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George Foreman, the charismatic boxer turned infomercial star who had a retail hit with his Foreman Grill product line, died Friday. He was 76.

The Texas-born Foreman became Heavyweight Champion of the World, and segued into a TV staple and pop culture icon. He was swept up in the swirl of decade-defining events surrounding Muhammad Ali as well as Joe Frazier and other high-wattage pugilists of the 1970s. In the 1990s, Foreman took advantage of the availablity of low-cost TV time to launch his Foreman Grill home grill product through a series of infomercials that he hosted.

Foreman famously had a close call in the ring in 1977 that drove him to quit boxing and declare himself a born-again Christian. He became an ordained minister in 1978 and began preaching in his hometown of Houston. He shocked the sports world when he returned to boxing in 1987 and wound up reclaiming his Heavyweight Champion...

Seth Rogen brought his Hollywood satire The Studio to opening night of the SXSW festival on Friday, as he revealed the surprising inspirations and meetings he had before shooting.

The Studio stars Rogen as the newly appointed head of the fictional Continental Studios, as he attempts to keep things afloat financially while also trying to create artistic, prestige films.

“I was making The Fabelmans actually, and I was kind of just really inspired by how personal a movie Steven [Spielberg] was making; I also was rewatching The Larry Sanders Show because it was still kind of the midst of the pandemic, and I was very inspired by that,” Rogen told The Hollywood Reporter on the Austin, Texas, red carpet of how he conceived the show alongside his co-creators. “That’s something I grew up loving and so I thought that maybe we could make something that was very personal based on...

Game recognizes game.

At the South by Southwest Film and Television Festival in Austin, Texas, on Friday night, The Studio co-creator, writer, director, and star Seth Rogen said Oscar winner Martin Scorsese told Rogen and co-creator, director, and writer Evan Goldberg that they swear too much.

“We told Martin Scorsese to say, like, ‘See, I should have sold this to f--king Apple,’” Rogen said after the two-episode world premiere of The Studio. “He's like, ‘You guys say, f--k too much.’”

In the Apple TV+ comedy series, the Killers of the Flower Moon filmmaker — famous for his R-rated features, including The Wolf of Wall Street, where the F-word is uttered more than 500 times – plays himself. Scorsese is one of several famous faces to appear in the Hollywood satire, including Charlize Theron, Steve Buscemi, Sarah Polley, Greta Lee, Olivia Wilde, Anthony Mackie, Ron Howard, and Nicholas Stoller.

“We wanted to paint a real,...

This week on 'Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff,' Andy Kindler talks about his 39 (!) Letterman appearances, his stint as a 'Daily Show' contributor, playing himself on 'The Larry Sanders Show', and his very public animus toward Jay Leno, which he says led one NBC exec to ban him from appearing on 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien.'...

A documentary on late comedian Norm Macdonald is in the works at Netflix from filmmaker Judd Apatow.

Apatow first shed light on the project via his Instagram, where he made an open call for “photos and videos of Norm Macdonald for a documentary we are creating for @netflix.”

“If you just know about any interviews or interesting videos you think we may not have heard about or be able to find ourselves— that would also be very helpful,” Apatow wrote. “Or just tell us your favorite Norm moments.” Apatow himself will direct the project, Consequence can confirm.

Macdonald passed away in September 2021 at the age of 61. Upon his death, Apatow wrote on social media, “No one was funnier than Norm Macdonald. Every time he was on television he was the funniest person on television. A massive loss.” In addition to sharing a circle of friends and collaborators, Macdonald made brief...

Judd Apatow took aim at President Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, the “It Ends With Us” litigation spree and himself in his opening monologue Saturday at the 77th annual DGA Awards.

Apatow, of course, riffed on how the country has taken a sharp turn to the right since the last DGA Awards, and he gently poked fun at Hollywood for its eager embrace of diversity and boundary-pushing issues that are now in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump and his far-right brigade of reformers.

“My new pronouns are ‘We’re fucked,’ ” Apatow said from the stage of the Beverly Hilton. The multihyphenate filmmaker and TV producer hosted the DGA Awards for the third year in a row, and the sixth time since 2018.

Commenting on how many rich and powerful figures have worked to curry favor with Trump, Apatow cracked, “I feel like I’m one compliment away from being Secretary of the Interior.

In her 30 years at the Atelier Advertising agency, Monica (Lauren Graham) has climbed the ladder of success. As we meet her, she’s CEO, she’s winning industry awards and she’s working on a commercial for Boppin’ Burgers to run during the Super Bowl. She’s even throwing a party at the office for the launch of a new campaign for Vibezz headphones! As everyone gathers to watch it air on TV, Monica seems unaware of its deficits. Playing into stereotypes — a Black guy breakdancing to hip-hop; a monk listening to vaguely Eastern New Age music — is bad; closing the spot with the slogan “All Vibezz Matter” is much worse. The office’s social media team, all young twentysomethings, probably would have tried to stop this ad from getting to air if they’d been involved in the creative process, but they weren’t, which is a mistake the...

For the millions of people who haven’t even heard of the movies nominated for Best Picture this year, there’s still a very good reason to watch the Academy Awards: comedy.

After all, this year’s ceremony will be hosted by none other than Conan O’Brien, who previously hosted the Emmys, the MTV Awards, the NFL Honors, and, of course, the esteemed Audiencey Awards.

We also just learned who will be writing this year’s ceremony. In addition to several names that may or not be pseudonyms for Bruce Vilanch, the team includes comedian Carol Leifer. While she’s written for hit shows like Saturday Night Live, Modern Family, The Larry Sanders Show, and most recently, Hacks, a lot of us first became aware of her because of Seinfeld.

Leifer was Emmy-nominated for her work on Seinfeld, writing six episodes (and working as a story editor on dozens more), including classics like “The Rye.

More than 25 years later, the NBC sitcom "Seinfeld" continues to endure as one of the greatest and most cherished series of all time. The story of the show's success has been documented before, countless times, but it's good to remind ourselves that while other big-hit shows of the 1990s, like "Friends" and "Frasier," were hits straight out of the box, the same wasn't true for "Seinfeld." The show's first season was just a handful of episodes airing in the late summer, and things were ultimately hanging on by a thread until its third season. But these days, it's much easier to look at the show for its massive influence, how audiences continue to return to it in the age of streaming, and how it wasn't just a hit with audiences, but big with critics and the industry, too. That said, you can't win every plaudit, something that applies to "Seinfeld...

How can any of us define what the best of all time is? For some people, thinking about the best TV show or film of all time is akin to asking them what their favorite within the respective medium is. But to say that something is your favorite film or TV show is not automatically the same as deeming it the best. For some, to be the best means that you have to be influential or that the end result has to have some grand statement attached. And more importantly, if the question "What is the best of all time?" is being asked, do we ask ourselves or do we rely on outside sources? 

The voice of the critic is important, but it can also be ignored if a critic doesn't like a show or film the way that we do, or if they just flat-out hate something we adore.

While “The Studio” is set to be funny and unique, it’s not what you’d typically expect from a project hailing from the mind of Seth Rogen. Yet, it is exactly that. And its origins might surprise you.

Read More: The 20 Best Films Of 2024

In a new preview of the upcoming series, courtesy of EW, “The Studio,” Seth Rogen talks about how the series came about.

Continue reading ‘The Studio’: Seth Rogen Says His New Series Is Inspired By ‘The Fabelmans’ & ‘The Larry Sanders Show’ at The Playlist.

Police dramas were flourishing in the 1970s (and later parodied in the 1980s) thanks to "Dragnet" when television writer Robert L. Collins hit upon what counted as a genius notion at the tail end of the Richard M. Nixon administration: what if instead of "policeman," "policewoman?" NBC said "Show us," and Collins responded with the buzzy "Police Woman" starring Angie Dickinson as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson.

"Police Woman" was about as progressive as you could expect from an hour-long network drama in the '70s when it was rare for a drama of any genre to be headed up by a woman. Once a week, Dickinson struck a quasi-feminist figure as an ultra-capable officer of the law with a penchant for dressing in tight-fitting shirts in pants. At least once she went undercover in a swimsuit. And as she complained to the press years later, the writers liked to have...

Screen veteran Earl Holliman, who won a Golden Globe Award for starring in the 1956 movie The Rainmaker, has passed away. He was 96 years old.

Holliman reportedly died at his Studio City home on Monday while in hospice care. His partner, Craig Curtis, announced his death, per Variety. Referring to Holliman's role in the very first episode of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone in 1959, Curtis recounted how Serling had told Holliman in a letter, "your performance was outstanding, full of dimension, shading and a fantastic believability. In short, Holliman, youre one hell of an actor!

Holliman was the lead in the debut episode of The Twilight Zone, titled "Where Is Everybody?." He also had a major role as Sergeant Bill Crowely on the crop drama series Police Woman, which aired from 1974 to 1978. Holliman had recurring roles on the TV shows Hotel de Paree, Wide Country, The Thorn Birds, P.S. I Luv U,...

Earl Holliman, an actor whose scores of credits spanning a half-century ranged from 1950s films Forbidden Planet and Giant to Police Woman and others popular ’70s and ’80s TV dramas and starred in the first episode of The Twilight Zone, died Monday in Los Angeles after a short illness. He was 96.

His niece, Theresa Mullins Harris, announced the news on social media, writing in part: “His dream at 5 years old of becoming a movie star came true, more than he ever could have imagined.”

Holliman got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame won a Supporting Actor Golden Globe for 1957’s The Rainmaker and was nominated for the short-lived early-’90s ABC sitcom Delta, starring Delta Burke. He was a series regular on the latter, playing the understanding owner of a bar where aspiring country singer Delta Bishop (Burke) worked while trying to make it.

Born on September 11, 1928, Holliman...

Hollywood employment can be great fodder for buzzy comedies, from The Larry Sanders Show to 30 Rock. But one sitcom that may have been ahead of its time was The Famous Teddy Z, which debuted on CBS 35 years ago on Sept. 18, 1989.

Created by Hugh Wilson, the series starred Jon Cryer as Teddy Zakalokis, a mailroom worker at a fictional UTA — Unlimited Talent Agency — who punches Hollywood’s top actor shortly after meeting him and is soon picked by the Marlon Brando-esque star to be his rep. The concept was inspired by the real-life story of young McA agent Jay Kanter, who became Brando’s rep after picking him up at a train station.

Cryer had landed a CBS deal off the success of Pretty in Pink, but producer Richard Dubin preferred another on-the-rise actor, Ben Stiller, who also auditioned. “I thought that Jon, while a very able and journeyman actor,...

From I Love Lucy to The Larry Sanders Show and beyond, writers in the performing arts have always set stories in the world of show business they know so well. (Even Hamlet makes a pretty memorable scene out of the titular character trying his hand at directing.) Naturally, with superhero movies crowding out all other genres, the process of making them is a target fit not just for fictional dramatization, but for savage mockery. Depending on whether you’ve ever added up how much you’ve spent on tickets to predictable movies about deeply mid comic book characters, you might think HBO’s new satire The Franchise — from some of England’s most eloquent and gifted insult craftsmen — doesn’t go hard enough.

In The Franchise’s series premiere, which airs on Sunday, October 6th, we join the production of a movie called Tecto: The Eye of the Storm on...

Kris Kristofferson, country music singer and A Star Is Born actor, has died. He was 88.

Kristofferson’s family announced his death on Instagram in a statement posted to the country icon’s official account. “We’re all so blessed for our time with him,” the family’s statement read. “Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all.”

More from TVLineGavin Creel, Tony Award-Winning Broadway Staple, Dead at 48Nba Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo Dead at 58John Ashton, Beverly Hills Cop Actor, Dead at 76

No cause of death has been reported.

Kris Kristofferson, known for his accomplishments in country music along with his acting career, has died. He was 88 years old.

Per Variety, Kristofferson died at his home in Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday. No additional information has yet been revealed concerning the cause of his death, but it was reported that Kristofferson was surrounded by loving family at the time. A statement has also been released by his family to confirm Kristofferson's passing. The joint statement as written on behalf of his wife, Lisa, along with his eight children, as well as seven grandchildren.

It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Sept. 28 at home," the statement reads. "Were all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know hes smiling down at us all.

David Handelman, a print journalist turned TV writer who worked on the Aaron Sorkin series Sports Night, The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The Newsroom, has died. He was 63.

Handelman died Aug. 15 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York from complications of Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, a rare blood cancer, producer David Van Taylor told The Hollywood Reporter.

Handelman also wrote for the 2006 CBS series Love Monkey; for season six (2008-09) of The CW’s One Tree Hill; for season two (2013-14) of ABC’s Nashville; and for season three (2015) of DirecTV’s Rogue.

Most recently, he was a staff producer and writer for almost a decade on CNN’s Smerconish, which paid tribute to him on the air in the days after his death.

Before television, Handelman was a staff writer at Rolling Stone, covering everyone from Beastie Boys and Talking Heads to Sam Kinison, folk...

Larry David probably already had curbed his enthusiasm about a final-season Emmy breakthrough for his veteran HBO series as he was a no-show at the Sunday ceremony which made it official: David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm ended its run as the show with the most Outstanding Comedy Series nominations, 11, without a win.

Curb was nominated for four Emmys this year including Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for David, missing out on all to wrap its 12-season run with a total of 55 Emmy nominations and two wins, for Outstanding Single-camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series in 2012 and for Directing in 2003.

While skipping the ceremony, David made the Emmy party circuit earlier this weekend and was also holding court at the HBO I Max after-party Sunday night. Another HBO | Max series, Hacks, won the Comedy Series Prize tonight, while Jeremy Allen White repeated as the...

The 2024 Emmys will be held on Sunday night, and while don’t yet know who the night’s big winners will be, it’s a safe bet that the folks responsible for the FX series The Bear and Shogun will have much to smile about.

The Bear leads all comedies with 23 nominations.

While Shogun has the most nods among dramas, with a whopping 25.

(Courtesy of FX)

The Bear is now the most-nominated sitcom in history.

And you’d have to go back to the early days of The Sopranos to find another instance in which a new drama earned as much acclaim as Shogun.

These shows have a chance to make history on Sunday night, and they’re both easy to root for.

Unlike past award season juggernauts like Game of Thrones, these shows are both underdog series that were never expected to make this big a splash.

And the...

Exclusive: CBS is developing the comedy series Feebs from CBS Studios and co-creators Michael Kramer and Lilli Birdsell, sources tell Deadline.

The single-cam series is an ensemble character-driven comedy following two sisters who love and hate each other and are thrown together as agents for the FBI. With their sibling rivalry on display in front of their teammates, the two must use their lifelong contention to fight for justice and not just with each other. 

Former CBS programming chief Thom Sherman executive produces via his Play Well Entertainment banner. Three-time Emmy winner Todd Holland will direct the pilot and executive produce alongside Sherman, Kramer and Birdsell.

Kramer is an Emmy-nominated writer who has sold numerous comedy pilots to CBS, Disney, Sony, Universal, USA Network and TBS, and developed a new Flintstones animated series for Warner Bros. He has also written for multiple series including Suits,...

If you’re in the mood for a classic comedy, Prime Video is a great place to stream. You can get started with a 30-day Free trial, and there’s a lot to love.

30-Day Free Trial $8.99+ / month amazon.com

Classic Comedy Movies on Prime Video

Classic Comedy TV on Prime Video

Add More Comedy with Prime Video Channels

Classic Comedy Movies on Prime Video

For the purposes of this list, we’ll consider “classic comedies” as titles that came out at least 20 years ago.

Death Becomes Her The Big Lebowski Dr. Strangelove Heathers Swingers Galaxy Quest Fargo Billy Madison An American Werewolf in London Sweet Home Alabama Election Army of Darkness Overboard Dirty Rotten Scoundrels American Graffiti Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein Bowfinger Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood CB4 Roxanne Sprung Duck Soup Wallace & Gromit: The...

Though he’s made films for theatrical release and the occasional series for a different network or streamer, prolific documentarian Alex Gibney and the HBO nonfiction brand have become borderline synonymous over the past decade. It was almost inevitable that Gibney would, at some point, take the serpent’s tail into his mouth and make a documentary about HBO.

Gibney’s first stab at HBOuroboros is Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, a documentary that is, per its title, completely self-explanatory. Simultaneously tracing the life of David Chase and the run of his game-changing mob dramedy, the two-parter is a must-watch for fans of The Sopranos — even television critics for whom many of its juiciest details are already established lore.

Especially in its 85-minute second part, which has to cover most of the Sopranos’ stretch after its first season, Wise Guys isn’t always as “definitive” as it wants to be,...

It’s one thing to have a self-deprecating sense of humor. It’s something else entirely to appear on a sitcom as an incredible a-hole version of yourself. While plenty of stars have cameoed as themselves over the years — hell, James Van Der Beek had a regular role as James Van Der Beek on Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23 — here are five celebrities who played unflattering versions of their real-life personas…

1 Lori Loughlin on ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’

Larry David vouches for Loughlin’s membership in his country club, but wow! She cheats at everything, golf included. She even flirts — or more? — to get the best tee times. After her college admissions scandal, it would be understandable if those jokes were off-limits. But “we called her manager up, who loved it, and who then talked to Lori, and she said: ‘I’m in, I’m totally game,’” Curb...

50 years after its original run, the Norman Lear-produced sitcom "Good Times" is more than just "Dy-no-mite!" It's a spinoff within a spinoff and a classic Black family sitcom that inspired controversy as well as laughter. Like many beloved shows from the '70s, "Good Times" made headlines for behind-the-scenes drama and cast disagreements, but it also captivated audiences.

Originally formulated as a spinoff of "Maude" (which was itself a spinoff of unlikely hit "All in the Family"), "Good Times" retconned its central characters and setting in favor of a new premise. Henry (John Amos) became James, the family got poorer, and the setting switched from New York to Chicago, where it took inspiration from the Cabrini-Green housing projects. Audiences still dug the new show, though by the time it signed off five years later, it had changed entirely: Amos and original star Esther Rolle had left, and the show's most one-dimensional character,...

Over nearly 1,000 episodes, “Saturday Night Live” has given America some of its most successful comedians, iconic characters and quotable catchphrases. Now, just one year shy of the pop phenom’s 50th anniversary, director Jason Reitman gives back, turning an oral history of the very first episode into a rowdy, delectably profane backstage homage. “Saturday Night” kicks off at 10 p.m. on Oct. 11, 1975, and ticks its way in practically real time to Chevy Chase’s delivery of the infamous opening line. Fine, but who plays Chevy Chase? Or Gilda Radner? Or John Belushi, for that matter?

The research is one thing, but Reitman — whose father, Ivan, directed his fair share of “SNL” legends, and who always dreamed of writing for the show — sets a foolhardy challenge for himself in finding sufficiently funny people to play some of TV’s most beloved cut-ups. Miraculously, Reitman and casting director John Papsidera pull it off,...

The Rotten Tomatoes score has been revealed for Kaos. Kaos is a just-released Netflix comedy series that plays off Greek mythology in a modern-day, contemporary reimagining. The series features Jeff Goldblum in the lead role of Zeus, along with Janet McTeer as Hera, Stephan Dillane as Prometheus, Aurora Perrineau as Riddy, Nabhaan Rizwan as Dionysus, Killian Scott as Orpheus, Misia Butler as Caeneus, Susan Wooldridge as Pious Agatha, David Thewlis as Hades, Cliff Curtis as Poseidon, and Leila Farzad as Ari.

Now, the Rotten Tomatoes score has been revealed for Kaos. At the time of writing, Kaos holds a fresh score of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes among the 24 critics who have reviewed it. The Popcornmeter (audience score) has under 50 reviews in, but so far sits at a 75%. This score is subject to change, for the show just released yesterday, August 29, meaning that far more reviews could be released in the coming days.

New details have emerged in the death of legendary fitness guru Richard Simmons.

Police had responded to a call from Simmons’ housekeeper on the morning of July 13 — one day after his 76th birthday. Simmons was pronounced dead at the scene, and no foul play was suspected.

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On Aug. 21, a spokesperson for the Simmons family told People.com that, per the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office, Simmons’ death has been determined to be accidental,...

Hollywood is still mourning the loss of a legend.

Richard Simmons, the veteran fitness guru who rose to fame way back in the 1980s due to his unmatched energy and flamboyant personalty, was found dead at his home in Hollywood Hills on Saturday morning, July 13.

He was 76 years old.

Richard Simmons attends the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation’s 24th Annual “A Time For Heroes” at Century Park on June 2, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Egpaf) Richard Simmon’s Cause of Death Confirmed

A month after his passing, the fitness guru’s brother, Lenny Simmons, revealed that the star died from “complications from recent falls and heart disease.”

“This morning, Richard Simmons’ brother Lenny, received a call from the LA Coroner’s office,” the Simmons family spokesperson, Tom Estey, said in a statement to People.

“The Coroner informed Lenny that Richard’s death was...

With her 23rd Emmy nomination coming 62 years after she was first nominated for “The Garry Moore Show” in 1962, Carol Burnett has now been nominated for 14 different shows. The one she’s best known for is “The Carol Burnett Show,” her long-running and wildly popular variety show that ran from 1967 until 1978.

But there were also variety specials, dramas and comedies. And now, at the age of 91, one of the most beloved entertainers of the television age has been nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the Apple TV+ comedy “Palm Royale,” in which she steals more than a few scenes as Norma Dellacorte, a rich society dame who spends a third of the season in a coma and then another big chunk of it conscious but unable to talk except in grunts and squawks.

The show’s 11 nominations include lead actress Kristen Wiig, who plays a desperate social...

“We’re not jaded to the point that we don’t appreciate the golf carts,” Seth Rogen says when I tell him I rode one over to our meeting.

“No,” says Evan Goldberg. “We raced them the other night.”

Let that reassure anyone who suspects these lifelong creative partners, now in their early forties, have shed their boyish enthusiasm. The cart-racing is a perk of the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, where the pair are huddled up in their office, having commenced a 14-hour shooting day that will grind on until 3 a.

Former stand-up comedian and comedy writer Judd Apatow has produced quality content since 1991, beginning with Tom Arnold's stand-up special, Tom Arnold: The Naked Truth. After writing and consulting on The Larry Sanders Show from 1993-98, he founded Apatow Productions in 1999. His first order of producing business under his new company was the underrated NBC series Freaks and Geeks, which, sadly, only ran for one season.

The peak television renaissance didn't happen overnight. A decade prior to the epochal debut of "The Sopranos" on HBO, series as disparate in their aims as "The Simpsons," "Twin Peaks" and "The Larry Sanders Show" were challenging the industry's notions of what the broadcast medium could accomplish. Dramatic story arcs began to stretch out over a season or longer, while sitcoms got edgier and less hidebound to the multi-camera format. These successes emboldened major filmmakers to try their hand at episodic TV, which didn't always pan out. But it was always thrilling to see great artists romp about in a medium Hollywood once considered beneath them.

Of these efforts, it's possible none had a greater influence on the peak era than NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street." When Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon began shopping his book "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets," an account of his time...

Quick Links Wannabe Celebrities Trapped in Small-Town USA A Bold Experiment a Generation Ahead of Its Time The Mainstream Ascendance of the Chat-Show Parody

Among the many forgotten TV projects in legendary TV producer Norman Lear's body of work, Fernwood 2 Night stands out as one of the least appreciated. Starring Martin Mull and Fred Willard, the spoof chat show was a rare sardonic masterpiece in a television atmosphere in the seventies that was otherwise a complete wasteland. Though today the premise feels at home in any network writers' room, it was too much of a stretch for audiences in 1978. Ratings might not have suggested it hit a nerve, but forty-five years of imitators speaks volumes of its lasting legacy, with David Letterman citing it as one of his main inspirations.

While Mull's host character pretended to be a professional, exposing his own incompetence in the process, his sidekick...

The official cause of death of celebrity fitness guru Richard Simmons is under investigation, though there is “no foul play” involved.

Simmons died on Saturday. The Medical Examiner’s Office announced Monday that his cause of death has been deferred, meaning that an investigation and additional testing are needed, People reported.

Simmons rose to fame in the 1980s as a motivational speaker and weight loss instructor famous for his own health journey. He starred in his own exercise show and sold millions of aerobics Sweatin‘ to the Oldies videos and DVDs while running a Los Angeles fitness studio. He wrote several books, including Richard Simmons’ Never-Say-Diet Book from 1980, and later appeared as himself on various TV shows including Arrested Development, Amazing Stories, CHiPs, The Larry Sanders Show and General Hospital.

His public appearances greatly decreased about a decade ago, after he closed his fitness studio and ceased official engagements.

The...

Richard Simmons said he was still focused on his fans in a rare interview two days before his death.

The celebrity fitness guru died on Saturday, but told People the Thursday before that he was still reaching hundreds of fans through phone calls and emails on a daily basis.

“I know people miss me,” Simmons said. “And you know what? I miss them, too. But I’m able to reach them through phone calls … and through emails. And I do leave the house sometimes. But I’m in disguise.”

Simmons rose to fame in the 1980s as a motivational speaker and weight loss instructor. He was the star of his own syndicated TV exercise show and sold millions of aerobics Sweatin‘ to the Oldies videos and DVDs while running a Los Angeles fitness studio. He wrote several books, including Richard Simmons’ Never-Say-Diet Book from 1980. Later in his career, he appeared...

Richard Simmons, the energetic fitness guru who exuded positivity, has died according to his representative, ABC News reports. He was 76.

Simmons had just celebrated his birthday on Friday and had posted a thread about it on X, formerly Twitter. According to TMZ who first reported the news, the Los Angeles Police Department responded to his home on Saturday morning following a call from his housekeeper. He was reportedly pronounced dead at the scene. No cause of death was given. Per authorities, there is no foul play suspected and he appears...

Richard Simmons, the goofy clown prince of fitness who turned his passion for weight loss into riches and fame as a Hollywood celebrity, has died. He was 76.

A rep for Simmons told The Hollywood Reporter that he died earlier Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. His cause of death wasn’t immediately available.

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that personnel responded to a 911 call from Simmons’ home on Belfast Drive and arrived there at 9:57 a.m. on Saturday. The spokesperson added that “an investigation is still being conducted.”

“I don’t want people to be sad about my brother,” Lenny Simmons, Richard’s brother, shared in a statement.” I want them to remember him for the genuine joy and love he brought to people’s lives. He truly cared about people. He called, wrote, and emailed thousands of people throughout his career to offer help.

As Fox Mulder on The X-Files, David Duchovny investigated vampires, chased mutant sewer-monsters and battled scantily-clad, virtual-reality cowgirls. But he very nearly found himself in an even stranger situation: holed up in a San Francisco townhome with three children and two other dudes.

Yes, Duchovny came shockingly close to starring in Full House, which may sound kind of odd, but certain Full House storylines could have easily passed as X-Files episodes.

On a recent episode of his podcast Fail Better, Duchovny chatted with Fred Armisen about their early unsuccessful auditions, with the former Saturday Night Live cast member revealing that he once tried out for Mad TV, the Rc Cola to SNL’s Coke.

Duchovny then revealed that when he first moved to Los Angeles, he auditioned for plenty of sitcom pilots, and “thought each one was gonna be the break.” One of the shows that left him “devastated” for weeks afterwards was Full House.

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

"'American Pie' is the latest in a long tradition of immature, self-indulgent comedies that celebrate the recklessness of adolescents." That's what Looking Closer's Jeffrey Overstreet had to say in his original review of "American Pie" in 1999. On the flipside, Film Threat's Chris Gore declared the movie to be "one of the greatest teen films of all time." Let us never forget that two things can be true at once.

Written by an unknown named Adam Herz, it originally began circulating with the clever title "Untitled Teenage Sex Comedy Which Can Be Made for Under $10 Million That Studio Readers Will Most Likely Hate But I Think You Will Love." The gimmick worked and it got the attention of studios, becoming the...

Typically, when a star has a new movie coming out, they promote it as much as possible. But Whoopi Goldberg once did the exact opposite, taking legal action to prevent one of her movies from ever reaching theaters. And somehow it wasn’t the movie where she solves crimes with the help of a talking dinosaur.

Back in 1988, Goldberg starred in The Telephone, an experimental dramedy about an out-of-work actress who spends most of her time holed up in a small apartment making phone calls. It’s kind of like an avant-garde theater piece (specifically Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice) crossed with a Bob Newhart routine — but not as good as that makes it sound.

Weirdly enough, The Telephone was the only film ever directed by actor Rip Torn, of The Larry Sanders Show, Men in Black and drunkenly breaking into a bank that one time fame. And it...

Recent documentaries about Albert Brooks and Steve Martin give the comics their rightful flowers for introducing a fresh comic persona to popular culture — the smarmy show-biz performer, polished, unctuous and self-satisfied to the point of absurdity. But Martin Mull, the accomplished musician, painter and comedian who passed away yesterday at the age of 80, deserves to be mentioned in their company.

Fernwood 2 Night, a spin-off of Norman Lear’s Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, is one of those comedies more influential than beloved — no cable network has been running repeats for years. But catch a few episodes (thanks, Internet Archive!) and you’ll hear its echoes in It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest. Mull starred as Barth Gimble, the obnoxiously hip co-host of a local talk show set in the fictional town of Fernwood, Ohio alongside Fred Willard’s clueless Jerry Hubbard.

Mull was the...

We have sad news to report today. It has been announced that Martin Mull, the hugely talented comedian and actor known for playing Colonel Mustard in Clue, Leon Carp in Roseanne, Gene Parmesan in Arrested Development, and more, has died at the age of 80.

The news was revealed by Martin’s daughter Maggie on Instagram. “I am heartbroken to share that my father passed away at home on June 27th, after a valiant fight against a long illness,” Maggie wrote. “He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials. He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and—the sign of a truly exceptional person—by many, many dogs. I loved him tremendously.“

Related Cutting...

Overflowing with insight; stuffed with revelatory interviews and anecdotes and archival footage; as bursting with flavor as a baked ziti; and as immersive, in its way, as the show itself, “Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos” is Alex Gibney’s sensationally artful and engrossing two-hour-and-40-minute documentary about the greatest show in the history of television.

If you’re a fanatic for “The Sopranos” (and who isn’t?), you probably already know a fair amount about how the show came to be, and “Wise Guy,” for a while, treads familiar ground. The film is framed as a profile of the show’s visionary creator and showrunner, David Chase (the opening credits redo the driving-into-Jersey “Sopranos” credits with Chase in the passenger seat), who is interviewed by Gibney on an exact mock-up of the set of Dr. Melfi’s psychiatrist office, a joke/stunt that recedes into the background yet never loses its playful resonance,...

When the 2023 Primetime Emmy nominations were revealed, Ali Wong and Pedro Pascal both had the honor of being included in multiple performance lineups. She made history as the first newcomer to the acting categories recognized for both live action (“Beef”) and voice (“Tuca & Bertie”) work, while he became the first actor nominated for three programs on his initial Emmy outing. These achievements made them the newest members of a group of 26 people who earned their first two (or three) acting Emmy nominations in a single year.

Wong’s eventual Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actress win for “Beef” made her the seventh person in this bunch to succeed on one of her bids. The first was Robert Cummings, who received 1955’s Best Single Performance by an Actor prize for “Twelve Angry Men” and simultaneously lost for his regular lead turn on “My Hero.”

The first five champs who followed Cummings were Jack Albertson,...

8 Best Workplace Comedy Shows That Will Help You Overcome Your Office Blues(Photo Credit –IMDb)

While the workplace might not be the best place to have fun, workplace comedies do make up for one of the best sitcom genres. Featuring relatable situations with a humorous twist, these shows provide the audiences with comic relief after long days at work.

From office romances and politics to flamboyant managers and struggling employees, these shows have all the right elements to keep the viewers hooked. Here, we have curated a list of eight best workplace comedy series that will surely help you get through your office blues.

1. The Office (2005–2013)

Probably the first show that comes to everyone’s mind when they think of a workplace sitcom, The Office continues to be loved by viewers even a decade after its conclusion. The NBC series follows the daily lives of employees at the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company,...

Its still hard to reckon with the reality that Curb Your Enthusiasm has finally reached its conclusion. Larry Davids semi-autobiographical comedy series ran for over two decades, continuously pushing the boundaries of the medium with its self-referential humor and in-jokes. Curb Your Enthusiasm had longevity because it examined the changes in the entertainment industry as they occurred, and frequently employed celebrity guest stars who appeared as fictionalized versions of themselves. While it's arguably one of the most influential comedy shows of all-time, the meta humor of Curb Your Enthusiasm was first innovated by the classic HBO comedy series, The Larry Sanders Show.

The one fatal mistake that most TV shows make is using TV cameos gratuitously. If the cameo doesn't mean something to the audience and the characters in the show, it's pointless, and little more than a random Stan Lee Appears gag.

On the other hand, too many shows have fallen into the trap of celebrity worship with their cameos.

Having cast members gawk and gape at their celebrity crush as if to reinforce the celebrity's prestige while doing nothing for the universe we enjoy is a waste of talent.

For this list of the top TV cameos worth celebrating, we will focus on iconic cameo appearances that gave the show some unforgettable moments that made TV history.

Seinfeld Cast, Curb Your Enthusiasm

What better way to give Seinfeld the better ending many feel it deserved than by bringing back the cast and the original set and doing a bit of self-parody?...

Babes Poster Photo: Neon If you don’t use it, you lose it, and Hollywood has been using The 40-Year-Old Virgin poster for nearly 20 years. You know the one: Steve Carell in front of a glowing orange sun with his eyes staring off in the distance like he’s having...