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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced some changes to its popular Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting program.

The Nicholl Fellowships, which were established in 1985 through the support of Gee Nicholl in memory of her husband, Don Nicholl, are meant to identify and nurture talented new screenwriters across the world. Now they will exclusively partner with global university programs, screenwriting labs, and filmmaker programs to select Nicholl fellows. Each partner will vet and submit scripts for consideration for an Academy Nicholl Fellowship. All scripts submitted by partners will be read and reviewed by Academy members.

Partner script submissions to the Academy will open in late July, and the deadline will be in late August. Nicholl fellows will be awarded in spring 2026. The Black List will serve as the portal for public submissions.

“As part of the globalization of the Academy and to deepen our relationship with educational partners around the U.

Brian Murphy, who starred as the henpecked landlord George Roper on the 1970s British sitcoms Man About the House and George and Mildred, which were adapted for Three’s Company and The Ropers in the U.S., has died. He was 92.

Murphy died Sunday of cancer at his home in Kent, England, his agent, Thomas Bowington, announced.

Murphy also starred on the short-lived comedies The Incredible Mr. Tanner in 1981, L for Lester in 1982 and Lame Ducks in 1984-85 before joining the long-running BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine as Alvin Smedley for an eight-season run from 2003-10.

ITV’s Man About the House, from Thames Television, starred Richard O’Sullivan as student chef Robin Tripp, who moves into a London flat shared by two young women, Chrissy (Paula Wilcox) and Jo (Sally Thomsett), to enjoy a platonic relationship. The landlords, George and his sexually frustrated wife, Mildred (Yootha Joyce), are told Robin is gay.

While most TV spin-offs are doomed to live in the shadows of their original series, some have proven themselves worthy successors that even manage to outdo the program they were based on. Making a truly great spin-off will always be a daunting task, as creators are required to maintain the legacy of the original while carving out something new that can stand on its own. For a spin-off series to capture viewers' imaginations, it needs to be more than simply returning to familiar worlds with known characters; it must find a way to tell new stories in a fresh and interesting way.

While there have been some truly awful TV spin-offs over the years, some acclaimed examples have proven it's possible for lightning to strike twice and for a follow-up show to become equally beloved. This can be done in the form of a prequel series that answers questions about...

The Academy has announced the five winners of the 2023 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting who each win a $35,000 prize and mentorship from an Academy member throughout their fellowship year.

The recipients will also be featured at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards and Live Read on April 25 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater (pictured), where an ensemble of actors will read selected scenes from the 2023 winning scripts.

The 2023 winners appear below listed alphabetically:

Brent Delaney, Brownie Mary

At the height of the AIDS crisis, Mary Jane Rathbun illegally distributes cannabis-infused brownies to heal thousands of gay men in...

Continuing a tradition that began in 1985, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday named four individuals and one writing team as the final winners for the 2022 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting.

Jennifer Archer from Springwater, Ontario, and Timothy Ware-Hill of Orange, NJ, took two of the spots. The other three went to winners from Southern California including Sam Boyer, J.M. Levine, and the team of Callie Bloem and Christopher Ewing. Each individual and the writing team will receive a 35,000 prize and mentorship opportunities from an AMPAS member for their fellowship year.

A live read of selected scenes from all five of the winning scripts will be performed November 9 during the formal awards ceremony at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

The Nicholl Fellowships was established in 1985 through the support of Gee Nicholl in memory of her husband Don Nicholl.

A total of 5,526 scripts from 85 countries were submitted for this year’s competition.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science announced on Thursday that four individuals and one writing team have been selected as winners of the 2022 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting.

The prize includes 35,000 for each individual and writing team, as well as mentorship from an Academy member throughout their fellowship year.

On Nov. 9 at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, an ensemble of actors will read selected scenes from the winning scripts.

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The 2022 winners are:

Jennifer Archer (Springwater, Ontario, Canada), “Into the Deep Blue”

Nick Bennet is rebuilding his life after the death of his mom, a DUI, and mandatory grief counseling. Together with Fiona, his fiery best friend from therapy, they navigate the waters of grief and their growing feelings.

Callie Bloem and Christopher Ewing (Los Angeles), “Tape 22”

A music journalist reeling from the...

Wesley Mead Dec 22, 2016

Wesley counts down the penultimate 20 entries in the top 100 Christmas TV episodes of all time list: from number 40 to 21...

This article was first published in December 2015. Read entries 100 - 81 here, entries 80 - 61 here, and entries 60 - 41 here.

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Since the medium’s infancy, viewers have enjoyed sharing holidays with their favourite television characters. We grow invested in our friends on screen over the years; spending Christmas with them is a rite of passage, a chance for us to share tradition from our world with the fictional ones we see on screen. Some shows embrace the season wholeheartedly, characters in good spirits and enjoying the trappings of the season; others skew a little darker, bringing the more oppressive,...

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Wesley counts down the penultimate 20 entries in the top 100 Christmas TV episodes of all time list: from number 40 to 21...

Read entries 100 - 81 here, entries 80 - 61 here, and entries 60 - 41 here.

Since the medium’s infancy, viewers have enjoyed sharing holidays with their favourite television characters. We grow invested in our friends on screen over the years; spending Christmas with them is a rite of passage, a chance for us to share tradition from our world with the fictional ones we see on screen. Some shows embrace the season wholeheartedly, characters in good spirits and enjoying the trappings of the season; others skew a little darker, bringing the more oppressive, burdensome side of the holidays to life. Either way, Christmas episodes tend to demonstrate the strengths of our favourite series, and it’s long been a festive ritual of mine to wheel out old DVD sets and settle...

Three’s Company, “A Man About the House”

Written by Johnnie Mortimer, Brian Cooke, Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, Bernard West,

Directed by Bill Hobin

Aired March 15th, 1977 on ABC

Three’s Company was the ‘Friends’ of its day; a sit-com about three twenty-somethings sharing an apartment in Santa Monica California going through the ups and downs of life for the singles set of the late 70s. The American version of the UK show ‘Man About the House’, Tc was considered a groundbreaking show. Hard to believe just over 30 years ago men and women living under one roof as platonic friends was not only a novel idea for television, but a shocking and controversial premise. Juvenile jokes, double-entendres, and ridiculous plotlines were all part of the fun, but Tc was also a true reflection of the shifting morals and values of young America arriving in the last days of disco and jiggle TV.

Gladys "Gee" Nicholl, a longtime benefactor of media-related activities and the widow of TV writer-producer Don Nicholl, died Jan. 6 in Santa Barbara after a short illness. She was 86.

Nicholl is best known for her support of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Program.

Nicholl danced in the Indian Ballet Company in London and acted on stage and modeled on occasion. In the 1950s, she wrote a gossip column for the London-based pop music tabloid Record Mirror and drew upon that experience in writing the story upon which her husband based his screenplay for the 1958 rock 'n' roll musical feature "The Golden Disc."

When Don Nicholl was hired by Norman Lear to join the staff of "All in the Family," the Nicholls relocated from London to Los Angeles.

After her husband's death in 1980, Gee Nicholl, knowing that Don had long spoken of helping new writers get started,...