One of 2024’s obsessions is “Feud: “Capote vs. the Swans.” The FX on Hulu limited series revolves around the best-selling novelist Truman Capote‘s friendship with several of the highest of New York’s society women include Babe Paley, Slim Keith and Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The women treat him as a sort of father confessor, but when he publishes an excerpt from what he considers his will be his masterwork “Answered Prayers” in Esquire — a thinly veiled account of their lives and secrets –they feel betrayed and turn their back on their once trusted friend. He spends the rest of his life trying to get back into their good graces.
Everyone knows Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his superb “In Cold Blood” and was a witty albeit inebriated guest on countless talk shows, but how much do you really know about him?
Capote was...
Everyone knows Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his superb “In Cold Blood” and was a witty albeit inebriated guest on countless talk shows, but how much do you really know about him?
Capote was...
- 3/19/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Diana Kerew, an Emmy-winner television producer, died at her home in Glendale on Nov. 25 following a battle with cancer. She was 81.
Kerew executive produced more than 60 movies and miniseries for television, achieving success in the male-dominated entertainment industry and paving the way for other female producers as a mentor.
Kerew started off as a reader for David Susskind’s Talent Associates; she then became the first female producer at the company. Working for Talent Associates and later Time-Life Television as an executive producer, she worked on 16 films and miniseries. Some of these projects included the Emmy-nominated “Blind Ambition,” starring Martin Sheen, the Emmy-nominated and Peabody winner “The Wall,” and “The Bunker” which earned Anthony Hopkins an Emmy for acting.
Kerew briefly served as executive producer and vice president of television for Highgate Pictures before starting her own production company. Transitioning to focus on children’s programming, Kerew worked on several ABC “Afterschool Specials.
Kerew executive produced more than 60 movies and miniseries for television, achieving success in the male-dominated entertainment industry and paving the way for other female producers as a mentor.
Kerew started off as a reader for David Susskind’s Talent Associates; she then became the first female producer at the company. Working for Talent Associates and later Time-Life Television as an executive producer, she worked on 16 films and miniseries. Some of these projects included the Emmy-nominated “Blind Ambition,” starring Martin Sheen, the Emmy-nominated and Peabody winner “The Wall,” and “The Bunker” which earned Anthony Hopkins an Emmy for acting.
Kerew briefly served as executive producer and vice president of television for Highgate Pictures before starting her own production company. Transitioning to focus on children’s programming, Kerew worked on several ABC “Afterschool Specials.
- 2/14/2024
- by Jaden Thompson
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix generates more contemporary content than anyone, but they’re dipping into the past to curate the great movies from the ’70s. These are the films that people like myself discovered as kids in the early days of when HBO premiered on cable. Bravo, I say. Here’s the preliminary list.
Alice Doesn’T Live Here Anymore
A widowed singer and single mother starts over as a diner waitress in Arizona, befriending her coworkers and romancing a ruggedly handsome rancher.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: Robert Getchell
Producers: Audrey Maas, David Susskind
Key Cast (Alphabetical): Ellen Burstyn, Jodie Foster, Diane Ladd, Alfred Lutter, Harvey Keitel, Kris Kristofferson, Vic Tayback
Distributed By: Warner Bros. Discovery
Initial Release Date: December 9, 1974
At the 47th Academy Awards, Burstyn won Best Actress
Black Belt Jones
High-kicking Black Belt Jones is dispatched to take down a group of Mafia goons trying to muscle in on a downtown karate studio.
Alice Doesn’T Live Here Anymore
A widowed singer and single mother starts over as a diner waitress in Arizona, befriending her coworkers and romancing a ruggedly handsome rancher.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: Robert Getchell
Producers: Audrey Maas, David Susskind
Key Cast (Alphabetical): Ellen Burstyn, Jodie Foster, Diane Ladd, Alfred Lutter, Harvey Keitel, Kris Kristofferson, Vic Tayback
Distributed By: Warner Bros. Discovery
Initial Release Date: December 9, 1974
At the 47th Academy Awards, Burstyn won Best Actress
Black Belt Jones
High-kicking Black Belt Jones is dispatched to take down a group of Mafia goons trying to muscle in on a downtown karate studio.
- 1/17/2024
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
1974 was quite a year for cinema; 50 years later, Netflix (of all places) is celebrating the golden jubilee.
In recognition of the anniversary, the streamer on Wednesday launched a new, dedicated content row (and direct URL link) with the first films being honored under its new “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection” banner. Each of the 14 films came to Netflix this month by way of Warner Bros., Paramount, or Sony — the distributors that license content to Netflix.
The 1974 collection includes “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Black Belt Jones,” “Blazing Saddles,” “California Split,” “Chinatown,” “The Conversation,” “Death Wish,” “The Gambler,” “The Great Gatsby,” “It’s Alive,” “The Little Prince,” “The Lords of Flatbush,” “The Parallax View,” and “The Street Fighter” (“Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken”).
Netflix doesn’t plan to stop with disco’s heyday. In April, the streaming service will do the same for films from 1984 (turning 40); July will celebrate 1994 movies (turning 30); and in October...
In recognition of the anniversary, the streamer on Wednesday launched a new, dedicated content row (and direct URL link) with the first films being honored under its new “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection” banner. Each of the 14 films came to Netflix this month by way of Warner Bros., Paramount, or Sony — the distributors that license content to Netflix.
The 1974 collection includes “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Black Belt Jones,” “Blazing Saddles,” “California Split,” “Chinatown,” “The Conversation,” “Death Wish,” “The Gambler,” “The Great Gatsby,” “It’s Alive,” “The Little Prince,” “The Lords of Flatbush,” “The Parallax View,” and “The Street Fighter” (“Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken”).
Netflix doesn’t plan to stop with disco’s heyday. In April, the streaming service will do the same for films from 1984 (turning 40); July will celebrate 1994 movies (turning 30); and in October...
- 1/17/2024
- by Tony Maglio
- Indiewire
When Lena Waithe called and asked if I wanted to direct a film about Mary Tyler Moore, I said, “Absolutely.” But I quickly added that I knew nothing about Mary and had never seen any of her work: “Maybe I’m the wrong person?”
“But you’ll do a deep dive; you’ll be thorough,” Lena replied, “and your usual objective and sensitive self?”
“Always.”
And that was true. We were thorough, objective and always empathetic. But I was afraid to wonder aloud how a Black man goes about making his feature directorial debut about one of the most influential women in Hollywood television history — a white woman at that— without messing it up and while being a credit to his people. Lena Waithe and Debra Martin Chase are Black, brilliant and prolific filmmakers, women who stuck their necks out for me. They are my people. And Mary Tyler Moore was theirs.
“But you’ll do a deep dive; you’ll be thorough,” Lena replied, “and your usual objective and sensitive self?”
“Always.”
And that was true. We were thorough, objective and always empathetic. But I was afraid to wonder aloud how a Black man goes about making his feature directorial debut about one of the most influential women in Hollywood television history — a white woman at that— without messing it up and while being a credit to his people. Lena Waithe and Debra Martin Chase are Black, brilliant and prolific filmmakers, women who stuck their necks out for me. They are my people. And Mary Tyler Moore was theirs.
- 8/2/2023
- by James Adolphus
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jerome Coopersmith, who received a Tony nomination for writing a 1965 Sherlock Holmes musical and penned more than two dozen episodes of the original Hawaii Five-o during the series’ first nine seasons, has died. He was 97.
Coopersmith died peacefully Friday in Rochester, New York, his family announced.
After earning a Purple Heart for his service during World War II, Coopersmith broke into television writing for quiz shows and historical programs. In the early 1950s, he and Horton Foote worked on the kids-focused Gabby Hayes Show and Johnny Jupiter, and the future Pulitzer Prize and Oscar winner behind To Kill a Mockingbird would become his mentor.
Coopersmith wrote 30 regular installments and two feature-length episodes of CBS’ Hawaii Five-o from 1968-76. Among those was the notable 1975 eighth-season installment Retire in Sunny Hawaii … Forever, which featured Helen Hayes in an Emmy-nominated guest-starring stint as the aunt of her real-life son, James MacArthur.
He then...
Coopersmith died peacefully Friday in Rochester, New York, his family announced.
After earning a Purple Heart for his service during World War II, Coopersmith broke into television writing for quiz shows and historical programs. In the early 1950s, he and Horton Foote worked on the kids-focused Gabby Hayes Show and Johnny Jupiter, and the future Pulitzer Prize and Oscar winner behind To Kill a Mockingbird would become his mentor.
Coopersmith wrote 30 regular installments and two feature-length episodes of CBS’ Hawaii Five-o from 1968-76. Among those was the notable 1975 eighth-season installment Retire in Sunny Hawaii … Forever, which featured Helen Hayes in an Emmy-nominated guest-starring stint as the aunt of her real-life son, James MacArthur.
He then...
- 7/27/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mary Tyler Moore isn’t who we think she was. That much is clear from watching “Being Mary Tyler Moore,” the absorbing and revealing new documentary feature that premieres May 26 on HBO and its streaming counterpart Max. The film – told largely through Moore’s own narration from past interviews – details the struggles and the pain behind the smile that turned the world on in her multiple Emmy-winning comedies “The Dick Van Dyke Show” in the 1960s and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in the 1970s. But what’s at least equally surprising about the doc is its pedigree. Among its producers are Lena Waithe (“Master of None”) (an unapologetically Black and queer woman from the south side of Chicago) and Debra Martin Chase (also African American), while its director is James Adolphus, a Black Puerto Rican from New York. “We’re a very unlikely trio,” Adolphus says, “but that speaks...
- 5/21/2023
- by Ray Richmond
- Gold Derby
Emily Marshall, who parlayed a gig as a secretary for producer Fred de Cordova on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show into a two-decade career as a sitcom writer on Newhart, Rhoda, Wkrp in Cincinnati and Designing Women, has died. She was 79.
Marshall died March 17 of lung cancer at her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, her friend and mentor, Emmy-nominated writer-producer Barry Kemp, said. She served as a staff writer on Newhart, which he created, from 1982-84.
Marshall was the third wife of Doc Severinsen. She married the colorful Tonight Show bandleader and trumpet player in 1980 and was with him for nearly 40 years through 2013.
Marshall also created the 1988-89 CBS sitcom Coming of Age, which starred Paul Dooley, Phyllis Newman, Alan Young, Glynis Johns, Kevin Pollak and Ruta Lee. The comedy, set in an Arizona retirement community, opened with Severinsen performing the boisterous big band number “Sing, Sing,...
Marshall died March 17 of lung cancer at her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, her friend and mentor, Emmy-nominated writer-producer Barry Kemp, said. She served as a staff writer on Newhart, which he created, from 1982-84.
Marshall was the third wife of Doc Severinsen. She married the colorful Tonight Show bandleader and trumpet player in 1980 and was with him for nearly 40 years through 2013.
Marshall also created the 1988-89 CBS sitcom Coming of Age, which starred Paul Dooley, Phyllis Newman, Alan Young, Glynis Johns, Kevin Pollak and Ruta Lee. The comedy, set in an Arizona retirement community, opened with Severinsen performing the boisterous big band number “Sing, Sing,...
- 4/12/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
James Adolphus’ new HBO documentary Being Mary Tyler Moore begins with an awkward 1966 interview of Moore by producer and talk show host David Susskind.
As Susskind rambles about how Laura Petrie, Moore’s character from The Dick Van Dyke Show, was a “strained idealization” of the American housewife, Moore sits with a big, clearly forced smile, before she finally breaks and launches into a celebration of Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique.
I’m rather sick of “Being” in the title for both documentaries and scripted stories — as if claiming to capture the essence of a person is shorthand for profundity — but Being Mary Tyler Moore is definitely invested in this sort of clash between superficial appearances and actual “being” when it comes to one of the most beloved and decorated women in TV history.
The documentary doesn’t always provide definitive answers on who Mary Tyler Moore was, but...
As Susskind rambles about how Laura Petrie, Moore’s character from The Dick Van Dyke Show, was a “strained idealization” of the American housewife, Moore sits with a big, clearly forced smile, before she finally breaks and launches into a celebration of Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique.
I’m rather sick of “Being” in the title for both documentaries and scripted stories — as if claiming to capture the essence of a person is shorthand for profundity — but Being Mary Tyler Moore is definitely invested in this sort of clash between superficial appearances and actual “being” when it comes to one of the most beloved and decorated women in TV history.
The documentary doesn’t always provide definitive answers on who Mary Tyler Moore was, but...
- 3/14/2023
- by Daniel Fienberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Mary’s an easy person to fall in love with,” says the filmmaker James Adolphus, who has spent the past three years making a documentary about Hollywood icon Mary Tyler Moore.
In Being Mary Tyler Moore, which HBO will release in May after a March 13 premiere at SXSW, Adolphus documents Moore’s career, interweaving professional highlights like the Dick Van Dyke Show and the Mary Tyler Moore Show, with inclusions from an extensive personal archive. The goal is to show Moore’s impact entertainment and on generations of women. One of those women is the documentary’s producer, Lena Waithe.
After Moore passed in 2017, Adolphus says, her husband Robert Levine was tasked with keeping the star’s legacy but was unsure how to go about it. There were offers from other filmmakers to tell Moore’s life story but he was unconvinced until reading a Vanity Fair 2018 cover story...
In Being Mary Tyler Moore, which HBO will release in May after a March 13 premiere at SXSW, Adolphus documents Moore’s career, interweaving professional highlights like the Dick Van Dyke Show and the Mary Tyler Moore Show, with inclusions from an extensive personal archive. The goal is to show Moore’s impact entertainment and on generations of women. One of those women is the documentary’s producer, Lena Waithe.
After Moore passed in 2017, Adolphus says, her husband Robert Levine was tasked with keeping the star’s legacy but was unsure how to go about it. There were offers from other filmmakers to tell Moore’s life story but he was unconvinced until reading a Vanity Fair 2018 cover story...
- 3/8/2023
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bob Rafelson, the director, producer and writer who brought a European sensibility to American filmmaking with “Five Easy Pieces” in 1970, died Saturday evening at his home in Aspen, Colo. He was 89 years old.
Rafelson’s death was confirmed by his former personal assistant of 38 years, Jolene Wolff, who worked under Rafelson’s production banner Marmont Productions. Wolff stated that Rafelson died peacefully, surrounded by his family.
The Monkees vocalist and drummer Micky Dolenz, the final surviving member of the music group, offered a statement on Rafelson’s death Sunday afternoon.
“One day in the spring of 1966, I cut my classes in architecture at L.A. Trade Tech to take an audition for a new TV show called ‘The Monkees.’ The co-creator/producer of the show was Bob Rafelson,” Dolenz said. “At first, I mistook him for another actor there for the audition. Needless-to-say, I got the part and it completely altered my life.
Rafelson’s death was confirmed by his former personal assistant of 38 years, Jolene Wolff, who worked under Rafelson’s production banner Marmont Productions. Wolff stated that Rafelson died peacefully, surrounded by his family.
The Monkees vocalist and drummer Micky Dolenz, the final surviving member of the music group, offered a statement on Rafelson’s death Sunday afternoon.
“One day in the spring of 1966, I cut my classes in architecture at L.A. Trade Tech to take an audition for a new TV show called ‘The Monkees.’ The co-creator/producer of the show was Bob Rafelson,” Dolenz said. “At first, I mistook him for another actor there for the audition. Needless-to-say, I got the part and it completely altered my life.
- 7/24/2022
- by Rick Schultz and J. Kim Murphy
- Variety Film + TV
Do audiences ever ask for a History Lesson? Robert Altman gives them a smart, if diffuse, image of America as a showbiz invention, commercialized and packaged. Paul Newman is the prepackaged white hero surrounded by a jolly circus; Buffalo Bill’s trick seems to be to get his colleagues, the dispossessed minorities and especially the vanquished Native Americans to cooperate with his self-aggrandizing fantasy. One of Altman’s better scattershot ensembles sketches an amusingly hollow Buffalo Bill in Paul Newman, but the director’s style keeps emotional involvement at arm’s length… make that telephoto lens’ length.
Buffalo Bill and the Indians
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1976 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 124, 105 min. / Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson / Street Date December 14, 2020 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Paul Newman, Joel Grey, Burt Lancaster, Kevin McCarthy, Harvey Keitel, Will Sampson, Allan F. Nicholls, Geraldine Chaplin, John Considine,...
Buffalo Bill and the Indians
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1976 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 124, 105 min. / Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson / Street Date December 14, 2020 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Paul Newman, Joel Grey, Burt Lancaster, Kevin McCarthy, Harvey Keitel, Will Sampson, Allan F. Nicholls, Geraldine Chaplin, John Considine,...
- 12/15/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Ron Gilbert, an Emmy-nominated producer and partner with David Susskind in the indie production company Talent Associates Ltd that was behind TV series like Get Smart and movies including Straw Dogs and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, died of heart failure December 4 at his Los Angeles home. He was 87.
Talent Associates was a major force in the 1960s and ’70s, producing series including East Side, West Side starring George C. Scott, NYPD, The Glass Menagerie starring Katharine Hepburn, Eleanor and Franklin, Blind Ambition starring Martin Sheen and Get Smart. Gilbert served as executive in charge of production on several shows including Get Smart, the spy comedy that was hatched in the mid-1960s at the then New York-based company by two of its young writers, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. It premiered on NBC in 1965, ran five seasons and established Talent Associates’ L.A. base.
On the feature side, Talent Associates produced Straw Dogs,...
Talent Associates was a major force in the 1960s and ’70s, producing series including East Side, West Side starring George C. Scott, NYPD, The Glass Menagerie starring Katharine Hepburn, Eleanor and Franklin, Blind Ambition starring Martin Sheen and Get Smart. Gilbert served as executive in charge of production on several shows including Get Smart, the spy comedy that was hatched in the mid-1960s at the then New York-based company by two of its young writers, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. It premiered on NBC in 1965, ran five seasons and established Talent Associates’ L.A. base.
On the feature side, Talent Associates produced Straw Dogs,...
- 12/8/2020
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Ron Gilbert, an Emmy-nominated producer and partner with David Susskind in the powerhouse independent production company Talent Associates, died Friday of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles, a family spokesman said. He was 87.
Gilbert joined Talent Associates in the early 1960s, and during his stay there the company produced such groundbreaking TV series as Get Smart, East Side/West Side and N.Y.P.D.; features including Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (1971), Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) and Robert Altman’s Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976); and such miniseries as 1973’s The Glass ...
Gilbert joined Talent Associates in the early 1960s, and during his stay there the company produced such groundbreaking TV series as Get Smart, East Side/West Side and N.Y.P.D.; features including Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (1971), Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) and Robert Altman’s Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976); and such miniseries as 1973’s The Glass ...
- 12/8/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Ron Gilbert, an Emmy-nominated producer and partner with David Susskind in the powerhouse independent production company Talent Associates, died Friday of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles, a family spokesman said. He was 87.
Gilbert joined Talent Associates in the early 1960s, and during his stay there the company produced such groundbreaking TV series as Get Smart, East Side/West Side and N.Y.P.D.; features including Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (1971), Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) and Robert Altman’s Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976); and such miniseries as 1973’s The Glass ...
Gilbert joined Talent Associates in the early 1960s, and during his stay there the company produced such groundbreaking TV series as Get Smart, East Side/West Side and N.Y.P.D.; features including Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (1971), Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) and Robert Altman’s Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976); and such miniseries as 1973’s The Glass ...
- 12/8/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bob Cobert, the Grammy- and Emmy-nominated composer of television’s “Dark Shadows” and “The Winds of War,” died of pneumonia Feb. 19, in Palm Desert, Calif. He was 95.
Cobert’s themes for the 1960s Gothic horror soap “Dark Shadows” – “great spook music,” he once called it – were his most popular compositions, and “Quentin’s Theme” (for the character played by David Selby) became a top 10 hit in 1969 as recorded by the Charles Randolph Grean Sound, earning a Grammy nomination as Best Instrumental Theme.
The “Dark Shadows” score, the first daytime soap to generate a best-selling soundtrack album, cemented Cobert’s partnership with the series’ creator-producer Dan Curtis, who continued to employ Cobert on nearly all of his television and film projects for the next four decades.
They did four features and more than two dozen television films together. Their largest-scale project was “The Winds of War,” the 18-hour 1983 miniseries based on...
Cobert’s themes for the 1960s Gothic horror soap “Dark Shadows” – “great spook music,” he once called it – were his most popular compositions, and “Quentin’s Theme” (for the character played by David Selby) became a top 10 hit in 1969 as recorded by the Charles Randolph Grean Sound, earning a Grammy nomination as Best Instrumental Theme.
The “Dark Shadows” score, the first daytime soap to generate a best-selling soundtrack album, cemented Cobert’s partnership with the series’ creator-producer Dan Curtis, who continued to employ Cobert on nearly all of his television and film projects for the next four decades.
They did four features and more than two dozen television films together. Their largest-scale project was “The Winds of War,” the 18-hour 1983 miniseries based on...
- 2/24/2020
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
Lorraine Hansberry’s play has been given a masterful film adaptation, with the emotional truth of her words left intact. We’re told of some superficial compromises, but they do not diminish the play’s powerful clash between old and new ideas in a Southside Chicago family struggling to escape poverty. This may be Sidney Poitier’s best screen performance, but the honors are shared with a superlative cast.
A Raisin in the Sun
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 945
1961 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 128 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 25, 2018 / 39.95
Starring: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, John Fiedler, Louis Gossett Jr., Stephen Perry, Joel Fluellen, Louis Terrel, Roy Glenn.
Cinematography: Charles Lawton Jr.
Film Editors: William A. Lyon, Paul Weatherwax
Original Music: Laurence Rosenthal
Written by Lorraine Hansberry, from her play
Produced by David Susskind, Philip Rose
Directed by Daniel Petrie
In more than...
A Raisin in the Sun
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 945
1961 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 128 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 25, 2018 / 39.95
Starring: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, John Fiedler, Louis Gossett Jr., Stephen Perry, Joel Fluellen, Louis Terrel, Roy Glenn.
Cinematography: Charles Lawton Jr.
Film Editors: William A. Lyon, Paul Weatherwax
Original Music: Laurence Rosenthal
Written by Lorraine Hansberry, from her play
Produced by David Susskind, Philip Rose
Directed by Daniel Petrie
In more than...
- 9/29/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Steven Bochco, a producer whose boundary-pushing series such as “Hill Street Blues” and “NYPD Blue” helped define the modern TV drama, has died. He was 74.
Bochco had been battling a rare form of leukemia for several years. He had a transplant in late 2014 that was credited with prolonging his life. A family spokesman told the Associated Press that he died in his sleep on Sunday after a battle with cancer, but did not release details of a memorial service.
Working with different collaborators, Bochco co-created some of TV’s most popular series for more than 20 years while helping to create the template for modern hourlongs featuring large ensemble casts, serialized storylines and edgy content.
The recipient of numerous industry awards, including the Humanitas Prize and Peabody honors, Bochco was nominated for an Emmy 30 times in his capacities as producer and writer, winning 10.
On “NYPD Blue,” he consciously set out to...
Bochco had been battling a rare form of leukemia for several years. He had a transplant in late 2014 that was credited with prolonging his life. A family spokesman told the Associated Press that he died in his sleep on Sunday after a battle with cancer, but did not release details of a memorial service.
Working with different collaborators, Bochco co-created some of TV’s most popular series for more than 20 years while helping to create the template for modern hourlongs featuring large ensemble casts, serialized storylines and edgy content.
The recipient of numerous industry awards, including the Humanitas Prize and Peabody honors, Bochco was nominated for an Emmy 30 times in his capacities as producer and writer, winning 10.
On “NYPD Blue,” he consciously set out to...
- 4/2/2018
- by Brian Lowry
- Variety Film + TV
Above: Bill Siegel and Khalilah Camacho-Ali
Unlike other films about the controversial boxer, the recent documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali makes no pretense of telling Ali’s whole story. It presumes that most of us in the audience already know it and those of us who don’t can easily fill in the gaps with the wealth of other movies, books, and TV specials devoted to his legend. Produced by Chicago-based documentary company Kartemquin Films, Trials focuses on Ali’s conversion to the Nation of Islam and the controversies associated with his religious and political convictions. These subjects are addressed in Michael Mann’s Ali (2001) and referenced in other documentaries about him, but Trials examines them in greater depth, generally neglecting his athletic achievements to better focus on his radicalism.
We took some time to speak with the film’s director, Bill Siegel, whose first film was Kartemquin-produced The Weather Underground...
Unlike other films about the controversial boxer, the recent documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali makes no pretense of telling Ali’s whole story. It presumes that most of us in the audience already know it and those of us who don’t can easily fill in the gaps with the wealth of other movies, books, and TV specials devoted to his legend. Produced by Chicago-based documentary company Kartemquin Films, Trials focuses on Ali’s conversion to the Nation of Islam and the controversies associated with his religious and political convictions. These subjects are addressed in Michael Mann’s Ali (2001) and referenced in other documentaries about him, but Trials examines them in greater depth, generally neglecting his athletic achievements to better focus on his radicalism.
We took some time to speak with the film’s director, Bill Siegel, whose first film was Kartemquin-produced The Weather Underground...
- 12/17/2013
- by Ben and Kathleen Sachs
- MUBI
The Trials of Muhammad Ali opens with two contrasting bits of archival footage: a 1968 television appearance by the eponymous boxer in which David Susskind calls him "[in]tolerable," and a later clip of the Parkinson's-riddled legend about to receive the Presidential Medal of Honor from George W. Bush. With its subject now canonized and rendered safe for white America, Bill Siegel's breezy doc takes us back to the days when the media—and much of the country—didn't know what to do with the outspoken champion. Evincing little interest in Ali's in-the-ring feats, the film focuses instead on his involvement with the Nation of Islam, his political activism, and his legal troubles, reminding us that athletes once stood for something larger than their ability to overcome pe...
- 8/21/2013
- Village Voice
The Wasteland:
Television is a gold goose that lays scrambled eggs;
and it is futile and probably fatal to beat it for not laying caviar.
Lee Loevinger
When people argue over the quality of television programming, both sides — it’s addictive crap v. underappreciated populist art — seem to forget one of the essentials about commercial TV. By definition, it is not a public service. It is not commercial TV’s job to enlighten, inform, educate, elevate, inspire, or offer insight. Frankly, it’s not even commercial TV’s job to entertain. Bottom line: its purpose is simply to deliver as many sets of eyes to advertisers as possible. As it happens, it tends to do this by offering various forms of entertainment, and occasionally by offering content that does enlighten, inform, etc., but a cynic would make the point that if TV could do the same job televising fish aimlessly swimming around an aquarium,...
Television is a gold goose that lays scrambled eggs;
and it is futile and probably fatal to beat it for not laying caviar.
Lee Loevinger
When people argue over the quality of television programming, both sides — it’s addictive crap v. underappreciated populist art — seem to forget one of the essentials about commercial TV. By definition, it is not a public service. It is not commercial TV’s job to enlighten, inform, educate, elevate, inspire, or offer insight. Frankly, it’s not even commercial TV’s job to entertain. Bottom line: its purpose is simply to deliver as many sets of eyes to advertisers as possible. As it happens, it tends to do this by offering various forms of entertainment, and occasionally by offering content that does enlighten, inform, etc., but a cynic would make the point that if TV could do the same job televising fish aimlessly swimming around an aquarium,...
- 7/22/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Filed under: Features
The name David is king on TV, or nearly. Remember 'Starsky & Hutch'? Starsky's first name was David (who knew?). 'Dave' has had its own sitcom ('Dave's World', the '90s show starring Harry Anderson), and it is a go-to name for talk (nighttime's David Letterman and David Susskind, 'This Week''s David Brinkley and 'Today''s founding father, Dave Garroway).
One of the biggest TV stars of the last two decades, David Duchovny, (at right) once scored an Emmy nomination playing "David Duchovny." The 'X Files' and 'Californication' star made a riotous appearance on 'The Larry Sanders Show,' playing a side of "himself" that was strangely attracted to Larry.
Let's take a look at more TV Davids, Daves and, yes, even Davys.
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The name David is king on TV, or nearly. Remember 'Starsky & Hutch'? Starsky's first name was David (who knew?). 'Dave' has had its own sitcom ('Dave's World', the '90s show starring Harry Anderson), and it is a go-to name for talk (nighttime's David Letterman and David Susskind, 'This Week''s David Brinkley and 'Today''s founding father, Dave Garroway).
One of the biggest TV stars of the last two decades, David Duchovny, (at right) once scored an Emmy nomination playing "David Duchovny." The 'X Files' and 'Californication' star made a riotous appearance on 'The Larry Sanders Show,' playing a side of "himself" that was strangely attracted to Larry.
Let's take a look at more TV Davids, Daves and, yes, even Davys.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments...
- 3/3/2011
- by Jane Murphy
- Aol TV.
It looks like we can be expecting a new Blade Runner movie to hit theaters in the next few years. Warner Bros-based Alcon Entertainment (the financing and production company behind The Blind Side and The Book of Eli) are currently in final discussions to secure film, television, and ancillary franchise rights to develop prequels and sequels to Ridley Scott‘s classic 1982 sci-fi film.
I just want to point out that the deal exclude rights to remake the original film, so you will not see a remake of Blade Runner.
I've always wanted to see more movies made based on the world of Blade Runner. Hopefully they will end up being worthy of the film that Scott created and live up to the expectations of the fans. That's not going to be an easy thing to do, and I'm sure not everyone will be happy with the outcome. Moon director Duncan Jones...
I just want to point out that the deal exclude rights to remake the original film, so you will not see a remake of Blade Runner.
I've always wanted to see more movies made based on the world of Blade Runner. Hopefully they will end up being worthy of the film that Scott created and live up to the expectations of the fans. That's not going to be an easy thing to do, and I'm sure not everyone will be happy with the outcome. Moon director Duncan Jones...
- 3/3/2011
- by Venkman
- GeekTyrant
[1] Warner Bros-based Alcon Entertainment (the financing and production company behind The Blind Side and The Book of Eli) are in final discussions to secure film, television and ancillary franchise rights to produce prequels and sequels to Ridley Scott's iconic 1982 science-fiction film Blade Runner. Not many details are known about the situation, but we have been told the following: Alcon’s franchise rights would be all-inclusive, but exclude rights to remake the original. The Company, however, may produce projects based on situations introduced in the original film. The project would be distributed domestically by Warner Bros. International rights are yet to be determined. So don't expect to see a remake of the original movie. It is also unclear if they have any screenplay or treatments for possible projects. You might recall that Eagle Eye screenwriters Travis Wright and John Glenn were paid to explore a potential secret sequel [2] from 2003-...
- 3/3/2011
- by Peter Sciretta
- Slash Film
(Celebrating award week with a look at one of Oscar’s most notable champions: The French Connection. Thirty-nine years ago, Connection – besides being one of the biggest hits of the 1970s – was the top winner at the Academy Awards walking away with gold for Best Picture [collected by producer Phil D’Antoni], Director [William Friedkin], Actor [Gene Hackman], Adapted Screenplay [by Ernest Tidyman], and Editing [Gerald Greenburg].)
“I grew up in a world where Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney …these were the heroes. Not the cops. Cops were the bad guys. Or they were stumbling around, couldn’t find their asses with both hands.”
So says Sonny Grosso, and it is a screen icongraphy he has worked hard to change. Grosso-Jacobson Communications has produced over 750 hours of programming for network and premium and basic cable television in its thirty-odd years. Though its output has run from Pee Wee’s Playhouse to adventure fare like Counterstrike, the most acclaimed of the company’s offerings...
“I grew up in a world where Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney …these were the heroes. Not the cops. Cops were the bad guys. Or they were stumbling around, couldn’t find their asses with both hands.”
So says Sonny Grosso, and it is a screen icongraphy he has worked hard to change. Grosso-Jacobson Communications has produced over 750 hours of programming for network and premium and basic cable television in its thirty-odd years. Though its output has run from Pee Wee’s Playhouse to adventure fare like Counterstrike, the most acclaimed of the company’s offerings...
- 2/20/2011
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
My name is Mike Farrell. I'm an actor. Many years ago, I was lucky enough to realize an ambition to portray John F. Kennedy, the first Us President I was old enough to vote for. Made for PBS, the project was JFK, A One-Man Show, produced by David Susskind, written by David and Sidney Carroll and directed by Frank Perry. This extraordinary team, understanding its responsibility to history, carefully researched every word that went into the show. As actors portraying historic figures, we can do no less. To learn, as we near the 50th anniversary of JFK's presidency, that a project now in the works is not only grossly inaccurate but clearly intended to assassinate the character of a man who gave his life for this country fills me with contempt for the tone and depth of...
- 2/25/2010
- by Mike Farrell
- Huffington Post
The Protocols of Zion
PARK CITY -- Remember Woody Allen's quirky paranoid character in "Annie Hall" and how he saw anti-Semitism in the most far-fetched associations? Well, filmmaker Marc Levin rounds up the current lunatic fringe of anti-Semites, as well as the scarier establishment hatemongers, and encapsulates a post 9/11 morphism of this hideous problem. Woody's character, we see, had more to be worried about than he even envisioned.
As a documentarian, Levin is a combo David Susskind and Michael Moore, a serious social thinker with a daft sense of humor and a flair for ambushing knuckleheads. Best, Levin, who directed "Slam" (a Sundance jury prize winner), appreciates that one need not be solemn to be serious. "Protocols of Zion" is often funny, revealing the idiocy of hatemongers through their own harebrained explanations.
Based on the book, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a work of high balderdash that purported to be the minutes of a secret meting of Jewish elders at the end of the 19th century and their master plan to rule the world, Levin debunks that tract as well as the religious fanaticism and zealotry it has unleashed.
To Levin's astonishment the" Protocols" has been revived in the post 9/11 days, and in its tracts, fanatics have attempted to blame Jews for the murderous atrocity of the World Trade Center horror. With its subject mater, the film's most hospitable venue will be in big-city festival sites.
In this editorial essay, Levin engages a wide range of zealots -- neo-Nazis, Kabbalist rabbis, Holocaust deniers, Black nationalists, etc. -- and, essentially, gives them enough rope to hang their imbecilic utterances. As an interviewer, Levin is skilled and affable and builds momentum as he reports even scarier anti-Semitic tirades, including a speech from the Malaysian prime minister.
Occasionally, Levin's ambition exceeds his cinematic grasp: The film is somewhat scattergun in its blend of history and contemporary phenomenon, including a glib inclusion of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ" as an inflammatory tract.
Crisply edited by Ken Eluto and buoyed by Levin's incisive intelligence and wit, including some compelling ruminations with his father Al, 'Protocols of Zion" found an appreciative festival audience here at Sundance.
PROTOCOLS OF ZION
HBO Cinemax Documentary Films
Credits:
Producers: Marc Levin, Steven Kalafer
Director : Marc Levin
Co-producer: Jennifer Tuft
Executive producer: Jeff Herr
Supervising producer: Daphne Pinkerson
Director of photography: Mark Benjamin
Editor: Ken Eluto
Music: John Zorn
Associate producer: Daniel Praid
Field producer: Michael Skolnik
Production coordinators: Emily Gann, Sarah Hood
For HBO
Producer executive producer: Sheila Nevins
Supervising producer:Nancy Abraham
Associate producer: Danielle Schleif
Running time -- 90 minutes...
As a documentarian, Levin is a combo David Susskind and Michael Moore, a serious social thinker with a daft sense of humor and a flair for ambushing knuckleheads. Best, Levin, who directed "Slam" (a Sundance jury prize winner), appreciates that one need not be solemn to be serious. "Protocols of Zion" is often funny, revealing the idiocy of hatemongers through their own harebrained explanations.
Based on the book, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a work of high balderdash that purported to be the minutes of a secret meting of Jewish elders at the end of the 19th century and their master plan to rule the world, Levin debunks that tract as well as the religious fanaticism and zealotry it has unleashed.
To Levin's astonishment the" Protocols" has been revived in the post 9/11 days, and in its tracts, fanatics have attempted to blame Jews for the murderous atrocity of the World Trade Center horror. With its subject mater, the film's most hospitable venue will be in big-city festival sites.
In this editorial essay, Levin engages a wide range of zealots -- neo-Nazis, Kabbalist rabbis, Holocaust deniers, Black nationalists, etc. -- and, essentially, gives them enough rope to hang their imbecilic utterances. As an interviewer, Levin is skilled and affable and builds momentum as he reports even scarier anti-Semitic tirades, including a speech from the Malaysian prime minister.
Occasionally, Levin's ambition exceeds his cinematic grasp: The film is somewhat scattergun in its blend of history and contemporary phenomenon, including a glib inclusion of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ" as an inflammatory tract.
Crisply edited by Ken Eluto and buoyed by Levin's incisive intelligence and wit, including some compelling ruminations with his father Al, 'Protocols of Zion" found an appreciative festival audience here at Sundance.
PROTOCOLS OF ZION
HBO Cinemax Documentary Films
Credits:
Producers: Marc Levin, Steven Kalafer
Director : Marc Levin
Co-producer: Jennifer Tuft
Executive producer: Jeff Herr
Supervising producer: Daphne Pinkerson
Director of photography: Mark Benjamin
Editor: Ken Eluto
Music: John Zorn
Associate producer: Daniel Praid
Field producer: Michael Skolnik
Production coordinators: Emily Gann, Sarah Hood
For HBO
Producer executive producer: Sheila Nevins
Supervising producer:Nancy Abraham
Associate producer: Danielle Schleif
Running time -- 90 minutes...
- 1/28/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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