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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...

Rhino has unveiled a new vinyl box set collecting Rush’s four studio albums from 1989 through 1996, arriving this Friday (November 1st).

The 6-lp set houses Presto (1989), Roll the Bones (1991), Counterparts (1993), and Test for Echo (1996) — all of which have been out of print on vinyl since they were last reissued in 2015. Counterparts and Test for Echo are spread across two LPs and three sides each.

These would be the final four albums Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart recorded for Atlantic Records prior to going on hiatus in 1997. Each record features original artwork, plus a print featuring reimagined cover art, and comes housed in a slipcase featuring new artwork by the band’s longtime art director Hugh Syme.

Rush signed with Atlantic prior to the release of Presto, which peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard album charts in 1989. The band enjoyed more success with its follow-up Roll the Bones in 1991, hitting No.

The Marx Brothers – mustachioed, stogie-smoking ring-leader Groucho, chatty, Italian-accented con man Chico, silent skirt-chaser Harpo and, early on, relatively “normal” matinee idol Zeppo – first got their start as a vaudeville comedy act at the turn of the 20th century. They would go on to conquer the Broadway stage before landing in films when “talkies” took off.

Zeppo would drop out of the act after five films, becoming an engineer and a talent agent. But his older siblings would continue their frenzied verbal and visual hilarity on the big screen until 1949, when the medium of television beckoned and competed for eyeballs. Groucho would host a TV version of his radio game show, “You Bet Your Life,” for 11 seasons on NBC and appeared on Dick Cavett’s TV talk show in the late ‘60s. That is when their Marx Brothers’ anarchistic approach to humor and word-play takedowns of hypocrites and stuffy high-society...

The Golden Age of Radio isn’t known for featuring too many dirty jokes, probably because Jack Benny never dropped any F-bombs and Flash Gordon resisted the urge to recite obscene limericks about residents of Nantucket. But one iconic comedian made an impressively obscene quip during a popular game show – according to legend, at least.

The story goes that the great Groucho Marx, during a 1947 episode of the radio version of his popular quiz program You Bet Your Life, interviewed a female contestant with a large number of kids (the exact number varies depending on the telling). When Groucho asked how she came to have so many children, she responded, “I love my husband.” To which Groucho fired back: “I love my cigar, but I take it out once and a while.”

Several sources suggest that the anecdote is genuine, including Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx,...

Impact Network is rebranding from a faith and gospel-focused multiplatform channel to a family-friendly lifestyle entertainment channel focused on Black audiences.

Founded in 2010 by Bishop Wayne T. Jackson and wife Beverly Jackson, the 100% Black-owned independent network began as a channel airing sermons and religious talk shows. In 2022, with the appointment of Wayne and Beverly’s son Royal Jackson to chief creative officer, Impact Network moved into entertainment programming, including both scripted and unscripted titles with a strategic focus on religious content.

Now, Impact is shifting its lineup once more to encompass “family-friendly lifestyle entertainment, premium scripted and engaging non-scripted series in addition to programming initiatives around health/wellness/financial/cultural areas affecting Black communities.”

Among Impact’s new offerings are unscripted syndicated series licensed from Fox First Run, including “You Bet Your Life” with Jay Leno and Kevin Eubanks, “25 Words or Less” with Meredith Louise Vieira and “Divorce Court,...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2023 Emmy Predictions:

Outstanding Game Show

Weekly Commentary: “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” are likely the favorites in this race. However, “That’s My Jam” is getting a big push by NBC, which could make it a possible spoiler.

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Emmy predictions in all categories.

Person, Place or Thing is coming to first-run syndication this fall. The new game show, hosted by Melissa Peterman (Young Sheldon), is a modern take on 20 questions where contestants ask yes or no questions to get their partner to reveal an item.

Produced by Fox First Run, the new show has been sold in 90% of the country. It will debut in 161 markets on Fox-owned stations as well as on stations in the Sinclair, Nexstar Media Group, Gray Television, E.W. Scripps, and Tegna groups.

Fox First Run produces other syndicated programs like 25 Words or Less, Dish Nation, Divorce Court, Pictionary, TMZ, TMZ Live, and You Bet Your Life with Jay Leno.

Read More…...

Picketers gathered outside Warner Bros. in Burbank today found themselves buoyed by a unique presence: Flavor Flav. The hip-hop icon-turned-reality star showed up to cheers from the assembled WGA supporters.

Dressed in a festive yellow-and-blue track suit and wearing a demure (for him) red clock around his neck, the Public Enemy also brought a boombox and blasted the group’s classic “Fight the Power.”

Possibly even better, Flav brought a lot of food.

“A true spread of burgers and pizzas at Warner Bros courtesy of Flava Flav!” wrote Abbott Elementary writer-producer Brittani Nichols on Twitter above a photo of the rapper delivering at least a dozen boxes of grub.

A true spread of burgers and pizzas at Warner Bros courtesy of Flava Flav! Please come picket and eat! #WGAstrong pic.twitter.com/V1pJZ4raIr

— Brittani Nichols *Strike Version* (@BisHilarious) May 18, 2023

Flavor Flav just arrived at WB #WGAstrong pic.twitter.

Updated with more details: Upfront week opened in New York City on Monday morning with ad buyers, TV executives and others walking in the middle of a street in Midtown Manhattan to get around protestors and WGA picket lines — and from there into Radio City Music Hall for the first of the networks’ big fall preview presentations.

Related: Support For WGA Strike To Take To The Skies Over Studios With Plane Trailing Banner ‘Pay The Writers You AI-Holes’

Invitees to the NBCUniversal 2023 upfront, briefly sharing the roadway with cars and trucks, were also greeted by more than 200 striking members of the Writers Guild of America and other sign-waving union supporters who ringed three sides of Radio City and urged the arrivals not to cross the line on Day 14 of the Hollywood scribes’ work stoppage.

The guests did get in, anyways, without incident but not without an earful of “shut it down,...

Jay Leno’s game show You Bet Your Life will pause production amid the WGA work stoppage in support of striking writers.

The comedian, WGA member and host of the Fox comedy quiz series announced the decision on Monday morning.

“As a member of the Writers Guild for almost 40 years, I truly understand and stand in solidarity with my fellow union members,” he said. “For that reason, we are suspending production of our game show, You Bet Your Life, until such time when an agreement can be reached.”

He concluded his statement by jokingly adding, “I’m sorry I ran out of glazed, I now realize powdered sugar is not the same thing.”

The former Tonight Show host was referencing his appearance handing out donuts from Randy’s on the strike picket lines outside Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. In the footage, union members can be heard thanking the comedian and fellow guild member.

Production on the Fox game show You Bet Your Life has halted amid the ongoing writers strike as the AMPTP continues to stall negotiations with the WGA. Series host Jay Leno, who has been seen at multiple picket lines delivering donuts, supports the move.

“As a member of the Writers Guild for almost 40 years, I truly understand and stand in solidarity with my fellow union members,” Leno said in a statement. “For that reason, we are suspending production of our game show, You Bet Your Life until such time when an agreement can be reached. I’m sorry I ran out of glazed, I now realize powdered sugar is not the same thing. Yours truly, Jay Leno.”

The news arrives as Fox’s Upfront presentation is set to begin in just under an hour in New York City on the fourteenth day of the writers strike. Picketers were out in...

The industry’s shift to streaming has made for some strange bedfellows at the AMPTP, which could impact when and how a new agreement with the WGA is reached.

For decades, the writers guild negotiated contracts with the film and television studios while the TV business slowly evolved and original series eventually expanded from broadcast to cable. In the big 2007 face-off that triggered a 100-day strike, the WGA was pursuing for — and was able to secure — jurisdiction over new media. At the time, streaming was in its infancy, with Netflix starting an SVOD business earlier that year and Hulu launching one week before the start of the writers strike.

By the time the next negotiation rolled around in March of 2011, a seismic change was afoot. Just five days before the WGA and AMPTP agreed on a new contract that year, Netflix entered the original programming arena in a big way,...

Jay Leno was injured in a motorcycle accident last week that left him with multiple broken bones, coming two months after he was seriously burned in a gas fire in his L.A. garage, according to a report.

The comedian and former “Tonight Show” host, in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, said he was knocked off his motorcycle Jan. 17 in an accident. He broke a collarbone and two ribs and cracked both of his kneecaps, per the report.

“But I’m Ok!” Leno told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I’m Ok, I’m working. I’m working this weekend.”

Leno told the newspaper he was working on a vintage motorcycle and testing it out when he noticed the smell of leaking gas. “So I turned down a side street and cut through a parking lot, and unbeknownst to me, some guy had a wire strung across the parking...

Comedian Jay Leno’s 30-year run of having a TV show on one of NBCUniversal’s TV channels appears to be ending.

A CNBC source tells The Hollywood Reporter that it has decided to cancel the reality show Jay Leno’s Garage, which has been a staple of its primetime lineup since 2015.

The cancellation comes amid a larger schedule shift at the channel, with its primetime hours to focus on reality reruns of Shark Tank and Undercover Boss, as well as original business documentaries.

Jay Leno’s Garage, which sees Leno showing off his enormous car collection and interviewing celebrity guests like President Biden and Elon Musk, also served as a landing pad for Leno when he left The Tonight Show in 2014.

Leno’s last Tonight Show episode was in February 2014, and CNBC ordered Jay Leno’s Garage just a few months later. It originally began as an NBC.com web series, and...

Since hosting his final episode of The Tonight Show on NBC in 2014, Jay Leno has hardly faded from the scene à la his predecessor, Johnny Carson.

Jay’s Garage, which showcases Leno’s love of classic cars and other vehicles, has been airing on CNBC since 2015 and will start another season this month. He continues to do stand-up comedy, booking (at least before Covid-19) a couple hundred dates a year.

Even with all of that, today marks a particularly important chapter, with Leno returning to the daily TV host chair, on Fox’s syndicated reboot of You Bet Your Life. Stepping into the role made famous by Groucho Marx in the show’s previous incarnation, Leno presides over the game, mostly in the crowd-work mode he popularized in Tonight Show segments like “Jaywalking.”

In an interview with Deadline, Leno said the attraction to him was the notion of trying to...

Seven years after he signed off as host of “The Tonight Show,” Jay Leno is ready to dive back into the daily TV grind as emcee of “You Bet Your Life,” a revival of the classic quiz show hosted for years on radio and TV by Groucho Marx.

Leno’s edition of the durable game show bows Sept. 13 in syndication, distributed by Fox Corp.’s Fox First Run division.

The veteran comedian has been offered hosting gigs on many game shows over the years, but Leno didn’t have much interest in a show with a lot of involved game play. The highlight of the original “Ybyl” — which began on radio in 1947 and expanded to TV on NBC for a decade-long run from 1950 to 1961 — was always Marx’s famously fast zingers and his banter with everyday contestants. That made it a perfect fit for Leno, who sees it as a...

Bill Clotworthy, the standards and practices exec lovingly referred to as “Dr. No” by the cast and crew of Saturday Night Live, died on Thursday in hospice, in Salt Lake City, Ut. He was 95.

The executive’s son, actor Robert Clotworthy, confirmed the news to Deadline.

Born on Jan. 13, 1926, in Westfield, New Jersey, William Griffith Clotworthy worked as SNL‘s on-set censor between 1979 and 1991.

During his time at NBC, he also oversaw programs including Late Night With David Letterman and The Cosby Show, among others.

Before moving over to the network, Clotworthy spent nearly thirty years working in advertising at Madison Avenue firm, Bbdo. In his time there, he worked on series including Your Show of Shows, You Bet Your Life, The Jack Benny Program and Your Hit Parade.

Clotworthy was also a veteran of the Second World War and an author, who published the memoir Saturday Night Live: Equal Opportunity Offender,...

Fox’s revival of You Bet Your Life, hosted by Jay Leno, has been sold in 98% of the U.S. ahead of its September 13 premiere.

The game show will launch on Fox stations and has been sold in 190 markets from station groups including Sinclair, Nexstar, Scripps, Tegna, Meredith, Gray and several others.

“Our broadcast and advertising partners recognize what we do: America needs to laugh again,” said Stephen Brown, EVP of Programming and Development, Fox Television Stations and Fox First Run. “And there’s no one better to do that than Jay Leno.”

The former longtime Tonight Show host is stepping into a role popularized decade ago by Groucho Marx. The reboot will aim to preserve the humor of the original while adding some new elements.

The game will bring together two strangers, giving them the chance to win prize money by correctly answering questions about pre-determined categories. Two pairs...

Fox gave a particularly animated Upfronts presentation this year.

The network used its virtual event for ad buyers to tout its subscription-less services. Kicking off with an amusing video that featured Leslie Jordan talking to a slew of Fox stars such as Rob Lowe (as well as some former stars such as 24’s Kiefer Sutherland) and Charlie Collier, CEO of Fox Entertainment getting a ride from You Bet Your Life host Jay Leno, the presentation moved into a Bento Box-animated portion (see above).

Collier and his team, sometimes under the cover of cartoon, gently slammed the other networks and media conglomerates for the arms race in the subscription video on demand world, highlighting that this is a space that isn’t kind to advertisers.

Joking about Max Plus syndrome, having your ads play in a death spiral on Peacock’s Punky Brewster and CBS EyeQ, Collier touted how they...

Jay Leno has issued a statement apologizing for his decades-long history of making anti-Asian jokes both on and off air (via Variety). The former host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show” came forward with an apology during a Zoom interview with Guy Aoki, the leader of activist group Media Action Network for Asian Americans (Manaa). Leno’s history of anti-Asian jokes includes a report from last year that he joked about “Koreans eating dog meat” while on the set of NBC’s competition series “America’s Got Talent.”

“At the time I did those jokes, I genuinely thought them to be harmless,” Leno said. “I was making fun of our enemy North Korea, and like most jokes, there was a ring of truth to them. At the time, there was a prevailing attitude that some group is always complaining about something, so don’t worry about it. Whenever we received a complaint,...

Late-night host and comedian Jay Leno has issued an apology for a series of jokes told over his career targeting Asian communities.

The apology comes after a nearly 15-year campaign from the activist group Media Action Network for Asian Americans (Manaa) for remarks as recent as Variety‘s 2020 report that Leno cracked about Koreans eating dog meat — a complaint that offended numerous players on the set of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”

“At the time I did those jokes, I genuinely thought them to be harmless,” Leno said in a joint press release with Manaa leader Guy Aoki. “I was making fun of our enemy North Korea, and like most jokes, there was a ring of truth to them.”

Leno continued, “At the time, there was a prevailing attitude that some group is always complaining about something, so don’t worry about it. Whenever we received a complaint, there would...

Clifton Collins Jr. doesn’t believe in half measures.

For “Jockey,” an intimate drama about an aging rider, the actor shut himself off from friends and family to get in the mindset of his loner character. He needed to access the pain and emotional baggage of a man who is grappling with failing health, as well as the arrival of a younger racer (Moises Arias) who claims to be his son.

“I cut myself off from the world,” Collins tells Variety shortly before “Jockey” premiered to stellar reviews at this year’s Sundance. “I talked to three people the entire time I was gone. I like to go deep.”

He also pushed his body to the breaking point, shedding 20 pounds from his already-thin frame in order to replicate the slender build of a professional jockey. Doing that meant adhering to a spartan diet.

“I had a stack of five or...

2021’s totally online NATPE Virtual Miami is just but half over. Some inkling of how it might shape out, however, is fast falling into place.

Basically, streaming stole the show. Yes, Fox did announce during NATPE that the Jay Leno-hosted “You Bet Your Life” reboot, bowing this fall, has sold in 85% of the U.S. Yet a once annual launchpad for shows seeking U.S. syndication was dominated this time round by the seismic pivot of Hollywood’s majors and other players into global VOD platforms, and the impact of this tectonic shunt on the industry at large.

Dominating NATPE-related business announcements and online panel discussions, that impact is inevitable.

But it didn’t always play out in the most obvious fashion.

Following, six – somewhat provisional – takeaways from this year’s NATPE Miami, focused on its international business:

The Big Swings

During NATPE, Paramount Plus set a March 4 launch date for the U.

Fox Television Stations has renewed syndicated mainstays 25 Words or Less, Divorce Court and Dish Nation through the 2022-2023 season.

In announcing the two-year renewals, Fox stations programming chief Stephen Brown said the company sees “nothing but growth ahead” for the slate of what he called “reliably strong, feel good programming.” In addition to the three shows being re-upped, Fox’s portfolio also includes the forthcoming new version of You Bet Your Life hosted by Jay Leno.

Hosted and executive produced by Meredith Vieira, 25 Words or Less had a successful test in summer 2018 before entering syndication in fall 2019. The half-hour game show is cleared in 98% of the U.S. and its ​executive producers include Lisa Kudrow, Dan Bucatinsky, Mary McCormack, Michael Morris, showrunner Michael Canter and Bruce Sterten, creator of the 25 Words or Less and Taboo board games. The show is produced by Dino Bones Productions and distributed by Fox First Run.

James Hong is everywhere.

No, really — at the spry age of 91, he is one of the most prolific actors in Hollywood history, with 672 credits to his name. He’s starred in several notable films, including “Blade Runner” and “Big Trouble in Little China,” and voiced Po’s father, Mr. Ping, in the “Kung Fu Panda” franchise. His TV resume includes a slew of classics such as “Seinfeld,” “Friends” and both versions of “Hawaii Five-0.” He also has an upcoming movie, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” in which he plays father to Michelle Yeoh’s character.

“I could just relax and tour the world, but I don’t want to do that,” Hong tells Variety in his third Zoom call ever. “My occupation is an actor, producer and I’m a little too old to be a director, but that’s tempting.”

The longtime actor is in the spotlight after Daniel Dae Kim...

All the world is a game and we are merely players! The Bard will probably disagree with that assessment, but game shows and panel series have been a staple on both radio and television. And they are going strong today.

In fact, there is the Gsn cable network, as well as Buzzr which features such series as “Password,” “Family Feud,” “Tattletales” and “Classic Concentration.” “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” are still among the top syndicated series and CBS’ daytime “The Price is Right” is heading toward its fifth decade of people coming on down. And ABC is back for its summer of deja “view” with new versions of such series as “Match Game,” “To Tell the Truth,” “Press Your Luck” and “Family Feud.” The network also scored with a limited return of its 20-plus-year old “Who Wants to Be Millionaire” with host Jimmy Kimmel.

Back in the 1950s, contestants became stars like Dr.

The Marx Brothers – mustachioed, stogie-smoking ring-leader Groucho, chatty, Italian-accented con man Chico, silent skirt-chaser Harpo and, early on, relatively “normal” matinee idol Zeppo – first got their start as a vaudeville comedy act at the turn of the 20th century. They would go on to conquer the Broadway stage before landing in films when “talkies” took off.

Zeppo would drop out of the act after five films, becoming an engineer and a talent agent. But his older siblings would continue their frenzied verbal and visual hilarity on the big screen until 1949, when the medium of television beckoned and competed for eyeballs. Groucho would host a TV version of his radio game show, “You Bet Your Life,” for 11 seasons on NBC and appeared on Dick Cavett’s TV talk show in the late ‘60s. That is when their Marx Brothers’ anarchistic approach to humor and word-play takedowns of hypocrites and stuffy high-society...

Exclusive: James Hong who has been acting since the 1950s has been fighting for parity for Asian actors for decades. With the success of Warner Bros.’ Crazy Rich Asians this weekend employing an Asian cast in all leading roles, the 89 year-old Hong said, “I never thought it would take this long.”

It is, indeed, a watershed moment for Hollywood as this now becomes only the second major studio film outside of The Joy Luck Club in 1993 released with a full Asian cast. Hong, who has around 500 credits (not counting voiceovers like the character of Mr. Ping in the Kung Fu Panda film franchise) has, through impossible odds, racked up the most credits of any actor — living or dead — in Hollywood.

He also soon became a role model to the next generation of Asian actors, as Jason Scott Lee told Deadline three years ago.

If you visit the AMC movie theater on 42nd street in New York, look up when you’re buying popcorn and Swedish fish. Above “The Spy Who Dumped Me” posters and automated ticket kiosks is one of the most glorious (and forgotten) pieces of trans film history. Dominating the lobby’s enormous vaulted ceiling is an original mural depicting three joyful and colorful life-sized ladies. They are the three muses: Lady Song, Lady Dance, and Lady Music. Their togas swirl as they twirl to the sounds of a Pan-like hoofed musician playing a flute nearby. What you may not realize, and what thousands of ticket buyers who pass through the lobby every year do not know, is that each lady is a portrait of William Dalton, whose stage name was Julian Eltinge.

Julian, born 1891, was a vaudeville and silent film actor praised by the Boston Globe as “the greatest of...

Kent McCray, producer of the classic Little House on the Prairie series, died of natural causes on June 3 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 89 years old.

As native Hartford, Conn., McCray’s career spanned more than 50 years. He was born on June 7, 1928, and is the second son of Thomas Chapman McCray, who was an executive with the NBC Radio Network as well as Dorothy Baldwin McCray who was a singer and a musician.

After graduating from Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire — where his love of storytelling grew — he studied theater arts at the University of Hartford under Dr. Elemer Nagy. After receiving his diploma in 1948 he worked for the Central City Opera Association in Colorado and then went on to build his television career in Los Angeles.

He was a production coordinator on the All-Star Revue and The Colgate Comedy Hour at NBC and then worked for...

“Little House on the Prairie” producer Kent McCray died of natural causes in Los Angeles on Sunday. He was 89.

McCray was born on June 7, 1928, the second son of Thomas Chapman McCray — an executive with the NBC Radio Network — and singer Dorothy Baldwin McCray. A Hartford, Conn., native, McCray found his passion for entertainment early on during his time at the Kimball Union Academy prep school in New Hampshire. While at Kimball, McCray built sets, directed, acted, and sang in several school theatrical productions.

Three years after graduating from the University of Hartford, McCray began his television career at NBC in L.A. as a production coordinator on the “All Star Revue” and “The Colgate Comedy Hour.” Other assignments followed quickly, including “The Red Skelton Show,” “The Ralph Edwards Show,” “This Is Your Life,” and “You Bet Your Life” starring Groucho Marx.

When NBC announced its shift away from live television into filmed entertainment,...

Miriam Marx Allen, the eldest daughter of Groucho Marx who worked on his quiz show You Bet Your Life and turned letters that she received from her famous father into a revealing book, has died. She was 90.

Allen died June 29 in Capistrano Beach, Calif., according to friend Frank Ferrante, an actor who has made a career out of expertly portraying her dad on stage in such productions as the 1980s smash Groucho: A Life in Revue and the current An Evening With Groucho.

Miriam Ruth Marx was born in Manhattan on May...

What if Annie was Rosemary's Baby What if Psycho's Norman Bates was astage mother What if Bad Seed was an eight-year-old understudy for thelead in a school play You'd get Ruthless the Musical, the show that asksCan cute little Tina and her very own Mommy Dearest make it in showbusiness You bet your life. No Cats or Lion Kings here-these kitties areclawing their way to the top.

Who are the funniest, wackiest, cleverest, wittiest comic actors in the history of film and television? Take a look at our list and see who we came up with.

The top 25 laugh-getters…

#25…George Carlin: Probably the best stand-up comedian of all-time. He brilliantly satirized American culture, mixing his liberal social commentary with an often unapologetically coarse and dirty style of language. His penchant for obscenities was most evident in his trademark routine “Seven words you can never say on television”. No one was better at mocking the excesses of American culture than Carlin.

#24…Robin Williams: He had a manic energy and great improvisational skills. His hyper, free-form style inspired many comedians to follow, such as Jim Carrey. He shot to fame in the TV series Mork & Mindy, before breaking away to very successful movie career, appearing in films like Good Morning Vietnam, The World According to Garp, Mrs. Doubtfire and Popeye.

60 years ago today, one of the most iconic cinematic depictions of youthful rebellion and alienation, “Rebel Without a Cause,” opened in theaters. The film debuted less than a month after the premature death of James Dean (who plays troubled teen Jim Stark in the film) at age 24 in a car accident. “Rebel Without a Cause” came out at a time when pop culture was fascinated with the juvenile delinquent, though director Nicholas Ray looked not so much to recent films about troubled youths (like 1954’s “The Wild One”). He has said that he strove for a classical tone and that he found major influence in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” which Ray once called “the best play written about ‘juvenile delinquents.’” Other notable October 27 happenings in pop culture history: • 1947: “You Bet Your Life,” the radio show hosted by Groucho Marx, premiered. It was later a TV show on NBC.

Tori Amos' face is aging gracefully? "You bet your life it is!" Here's a 32-year-old version of the "Cornflake Girl" at the Grammys back in 1995 (left) and 20 years later ... the mother-of-one -- who is celebrating her 52nd birthday this weekend -- at a Paris fashion event last month (right).  "This is not really happening." The question is... Read more...

Kevin Kline, Dakota Fanning and Susan Sarandon in Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland's The Last Of Robin Hood: "The real Errol Flynn can't quite live up to Errol Flynn, the idol."

In a Trump SoHo Hotel suite, high above the city, I met up with The Last Of Robin Hood directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland for a conversation on Kevin Kline's portrayal of Errol Flynn. Susan Sarandon and Dakota Fanning as Florence and Beverly Aadland led us to Marjorie Morningstar, starring Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood - Too Much, Too Soon and the Barrymore clan - Groucho Marx and You Bet Your Life - John Huston's Roots Of Heaven and all the way down to Barry Mahon's Cuban Rebel Girls.

Earlier, I had spoken with Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth about 20,000 Days On Earth, their documentary on and with Nick Cave, at the Regency Hotel.

If you thought Lauren Graham's reign on The CW ended with "Gilmore Girls," think again: The "Parenthood" star is adapting her book "Someday, Someday, Maybe" for the network, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Even better, Ellen Degeneres is on board for the one-hour drama. Graham is set to write the script, while Degeneres will co-executive produce with Jeff Kleeman.

When "Someday, Someday, Maybe" came out on April 30, Graham told the Associated Press that the novel -- which is set in New York City in the mid-'90s and centers on Franny Banks, a young woman who has six months left in her three-year plan to make it as an actress -- would make a great TV show.

"[It] would be a compelling TV show because it lends itself to that serialization," she said, adding jokingly that she wouldn't mind having her onscreen daughter on board. "Mae Whitman will star as...

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,...

In the Beginning Was the Word — Radio:

“I like doing radio because it’s so intimate. The moment people hear your voice, you’re inside their heads, not only that, you’re in there laying eggs”.

Doug Coupland

We can watch TV — or movies, YouTube videos, play videogames, exchange video phone calls — from anywhere and everywhere: on line at McD’s, from our seat on our commuter bus or train (usually annoying the hell out of the napping business professional next to us), even from a toilet stall (crass, I grant, but I’ve seen — , well, ahem, I mean, I’ve heard it done). It’s nearly impossible for a generation growing up immersed, submerged, and buried in portable visual media to imagine the magnetic hold radio had on its audiences back in its early days. Think about it, all you smartphone and ipad users, wi-fiers and Hopper subscribers: there...

Lauren Graham has another TV gig lined up.

Graham, who recently became a New York Times bestseller with her debut novel "Someday, Someday, Maybe," has closed a deal with Warner Bros. TV and Ellen DeGeneres’ A Very Good Production to adapt the book for the small screen, as first reported by Deadline and confirmed to The Huffington Post by a source close to the deal.

The "Parenthood "star will executive produce the hour-long drama with DeGeneres and Jeff Kleeman, also of A Very Good Production. Graham will pen the script as well.

"Someday, Someday, Maybe" is set in the mid-'90s and centers on a young woman named Franny Banks who's living in New York City and has six months left in her three-year plan to make it as an actress. While promoting her book, which came out on April 30, Graham told the Associated Press that the novel "would be...

Anybody who has ever been to a high school reunion (and I’ve been to my share) will tell you that the calendar and the clock can be incredibly cruel (particularly when combined with the long-term effects of gravity, but let’s not go there).

Time punishes creative works as well. Some work grows dated, stale, stiff. Time and the evolving form of the given art leaves a once vibrant and exciting work behind looking dead and obsolete.

More cruel, perhaps, is work that is simply…forgotten. Not for any good reason. Good as it was, maybe it was simply not successful enough to lodge very deeply in the popular consciousness; working well enough in its day, but soon lost among the ever-growing detritus of a lot of other pieces of yesterday.

Movie music is particularly vulnerable to the cruelties of time. Outside of the form’s devotees, it rarely...

Well, we managed to somehow leapfrog the end of the Mayan Calendar without as much as a whiff of any Doom, and we still haven’t expunged ourselves with the mis-handling of nuclear warheads, despite having approximately 20,000 of the devils scattered around the globe. And there’s not a sniff of any alien invasion, Elvis working in KFC or Polar ice heading towards the cocktails of Miami bar revelers for that matter…

All folklore theories eagerly digested by insatiable appetites of the gullible general public.

Which brings us to the phenomena of Super Mario. If ever a man was aptly named!

The media convinces us all about the endless list of pantomime antics, the artistry of his ability with a football and the inane updates of his latest hairstyle.

Do we really care to hear about him proffering fifty pound notes to beggars on the streets of Manchester? Do we...

Approximately a week and a half before last weekend’s release of Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, Glenn Greenwald, a lawyer and blogger for the Guardian newspaper, wrote this piece about the film’s approach to torture. Greenwald freely admitted that he was writing that piece of criticism which film critics hate most: social commentary from a person who had not yet seen the film (Greenwald later wrote this piece after seeing the film). He was later joined by director Alex Gibney, whose film Taxi to the Dark Side was about an innocent man who was tortured and killed at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, and a trio of U.S. Senators including John McCain, who was himself tortured by the Viet Cong as a prisoner of war.

If the positions of all of those letters and blog posts could be summed up in one word, it would be Greenwald’s “propaganda.

Superstar comedienne Phyllis Diller died today in Los Angeles, California. She was 95. Diller was not the first female stand-up comic ( ‘Moms’ Mabely had been performing since the 40′s ), but her outrageous fashions and irreverent sense of humor established her as a media comedy sensation in the 1960′s. Before Rosanne Barr, Diller joked about the drudgery of housework ( and a clueless husband named ” Fang ” ) and her self-depreciating gags no doubt inspired Totie Fields and Joan Rivers. Ms. Diller ( born Phyllis Ada Driver ) was writing radio copy in the San Francisco area in the 50′s when she decided to enter the world of stand-up comedy. After success at clubs, she soon branched into television with an appearance on Groucho Marx’s quiz show ” You Bet Your Life “. After nightclubs she perhaps had her biggest successes in TV as a fixture of talk shows, variety shows and game shows, although she had little...

The world just got a little less funny today, as legendary comedian Phyllis Diller died today at the age of 95. According to TMZ, her health had been in decline following a recent fall and she was in hospice care in her Los Angeles home when she passed away, surrounded by her family.

Now many of us are a little too young to have been first-hand fans of Diller, who was a housewife before entering the stand-up world in the 1950s and appearing on shows such as Ed Sullivan and You Bet Your Life, as well as her own short-lived sitcom and variety shows. But her self-deprecating humor, wacky costumes and biting remarks have clearly influenced everyone from Roseanne to Lady Gaga. Here we’ve gathered a sampling of classic Phyllis Diller appearances, so you can see what we mean, and so you’ll think of that signature laugh for the rest of the day.

Phyllis Diller, the wild-haired, eccentrically-dressed performer credited with opening the doors of stand-up comedy to women, passed away at her home in Los Angeles. She was 95 years old.

She was born Phyllis Ada Driver on July 17, 1917 in Lima, Ohio to Perry Marcus and Frances Ada (Romshe) Driver. After graduating from Central High School, she headed to Chicago's Sherwood Music Conservatory, where she continued to study piano, with dreams of one day becoming a concert pianist. From the Conservatory, she transferred to Bluffton College in Ohio, where she became the school's newspaper editor and oversaw the publication of humor pieces.

In November 1939, at the age of 22, she married Sherwood Anderson Diller and gave birth to a son, Peter, in 1940. She would have five more children: Sally (1944), a son who died two weeks after being born (1945), Suzanne (1946), Stephanie (1948), and Perry (1950). Perry would later manage his mother's business affairs. Contrary to popular belief, she is no relation to Susan Lucci.

During WWII, the fledgling Diller clan moved to Michigan, where she began to mine her home-making experiences for jokes. She also worked as an advertising copywriter at this time. After the war, the Dillers moved to San Francisco, where she found work as a secretary at the radio station KROW. Later that year, she was in front of the camera for the first time with a program titled "Phyllis Dillis, the Homely Friendmaker" for Bay Area Radio-Television. She continued working in Bay Area television, this time at KGO-TV, where she was invited to participate in the station's show "Belfast Pop Club", co-hosted by Willard Anderson and Don Sherwood.

Both Anderson and Sherwood encouraged her to pursue her stand-up comedy ambitions, and in 1955, she landed a two-week gig at the venerable San Francisco nightclub, The Purple Onion, where her self-deprecating wit and unique laugh kept her on the stage for the better part of two years. The buzz created by her act reached Hollywood, and she made her first rounds on talk and variety shows with the likes of Jack Benny and Red Skelton.

Her appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Jack Parr was her breakthrough, and led to recurring gigs as a contestant on "You Bet Your Life" with host Groucho Marx, "What's My Line?", "I've Got a Secret", and "Hollywood Squares". She appeared on the silver screen as well, making her debut in William Inge's drama, Splendor in the Grass. In 1961, she made her stage debut in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. Appearances in films with Bob Hope -- Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!, The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell, and Eight on the Lam -- began a lifelong bond between the two performers, who would co-star in numerous TV specials; in fact, Diller would be featured in every Bob Hope Christmas Special from 1965 through 1994. At the height of the Vietnam war in 1966, Diller joined Hope's USO troupe overseas.

As her star rose, husband Sherwood managed her career, though the relationship broke down and the couple divorced in 1965. By this point, however, Sherwood had become a staple of her act, as she made jokes about a husband named "Fang," while she smoked from a exaggerated cigarette holder -- which would become the comedienne's signature prop, paried with her increasingly outlandish wardrobe and hairstyles. Soon after her divorce, she married Ward Donovan, whom she met while appearing on stage in "Wonderful Town". Worth noting is the fact that Joan Rivers was one of her writers at this period in her career.

In the late 1960s, she starred in a pair of short-lived series, "The Pruitts of Southampton" and variety show "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show", though she found her greatest success elsewhere, from her continued guest appearances on talk, variety, and game shows. Toward the end of the decade, she began a successful string of guest spots on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In". Harkening back to her film debut, she gained notices for her work in the drama The Adding Machine with Milo O'Shea.

For three months, at the start of the 1970s, she appeared on Broadway in "Hello, Dolly!", stepping in for Carol Channing. On TV, she frequented on Dean Martin's celebrity roast specials and "the Mike Douglas Show". She cut hit comedy records, published her first books, and continued working the stand-up circuit. A new source of laughs -- her own plastic surgery -- stood in humorous contrast with other Hollywood performers.

Her on-screen career began to wane in late in the decade and into the 1980s, with guest appearances on "The Love Boat", "Celebrity Hot Potato", and a revamped version of "Hollywood Squares".

In the 1990s, roles in B movies Dr. Hackenstein and Silence of the Hams were minor cultural blips, but in 1998 she regained the spotlight for her voice role as the Queen ant in the second Pixar movie, A Bug's Life. She also had a recurring role on "The Bold and the Beautiful". A year later, she suffered a heart attack and was fitted with a pacemaker.

By 2002 she mostly retired from the stage and screen, though she appeared in the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats, notable because Diller, who steered clear of graphic material, did not recite the content of the famous dirty joke. An autobiography, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse, was published that same year; in 2006, a DVD version of the project was released, and she voiced several roles for "Robot Chicken" and, later, "Family Guy". She cameoed in 2007 on "Boston Legal" as a supposed lover of William Shatner's Denny Crane. A planned appearance later in the year for her 90th birthday on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" was canceled when she fractured her back.

Diller was a long-time member of the Society of Singers, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping singers in need. Two cities proclaimed "Phyllis Diller Day"s: Philadelphia (2001) and San Francisco (2006).

She is survived by daughters Sally and Suzanne and son Perry.

Et confirms that the legendary comedian Phyllis Diller has passed away at the age of 95.

Related: Emmy-Winning Actor William Windom Dead at 88

Diller's agent, Fred Wostbrock, told Et, "I was her agent for twenty years. She was a pioneer. She paved the way for everybody, Joan Rivers, Ellen DeGeneres, Roseanne Barr, Chelsea Handler. She was the first." She passed away in her L.A home surrounded by her family members, and her longtime manager, Milton Suchin, told us, "She died peacefully in her sleep with a smile on her face."

DeGeneres tweeted, "We lost a comedy legend today. Phyllis Diller was the queen of the one-liners. She was a pioneer." And Roseanne Barr tweeted of her friend, "a revolutionary woman who inspired me always has died today-but I know she was ready and wanted to go. Fly Free, friend. Phyllis Diller Rip." She also tweeted, "last time I saw Ms. Diller she'd a...

Los Angeles, California (X17online) - Legendary comedienne Phyllis Diller passed away at her Los Angeles home today surrounded by family, TMZ reports. She was 95. Apparently the star had been receiving hospice care after suffering a fall that caused her health to begin failing. Diller, who began her career as a journalist, rose to fame thanks to an appearance on You Bet Your Life in 1955. She transitioned into a comedy career with her turn on The Jack Paar Show, which she later spun into her own variety show. She also made several on screen appearances in recent years, including roles on 7th Heaven, Blossom, and The Bold and the Beautiful. Diller also tried her hand at voicing animated characters in The Aristocats and Family Guy. She will be missed!

Filming on the new series of Doctor Who has started, and already the reports are trickling in about who's lining up to be in Who. And guess what, two Harry Potter alumni have signed on the dotted line, namely Mark Williams (who played Ronald Weasley's dad) and David Bradley, Aka perma-surly, scraggly mullet head caretaker Argus Filch, a chap who finds it physically impossible to crack a smile.

These two acting giants add to the list of Harry Potter actors in the last couple of years – Toby Jones. Helen McRory. Michael Gambon. Don't forget David Tennant. Give it a couple of years and Daniel Radcliffe will be cast as the 12th Doctor. All this Potter casting got me thinking though – could the popularity of the Harry Potter series have helped the renaissance of Doctor Who back in the early Noughties?

But by and large, these films are a modern marvel.