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Tobin Wolf's 1985 animated TV series "ThunderCats" was a very, very odd beast. The titular characters were superpowered humanoid/feline aliens from the planet Thundara, living at an unspecified time in history. The plot follows the ThunderCats after the destruction of Thundara, and their subsequent relocation to a distant world called Third Earth. Third Earth is sparsely populated by benevolent robot teddy bears called Berbils, but is also home to the occasional beasts and monsters. In a faraway cave rests Mumm-Ra (Earl Hammond), an impossibly ancient mummy that aims to take over the world with magic spells. He is able to transform into a muscled wrestler for short spans. 

The six ThunderCats have built a massive mechanical castle on Third Earth, and are led by the royal prince Lion-o (Larry Kenney), who is armed with the mystical Sword of Omens and a magical claw glove. His subjects include the fast-running Cheetara...

The man behind Pee-wee Herman, Paul Reubens (Blow), is ready to truly reveal himself. It’s just unfortunate that his definitive documentary, Pee-wee as Himself, had to come out posthumously.

The HBO Original two-part documentary directed by Matt Wolf premieres Friday, May 23 at 8 p.m. Et/Pt on HBO. Put together, it’s a three-hour, 20-minute portrait of Reubens. And that’s exactly how the two parts will air on linear HBO — together. You can watch them however you want on Max.

Pee-wee as Himself is centered on “a soul-baring interview” with Reubens, per the synopsis, and is “a window into his never-before-discussed personal life.” It was a particularly lengthy soul-baring interview: Pee-wee as Himself is pieced together from more than 40 hours of interview footage filmed before Reubens’ death in 2023. Wolf also had at his disposal more than 1,000 hours of archival footage and “tens of thousands of never-before-seen photographs” from Reubens’ personal collections,...

"He wanted people to see who he was as Paul." HBO has revealed the trailer for Pee-wee as Himself, a two-part documentary presentation coming to Max this May. "For the first time, meet the man behind the character." Starring Paul Reubens, about Paul Reubens, featuring Paul Reubens, in the definitive life story film examining Paul Reubens (and his iconic character Pee-wee Herman). The doc starts out revisiting Reubens' childhood and his desire to be an actor, inspired by the iconic TV shows like "Howdy Doody," "Captain Kangaroo," and "I Love Lucy." Subsuming himself into the character of Pee-wee, Reubens hides his personal life, and recognizes too late that fame makes for a complicated companion... Later, Reubens talks candidly about his fame as a pop culture icon and the lows he endured as he faced rumors, vilification, and the vitriol of the media. With guests including Abby Rubenfeld, Gary Panter Wayne White,...

The HBO Original two-part documentary Pee-wee as Himself, directed by Matt Wolf (HBO’s The Stroll), debuts Friday, May 23 (8:00 p.m.-11:20 p.m. Et/Pt) with both parts airing back-to-back on HBO and will be available to stream on Max.

Driven by a soul-baring interview with Paul Reubens, the man behind the iconic character Pee-wee Herman, Pee-wee as Himself is the definitive portrait of the comedic performer, and a window into his never-before-discussed personal life.

Determined to correct the record and tell the factual story of his life, Reubens excavates his kaleidoscopic influences, origins in the circus and avant-garde performance theater, and career choices, while reflecting on the reasoning behind, and the consequences of, severing his beloved alter ego from his authentic self.

Woven together from over 40 hours of interview footage filmed before Reubens’ premature death in 2023, 1,000 hours of archival footage, and tens of thousands of never-before-seen photographs from his personal collections,...

Two decades ago, in 2006, the team at Shorts International transformed one of the key Oscar races, securing the rights to release all five finalists in the Academy Awards’ animated short category on the big screen and pretty much all devices, from laptops to cell phones. Ergo, the “2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animation” package now in theaters represents the company’s 20th edition. In that time, Carter Pilcher and his crew have enabled the theatrical release of a whopping 99 animated finalists (securing the rights to all but Shane Acker’s “9” in their first year). This year’s program is fairly unique in that there are no glossy, Hollywood-made contenders in the mix, which makes for a broad-ranging survey of what independent artists are doing with the medium at the moment.

The closest thing to a studio-backed submission is director Daisuke Nishio’s “Magic Candies,” made for Toei Animation (the company...

No matter what your favorite shows are now, there's a good chance, no matter if you're a child or in your sixties, that your first favorite show was Sesame Street. As a child of the '80s who grew up on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow, and Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street was always what I loved the most. There was something so magical about what Jim Henson originally helped to create. I was in awe of the puppet characters, and I got to learn so much, from how to count to how to treat others, in every episode.

At first glance, Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3, Episode 18, "The Lights of Zetar" doesn't stand out among other entries in the series. In many ways, it's a very typical episode, as the Enterprise encounters a mysterious problem and needs to discover the source behind it before disaster falls. It arrived late in The Original Series' run, when the formula was well-established, and audiences knew what to expect. It's a solid piece of Star Trek, though it bumps into The Original Series' lingering issues related to sexism. Still, it doesn't appear otherwise notable at first glance.

The story comes with the screenwriting credits: Jeremy Tarcher and Shari Lewis. The second one should be familiar, as it belongs to one of the 20th Century's most beloved children's performers. Lewis and her puppet Lamb Chop entertained generations of children from the 1950s onward. How and why she came to pen an episode...

In the upcoming episode of “Toon in With Me,” viewers are in for a nostalgic treat with the Season 1 premiere titled “Childhood Classics.” The show airs at 7:00 Am on Tuesday, 28 May 2024, on MeTV. Bill takes Toony on a journey through the golden era of children’s television, exploring iconic shows like “Kukla” and “Captain Kangaroo.”

Fans of classic TV will delight in the trip down memory lane as Bill shares insights and fun facts about beloved childhood favorites. The episode promises to be a heartwarming tribute to the shows that shaped many viewers’ early years and continue to hold a special place in their hearts.

“Childhood Classics” is a celebration of innocence, creativity, and the magic of children’s programming that has stood the test of time. As Bill educates Toony about these timeless treasures, audiences of all ages will be reminded of the simple joy and wonder that...

Dan Wilcox, an Emmy-winning writer, producer and longtime union man who penned dozens of M*A*S*H episodes including co-writing its record-setting series finale and had many other TV credits including Sesame Street and Fernwood/America 2-Nite, has died. He was 82.

His niece, Julie Merson Rothenberg, told the WGA that he died February 14 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. No cause was given.

A six-decade WGA member and longtime former board member who was active in the 2007-08 strike, Wilcox was a fierce champion of unions and equal rights. In 2017, he received the Morgan Cox Award in recognition of his exemplary service to the Guild. Wgaw President Howard A. Rodman said at the time: “Dan Wilcox has been, in a sustained and deeply moving way, a voice for the voiceless. His work, at once passionate and effective, has been on behalf of those who might otherwise lack the...

Dan Wilcox, the Emmy-winning TV writer and producer whose work on the last four seasons of M*A*S*H included the acclaimed 1983 series finale that attracted a record 106 million viewers, has died. He was 82.

Wilcox died Feb. 14 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his niece Julie Merson announced.

A WGA member for more than 60 years and a guild board member since 2005, Wilcox won his Emmy in 1970 for Sesame Street, where he met Thad Mumford, who became his longtime writing partner. They worked together on M*A*S*H and received the 1980 WGA award for best episodic comedy.

They also wrote for What’s Happening!!, Alice, The Duck Factory, Good Times and the 1979 ABC miniseries Roots: The Next Generations.

Wilcox was a writer and/or executive story editor on 36 episodes of M*A*S*H from 1979-83 as well as a producer, starting in 1981, on the CBS show’s last two seasons.

The native New Yorker...

Pee-wee’s Playhouse was the culmination of a character created back in the 70s by the multi-talented Paul Reubens. Reubens had joined the comedy group the Groundlings in the 70s. The Groundlings was the jumping-off point for several famous comedians and icons. This would include Phil Hartman, Lisa Kudrow, Cassandra Peterson, Craig T. Nelson, a who’s who list of SNL Alumni, Conan O’Brien, JJ Abrams, and well…just a lot of people.

A number of the troupe who were there when Reubens was a part of the Groundlings would wind up as part of not only Pee-wee’s Playhouse but also other Pee-wee projects. I mean…who can forget Cassandra Peterson, Aka Elvira, as the biker gang badass chick who wanted a go at Pee Wee first?

From his time creating the character at The Groundlings, Reubens had a go for Saturday Night Live which didn’t happen. After this, he...

Actor whose television character Pee-wee Herman delighted children and their parents in the 1980s

One of the most subversive and original figures in 1980s popular culture was a whey-faced, cherry-lipped, matchstick-thin child-man who wore a red bow tie, white tasselled loafers and a shrunken grey suit, and lived in a giant playhouse with sentient furniture and a floating head. This was Pee-wee Herman, created and played by the actor Paul Reubens, who has died aged 70 of cancer.

The character appeared on stage in The Pee-wee Herman Show during the early 1980s but did not become known internationally until the release of the film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), which marked the doolally debut of the director Tim Burton. US cinema in the Reagan era drew heavily on the iconography of the 50s and early 60s, whether for purposes sweet or unsavoury; this big-screen outing for Pee-wee, who was already suffused with the...

"Pee-wee's Playhouse" was an anomaly. It premiered a year after the surprise box office success of Tim Burton's "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," and, like "The Pee-wee Herman Show" before it, seemed to be strictly kids' stuff. But Paul Reubens' overgrown child act uniquely appealed to the inner brat in all of us. It wasn't like Looney Tunes, where artists snuck in adult-skewing references, nor was it a full-on, off-color parody of the kiddie show format that you'd find on "Saturday Night Live." It was honestly, disarmingly, good clean fun. Its target audience could enjoy it over a bowl of Frosted Flakes, while college students and beyond could enjoy it over a bowl of Frosted Flakes preceded by a bowl of ... something else.

A weekly half-hour dose of Pee-wee was bliss in 1986. I'd just started junior high, which is when your action figures are immediately consigned to the attic, so admitting...

Paul Reubens, the creator of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” who starred in several projects as the goofy, child-like Pee-wee Herman including 1985’s “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” has died at age 70, his estate said Monday.

“Last night we said farewell to Paul Reubens, an iconic American actor, comedian, writer and producer whose beloved character Pee-wee Herman delighted generations of children and adults with his positivity, whimsy and belief in the importance of kindness,” his estate posted to Facebook.

“Paul bravely and privately fought cancer for years with his trademark tenacity and wit. A gifted and prolific talent, he will forever live in the comedy pantheon and in our hearts as a treasured friend and man of remarkable character and generosity of spirit,” the post continued.

The actor wrote a posthumous statement explaining why he chose not to disclose his cancer diagnosis. “Please accept my apology for not going public with what I’ve been facing the last six years.

Paul Reubens, the actor best known for portraying the irrepressible, joyfully childlike Pee-wee Herman, died Sunday night after a private bout of cancer. He was 70.

“Please accept my apology for not going public with what I’ve been facing the last six years,” wrote Reubens in a statement posted to Instagram after his death. “I have always felt a huge amount of love and respect from my friends, fans and supporters. I have loved you all so much and enjoyed making art for you.”

The Pee-wee Herman character was known for his bright red bowtie, grey suit and flattop haircut, and delivered his well-known catchphrases like “I know you are, but what am I?” in a distinctive squeaky, high-pitched voice.

“Last night we said farewell to Paul Reubens, an iconic American actor, comedian, writer and producer whose beloved character Pee-wee Herman delighted generations of children and adults with his positivity,...

Lloyd Morrisett, the co-founder of Sesame Street whose curiosity about whether television could serve as a tool to teach children was piqued when he observed his young daughter staring at a TV test pattern, has died. He was 93.

Morrisett’s death was reported by Sesame Workshop. No details of his death were immediately available.

Morrisett, then an experimental educator for the nonprofit Carnegie Corp. of New York, and Joan Ganz Cooney, a producer for a New York public TV station, were the driving forces behind the Children’s Television Workshop, which began in March 1968.

Out of that, Sesame Street debuted on Nov. 10, 1969, reaching more than half of the nation’s 12 million 3- to 5-year-olds in its first season.

At a dinner party hosted by Cooney and her husband in their Manhattan apartment in February 1966, Morrisett, who had a background in psychology, told a story about waking up early on a...

Marvin Josephson, who helped grow a small management company that could not afford a secretary into an international entertainment agency with multiple offices, died May 17 in New York. He was 95.

Josephson was born March 6, 1927 in Atlantic City, N.J. to immigrant parents. Upon graduation from Atlantic City High School, he entered the US Navy just before the end of World War II. After the Navy, he attended Cornell University, where he received a B.A. degree.

He went on to night law school at New York University School of Law and received his law degree in 1952. That same year, Josephson got a job in the CBS legal department. He left CBS to start his own company and was the only employee, since he could not afford a secretary.

The new company started April 1, 1955 as a personal management company. The first important client was Bob Keeshan, who produced and starred in “Captain Kangaroo,...

Veteran actor and frequent scene stealer Bruce Davison joins Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite films.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Extra School (2017)

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Willard (1971) – Joe Dante’s review, Lee Broughton’s Blu-ray review

Fortune And Men’s Eyes (1971)

Short Cuts (1993) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Longtime Companion (1989)

Last Summer (1969) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Short Eyes (1977)

The Manor (2021)

Ulzana’s Raid (1972) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review and All-Region Blu-ray review

King Solomon’s Mines (1950) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)

Them! (1954) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary

Tarantula (1955) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Spartacus (1960) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Ben-Hur (1959) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Psycho (1960) – John Landis’s trailer commentary,...

When Debbie Allen received a call from Television Academy chairman and CEO Frank Scherma saying she’d been selected to receive the 2021 Governors Award, the entertainer was totally shocked.

“It took my breath away a bit,” Allen tells Variety.

Over the course of her illustrious four-decade career as an actor, dancer, choreographer, director and producer, Allen has earned a boatload of awards, including five Emmys — two for “Fame” and another for “Motown 30: What’s Goin’ On!” and two more won Sunday for “Christmas on the Square.” But Allen considers the Governors Award to be particularly meaningful — signaling that her body of work has resonated with the world community of television.

“To see that the value of your work stands tall says that I have to keep doing it. Time is what I’m up against. I have so much to do. It’s not a moment to rest on laurels.

CBS News wants to spread some of its venerable newsmagazine “Sunday Morning” to other days of the week.

Starting September 7, the entire CBS morning schedule will be treated as a larger franchise, with weekdays and Saturdays featuring some of the in-depth and longform features for which the Sunday show — a TV-news institution — is best known.

The weekday program, which features Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and new co-host Nate Burleson, will be retitled “CBS Mornings,” and will be part of a lineup that includes “CBS Saturday Morning” and “CBS Sunday Morning.” Once known as “CBS This Morning,” the show will continue to highlight the breaking news of the day and the interactions of its hosts, but place new emphasis on longform stories in its second hour. The Saturday and Sunday shows, hosted by Jeff Glor, Dana Jacobson and Michelle Miller and by Jane Pauley, respectively, will continue with the formats to which their viewers are accustomed.

Beloved American ventriloquist Shari Lewis and her popular sock puppet Lamb Chop will be the subject of a new documentary feature from White Horse Pictures and MoJo Global Arts.

“Shari & Lamb Chop” will be directed by Emmy-nominated Lisa D’Apolito, director of “Love, Gilda,” the documentary about the late Saturday Night Live comedian Gilda Radner.

As a young female ventriloquist with big aspirations, Shari Lewis was searching for a voice who could say things that a young woman in the 1950s could not, and found it in a sock puppet named Lamb Chop. The duo debuted on CBS children’s television series “Captain Kangaroo” in 1956 and went on to attain cultural icon status in the U.S. by the end of the 20th century.

Lewis died in 1998. The documentary will examine her journey, which included winning 13 Emmys and a Peabody and authoring 60 children’s books, and her impact on children’s...

Gene Deitch has passed away. He was 95-years old. Deitch led a long career as an Academy Award winning illustrator, animator, director, and producer. He is best-known for Munro, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1960 and for directing episodes of the iconic Tom and Jerry cartoon series. Deitch passed away on Thursday, April 16th in his apartment in Prague, according to his publisher. No cause of death has been revealed at this time.

Along with his Munro Academy Award, Gene Deitch was nominated twice in 1964 for Here's Nudnik and How to Avoid Friendship. Before those projects, Deitch created the early animated Tom Terrific series, which was presented as part of the Captain Kangaroo children's television show. Tom Terrific was made as twenty-six stories split into five parts, with one five-minute episode broadcast per day. The first thirteen stories were finished in 1957, with the second set...

George Schweitzer remembers the time he had to break the news to CBS founder William S. Paley that the Tiffany Network had struck a promotional deal … with the not-so-Tiffany department store chain Kmart.

“I was scared to death,” says Schweitzer, the CBS marketing head who officially retires on April 15. “He was the chairman emeritus at that time, but he was still coming to the office and was a spiritual and superhero presence. I told him, ‘I value and appreciate the Tiffany Network, but in order to get more viewers, we’re doing this exciting new promotion with a retailer, Kmart.’ And he kind of looked at me quizzically like, gosh, obviously he’s never been to Kmart!”

But Paley gave his blessing — “and I ran out of there as fast as I could. Because he was a businessman and a showman, he got it.”

During his 48 years at CBS,...

George Schweitzer has enjoyed a broad career out of a very narrow practice. He finds new ways to get people to watch more TV.

Those methods can range wide. He once tucked a paper-thin interactive video player into the pages of Entertainment Weekly so readers could sample new CBS shows. He got supermarkets to use a technology known as “Visual Ice” that would fog up freezer doors in supermarkets with tune-in information about a new CBS drama, “Moonlight.”He had logos from CBS shows laser-encoded on more than 35 million eggs to promote the network’s 2006-07 season. He did something similar the following year with wrappers tucked around turkey and ham at supermarket-deli counters. He had a hand in getting David Letterman and Jay Leno to sit down for a promo during CBS’ 2010 broadcast of the Super Bowl that made jaws drop.

Now Schweitzer is testing one more trick: orchestrating a departure.

Arte Johnson, who won an Emmy for his memorable work on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and worked in TV and film for nearly half a century, died early Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, his family said announced. He was 90 and had battled bladder and prostate cancer for the past three years.

Johnson earned three consecutive Emmy noms for Laugh-In from 1969-71, winning the first year. He was part of the politically tinged NBC sketch series’ main cast from its launch in January 1968 until 1971, playing myriad characters in the show that launched the careers of such stars as Lily Tomlin, Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan, Henry Gibson, Jo Anne Worley and many others.

Among his most popular characters was Wolfgang, a cigarette-smoking German soldier who believed that World War II was still ongoing, as he scouted the show while hidden behind bushes. He would then invariably comment on the preceding sketch...

Review by Roger Carpenter

For 33 months in the late 70’s New York City became the epicenter for perhaps the most famous nightclub in the world. Birthed from the dreams of a couple of twenty-somethings and miraculously constructed in mere weeks, the rise and ultimate fall of the hottest discotheque in the world—Studio 54—is the stuff of legend.

Originally constructed as an opera house in 1927, there were a succession of owners until CBS Studios purchased the property in 1943. There the studio broadcast some of its most famous game shows like What’s My Line? and The $64,000 Question, as well as The Jack Benny Show and even Captain Kangaroo until they moved to a new location and started shopping the property around.

Enter two young hotshots named Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, who purchased the property and proceeded to renovate it with the backing of Jack Dushey. Rubell was a brash entrepreneur while Schrager,...

Growing up among his native Brooklyn’s brick-and-fire-escape facades in the 1930’s, production designer-to-be Albert Brenner often dreamed of the wide open spaces depicted in his favorite Saturday-matinee Westerns. At 16, he landed his first “art job”: dressing windows for a New York City department store.

Two years later, Brenner swapped mannequins for military service and flew in B-24 bombers until World War II ended in 1945. On the G.I. Bill, he attended Yale University, graduating with skills in drafting, and went into summer stock theater under designer Samuel Leve, toiling away on plays like “The Fifth Season” and gaining a union card in the process.

He developed his designer chops in New York on TV shows like “The Phil Silvers Show,” “Car 54, Where Are You?” “Captain Kangaroo” and “Playhouse 90.” His first day on the Silvers show, where he eventually earned $250 a week, was nearly his last, when he...

Mark Wahlberg recently appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show where he revealed that one of his latest projects involves bringing back the children's educational TV series Captain Kangaroo.

The series ran weekday mornings on the American television network CBS from October 3, 1955 to December 8, 1984. It is the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program of its day. When asked about the project, Wahlberg said:

"I’ve been trying to figure out cool ways to get my kids to be interested in science, technology, engineering. So I was thinking about what made me interested in school was Captain Kangaroo, which ran for 30 years."

I've known about Captain Kangaroo but I have no recollection of watching it when I was a kid. The series centered around the captain telling stories, interviewing guests and participating in stunts with recurring characters that were both humans and puppets. The actor goes on to say:

"We are bringing...

Mark Wahlberg revealed Wednesday that he is currently in the process of bringing back the children’s educational TV series Captain Kangaroo with his non-scripted production company Unrealistic Ideas.

“I’ve been trying to figure out cool ways to get my kids to be interested in science, technology, engineering,” he said while visiting The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “So I was thinking about what made me interested in school was Captain Kangaroo, which ran for 30 years.”

The original Captain Kangaroo aired weekday mornings on CBS from 1955 until 1984. Episodes often included the captain telling stories, meeting guests and ...

Beloved and acclaimed soap opera writer, Claire Labine, passed away last week, at the age of 82. Labine got her start in another genre of daytime TV, writing for the children's program, Captain Kangaroo from 1966 to 1968. The nine-time Emmy winner went on to create Ryan's Hope with Paul Avila Mayer. The soap ran for 13 years on ABC. The network eventually cancelled it, in January of 1989.Labine and Mayer first worked together in 1973 on the daytime drama, Where the Heart Is. CBS cancelled it after four years, in 1973. The network then named her co-head writer on Love of Life, which ran from 1951 to 1980. In 1993, Labine took the reins of ABC's General Hospital. She gave fans the Sonny (Maurice Benard) and Brenda (Vanessa Marcil) super-couple, as well...

Claire Labine, a nine-time daytime Emmy winner who created Ryan's Hope for ABC and wrote for numerous other soaps over her career died this week from undisclosed causes. She was 82. An alum of the University of Kentucky and Columbia University's School of Dramatic Arts, Labine began her writing career in the 1960s with a stint on Captain Kangaroo. After being fired two years into the job, she moved into Soaps, writing for CBS’s Where The Heart Is where, within 2 years…...

TV writer and producer, Tom Whedon, father of TV and screenwriter Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Angel, Firefly, Marvel's The Avengers), musician and writer Jed Whedon (Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog), and writer Zack Whedon (Deadwood, Halt and Catch Fire), died on March 23, 2016, at the age of 83. Jed announced the news late yesterday, on Instagram.

A producer on It's a Living, Benson, Maggie, The Golden Girls, and The Sinbad Show , Mr. Whedon's TV series writing credits includes those shows and many more. His professional career began on the Captain Kangaroo TV show, in the 1950s. Other TV credits include Music Scene, The Dick Cavett Show, The Electric Company (on which he was head writer), All's Fair, United States, The Two of Us, and the children's series, Between the Lions, for which he was nominated for a Daytime Emmy.

Read More…...

Tom Whedon, an Emmy-winning writer-producer on such popular TV shows as The Golden Girls, Benson and Alice and the father of filmmaker Joss Whedon, died Thursday. He was 83. His son Jed Whedon, co-creator and co-showrunner of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., announced the news in an Instagram post but offered no details. A New York native and the son of TV writer John Whedon, Tom Whedon got his start writing for the beloved children’s series Captain Kangaroo in 1955 and…...

Tom Whedon, a veteran TV writer and producer who worked on shows including The Golden Girls and Captain Kangaroo, died Thursday at 83, his son Jed announced.

Whedon was father to five sons, including Avengers director and Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. writer-producer Jed, Halt and Catch Fire writer Zack Whedon, Samuel and Matthew.

"We said goodbye to our dad yesterday," Jed, 41, wrote on Instagram Friday. "He passed away in relative peace surrounded by his wife, all five of his boys and their loved ones. He gave us the gift of his warmth and humor. We miss him terribly.

Tom Whedon, a veteran TV writer and producer who worked on shows including The Golden Girls and Captain Kangaroo, died Thursday at 83, his son Jed announced. Whedon was father to five sons, including Avengers director and Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. writer-producer Jed, Halt and Catch Fire writer Zack Whedon, Samuel and Matthew. "We said goodbye to our dad yesterday," Jed, 41, wrote on Instagram Friday. "He passed away in relative peace surrounded by his wife, all five of his boys and their loved ones. He gave us the gift of his warmth and humor. We miss him terribly.

Tom Whedon, a veteran TV writer and producer who worked on shows including The Golden Girls and Captain Kangaroo, died Thursday at 83, his son Jed announced. Whedon was father to five sons, including Avengers director and Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. writer-producer Jed, Halt and Catch Fire writer Zack Whedon, Samuel and Matthew. "We said goodbye to our dad yesterday," Jed, 41, wrote on Instagram Friday. "He passed away in relative peace surrounded by his wife, all five of his boys and their loved ones. He gave us the gift of his warmth and humor. We miss him terribly.

A look back and a final farewell to the notable entertainment celebrities who died in 2013. Cosmo Allegretti (b. 1927) (actor) Allegretti was an actor and puppeteer on Captain Kangaroo, working his way up from set painter. He made and voiced puppets, including Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose, and also played Dancing Bear in a full costume. Patty Andrews (b. 1918) (singer) As part of the famed and influential Andrews Sisters singing group, Patty Andrews contributed as a mezzo-soprano to the trio’s close harmony popularity during the swing era and beyond. Patty and her sisters began their fame with hits in … Continue reading →

The post Remembrances 2013 appeared first on Channel Guide Magazine.

Kumar Pallana, an Indian character actor with small parts in movies such as The Terminal and The Royal Tennenbaums, died suddenly Oct. 10 at the home he shared with his son in Oakland, Calif. He was 94. "He lived life to the fullest," said his daughter Sandhya Pallana of Dallas, who confirmed the death to the Associated Press. "It was really wonderful how well he was received and how well he was liked and that people appreciated his unique and creative style." Pallana was a yoga instructor living in Dallas in the mid-1990s when he met Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson,...

Indian-born actor who brought his ingenuous charm to the hit films of Wes Anderson

Some film-makers have lucky-mascot actors who are occasionally to be spotted in small roles in their movies – for instance Dick Miller in the work of Joe Dante or Jack Nance returning repeatedly to David Lynch. It's a film geeks' in-joke, a cinephiles' game of Where's Wally? For Wes Anderson, one of the most original Us film-makers to emerge in the last 20 years, that position was filled on four occasions by the delightful and guileless Kumar Pallana, who has died aged 94.

Pallana appeared in Anderson's first three, reputation-forging movies. He played the useless safecracker Kumar in the director's 1996 debut, Bottle Rocket ("Man, I blew it," he sighs memorably as the police close in. "I blew it, man.") He was the school caretaker Mr Littlejeans in Rushmore (1998), Anderson's masterpiece. And he took his most prominent role as Pagoda,...

Kumar Pallana, who stole many a scene as an actor in Wes Anderson’s films, died Thursday at the age of 94, according to a post on his son’s Facebook page.

A frequent supporting player in Anderson’s films, Pallana appeared in small but memorable parts as Kumar in Bottle Rocket, Mr. LittleJeans in Rushmore, Pagoda in The Royal Tenenbaums, and as the Old Man in The Darjeeling Limited. The director met Pallana as a customer at a coffee shop owned by Pallana’s son, called Cosmic Cup in Dallas, and first cast him in 1996′s Bottle Rocket. Pallana went...

Actor and frequent Wes Anderson collaborator Kumar Pallana has died at the age of 94.

Anderson, who discovered Pallana at a diner that he and confederate Owen Wilson frequented, cast him in his feature film debut "Bottle Rocket" (Pallana was 80 at the time). Pallana would follow up that performance as the groundskeeper Mr. LittleJeans in "Rushmore" and Gene Hackman's sidekick and spy Pagoda in "The Royal Tenenbaums." He later had a brief role in Anderson's "The Darjeeling Limited."

As the Av Club notes, Pallana was born in colonial India and first made a name for himself as a vaudevillian known as Kumar of India, appearing on "Captain Kangaroo" in 1961 (he was spinning plates, of course). By the time Anderson rediscovered Pallana he was working in his son's coffee shop in Dallas, Texas.

Outside of the Wes Anderson universe, Pallana starred in Steven Spielberg's "The Terminal" and gave a wonderfully...

Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris have been hired to direct a film that centers on PBS' Mister Rogers. It looks like this is going to be a different film project than the one announced a few months ago. That one is called A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and it came from a spec script written by Alexis Jolly. This movie is based on Tim Madigan’s memoir I’m Proud of You, and it was adapted by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster. The story follows "a jaded and distracted husband and father whose life changes when he meets Mister Rogers."

LIke many of you I grew up watching Mister Rogers, and he deserves a great movie based on his life. It looks like he'll get more than one which is cool.

He studied music and theology and became an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church...

So many kids grew up loving Captain Kangaroo—and Gus "Cosmo" Allegretti played a big part in that. The actor and puppeteer, responsible for such characters as Mr. Bunny Rabbit, Grandfather Clock and Dancing Bear on the classic children's show, died July 26 in Arizona. He was 86 and had emphysema, friend and attorney John Munzel told reporters Allegretti was working as a set painter on Captain Kangaroo but ultimately became talent after he volunteered to create a replacement for someone else's puppet. Captain Kangaroo was the longest-running nationally broadcast children's show of its day, airing on CBS from 1955 until 1984 with Bob Keeshan in the title...

New York — Cosmo Allegretti, who created and voiced puppet characters like Grandfather Clock and Dancing Bear on the children's television show "Captain Kangaroo," has died. He was 86.

Allegretti, who had homes in Hampton Bays, N.Y., and New River, Ariz., died of emphysema on July 26 in Arizona, his attorney and friend John Munzel said Wednesday.

Allegretti had been a puppeteer but was working as a set painter in the early days of "Captain Kangaroo." He volunteered to make a replacement when the show was dissatisfied with a puppet created by a professional. He gave life to characters Bunny Rabbit, Mister Moose, Rollo the Hippopotamus, Miss Worm, Cornelius the Walrus, Dennis the Apprentice and others. The show, starring Bob Keeshan, started on CBS in 1955 and aired for more than 30 years.

As an actor, Allegretti appeared in films including "Prince of the City."...

Cosmo Allegretti, who created and voiced puppet characters like Grandfather Clock and Dancing Bear on the children's television show Captain Kangaroo, has died. He was 86.

Allegretti, who had homes in Hampton Bays, N.Y., and New River, Ariz., died of emphysema on July 26 in Arizona, his attorney and friend John Munzel said Wednesday.

Allegretti had been a puppeteer but was working as a set painter in the early days of Captain Kangaroo. He volunteered to make a replacement when the show was dissatisfied with a puppet created by a professional. He gave life to characters Bunny Rabbit, Mister Moose, Rollo the Hippopotamus,...

Cosmo Allegretti, who created and voiced puppet characters like Grandfather Clock and Dancing Bear on the children's television show Captain Kangaroo, has died. He was 86. Allegretti, who had homes in Hampton Bays, N.Y., and New River, Ariz., died of emphysema on July 26 in Arizona, his attorney and friend John Munzel said Wednesday.Allegretti had been a puppeteer but was working as a set painter in the early days of Captain Kangaroo. He volunteered to make a replacement when the show was dissatisfied with a puppet created by a professional. He gave life to characters Bunny Rabbit, Mister Moose, Rollo the Hippopotamus,...

He loomed large to generations of young TV watchers - but turns out he was really only a size 40. Artifacts from the Captain Kangaroo show, a CBS morning fixture from 1955 to 1984, are going on the auction block May 21, the Los Angeles-based Nate D. Sanders Auctions announced Monday. The Captain's trademark navy blue jacket jacket with brass buttons, oversized pockets and gray piping is included in a list of more than 500 items to be sold to the highest bidder. Later, once color TV became popular, the Captain donned a red jacket - also for sale. On the show, the soft-spoken Captain with a familiar mustache,...

Several generations of kids grew up with Lamb Chop -- the sassy little sock puppet who debuted on "Captain Kangaroo" in 1957, coming to life on the hand of ventriloquist Shari Lewis. During the 1960s, Lewis and Lamb Chop had their own musical-comedy network television show and made countless appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show." In 1992, the duo launched the PBS children's show, "Lamb Chop's Play-Along," which won Emmy Awards for five consecutive years.

Lewis died in 1998 and after a brief career hiatus, Lamb Chop went back to work -- this time sharing the spotlight with Shari's daughter, Mallory Lewis. Huff/Post50 caught up with Lamb Chop and Mallory as the pair were en route to a show in Vancouver. (Mallory was flying coach and Lamb Chop in the overhead; she won't fly in checked luggage, said Mallory.)

How did you and Lamb Chop decide to put an act together?

I was pregnant when Mom died,...

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Chicago – At first look, Kevin Clash seems like an everyday guy. Walking down the streets of New York City, you would have no idea that this modestly dressed and moderately built man is the man behind one of the most adored characters in the entire world; a character full of curiosity and energy as well as compassion and love; a character that created one of the most insane toy crazes the Christmas season has ever seen.

And even as Kevin Clash walks by a person on the street in an adult sized Elmo costume, it would be hard for anyone to realize that the real, out of costume Elmo is standing right there. Whether you are an adult in your mid 50s or a child who is just learning to talk, you have probably experienced the magic of Elmo in your life; now you can come to know the...

Countless movies over the years have dealt with the exploits of fictional characters that have brought things to life-from Doctors Frankenstein to Herbert West ( the Re-Animator flicks ). With the new documentary Being Elmo we learn about a real-life re-animator named Kevin Clashwho,instead of body parts or mechanical men, gives life to stitched together bits of foam and felt. More importantly, he’s the guy behind the pre-k superstar of Sesame Street, Elmo.

Clash’s journey to that TV street began on a real, urban street in Baltimore in the early 1970′s. He was fascinated by puppets and marionettes and was encouraged by his family ( his father was not upset that he used the lining of his trench coat for one of his first puppet creations ). Entertaining the children in his mother’s day-care service in the back yard ( a blanket tossed over the clothes line was his stage ) to...