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Betty White and Bea Arthur were two of the biggest stars of The Golden Girls, a show loved by millions worldwide. On-screen, their chemistry was undeniable, creating some of the most iconic moments in TV history. But off-screen, their personalities couldn’t have been more different.

Estelle Getty, Rue McClanahan, Bea Arthur, and Betty White in The Golden Girls | Credits: NBC Network

White’s sunny, upbeat energy sometimes clashed with Arthur’s more serious and reserved demeanor, leading to some real-life tension between the co-stars. Despite their differences, their professional partnership delivered a timeless comedy that fans still cherish today.

Why did Bea Arthur find Betty White’s positivity overwhelming in The Golden Girls?

Betty White was known as one of the most cheerful and lovable stars in Hollywood. Her charm and sharp sense of humor have won over countless fans and colleagues. However, not everyone was as captivated by her upbeat personality,...

Dianna Agron, who played cheerleader Quinn Fabray in Glee, really jumpstarted her career with the role.

Dianna Agron shines as cheerleader Quinn Fabray in the iconic musical comedy-drama series Glee (Credit: Fox)

Dianna Agron’s Early Life and Background

Dianna Elise Agron, born on April 30, 1986, in Savannah, Georgia, grew up in a Jewish household and spent her childhood in San Antonio, Texas, and Burlingame, California.

Her father was a general manager for Hyatt Hotels, while her mother was a seamstress. She grew up in hotels due to the nature of her father’s career and is said to have gained her love for storytelling by observing the many fascinating people who passed through.

Even as a young girl, Dianna dreamed of emulating two of her idols, saying, “Growing up, I wanted to be a mixture of Audrey Hepburn and Lucille Ball.” This aspiration reveals the early seeds of her fascination...

Archie and Hawkeye and Mary and Bob and Carol are being reunited for a hot Saturday-night date on the Catchy Comedy broadcast television network.

TVLine has learned exclusively that starting Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, Catchy Comedy (fka Decades) will recreate what is widely regarded as one of the greatest TV line-ups ever — Saturday night circa 1973-74 — by leading off with All in the Family at 8/7c, followed by M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show.

More from TVLineTVLine Items: From Blood and Ash TV Series, Kelly Clarkson Renewed and MoreThe White Lotus Season 3 Sets Winter 2025 Release Date - Plus,...

Plenty of comedy stars have popped in for a cameo when their old sitcom costars get a new gig — think Cheers’ Ted Danson visiting the original Frasier or most of the Community cast stopping by Ken Jeong’s Dr. Ken. But some sitcom stars have such amazing chemistry that they need to keep a good thing going.

Here are five pairs of funny people who costarred together in multiple sitcoms…

1 Danny McBride and Walton Goggins

McBride and Goggins headlined Vice Principals as competing a-holes vying to rule the school via promotion to the top job. When McBride went on to create The Righteous Gemstones for HBO, he again enlisted Goggins as a failed child star who once headlined a gospel song-and-dance team. Goggins told Conan O’Brien that McBride “is the funniest person I have ever met in my life.” The two even teamed to desecrate the reputations of Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar.

Stephanie Hsu is opening up about her decision to turn down an audition for the Wicked movie.

The 34-year-old actress got her start as a musical theatre actress on Broadway and received an Oscar nomination for her performance in the 2022 movie Everything Everywhere All at Once.

During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live on Monday (December 2), Stephanie responded to rumors that she auditioned for the role of Glinda.

Keep reading to find out more…

“I actually did not audition for Galinda. I was asked to audition, but I don’t feel in my heart to be a Glinda/Galinda. And I actually just saw the movie and Ari is amazing. She’s giving like, Lucille Ball-level of comedic perofrmance, so thank god it wasn’t me,” Stephanie said.

Ariana Grande got the role and we know of at least four other actresses who confirmed they auditioned as well.

"Star Trek" is a rich and sprawling corner of the media landscape. Countless shows and movies have popped up every few years ever since Gene Roddenberry came along with the idea for the franchise -- that and when Lucille Ball put everything on the line to make the original "Star Trek" series a reality over half a century ago. That three-season show has since become a staple item for sci-fi fans of all walks. It features classic characters like William Shatner's rule-breaking Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy's stoic Mr. Spock. It also kicked off with Captain Christopher Pike, a Starfleet commander who has resurfaced in the presently airing, nostalgia-laced spin-off series "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

While the original "Star Trek" series as a whole is hallowed ground for sci-fi aficionados, there's one episode in particular that stands out from the rest: "The City on the Edge of Forever.

Wicked fever has swept the nation, and that fever is reaching a pitch around Araiana Grande and a possible Oscar nomination. In a new piece for the Los Angeles Times, director Jon M. Chu, composer Steven Schwartz, and the film's crew rave about the "golden-age movie star" and her performance...

Did Nicole Kidman Call Tom Cruise Sexist? (Photo Credit – Instagram/Facebook)

Nicole Kidman shut down a lazy Tom Cruise comparison while discussing Being the Ricardos, serving up sass and reminding everyone she’s not just defined by her past relationships.

When the conversation veered toward her ex-husband, Kidman snapped, “Oh, my God, no, no. Not.” She said, “That’s so long ago that that isn’t in this equation.” But it got juicy: “I would ask not to be pigeonholed that way, either. It feels to me almost sexist because I’m not sure anyone would say that to a man.” Mic drop

She was legitimately calling out an entire double standard. Because when it comes to her past with Cruise, it seems everyone’s still stuck on that ‘90s tabloid romance. Kidman, however, is so done with it. “Give me my life. In its own right,” she quipped. That’s her story,...

Hoda Kotb is an experienced host on The Today Show, so it is surprising she would encourage a visiting celebrity to make such a large on-air blunder. Kotb was interviewing Singer Cher when she encouraged the artist to drop an f-bomb on national morning television. So what exactly happened? Keep reading to find out!

Hoda Kotb Makes A Big Mistake

Today Show host Hoda Kotb was interviewing Cher on Tuesday when she made a very large mistake. Cher and Hoda sat down to discuss Cher’s latest book “Cher: The Memoir, Part One.” Kotb was asking Cher to recount an interaction she had with famous actress Lucille Ball. Turns out the conversation was not appropriate for television, but that didn’t stop Hoda from asking her to tell it!

Today: Hoda Kotb

Cher explained to Hoda Kotb that when she was in the process of leaving her ex-husband Sonny Bono,...

Cher has spent decades in the public eye, but until recently, fans didn’t know the inner workings of her day-to-day life, including just how dark and lonely her private life once was. Her memoir, Cher: The Memoir, was released on Nov. 19 and shed light on everything the music icon went through. For the first time, she delves deeply into the end of her marriage to Sonny Bono. She even reveals how Lucille Ball’s thoughts on her union emboldened her to leave.

Lucille Ball encouraged Cher to leave Sonny Bono

Cher and Sonny Bono might have appeared happily married until their separation in 1974, but their home had not been a happy one for several years. Cher toyed with the idea of ending the relationship several times but always backed down. She was so serious about divorce that she sought out the opinion of the only person she believed had been in her exact situation.

Tina Turner once asked Cher for advice about leaving her abusive marriage to Ike Turner, the “Believe” singer writes in her memoir “Cher: The Memoir, Part 1.” The Turners came onto Cher’s self-titled TV show twice, and on one visit, Tina asked Cher, “Tell me how you left him.”

The request came after Tina asked for help covering up a bruise. “One of the days we were shooting, she came to my room before we went on asking if I had some cover-up. She had a bruise on her arm she didn’t want showing on camera. I told her I had something that would work,” Cher writes.

“I looked at her and told her, ‘I just walked out and kept going,'” she continues.

Cher noted that the request from Tina reminded her of the one she once made to Lucille Ball when she wanted to leave Sonny Bono.

This week, Cher unveiled Cher: The Memoir, Part One. The hefty book details the first half of the icon’s life, while the second half will be recounted in the upcoming Part Two.

The book is as raw and unfiltered as one would expect from Cher. She doesn’t hold back on any figure in her life, whether it’s one of her mother’s seven husbands or a random celebrity encounter. Here are some takeaways from the year’s biggest memoir.

Cher was briefly raised by nuns

Cher’s...

Cher dropped a profanity live on morning television on Tuesday (November 19)!

The 78-year-old entertainer was making an appearance on the Today Show to promote her new memoir.

While speaking about her split with Sonny Bono, host Hoda Kotb asked about Cher reaching out to Lucille Ball for advice, in which her answer involved saying “f–k.”

Keep reading to find out more…

“I can’t say it on TV,” Cher said, to which Hoda said, “We’ll bleep it.”

As Cher continued to tell the story, she said, “I said, ‘Lucy, I’m calling you because to my knowledge, there’s never been a situation besides mine, except yours.’ And so, she said, ‘F–k it, you’re the one with the talent.’”

Hoda then started laughing, saying, “Okay, we didn’t have the seven second [delay], but we will get it for the next feed.”

“You said I could!” Cher replied.

You can’t say Cher didn’t warn Hoda Kotb this morning on The Today Show. Cher was there to promote her new memoir, and Kotb asked Cher about advice she’d received from comedy icon Lucille Ball after her 1975 divorce from Sonny Bono. “I can’t say it on TV,” Cher insisted, asking if the show’s producers could bleep out the offending words.

Don’t worry, said Kotb. “We’ll bleep it!”

Play

Given the green light, Cher talked about reaching out to her longtime pal. The wacky redhead knew all about public divorces, shocking the world when she broke it off with Desi Arnaz after I Love Lucy ended. “I said, ‘Lucy, I’m calling you because, to my knowledge, there’s never been a situation besides mine except yours,’” Cher said.

Ball’s sage advice about how to handle the situation? “Fuck him,” she said. “You...

Aaron Sorkin has signed a deal with Warner Bros. to write and potentially direct a film about the unlikely father of the Israeli Air Force, Al Schwimmer.

The project is based, in part, on “America’s Greatest Gift to Israel,” an article published in Business Insider and written by David Kushner. Sorkin’s film will be produced by Gotham Group’s Eric Robinson and Ellen Goldsmith-Vein. It is currently in development.

Schwimmer’s story is certainly cinematic — he began his career as an aerospace engineer at Lockheed and, during World War II, worked for Twa and the U.S. Air Transport Command as a flight engineer. In 1948, as Jews were fighting to carve out a homeland for themselves, Schwimmer “masterminded a covert, illegal, international operation that was equal parts ‘Argo’ and ‘Mission: Impossible.’ Working with the Jewish underground paramilitary, the Haganah, Schwimmer led a team of WWII veterans to break...

The 2025 stamp designs are out! There are the usual boring sets — American vistas? More U.S. flags? Vibrant leaves? — but one announcement has set comedy hearts aflutter: a commemorative stamp featuring the late sitcom superstar Betty White. Score!

“An icon of American television, Betty White (1922–2021) shared her wit and warmth with viewers for seven decades — including roles on The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” said the Usps in its announcement. “The comedic actor, who gained younger generations of fans as she entered her 90s, was also revered as a compassionate advocate for animals. Dale Stephanos created the digital illustration based on a 2010 photograph by Kwaku Alston. Greg Breeding, an art director for Usps, designed the stamp.”

In other words, Betty White was a badass.

White isn’t the first comedian honored by the Post Office, but she’s on a very short list. While you can’t...

Few actresses of her era take as many chances as Nicole Kidman. The Oscar- and Emmy Award-winning actress has been one of the industry’s most sought-after performers since the early 1990s, and appeared in everything from splashy musicals like “Moulin Rouge!” (which netted Kidman her first of five Academy Award nominations) to historical fiction like “The Hours” (which won Kidman the Best Actress Oscar for playing Virginia Woolfe) to psychological thrillers like “Eyes Wide Shut” (where she starred opposite her now-ex-husband Tom Cruise) to blockbuster superhero movies like “Aquaman.”

And that’s just on the big screen. In recent years, Kidman has acquitted herself exceedingly well in a spate of prestige television series, winning an Emmy for her nuanced work in “Big Little Lies” and scoring a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for “The Undoing.”

One of her biggest challenges was her turn as Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin’s 2021 film “Being the Ricardos.

Amanda Bynes had always been a natural performer. She began acting as a child, appearing in several TV commercials, demonstratively oohing and ahhing over the Cut N' Style Barbie or snacking on Buncha Crunch to a variation of the "Addams Family" theme music. At school, she appeared in the musicals "Annie," "The Sound of Music," and "The Music Man." She was bitten by the theater bug early on.

Bynes experienced her big break in 1996 when she joined the cast of the hit sketch comedy series "All That" on Nickelodeon. She was 10. "All That" ran for a whopping 11 seasons from 1994 to 2005 and proved to be a stamping ground for up-and-coming talents, serving sort-of as a junior version of "Saturday Night Live." Keenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell, Jamie Lynn Spears, and Nick Cannon also broke out thanks to the popularity of "All That." Bynes was a regular cast member for the show's third through sixth seasons,...

Hallmark’s Countdown To Christmas and Miracles of Christmas holiday programming has been in full swing for a few weeks now. The network has announced 47 new movies on its three platforms, the Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Mystery, and Hallmark+.

Is one of those three movies another holiday movie in the Blake Shelton Time For series?

Photo: Lacey Chabert, Stephen Huszar Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Allister Foster Is There A Blake Shelton Time For Christmas Movie On Hallmark This Year?

Hallmark has had several Christmas movies that became sequels. One of the most recent is the Blake Shelton-produced Time For movies. These are inspired by his song “Time For Me To Come Home.” Is there one for 2024? Unfortunately, fans of the country singer are out of luck. There was not a new one made for this season. Hallmark has not said anything, nor did Shelton. However, this was a...

Vivien Leigh was the two-time Oscar winner who made only a handful of films before her untimely death in 1967 at the age of 53. Yet several of those titles remain classics. Let’s take a look back at 10 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in British India, Leigh appeared in a number of roles on both the stage and screen in England, including a production of “Hamlet” opposite her husband, Laurence Olivier.

She came to international attention after landing the coveted role of Scarlet O’Hara in David O. Selznick’s massive adaptation of Margaret Mitchell‘s bestseller “Gone with the Wind” (1939). Leigh was far from the first choice to embody the headstrong Southern belle who pines after a married man (Leslie Howard) while wedding another (Clark Gable) against the backdrop of the Civil War. Yet the relatively unknown thespian beat out the likes of Bette Davis, Claudette Colbert,...

When Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz dreamed up their new sitcom I Love Lucy, their creative imaginations led to several problems. Case in point: “I had insisted upon having a studio audience; otherwise, I knew, we’d never hit the right tempo,” Ball wrote in her autobiography Love, Lucy. That was a problem — no existing studios were large enough to accommodate a live audience. And even if there were, how could the crowd see with all the lighting, sound and film equipment in the way? To help solve those problems, Arnaz decided to turn to the guy who shot 1931’s Dracula.

“I was scarcely prepared for the many problems which were to confront me upon my initial excursion into the realm of television,” wrote Oscar-winning cinematographer Karl Freund in the December 1953 issue of Art Photography. “I expected very little variation from the ritual of photographing regular motion pictures, but I...

"I Love Lucy" was in many ways TV's first solid-gold hit, and it wasn't just because the show premiered when there were few television programs on the air. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, then a real-life married couple, made magic together on screen as clever but ridiculous Lucy Ricardo and her straight man of a husband, Ricky. Their chemistry and comedy made the show an enduring, medium-changing hit, rocketing it to the top of the Nielsen charts and beaming it into the hearts and homes of millions of people worldwide.

The show came to a close in 1957, and while Ball and Arnaz would continue dominating television in other sitcoms and specials — not to mention their powerhouse production company Desilu — for years to come, no follow-ups ever held the same unique magic as the original series. Arnaz passed away in 1986, and Ball followed three years later. Today, only three actors who...

The classic television sitcom “I Love Lucy” will make its long-awaited Blu-ray debut on November 5. Paramount Home Entertainment has announced the release of “I Love Lucy: The Complete Series” on high-definition Blu-ray discs. This comprehensive collection promises to offer fans both old and new an enhanced viewing experience of the pioneering comedy series.

Starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, “I Love Lucy” broke new ground when it first aired between 1951 to 1957. The show quickly became a massive success and cultural touchstone for its hilarious portrayal of an eccentric housewife and her Cuban bandleader husband. It continues to attract large audiences over 70 years later.

The upcoming Blu-ray set restores all 180 classic episodes to near-pristine quality. It also contains rare and previously unseen bonus features. An early pilot episode has been restored from film, allowing a fresh look at the show’s beginnings. One episode has also been newly colorized.

If you've ever wanted to be able to yell "Luuuucy, I'm home!" to your own "I Love Lucy" box set, then you're in luck. The classic 1950s sitcom that followed real-life spouses Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as their fictional counterparts, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, is coming to home media in a whole new way, courtesy of Paramount. The series was wildly popular during its era and has left its stamp on pop culture ever since — it's honestly hard to find a comedy series that hasn't referenced "I Love Lucy" or been influenced by it in some way. The series is deeply beloved and made a massive impact on television history, and this new box set is sure to delight fans both new and old.

"I Love Lucy" ran for six seasons, starring Ball and Arnaz alongside the Ricardos' neighbors, Ethel and Fred Mertz (played by Vivian Vance and William Frawley...

Oscar winner J.K. Simmons and Tony winner Nina Arianda have joined the ensemble cast of magical realism dramedy “109 Billion Followers” from writer and director Ela Thier.

“109 Billion Followers,” which begins filming this November in New York City, also stars J.K. Simmons’ daughter Olivia Simmons (“You Can’t Run Forever”) and Jake Ryan.

The movie follows a film student (Olivia Simmons) who makes a documentary about a homeless man (J.K. Simmons) who is convinced that he’s the Grim Reaper. Her cameraman and unlikely love interest (Jake Ryan) adds laughs and heart, while her broken but loving mother (Nina Arianda) adds drama and mess.

It’s a “Being the Ricardos” reunion for J.K. Simmons and Arianda, who portrayed William Frawley and Vivian Vance in Aaron Sorkin’s 2021 Lucille Ball biographical drama.

Simmons earned an Academy Award in 2015 for his role as a merciless jazz instructor in “Whiplash.” He will...

Jimmy Carter, who turned 100 years old Oct. 1, has lived quite a life, on and off screen.

Aside from his presidency during 1977 to 1981, the former president had many iconic pop cultural moments both before he became leader of the United States as well as during and after.

Carter shared moments with cultural figures like Andy Warhol, the Allman Brothers, Johnny Cash, Lucille Ball, Walter Cronkite and more. His real speech was featured at the beginning of 1978’s Americathon before a fictional mob attacks the White House and hangs Carter and his cabinet because of the energy crisis. The Bruce Willis movie The Last Boy Scout is based on Willis’ character being the Secret Service agent who saved Carter from a fictional assassination attempt, and there is an out of focus actor playing Carter in a flash back.

Follow along below for a list of pop culture moments Jimmy Carter cemented into...

Nicole Kidman could be on the verge of receiving her sixth acting Oscar bid for the upcoming A24 erotic thriller “Babygirl,” directed by Halina Reijn, best known for the indie film “Bodies Bodies Bodies” (2022). With the movie already making its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival and Kidman taking home the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, let’s take a closer look at her five previous Oscar nominations, including her one win.

Her first recognition came for the Baz Luhrmann jukebox musical “Moulin Rouge” (2001), where Kidman portrayed a cabaret performer and courtesan in love with an English poet. It is certainly one of her most physical performances, as she performs extravagant musical numbers and showcases strong emotions as her character Satine suffers through an illness. Kidman won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and was part of the movie’s eight Oscar nominations,...

"Saturday Night Live" certainly didn't kick off their milestone 50th season with a bang. However, we shouldn't really be surprised. Historically, the season premieres of "SNL" aren't great episodes, mostly because the writers and cast members are a bit rusty after having the entire summer away from the show, and they often have to cycle through some tired material that is already stale by the time it makes it in front of cameras in Studio 8H. 

Unfortunately, that means "Hacks" star Jean Smart didn't get their best material, and the result was a middling episode with the sketches ranging from average to embarrassing. It's nothing to worry about, but for anyone who needed to be convinced that "SNL" still has the goods, this episode probably didn't do the trick. But that's also what makes "SNL" one of the most interesting comedy shows to watch. Anything can happen, and sometimes it's great,...

Fans of Gilligan’s Island love to joke about the earliest version of the show’s theme song, which shouts out most of the cast before resorting to an “And the rest!” lyric to refer to the Professor and Mary Ann. In fact, it didn’t change until star Bob Denver lobbied for it to include everyone.

One cast member, however, would have preferred to keep it the original way — Tina Louise, the “Movie Star” who closed out the original version of the credits. “Part of Louise’s dissatisfaction with the series was that she had expected to be the star of the show,” according to a 1965 issue of TV Guide, as reported by MeTV.

TV Guide wasn’t much of a gossip rag but even the publication responsible for channel listings couldn’t ignore the bad blood between Louise and everyone else in the cast. Denver, who played Gilligan, “will...

Imagine turning down an acting student who would become the biggest television star in the history of the medium. That’s what one school did to 16-year-old Lucille Ball, refunding her mother’s money and kicking the teen to the curb with a two-word message: “No talent.”

That’s the version Ball told the Toronto Star, according to MeTV: “All I ever wanted was to get to vaudeville, and I never made it.”

Others tell a more nuanced version of the story. It all began when Ball started dating a local hoodlum when she was only 14. Seeing as the guy was 21 — and a hoodlum — Ball’s mother was desperate for a way to break up the couple. Knowing that Lucy had a strong yearning to enter show business, her mother used her meager savings to send Ball off to the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts in New York City.

Survivor fans will never forget Liz Wilcox’s blowup over not getting invited to enjoy an Applebee’s feast.

Liz challenged herself by applying for Survivor despite suffering from many allergies that would impact her game.

She noted those allergies throughout the season, which made it difficult for her to eat at camp or during some of the possible rewards.

Liz stated that her allergies included coconut, chicken, pasta, and other items that were mentioned during challenges or camp conversations.

Liz felt the allergies could work to her advantage, as she wouldn’t miss not enjoying some of those rewards.

Starvation seemed to get to her several times, though. She blew up at a Reward Challenge when the winner and several people of his choice got to eat Applebee’s.

Liz Wilcox updates Survivor fans on her allergies

“On Survivor, I made a bold assumption that my allergies were likely caused from life stressors,...

Female friendships have been at the center of some of television’s most memorable and iconic shows — from comedy highs to dramatic lows. Here are TV’s Top 10 BFFs.MEGALaverne and Shirley on 'Laverne & Shirley'mega

Schlemiel! Schlimazel! They might be polar opposites, but as roommates and co-workers at Milwaukee’s fictional Shotz Brewery, Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) constantly lifted each other’s spirits as they got in and out of trouble!

Ethel and Lucy on 'I Love Lucy'Prime Video/YouTube

In one of the most legendary sitcoms in TV history, Lucille Ball as Lucy and Vivian Vance as Bff Ethel made audiences howl with laughter over their hilarious antics.

Mary and Rhoda on 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'mega

The classic opposites attract couple of polite local news producer Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) and her brash best friend and upstairs neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) became a...

From The Red Skelton Show and I Love Lucy to Get Smart and All in the Family through Taxi, Cheers and Murphy Brown to Frasier, Seinfeld and 30 Rock to Modern Family, Veep and Ted Lasso, the Emmy Awards have been laughing at TV best comedies for more than 70 years. Here is a gallery of all the shows to win the golden statuette since 1952; click on the image above to launch it.

The category itself has gone by various names, starting with Best Comedy Show and rolling through Best Comedy Series, Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Humor, Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Comedy to the current Outstanding Comedy Series. But the yuks have remained constant, whether it’s Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance trying to keep up with the conveyor belt at the chocolate factory or Jason Sudeikis Yank-coaching an English football club.

Our gallery lists all of the winners,...

Before "Austin Powers," "Johnny English," and "Top Secret!" there was "Get Smart," the 1960s spy sitcom that mined the genre for laughs when the James Bond and "Mission: Impossible" franchises were still in their infancies. Co-created by comedy legends Mel Brook and Buck Henry, "Get Smart" ran for five seasons from 1965 to 1970, earning seven Primetime Emmys and plenty of other accolades along the way.

Stand-up comedian Don Adams starred as Maxwell Smart, the sometimes inept top-secret agent who regularly held the fate of the world in his hands ... and often almost fumbled it. By his side was the beautiful, super-cool Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), who loves Maxwell despite his clumsiness and penchant for messing up missions. The central trio was rounded out by Edward Platt's The Chief, the supportive leader of the intelligence agency Control, which employed both Agent 99 and Maxwell.

"Get Smart" inspired a follow-up film, sequel TV show,...

What would we be without classic TV, and what would classic TV be without Desilu Studios? The famed facility takes its title from the combined name of its founders Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Desilu introduced the world to countless hours of quality programming and an amazing array of stars, each with a boatload of talent and charisma, representing a relatable voice of their and our generation. On Sunday, September 8, 2024, The Kids of Desilu live event celebrated all of that and more, with a remarkable array of iconic former child stars in particular. Orchestrated and produced with precision by Carolyn Peterson and Nite of Dreams Productions and live event assistant Jenni Switz, and hosted by yours truly, Herbie J Pilato, The Kids of Desilu was nothing less than a spectacular affair. A Nostalgic Night of Stars Like No Other The Kids of Desilu celebrated a legendary studio and key iconic...

For some of us, there are few things in this world more comforting than classic television. Back before "prestige TV" was really a thing and getting people to tune in was sometimes just a matter of hiring the biggest guest stars possible, things were a little different. There's just something about turning on the TV and settling in for a an episode of "Star Trek: The Original Series" or "Columbo" and knowing that matters will be resolved by the end of the show's runtime and that Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk) and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) always get the bad guy. Both are also pretty progressive; Columbo (an idealized lawman) routinely takes down the rich and powerful of Los Angeles, while "Star Trek" has always been socially conscious, aiming for a utopian society.

Columbo ran for a long time and then extended its life through a series of TV movies, meaning it filmed throughout the 1970s,...

Gemma Arterton returns as ambitious comedienne Sophie Straw in the second season of Funny Woman. Adapted from Nick Hornby’s novel Funny Girl, the new season follows Sophie as she navigates the challenges of fame and the gender biases of 1960s Britain.

When we first met Sophie in season one, she had just made the journey from her hometown of Blackpool to London, hoping to break into comedy alongside her idol Lucille Ball. Through pluck and talent, she managed to find success but also glimpsed the prejudice facing women in the industry. Now, Sophie has become a star, with her groundbreaking sitcom Barbara and Jim a hit on the BBC. But this new season shows she still has battles ahead in her quest to make comedy truly equal.

Sophie aims to use her growing influence to lift up other female comics and take on problematic attitudes in both her work and the world around her.

Look up any list of all-time funniest I Love Lucy scenes and there alongside Vitameatavegamin and the chocolate factory conveyor belt, you’ll find the bit where Lucy stomps grapes into wine on the Ricardos’ European vacation. “Now don’t you worry about it, Ricky,” says Ethel when the wacky redhead goes missing. “She just probably picked a few grapes, and she’s on her way home right now.”

Fat chance. Instead, Lucy got into an all-out brawl with a professional grape stomper. It’s a physical comedy tour de force, full of fruit-flinging and body slams in a precursor to today’s WWE cage matches. It’s a fight that also nearly killed Lucille Ball.

When she appeared on The Dick Cavett Show nearly 20 years later, the host asked about her favorite bits of all time. She simply said the word “grapes,” and the crowd burst into applause.

In the bit,...

“I can’t watch any sitcom before 2000 because it’s all so cringe. Racism, sexism, rape, and toxic behavior are not funny to me.”

You may have heard a friend or family member say something along those lines.

Or you might have made such a remark yourself.

(NBC (Youtube Screengrab))

Indeed, how did we ever watch all those old shows with so many problematic characters and politically incorrect plotlines?

Most iconic sitcom characters were bigoted or duplicitous and did not try their best to “be a better person.”

A Gen Z-er might ask, “Why did TV viewers ever sympathize with so many terrible people, like Archie Bunker, George Costanza, or Ross Geller?

A Boomer might ask, “Why can’t we just laugh at something that’s funny anymore? Back in the day, a good joke was a good joke.”

(NBC)

While a culture war seems like the right answer, I...

"Why did this astonishing man end his life exiled from the country he came to define?" Quite a question to ask. Greenwich Ent. has revealed an official US trailer for a UK documentary titled Mad About the Boy: The Noel Coward Story, arriving in the US this October. (Mad About the Boy is also the title of the next Bridget Jones film due out in 2025.) It already opened in the UK last year and is just now making its way to the US for those curious about the story of this enigmatic man. It tells the story of the extraordinary life of playwright, singer, actor, composer, director Noël Coward, who rose from poverty to stardom performing on Broadway and beyond, keeping his queer sexuality a secret. "He defined an era & led an extraordinary life." Featuring Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Frank Sinatra, Michael Caine and Lucille Ball as special guests. With...

[Editor’s note: this list was originally published in April 2024. It has since been updated with new performances from Kidman.]

Nicole Kidman is the rare actress in the 21st century who, like the stars of Hollywood’s golden years, doesn’t disappear into roles so much as elevate films by her mere presence.

She’s certainly swung big at mainstream blockbusters (think: the “Aquaman” films) that might feel out of her step with her character-driven work elsewhere (like most of the films on the list that follows). But that’s because the Australian icon is unafraid of any role, whether stripping down her post-Oscar, A-lister veneer to film Lars von Trier’s Brechtian “Dogville” in Sweden, slipping into a bathtub with the 10-year-old possible reincarnation of her dead husband in Jonathan Glazer’s “Birth,” or, yes, donning a fake nose to play a suicidal Virginia Woolf for her Oscar-winning turn in “The Hours.”

On April 27 in Los Angeles, Nicole Kidman received the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award, joining the ranks of Jane Fonda,...

In the first two seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the crew of the Enterprise-D wore zip-up, full-body jumpsuits as their uniforms. The jumpsuits had no collars and sported a diamond-shaped pattern that draped over the shoulders. They were very pajamas-like, but didn't look very cozy. Indeed, they weren't very flattering either. In Larry Nemecek's invaluable sourcebook "The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion," actor Jonathan Frakes noted that the jumpsuit uniforms were so unforgiving that if one ate an extra donut for breakfast, everyone could see it for the rest of the day.

It wouldn't be until the show's third season that the uniforms would be redesigned. In addition to a small collar, the top portion of the uniform was replaced by a boxier, more roomy torso that zipped up the back. Although the actors can be seen constantly readjusting the new uniforms (in what came...

"Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry had a pretty impressive career as a screenwriter, developing one of the most influential and popular science fiction franchises of all time. His legacy through "Star Trek" is truly something, impressing his progressive, humanistic outlook upon the world through the ideals of Starfleet, but even without "Star Trek," Roddenberry is also a (somewhat) secret legend for having survived multiple plane crashes during his time in the military and as a commercial pilot for Pan American World Airways (Pan Am). His work on "Star Trek" is much better known, of course, but the incredible stories behind his near-death experiences as a pilot help afford fans a better understanding of the man who gave us Captain Kirk, Spock, and the whole beautiful, utopian universe of "Star Trek."

(Sure, he originally pitched "Star Trek" to studios as a space Western, comparing it to the popular series "Wagon Train,...

If you’re a millennial or a member of Generation X, then you probably grew up with a pretty good idea of the music, movies, and television shows that your parents were raised on.

Throughout the Clinton years, there were entire radio stations and TV channels dedicated to the “oldies” of the 1950s and ’60s, and the cinematic classics of that era were easy to find on cable or in video stores.

In other words, the most popular content from the baby boomer era was not niche stuff that was only being tracked down by amateur pop culture historians.

(Paramount+ (YouTube screenshot))

In fact, in those days, kids who were still watching Nickelodeon at 8:00 pm would find themselves suddenly caught in a time warp that would transport them to the era of I Love Lucy, Donna Reed, and Ozzie and Harriet.

The End of an Era?

Sure, Nick at Nite technically still exists,...

Eugene Levy and his son Dan Levy continue to make Emmy history. Four years ago, their comedy series “Schitt’s Creek” won a staggering nine Emmys including best comedy series, actor, actress, supporting actors, writing and directing. Even before “Schitt’s Creek,” Eugene was no stranger to the Emmy universe, winning statutes in 1982 and 1983 as a writer on the beloved “Sctv.” In fact, Dan was just a month old when his dad received his second honor.

Eugene’s nominated this year for the 14th time for outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special for Apple TV +’ “The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy.” Now Eugene and Dan will be the first father and son to host the Emmys airing Sept. 15 on ABC. And here’s bit more history: the 77-year-old Eugene is the oldest Emmy host ever.

Having two hosts is nothing new for the Emmys. Back in 1952, the Emmys were hosted by the...

“Where do we do it — here or in the bedroom?”

That’s the question a young, well-oiled Arnold Schwarzenegger asks a robe-clad Lucille Ball during their first on-screen meeting, a borderline horny scene that he says changed everything for his burgeoning career.

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Arnold’s account of how he met the comedy legend sounds like a #MeToo story in the making, but turns out, it was on the up-and-up. “She was so sweet,” he remembered. “She saw me one time on a Merv Griffin Show, and she called me the next day in the gym when I was working out. She said, ‘Look, I saw you yesterday on Merv Griffin. You were funny, you have a great sense of humor. That’s very unique with someone of your build.’”

What an opening line. And it worked — Ball invited Arnold to read for a television special called Happy Anniversary and Goodbye.

It's no secret that William Shatner's co-stars from the original "Star Trek" weren't very fond of him. Because he was at the top of the call-sheet, Shatner often considered himself the star of the show ... and he behaved accordingly. There were instances of him reassigning other characters' lines to himself, and he would often butt heads with "Star Trek" directors when he wasn't in the center of the frame. 

When Leonard Nimoy's Mr. Spock proved to be a hit among viewers, leading to a notable TV Guide photo spread, a rivalry began among the two leads. Each one assumed they were the singular star of "Star Trek," and each one tried to hog as much of the spotlight as they could. The pair's rivalry led to outrage from show creator Gene Roddenberry, who infamously penned an angry letter demanding that the two prima donnas rein in their cattiness.

“I keep slipping into Valerie Cherish, don’t I?” Meredith Hagner has done plenty of press in her career, particularly for her breakout role in Search Party and the Vacation Friends franchise, but this is the first time she’s sat down for a meal and really rehashed her full biography with a recorder running. She’s concerned she’s trafficking in the same acting cliches as Lisa Kudrow’s famously deluded character in The Comeback.

But the cliches along the 37-year-old’s career path sound novel. They’re almost from another time. She moved to New York from North Carolina after graduating high school on the promise of an unpaid job in a Fringe Fest play. She slept on a hand-me-down hospice bed (with rollers!) that her grandmother had just died in. And, to pay rent on the railroad apartment she shared with a server at cringe tourist trap Jekyll & Hyde Club,...

Paramount Television Studios, a production facility originally aimed at getting Paramount Pictures back into the business of making TV series, will shut down, the latest bout of cost cutting by parent corporation Paramount Global as it seeks to eliminate $500 million amid a chaotic shift in the entertainment industry.

“This has been a challenging and transformative time for the entire industry, and sadly, our studio is not immune,” said Nicole Clemens, president of the unit, which debuted in 2013, in a memo to staffers. “Over the past 11 years, she said, the studio “has weathered seemingly insurmountable obstacles through a combination of strength, determination, and unwavering commitment. We met these challenges with incredible resilience, creativity, and passion for what we do, and I could not be prouder of our team. We’ve also had the privilege to collaborate with some of the most brilliant creative talent in the industry to help tell incredible stories seen around the world,...

If you needed yet another reason to love Lucy, here's one — courtesy of Hocus Pocus and King of the Hill star Kathy Najimy. The prolific actress and activist shared a video on her Instagram page of the legendary Lucille Ball schooling a man on America Alive!, admonishing him for getting handsy with female audience members during the Q&a portion of her appearance.

That “man” was longtime entertainment newscaster for CBS, David Sheehan, and those audience members he was grabbing were young women likely studying at UCLA where the show was being taped.

Although the audience giggled at every one of Ball’s reproaches — “Will you take your hands off, David?” and “Take your hands off her, David” — Ball’s face was stern the whole time she scolded Sheehan. While everyone thought she was kidding around and perhaps thought it was part of a bit, Ball meant business.

Ball may...