Hugh Downs, whose honeyed delivery and low-key but erudite manner helped make him a familiar face and voice on television for half a century, and whose career included long stints as host of both “Today” on NBC and “20/20” on ABC, died on Wednesday at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 99. His family […]
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Fox News has fired Ed Henry, one of the network’s most prominent Washington-based journalists, after a former employee at the cable news channel lodged a complaint of sexual misconduct against him, the network said on Wednesday. Mr. Henry, a former chief White House correspondent at Fox News, had served as co-anchor of the network’s “America’s […]
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As quarantine stretches into summer, Netflix will bid farewell to two Scarlett Johansson-fronted sci-fi efforts, a pre-“Star Wars” team-up by Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson, two indies starring Brie Larson and three marvelous dramatic comedies from female filmmakers of note. And those are just a few of the titles we recommend watching before they slip […]
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Photo: Kevin Winter (Getty Images) Mahershala Ali has been tapped to play Jack Johnson, the world’s first Black heavyweight champion, for an upcoming limited series on HBO. Advertisement According to a report from Variety, the Oscar-winning actor will star in a retelling of Johnson’s life that focuses heavily on the challenges he faced as a […]
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By Jason Bailey It sounds crazy to say that Carl Reiner’s death was unexpected, given that he was 98 when he passed away on Monday night. But he’s been with us so long and has cast such a long shadow over seven decades of popular culture, that it seemed that he (like his best pal […]
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Carl Reiner invented TV comedy. I’m overstating things, sure: Reiner, who died Monday at age 98, was one of a group of pioneers who defined the medium in its early years. (Several of them, including Sid Caesar and Mel Brooks, did some of their best work with him.) I’m also understating things: Reiner’s legacy extended […]
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“Unsolved Mysteries,” the alternately chilling and far-out docu-series, which returns to TV this week, began with a solved one. In the fall of 1982, William Catterson, a New Jersey father of two, failed to return home from his fast-food job. His car was found, abandoned. A chocolate cake, an anniversary present for his wife, still […]
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Carl Reiner, who as performer, writer and director earned a place in comedy history several times over, died on Monday night at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 98. His death was confirmed by his daughter, Annie Reiner. Mr. Reiner first attracted national attention in 1950 as Sid Caesar’s multitalented second banana on the […]
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Political performances by Public Enemy, DaBaby, Alicia Keys and John Legend, civic-minded speeches by Michelle Obama and Beyoncé, and persistent tributes to George Floyd and Breonna Taylor led a virtual, mostly socially distanced and social justice-themed version of the BET Awards on Sunday, the first major awards show of the pandemic era. The host, Amanda […]
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PALMA, Majorca — A provocative theory in vogue among physicists and philosophers suggests that we humans are not experiencing, and have not ever experienced, reality. What we understand as reality, the theory proposes, may merely be one of an astronomical number of vivid computer simulations of an ancient past, designed by humanity’s distant descendants to […]
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When the directors Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia talk about their new two-part documentary series, “And She Could Be Next,” they compare the process of getting it greenlit to mounting a political campaign. They would know: In the series, which was executive produced by Ava DuVernay (premiering Monday on PBS and POV.org), Lee and Safinia […]
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NBA star LeBron James is expanding his repertoire in the entertainment industry. James—who has been dedicated to using his platform to amplify narratives surrounding injustice—has raised $100 million for the creation of a new media company, CNN reported. LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter have announced the formation of a new media company, […]
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Lester M. Crystal, who after 20 years at NBC News, including two as its president, moved to “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” on PBS and immediately set about transforming it from a half-hour program into “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,” a broadcast widely acclaimed for its breadth and depth, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 85. His son […]
Read More Lester M. Crystal, who after 20 years at NBC News, including two as its president, moved to “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” on PBS and immediately set about transforming it from a half-hour program into “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,” a broadcast widely acclaimed for its breadth and depth, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 85. His son […]
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Mike Henry, a white actor, said Friday he would no longer voice the role of Cleveland Brown, a black character on “Family Guy.”Credit…FOX June 26, 2020Updated 9:26 p.m. ET For the Fox comedies “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy,” two of the most prominent and longest running animated series on television, announcements Friday outlined major shifts […]
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Three seconds into my first episode, I was already confused. “The following advertisement,” a voice-over says, “is intended for Jim Boonie only.” Who is Jim Boonie? Other than a photo of a nondescript individual, we’re given no additional information on who this guy is — or why Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, the driving forces […]
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True-crime fans who come to the HBO documentary “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” should know in advance that it is not, strictly speaking, a true-crime series about the decades-long hunt for the serial rapist and murderer known as the Golden State Killer. Instead it’s an adaptation of the book of the same title, which […]
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At the end of yet another long day indoors, when I want to unwind, I’ll put on the commercial breaks from the 1985 American Music Awards or CBS’s May 3, 1983, broadcast of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” I am transported to a magical time, full of smiling faces and hokey jingles, when you could […]
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ViacomCBS has reversed course. Days after announcing that its television adaptation of “A Higher Loyalty,” the best-selling book by the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, would appear after the election, the company has moved the broadcast to September. The director, Billy Ray, sent an email to cast members on Monday expressing disappointment that the […]
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Photo: Rachel Luna (Getty Images) The country is experiencing a racial awakening in response to the police brutality protests that are still taking place after George Floyd’s death. Anti-racism books are flying off of shelves, streaming services have dedicated blocks of programming to Black shows and movies, and general interest in Black stories has risen […]
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NBC’s ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ was greenlit for an eighth season in November 2019. However, the scripts for upcoming episodes will be reworked in response to global police brutality protests.Photo: Frederick M. Brown (Getty Images) Terry Crews, one of the stars of NBC’s hit comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, revealed that four of the episodes for the show’s […]
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Screenshot: The Root (YouTube) April Reign, well known as a diversity and inclusion advocate and the creator of #OscarsSoWhite, is partnering with the media platform Overture Global to start Ensemble, a digital content studio “aiming to accelerate opportunities for people of color both in front of and behind the camera,” according to a press release […]
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Hollywood may love neat, cathartic resolutions, but the filmmaker Liz Garbus has always been drawn to open-ended stories. “You have to deal a little bit with the discomfort of the gray areas in the world,” she said in a recent phone conversation. Don’t look to Garbus’s 22-year career for easy answers. Ambiguity is woven into […]
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Who says you have to live in a world without new episodes of Seinfeld? Now, you can make your own stop motion adventures with Jerry, George, Kramer, Elaine, and… Newman with LEGO’s Seinfeld 30th Anniversary Set. You could also just watch Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld itself if you’re missing the show, but since we’re […]
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Pennsylvania’s highest court on Tuesday said it agreed to hear part of Bill Cosby’s appeal of his 2018 sexual assault conviction. In December, a panel of three appellate judges unanimously rejected his appeal to the lower Superior Court, upholding his 2018 conviction in the drugging and sexual assault of Andrea Constand at his home outside […]
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Four episodes of “30 Rock,” the hit comedy series created by the actor Tina Fey, are being taken out of circulation on streaming services and television because they depict actors in blackface, according to a spokesman for NBC. The request by Ms. Fey and Robert Carlock, an executive producer and showrunner, means the episodes are […]
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A few months ago, Leslie Jordan didn’t know he was about to hit it big. Mr. Jordan, who was known for roles in “Will & Grace” and “Murphy Brown,” was working, sure. But his name didn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Then the coronavirus swept the United States, and Mr. Jordan had some time on […]
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MANCHESTER, England — For now, the most famous street in Britain still exists in another world. The pub is open. Friends meet in the cafe. Neighbors fight and lovers kiss. People get their hair cut, visit one another’s houses, gather in groups of more than six. They can do so until July 24: the day […]
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Days after the only black driver in NASCAR’s top racing series sported a “Black Lives Matter” message and celebrated the organization’s banning the Confederate flag, a noose was found on Sunday in his garage stall at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, officials said. “Today’s despicable act of racism and hatred leaves me incredibly saddened and serves […]
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When the TV character Perry Mason returns this Sunday night on HBO, he’ll look a lot different than what fans of the old 1950s and ’60s show remember. Rather than the actor Raymond Burr’s bold, burly version of the criminal defense lawyer, this new prequel version (played by Matthew Rhys) is a wiry, low-rent private […]
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I’ve never quite understood why “Shameless” was never as buzzworthy as other youth-centric shows on cable. The American version of this British series premiered on Showtime in 2011, but it was “Girls,” which debuted a year later on HBO, that became the big media hit. Both shows featured a group of kids trying to become […]
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