Winning an Academy Award is an achievement some actors and actresses wait their whole lives and careers for. And then there are these performers who were so impressive in their first ever film roles that they took home Oscars for it. LUPITA NYONG’O Born in Mexico to a Kenyan family, Nyong’o built up an impressive […]
The Academy Awards are around the corner. Here are some of the weirdest nominations and wins in the ceremony’s long history. THERE’S GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS The Razzies, or “Golden Raspberry Awards” are the anti-Oscar and hand out cheap plastic trophies to the year’s worst movies. While many performers have won both awards for […]
If some old science-fiction movies set in the once distant year of 2019, are to be believed, we’re all in for a terrible time. Hunted for sport Criminals convicted under America’s totalitarian police system are creatively sentenced to star on a reality game show called The Running Man, where they’re hunted for sport by professional […]
Star Wars is an undeniable part of the collective cultural consciousness. It’s probably shaped fiction and storytelling as much as Shakespeare. And, like Shakespeare, people keep adapting it and presenting it different ways. Here are some of the wildest ways the story of Star Wars has been told. Ballet In 2015, The Star Wars Tribute […]
From The Muppet Movie to The Muppet Show to Sesame Street, everybody loves the Muppets, the brilliant puppet comic creations of Jim Henson and company. But not everything with “Muppets” in its name has been a success. Here are some rare Muppet misses. Little Muppet Monsters (1985) It’s kind of hard to believe, but a spinoff of one of the most popular […]
It takes a lot of money to buy even a portion of a pro sports team. How’s someone supposed to get those millions of dollars together? Try being a huge success in the world of entertainment! Who has stakes in the Arena Football League? Over the last 30 years, lots of upstart football leagues have […]
Many of the first major players in cable TV in the early 1980s are still intact today — CNN is still a 24-news network, ESPN is all sports all the time, and HBO plays movies and sports events. Elsewhere, there’s been a lot of “changing channels” so to speak, as lots of networks have changed […]
Not everybody watches the same TV shows or reads the same books, but we are all subject to the same ads. That makes marketing a universal language, and as such, marketers and advertisers have introduced several now common words and phrases into the vernacular. MANSCAPING Netflix just rebooted the early 2000s makeover show Queer Eye […]
Do you remember these TV programs? Probably not—they were watched by so few people that they were the first new fall show to get the axe in their respective year. 2018: The Alec Baldwin Show After debuting as a special in March 2018 called Sundays with Alec Baldwin, that fall, ABC brought back the one-on-one […]
The Simpsons has been on the air for more than 30 years now, and the setting of Springfield has expanded to include literally hundreds of characters. On occasion, the population contracts. Here are some characters no longer on the show…and why. APU NAHASAPEEMAPETILON The discussion has been going on for years, but the idea that […]
The Simpsons just started its unprecedented thirtieth season on the air. This one is sure to include some special celebrity guest stars…which is old hat for the series. Here are some stories behind some Simpsons cameos. Leonard Nimoy One of the most famous episodes of The Simpsons is the 1993 installment “Marge Vs. the Monorail.” When Springfield […]
After you head in after the trick-or-treating and costume parties are over, will you watch one of these fall classics? Addams Family Values In Charles Addams original New Yorker cartoons, the family had no names, so they were created for the Addams Family TV show in the ‘60s. For the dim son, Addams suggested either Pugsley or Pubert. Producers chose […]
Right now, Lady Gaga is dazzling audiences with her first major role in a movie, a remake of A Star is Born, directed by co-star Bradley Cooper. It’s an auspicious first stab at film stardom, unlike these other attempts by pop stars who tried their hand at acting. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band A […]
In which Uncle John corrects widespread grammatical and language abominations. Here are a few celebrity names that you may be pronouncing wrong. Martin Scorsese You can use a pneumonic device with this one to remember that the director’s last name is not pronounced “score-says-he.” When it comes to award nominations, Martin “scores easy.” Demi Lovato […]
Here are some shows that ran for many years and became part of TV history. And to think, they were almost canceled right away. Cheers It frequently makes lists of the best TV shows of all time, it won the Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series four times, and it made stars out of Ted […]
Those TV shows we love, the ones with beloved and familiar characters we welcome into our homes week after week? They could have been a lot different, had creators gone with their original ideas and instincts. Frasier Fraiser was a smash hit for NBC, running from 1993 to 2004 and winning the Emmy for Best […]
Last week, Hollywood news outlets reported that Henry Cavill might be done playing Superman on the big screen, as he’s been doing since 2013 in films like Man of Steel, Justice League, and Batman vs. Superman. It remains to be seen who will next wear the cape…and who will have almost become the Man of […]
Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon lost her bid to become the next governor of New York, losing in a primary to incumbent Andrew Cuomo. She’s certainly not the first well-known actor to ever run for office. Shirley Temple Her heyday was the 1930s, but Shirley Temple arguably remains the most famous (and beloved) […]
