates and co-workers at Milwaukee’s fictional Shotz Brewery, Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) constantly lifted each other’s spirits as they got in and out of trouble!

Ethel and Lucy on 'I Love Lucy'Prime Video/YouTube

In one of the most legendary sitcoms in TV history, Lucille Ball as Lucy and Vivian Vance as Bff Ethel made audiences howl with laughter over their hilarious antics.

Mary and Rhoda on 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'mega

The classic opposites attract couple of polite local news producer Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) and her brash best friend and upstairs neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) became a...

“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...

Producer Daniel Selznick, the last direct link to one of Hollywood’s founding families, died Aug. 1 at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s Country Home campus in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles.

Selznick grew up in Beverly Hills as showbiz royalty. He was the younger of two sons of “Gone With the Wind” producer David O. Selznick and stage producer Irene Mayer Selznick. His grandfather was Louis B. Mayer, the gregarious Canadian immigrant who led Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to the pinnacle of art and commerce during Hollywood’s 1930s and ’40s Golden Age. By the time Daniel Selznick was a young teenager, his parents had divorced and his father was remarried to Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Jones.

Daniel Selznick’s birth was reported in the May 19, 1936, edition of Daily Variety

In his own career, Selznick worked as a champion of the arts and to preserve his family’s legacy. Daniel...

If the 1950s and '60s were the golden age of the television sitcom, the 1970s were its in-the-pocket prime. And when risk-averse TV execs saw the astronomical ratings of hit sitcoms like "All in the Family," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and "M*A*S*H," they exploited this ratings-rich phenomenon by diving into the same-but-different world of spinoffs.

Norman Lear's "All in the Family" was the '70s spinoff king with seven total offshoots, but James L. Brooks and Allan Burns' "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" proved plenty durable by spawning "Rhoda," "Phyllis," and "Lou Grant." Of these, "Rhoda" was by far the biggest hit. Valerie Harper's four seasons as Mary Richards' lovably vivacious neighbor more than confirmed she could carry a series of her own. So, Brooks and Allan sent Rhoda back to her hometown of New York City, where she immediately found love (her...

Months before she won the 2023 Best Comedy Supporting Actress Emmy for the first season of FX’s “The Bear,” it was reported that Ayo Edebiri would move up to lead for season two. According to our odds chart, she looks set to become the 12th woman to reap both supporting and lead Emmy bids (in that order) for a single role on a single series. If she takes the gold again, she will become the first to win both comedy actress awards in that order for one show.

Edebiri’s win in the supporting race at the strike-delayed 75th Emmys was preceded by victories in lead for season two at the 2024 Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards. Having just blocked Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Abbott Elementary”) from achieving back-to-back supporting Emmy honors, she now faces the challenge of fending off two former lead champions: Jean Smart and Quinta Brunson.

Edebiri would...

Ayo Edebiri‘s upgrade to lead for Season 2 of “The Bear” has been an unqualified success. She won the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy Actress in January, along with the Screen Actors Guild Awards’ single comedy actress prize. In the midst of all that, she took home the Best Comedy Supporting Actress statuette for Season 1 at the delayed Emmy ceremony. And now Edebiri is the odds-on favorite to win the Best Comedy Actress Emmy for Season 2 in September, which would put her on a short list of women who’ve won both comedy lead and supporting trophies.

Since the categories were standardized in 1966, five ladies have completed the sweep. The first to achieve it was Valerie Harper, who three-peated in supporting from 1971-73 for her turn as Rhoda Morgenstern on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” before she headlined her own spin-off, “Rhoda,” for which she won...

It’s sad to say, but death seems to be working overtime as we close out 2023. Following the news that beloved character actor Tom Wilkinson has passed away, come the passing of two more well-loved supporting players in TV and film. Richard Romanus, who played the role of loan shark Michael Longo in Mean Streets, passed away at the age of 80 on December 23rd. Meanwhile, Maurice Hines, the brother of Gregory Hines, has also passed away, also at 80.

Although Richard Romanus had a lengthy career that went back to the early ‘70s, it was his turn in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets that remained his most memorable performance. It was his character who, after a run-in with Robert De Niro’s Johnny Boy (who owed Michael money), manned the car that drove up alongside Johnny Boy and Harvey Keitel’s Charlie, leading to the shooting of the loose cannon.

Richard...

Throughout the seven seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the android Data (Brent Spiner) often struggled with his inability to connect with his crewmates. Unlike Data, his organic peers were all emotional beings who could laugh, get angry, and intuit friendly interactions via their feelings and social acumen. Data had no emotions, at least not demonstrably, and had to rely on analysis and study to understand humans. Data longed to be human and often asked his friends to explain their baffling idiosyncrasies. Data's emotionlessness was not a flaw, but a design choice by his creator. 

Later in the series, Data secured an emotion chip built specially for him by his presumed-dead creator. At first, he was afraid to install it, but after a prank gone awry in the 1994 film "Star Trek: Generations," Data finally decided to give himself the emotions he had been longing for. It's a pity that...

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Indiana Jones really only needs three things to truly be Indiana Jones. The first is obvious. He needs to be played by Harrison Ford. With his work over the course of five movies made across 42 years, few actors have paired with a character so beautifully to create a true cinematic character for the ages. The second is the fedora. No Indiana Jones silhouette is complete without that hat on his head. Not only does it just look good, but it is crucial to placing Jones within his early 20th century time period.

The third and final element that makes Indiana Jones who he is? The trusty bullwhip he has hitched to his waist. While so many adventure heroes have a knife, sword, or pistol at the ready, Indiana Jones' whip makes him stand completely apart from his ilk, and because...

Since 1991 (and primarily within the last 10 years), a total of six TV performers have earned recognition from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for reprising roles that had brought them Golden Globe nominations at least a decade earlier. With this and his own stellar HFPA track record in mind, Kelsey Grammer – the two-time Best TV Comedy Actor-winning star of “Frasier” – can more than reasonably be expected to join said prestigious club by scoring his ninth bid in the category (and first in 22 years) for the Paramount Plus revival of his beloved NBC sitcom. What’s more, he might actually make history as the first actor involved in such a situation to pull off a comeback victory.

Grammer collected his first eight Golden Globe nominations for “Frasier” between 1994 and 2002 and emerged triumphant in both 1996 and 2001. After saying goodbye to Dr. Frasier Crane 19 years ago, he is now set to lead a long-awaited...

After both making good on their recent efforts to become first-time lead acting Emmy contenders, formerly supporting “Succession” cast mates Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook are naturally expected to be similarly bumped up on the next Golden Globes ballot. If they do achieve their first Best TV Drama Actor and Best TV Drama Actress notices this winter, the on-screen siblings will join a group of 10 other Golden Globe nominees who succeeded in rebranding their initially supporting characters as lead ones. As it stands, said club has not welcomed a new member – regardless of genre or gender – in two full decades.

Culkin’s Golden Globes resume currently includes three fruitless featured bids for “Succession,” on which he was bested by Ben Whishaw, Stellan Skarsgård and O Yeong-su. Although Snook only has a 2022 supporting nomination for the HBO series to her name, she actually prevailed, even against awards magnet Jennifer Coolidge (“The White Lotus...

Since 1956, a total of 429 direct cast mate showdowns have occurred within the 12 lead and supporting acting Primetime Emmy categories, with a large portion being solely attributed to featured comedic female contenders. Over the course of six decades, 17 programs have produced 43 different Best Comedy Supporting Actress costar clashes, including 15 within the past decade. Scroll through our chronological photo gallery to find out more about this category’s many instances of dual or triple nominations.

The two series responsible for the largest chunks of entries on this list (five each) are “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Saturday Night Live,” from which a combined total of seven unique battle combinations have derived. The latter is also one of only three shows that has produced triple same-year nominations in this category, along with “Sex and the City” and “Ted Lasso.” The corresponding male roster includes four such series, the newest of which is also “Ted Lasso.

Since 1956, a total of 429 direct cast mate showdowns have occurred within the 12 lead and supporting acting Primetime Emmy categories, with a large portion being solely attributed to featured comedic female contenders. Over the course of six decades, 17 programs have produced 43 different Best Comedy Supporting Actress costar clashes, including 15 within the past decade. Scroll through our chronological photo gallery to find out more about this category’s many instances of dual or triple nominations.

The two series responsible for the largest chunks of entries on this list (five each) are “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Saturday Night Live,” from which a combined total of seven unique battle combinations have derived. The latter is also one of only three shows that has produced triple same-year nominations in this category, along with “Sex and the City” and “Ted Lasso.” The corresponding male roster includes four such series, the newest of which is also “Ted Lasso.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” spoke a sarcastic voice from the couch during the second episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. “I’m another person in the room.” Her name was Rhoda Faye Morgenstern (Valerie Harper), and for a time she was a window dresser and Mary Richards’ (Mary Tyler Moore) upstairs neighbor in Minneapolis. In this instance, she’s learned that the man she’s asked out on a date, the one she met when she accidentally ran him over with her car, is in fact married and he’s brought his wife along for the evening. It’s the kind of thing that Rhoda would insist would only happen to someone like her and never someone like Mary.

One of the earliest success stories in the history of TV is “I Love Lucy,” which enjoyed six seasons atop the ratings. When the cast was ready to slow down a bit, audiences weren’t ready to see their favorite zany redhead leave altogether, so the 30-minute sitcom was retooled as 13 one-hour specials broadcast sporadically over three seasons, under a new name: “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”

In the 70 years since, many TV shows have seen name changes before airing their first episodes. One of the most notorious is ABC’s attempt to soften the title of “You Can’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23,” which was shortened to the less-offensive “Apartment 23.” However, apparently that wasn’t quite as catchy, so they compromised with “You Can’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23” ahead of its April 2012 premiere.

SEEEmmys flashback to 1953: 70 years ago the big winners were ‘Your Show...

On a June afternoon in Austin, a clip reel of scenes from comedies like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laverne & Shirley, Cheers, and Friends has an audience at the annual Atx Television Festival howling with laughter. But one person watches with tears in his eyes: TV veteran James Burrows, who, over the span of a five-decade career, directed all these famous faces — Moore, Ted Danson and Shelley Long, Kelsey Grammer, and Jennifer Aniston — and helped shaped their now-classic sitcoms into the shows we know and love. As Atx honored Burrows, 82, with the festival’s Achievement in Television Excellence award, TV Guide Magazine’s West Coast bureau chief moderated a discussion with the 11-time (!) Emmy winner. It was a walk down memory lane that included everything from his first big break to the secret of his directing success to whether we’ll ever see a Cheers reboot. Valerie Harper, Mary Tyler Moore...

One of the earliest success stories in the history of TV is “I Love Lucy,” which enjoyed six seasons atop the ratings. When the cast was ready to slow down a bit, audiences weren’t ready to see their favorite zany redhead leave altogether, so the 30-minute sitcom was retooled as 13 one-hour specials broadcast sporadically over three seasons, under a new name: “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”

In the 70 years since, many TV shows have seen name changes before airing their first episodes. One of the most notorious is ABC’s attempt to soften the title of “You Can’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23,” which was shortened to the less-offensive “Apartment 23.” However, apparently that wasn’t quite as catchy, so they compromised with “You Can’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23” ahead of its April 2012 premiere.

Only a few series have changed titles midstream, as this can be confusing for viewers.

“Yellowstone” premiered in 2018, and has led to an acclaimed TV franchise, with star Kevin Costner striking gold once again in his career as patriarch John Dutton. Fans were disappointed to learn that Costner has opted to leave “Yellowstone” with the upcoming conclusion of season five; his schedule is currently full as he has been starring in, producing, co-writing and directing “Horizon: An American Saga,” the first of a four-film western saga.

However, this isn’t the first time a star has left a series too early, leaving producers scrambling to find a solution to keep a successful series going. Tour our photo gallery featuring 27 performers who abandoned their programs.

Like Costner, other actors and actresses have left to pursue other projects. Some, like Farrah Fawcett and George Clooney, go on to successful careers in movies or with more TV. Others, like David Caruso and McLean Stevenson, regret leaving a successful show when careers flounder afterwards.

Since the fourth season of HBO’s “Succession” focuses on finally providing an answer as to whether Logan Roy’s media empire can survive in the hands of his three youngest children, it’s only fitting for the actors who play said offspring to now be on the same tier when it comes to awards consideration. Soon after former supporting Emmy nominee Kieran Culkin joined his TV brother (Jeremy Strong) and dad (Brian Cox) in submitting as a lead this year, Sarah Snook, who portrays youngest Roy sibling Shiv, followed suit. This move means she will very likely be counted among nine other women who each procured supporting and lead Emmy bids (in that order) for a single role on a single series.

As a featured “Succession” performer, Snook earned her first two TV academy notices in 2020 and 2022. She lost on both outings to “Ozark” actress Julia Garner, who she...

“The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” is coming to an end as its fifth and final season streams on Amazon Prime Video. The successful comedy, which has bagged 20 Emmys to date including a Best Comedy Series win in 2018, follows Rachel Brosnahan‘s titular Miriam “Midge” Maisel who, after her husband leaves, pursues a career in stand-up comedy. A key character in this pursuit is Alex Borstein‘s Susie Myerson, who runs the Gaslight Café, where Midge first begins her stand-up career.

As Susie, Borstein delivers a no-holds-barred performance as she creates an unorthodox, straight-talking, hilarious character who becomes Midges’ manager later in the series. Critics think she is deserving of another Emmy nomination for this fifth and final season of “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.” Among those singing her praises:

Kevin Fallon (The Daily Beast) wrote: “Alex Borstein, who has won two deserved Emmy Awards for her performance as Susie, gives a tour de force this season—which,...

Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.”

Ever since I broke the news that Michelle Yeoh is playing Madame Morrible in Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” movies, she has been saying that the films will mark her singing debut. However, Yeoh’s biggest fans have posted videos on social media of her showing off her vocal chops while singing the theme song of her 1993 movie “Butterfly and Sword.”

Yeoh laughed when I brought it up at the Mandarin Oriental-hosted dinner in honor of her Oscar nomination for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” “That was so many years ago in Taiwan,” she said. At the time, she asked the song’s lyricist to make things simple for her. “I said to him, ‘I don’t sing, and I don’t speak Mandarin. Can you please not have many words?’” Yeoh recalled. “But then the first time he showed me, I was like,...

Dancing With The Stars lost some celebrated alumni in 2022, and they have been remembered as the year came to a close. Dancing With The Stars has aired for 31 seasons, and some of the most beloved celebrities have competed for the coveted Mirrorball Trophy. Since the show began, several contestants have passed away, including Florence Henderson, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, and Mary Wilson. Each of these women brought their unique talents to the dance floor, and impressed audiences with their routines.

In 2022, the DWTS cast suffered several terrible and shocking losses, including So You Think You Can Dance alum and judge Stephen "tWitch" Boss, who took his own life at the age of 40. Although he never appeared on DWTS, his wife Allison Holker was a professional dancer on the show, and he had many friends there. He also knew several of the dancers from their time on Sytycd. The DWTS cast...

Si Litvinoff, the visionary producer behind Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and the Nicolas Roeg-directed films The Man Who Fell to Earth and the Australian New Wave classic Walkabout, has died. He was 93.

Litvinoff died peacefully Dec. 26 in Los Angeles, his friend Shade Rupe announced. Rupe interviewed him for the Blu-ray release of Litvinoff’s groundbreaking 1968 film The Queen, which revolves around a national drag queen contest.

Litvinoff also produced the London-set All the Right Noises (1970), starring Olivia Hussey, Tom Bell and Judy Carne, and executive produced a Roeg-directed documentary about the 1972 Glastonbury Fayre music festival that featured performances by Traffic, Fairport Convention, Melanie and Arthur Brown.

In 1965, Litvinoff optioned Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange for a reported 500 and sent the book to Kubrick. While paying for screenplays by Burgess, Terry Southern and Michael Cooper, the producer sought Mick Jagger to star in it, all while Kubrick...

David Davis, a veteran comedy writer who co-created the indelible ensemble comedies “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Taxi,” died Nov. 4 in Los Angeles.

Davis’ death was confirmed Saturday by his daughter, Samantha Davis-Friedman. Survivors also include his wife of many decades, “Rhoda” star Julie Kavner, now best known as the voice of Marge Simpson from Fox’s “The Simpsons.”

Davis was known for his work in the Mtm Television stable. He wrote for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Rhoda” and in addition to helping to craft two Hall of Fame sitcoms. After retiring from writing in 1979, Davis worked as a consultant on TV and film projects including the ABC TV series “Phenom” and noted pics including 1987’s “Broadcast News” and the 1983 Oscar winner “Terms of Endearment.”

Born in Brooklyn in 1936, Davis got his start in TV as a script supervisor on such early 1960s comedies as “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis...

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David Davis, the Emmy-winning writer and producer whose heyday in the 1970s included invaluable work on the enduring network sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi, has died. He was 86.

Davis died Friday in Los Angeles, his daughter Samantha Davis-Friedman told The Hollywood Reporter.

Survivors include his wife, actress Julie Kavner, best known as the voice of Marge Simpson on The Simpsons. Davis recommended her for the part of Brenda Morgenstern, Valerie Harper‘s insecure sister on Rhoda — it was her first paying job as an actress — and they were together since 1976.

Rhoda “gave me my life, it gave me my career, it gave me the love of my life, David Davis,” Kavner said in a 2009 interview.

A member of the Mtm Enterprises production company founded by Grant Tinker and Mary Tyler Moore, Davis started out on Mtm’s inaugural series,...

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Michael Callan, the actor and dancer who portrayed Riff in the original Broadway production of West Side Story before starring in such films as Gidget Goes Hawaiian, The Interns and Cat Ballou, has died. He was 86.

Callan died Monday night of pneumonia at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his daughter Rebecca Goodman told The Hollywood Reporter.

A contract player at Columbia Pictures, Callan made about a dozen movies at the studio, starting with They Came to Cordura (1959), a Western starring Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth, Van Heflin and Tab Hunter.

On the 1966-67 NBC comedy Occasional Wife, Callan starred as a confirmed bachelor who sets up a woman (Patricia Harty) in an upstairs apartment so she can pose as his wife in order to help him advance at the baby food company where he works. (His boss believes...

Dancing With the Stars is honoring one of its own.  The Disney+ reality series added actress Anne Heche's name to the show's memorial star, which appears on the iconic DWTS dance floor. The actress, who died Aug. 11, has her name listed alongside other deceased contestants, including Florence Henderson, Valerie Harper and Mary Wilson, who competed on seasons 11, 17 and 28, respectively. DWTS senior producer Adam Raia confirmed the tribute on his Instagram Story Sept. 19, writing, "Some of the greats that have passed away." The Six Days Seven Nights star appeared on the competition show's 29th season back in 2020, where her and her...

One year after losing the Best Comedy Supporting Actress Emmy to her “Ted Lasso” castmate Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple has now earned an immediate second shot at the gold. If she triumphs this time, “Ted Lasso” will become the fifth series to produce multiple winners in the category after “Caesar’s Hour” (Nanette Fabray and Pat Carroll), “Bewitched” (Alice Pearce and Marion Lorne), “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Cheers” (Rhea Perlman and Bebe Neuwirth).

Temple has played model-turned-pr consultant Keeley Jones since “Ted Lasso” first premiered in August 2020. Her episode submission, “Midnight Train to Royston,” serves as the penultimate chapter of the Apple TV+ show’s sophomore season. In the installment, Keeley prepares for a Vanity Fair photoshoot by shopping for new outfits with Nate Shelley (Nick Mohammed). Partway through the errand, she graciously rebuffs an impulsive kiss from Nate, who harbors feelings for her despite the fact that she is dating his coworker,...

Over the course of 47 years, “Saturday Night Live” has amassed 94 acting Emmy nominations, 40 of which have gone to series regulars. Nine of these belong to Kate McKinnon, who, since surpassing Kristen Wiig in 2018, has held the record among all “SNL” repertory players for most TV academy notices. The NBC sketch show’s longest-serving female cast member just concluded her 11-season tenure and is now seeking her third Best Comedy Supporting Actress trophy, having bagged her first two in 2016 and 2017. If she succeeds, she will follow Valerie Harper (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”), Rhea Perlman (“Cheers”), Laurie Metcalf (“Roseanne”) and Doris Roberts (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) as the category’s fifth triple champion.

McKinnon has submitted “Host: Natasha Lyonne,” the 47th season finale, for Emmy consideration. Her swan song performance consists of appearances in the episode’s first and last sketches, with the former constituting the sixth reprisal of her Colleen Rafferty character.

ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” made the grade with Emmy voters this year, with the freshman comedy about a Philadelphia elementary school scoring seven Emmy nominations, including Best Comedy Series and Best Comedy Actress and Best Comedy Writing for the show’s star and creator, Quinta Brunson. However, there can be little argument that the show’s breakout character was Ava Coleman, the outrageous and outrageously inept principal played by Janelle James.

James’s work has earned her a nomination for Best Comedy Supporting Actress, her first Emmy bid. She is nominated alongside her “Abbott Elementary” co-star Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Ted Lasso” actors Hannah Waddingham (last year’s winner), Juno Temple and Sarah Niles, Hannah Einbinder of “Hacks,” and previous winners Alex Borstein (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) and Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”).

While James’s character steals every scene she’s in, the actress has a singular showcase in the...

Anne Heche has found her final resting place among Hollywood’s brightest stars.

According to the actress’ death certificate, obtained by Et, Heche’s body was cremated on Aug. 18 at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, where she will also be buried. Details on a burial or a memorial service have not been shared.

Heche was taken off life support on Aug. 14 after getting into a serious car accident a week prior in Los Angeles. She was 53.

Founded in 1899, the Hollywood Forever cemetery is known as an iconic place of showbiz history where hundreds of screen legends have found their final resting place. Among them: Judy Garland, Cecil B. DeMille, Rudolph Valentino, Mickey Rooney, Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone, Valerie Harper, Anton Yelchin, Chris Cornell and more, alongside thousands more Los Angeles community residents and individuals from around the world.

In addition to serving as a cemetery and funeral home,...

HBO’s “The Last Movie Stars,” Ethan Hawkes’ exceptional six-part series on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, works on so many levels. For baby boomers who grew up watching the Oscar-winning couple, the series is a strong emotional tug at the heartstrings. For actors and those who love acting, it’s a primer on the craft. For those who love and admire the fact they remained married for 50 years, it’s a perceptive depiction of the highs, lows and struggles of a marriage. And by peeling away the legend of their union, you end up admiring and loving Newman and Woodward more than ever. And be prepared to blubber several times in the final episode.

The couple collaborated on 16 movies and three plays. And in honor of “The Last Movie Stars,” here’s a look at several of those projects.

The two fell in love while working on William Inge’s 1953 Pulitzer-Prize-winning romantic drama ‘Picnic.

It’s hard out there for former child actors. Often, a lot have ended up tabloid fodder or have tragically died at a young age. Others have found a career on the reality show circuit -remember Vh-!’s “The Surreal Life” and “Celebrity Fit Club”? And the recent edition of The Food Network’s “Worst Cooks in America, Celebrity Edition” featured former child stars from the 1980s.

But transitioning to adult roles has been getting easier as witnessed in the 2022 Emmy nominations. Numerous nominees began their careers as child or teen actors including Jason Bateman (“Ozark”); Nicholas Braun (“Succession”); Kaley Cuoco (“The Flight Attendant”); Elle Fanning (“The Great”); Melanie Lynskey (“Yellow Jackets”); Will Poulter (“Dopesick”); Seth Rogen (“Pam & Tommy”); Juno Temple (“Ted Lasso”); Christopher Walken (“Severance”); Tyler James Williams (“Abbott Elementary”); Reese Witherspoon (“The Morning Show”); and Zendaya (“Euphoria”).

A lot of these actors started taking control of their careers at a young age.

It’s been half a century since Johnny Carson hosted the 24th Emmy ceremony on CBS on May 14, 1972. It was a year in which now-classic comedies battled it out and records were set, PBS had its first strong showing, Oscar-winning actresses were rivals and daytime-themed Emmys were awarded for the first time. Read on for our Emmys flashback 50 years ago to 1972.

Norman Lear‘s groundbreaking sitcom “All in the Family” had won Best Comedy Series for its freshman season in 1971; it held onto that title for its second year, and would win again in 1973 and 1978. The biggest competition for this award was another groundbreaking comedy that had premiered the year before, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which would eventually claim victory in 1975, 1976 and 1977. The remaining nominees were “The Odd Couple,” also in its second season, and “Sanford and Son,” for its freshman outing. “All in the Family” and “Mtm” would...

“Ted Lasso’s” Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple could join an elite club if they both manage to repeat getting nominated for Best Comedy Supporting Actress this year. The Apple TV Plus featured players would become the 13th duo to score multiple Emmy nominations in that category at the same time. Waddingham, the category’s reigning Emmy champ, plays AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton, while Temple, who earned a bid last year, takes on the role of marketing manager Keeley Jones.

The first show to give us this kind of combination was “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and it gave us two different pairs. From 1971 to 1974, both Valerie Harper and Cloris Leachman were nominated. Harper claimed the award the first three times while Leachman got hers in 1974. Later in the show’s run, Betty White and Georgia Engel both scored back-to-back noms in 1976 and 1977. White won in 1976 but both would...

Legendary comedian Betty White died on Friday at the age of 99, having left a legacy of indelible sitcom hits that includes “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Golden Girls.”

White’s career was also notable for its longevity, and she worked well into her tenth decade. Todd Milliner, an executive producer on TV Land’s “Hot in Cleveland,” was able to observe the master comedian and actress up close as she became one of the only octogenarians to experience an improbable career resurgence. As Elka Ostrovsky, the widowed caretaker of the Ohio manor where the show’s three coastal refugees take up residence, White got all the best lines. She was saucy, cranky, sexually liberated and maintained a rebel spirit; her character enjoyed bending the law and, it was hinted, was averse to a good toke.

For Milliner, “Hot in Cleveland” presented a chance to work with a legend...

In the early 1970s, Valerie Harper set a precedent among TV supporting actresses by winning three consecutive Emmys as Rhoda Morgenstern on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Her character’s popularity led to the spinoff series “Rhoda” in 1974, and she ended up taking home a lead acting prize for the show’s inaugural season. This made her the first performer to earn nominations as one character across multiple categories for multiple programs. In the nearly five decades since, 11 more actors have joined the group, including three more double winners.

Harper was first followed by two of her “Mary Tyler Moore Show” castmates: Cloris Leachman (1976) and Ed Asner (1978). Their respective characters, Phyllis Lindstrom and Lou Grant, were promoted to lead placement on spinoffs of their own, which were appropriately titled “Phyllis” and “Lou Grant.” Leachman won as a supporting actress (1974) and a guest performer (1975) for the original series but never for her own show.

Sondra James, a character actor who has appeared in film, TV and onstage over the past four decades with the likes of Ben Affleck, Robert De Niro, Christopher Lloyd, Mike Birbiglia and Joaquin Phoenix in his Oscar-winning role in 2019’s Joker, died September 12 in her native New York City after a five-month battle with lung cancer. She was 82.

The news was confirmed Monday by her manager Carolyn Anthony of Anthony & Associates Ltd.

James, made her feature film debut in Woody Allen’s 1995 pic Mighty Aphrodite, setting off a string of big-screen acting and voice credits that included Alfie, Taking Woodstock, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, The Dictator, Robots, Don’t Think Twice, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Climb and as Dr. Sally in Todd Phillips’ Joker.

Her last film credit is a role in the George Clooney-directed The Tender Bar, starring Affleck and Lloyd and due out next year.

On TV, James’ credits included Law & Order,...

Irma Kalish, a prolific comedy writer who blazed trails for women in television with a career that stretched from radio to 1980s sitcoms, died Monday in Woodland Hills due to complications from pneumonia. She was 96.

Kalish worked on a wide range of series, from “My Favorite Martian” and “Gilligan’s Island” to “All in the Family,” “Maude” and “The Bob Newhart Show.” She was also an active member of the Writers Guild of America West and had a long tenure as a board member and as vice president. She spent 20 years on the board of the Motion Picture and Television Fund and she was an early president of Women in Film.

Kalish was a partner in life and work with her husband, Austin “Rocky” Kalish, for seven decades until his death in 2016 at age 95. The two got their start together in radio as writers for “The Martin & Lewis Show” starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

Good night, Lou.

Ed Asner, the famed character actor, activist and union leader who died Sunday at the age of 91, was the last surviving member of original core cast of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

The ground-breaking sitcom that ran on CBS from 1970 to 1977 led Asner to become the first TV actor to play the same character in a comedy, “Mary Tyler Moore’s” irascible Wjm-tv news director Lou Grant, and in the CBS drama “Lou Grant,” where Asner took center stage as a new incarnation of the Grant character in Los Angeles as a big-city newspaper editor.

In the “Mary Tyler Moore” pilot, Asner’s Grant delivers one of the classic TV comedy lines of all time as he interviews Moore’s eager Mary Richards for the associate producer job at Minneapolis’ TV station. “You’ve got spunk,” Grant tells Richards. With the perfect timing that came from his early stage experience,...

The television landscape was changing when the 23rd Emmy Awards took place at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood on May 9, 1971, with Johnny Carson as host. History was made in more than one way that night.

NBC’s “The Flip Wilson Show,” the first comedy-variety series hosted by an African-American, won the genre and writing awards. Wilson shared in both victories. And Mark Warren became the first black helmer to win an Emmy for his direction of NBC’s “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.”

George C. Scott, who had declined the Oscar just 24 days earlier for “Patton,” didn’t attend the Emmys either. However he didn’t turn down this award for his leading role in NBC’s “Hallmark Hall of Fame” presentation of Arthur Miller’s “The Price.” Jack Cassidy accepted on his behalf. David Burns, who had died two months earlier of a heart attack during a stage performance of the musical “70, Girls,...

Hello, everyone! As we begin to look forward to a new month, we have one last round of home media releases coming our way to finish out the last few days of June first. Prospect, one of this writer’s favorite indie sci-fi films of the last few years, is getting the 4K treatment from Vinegar Syndrome and Gunpowder & Sky, and Scream Factory has put together a Limited Edition Steelbook for Battle Beyond the Stars. Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for June 29th include Night Terror (Aka Night Drive), Scare Us, and Night Things.

Battle Beyond the Stars: Limited Edition Steelbook

Seven mercenaries are recruited from throughout the galaxy to save a peaceful planet from the threat of an evil tyrant bent on dominating the entire universe. Among them are a lizard-like humanoid, a space cowboy, a female warrior and a brooding killer-for-hire.

Bonus Content:

2K Scan of the...

SAG-AFTRA’s national election committee has reminded employers — including agents, managers, casting directors and producers — that they’re prohibited under federal labor from contributing anything of value to any candidate for SAG-AFTRA elected office. The same notice goes out every two years prior to the union’s national elections, which will be held this summer.

This prohibition, the committee said, includes “indirect contributions of anything of value to a candidate’s campaign, as well as direct, monetary contributions. It includes the use of any employer resources to support the candidacy of the member running for office. For example, the use of an employer’s office or office equipment without charge, as well as a social media posting of support on an employer’s website, has been construed to be an impermissible contribution by an employer.”

The U.S. Department of Labor has oversight authority over all union elections, and the committee...

Arlene Golonka, the bubbly actress who starred on Broadway before working behind the counter at Boysinger’s Bakery on The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D. has died. She was 85.

Golonka died early Monday morning in her sleep at a memory care facility in West Hollywood after a battle with Alzheimer’s, her niece Stephanie Morton-Millstein told The Hollywood Reporter.

Early in her career, Golonka shared a New York apartment with Valerie Harper and played hookers on Broadway in Take Me Along and Kirk Douglas’ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. She also was the object of two brothers’ affection in Neil ...

Arlene Golonka, the bubbly actress who starred on Broadway before working behind the counter at Boysinger’s Bakery on The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D. has died. She was 85.

Golonka died early Monday morning in her sleep at a memory care facility in West Hollywood after a battle with Alzheimer’s, her niece Stephanie Morton-Millstein told The Hollywood Reporter.

Early in her career, Golonka shared a New York apartment with Valerie Harper and played hookers on Broadway in Take Me Along and Kirk Douglas’ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. She also was the object of two brothers’ affection in Neil ...

Gavin MacLeod, the actor who starred on the classic sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show and captained The Love Boat, has died at the age of 90.

MacLeod’s nephew Mark See confirmed the actor’s May 29th death to Variety. While no cause of death was provided, See noted that MacLeod’s health had declined in recent months.

Ed Asner, MacLeod’s castmate on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, tweeted following news of the actor’s death, “My heart is broken. Gavin was my brother, my partner in crime (and food) and my comic conspirator.

Gavin MacLeod was a versatile and dependable actor who was a good friend to his co-stars during the seven-season run of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” Ed Asner told Variety in paying tribute to the TV veteran who died Saturday at the age of 90.

MacLeod was an ally to his co-stars in any scene, recalled Asner, who played the voluble Wjm-tv news director Lou Grant on the groundbreaking comedy that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977.

“He made everything easy,” Asner said.

Off the set, MacLeod was also generous. In the years after the “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” Asner and his wife were having marital troubles. MacLeod and his wife, actor Patti Kendig, made a point of reaching out to the couple out of friendship and concern.

“I realized that whenever I was tense, (MacLeod) was there to relieve it,” Asner recalled. “I treasured his friendship.”

MacLeod himself was a lot...