I’m not quite in the demographic or psychographic wheelhouse to have grown up with Pee-Wee Herman as a significant part of my life. When his award-winning PEE WEE’S PLAYHOUSE was winning awards and garnering strong ratings for CBS’ Saturday morning lineup in the late 1980s I was already an adult, at least in name only. … Read more
They put a ribbon–bleu, bien sur–on the 2025 Cannes Film Festival yesterday. As regular readers might have been triggered to remember (I can’t assume you’re as detail-obsessed as moi), I’ve got a thing for the South of France, and in particular the kind of people that get to go there these days. You should be … Read more
It’s not exactly been the best month in the century-old history of Paramount. Within the past 30 days, both the executive producer of 60 MINUTES and his boss left the building, there is still no official completion of its merger with Skydance as the events surrounding that departure keep it in limbo, senators are literally … Read more
NOTE: This musing also appears today on our sister site Double Overtime. Please visit it regularly for coverage of sports of all sorts plus occasional articles and opinion pieces on technology. Of all of the hoopla and star power that was unleased during the old school Upfronts earlier this month few were as inspiring and … Read more
Let me state right upfront that I am truly, deeply sorry for the diagnosis and suffering that former President Biden and his family have been dealing with. No one–and I mean NO ONE–deserves such a fate, and I say that with empathy having known folks who have battled a milder form of the prostate cancer … Read more
It’s LA Screenings week, which means the proportion of English-first persons on studio lots is even smaller than usual. For the unfamiliar, this is a time when the international sales divisions of those producing for television put on their finest and expense accounts are far less scrutinized as buyers from networks and platforms around the … Read more
I’ve probably spent a disproportionate amount of time chronicling CBS’ Wendy McMahon. In part, that’s because she’s been a stellar example of how to rise through the ranks from levels I’m much more familiar with–promotion director at major market stations, for example–and wind up running not one, not two, but three different revenue lines for … Read more
Hats off and multiple huzzahs to Jamal Roberts. I suspect more than a few of you might be thinking “who dat?”. I’ll give you a hint: he had a better Sunday than did Jamal Murray. Roberts is the latest aspirational superstar to be crowned “American Idol”, having survived a climactic three-hour live showdown with fellow … Read more
No, I’m not Italian-American, but I’d like to think I qualify as Italian-adjacent. I grew up in an area that had quite a bit of first generation families whose parents were born in the “Old Country” and there were some wonderful family-style pizzerias in my neighborhood where many would frequent on weeknights. They would often … Read more
The esteemed cultural critic that was my tortured, self-deprecating and ultimately prematurely deceased mother had a phrase whenever she’d see something that she found to be beyond explanation, such as when one of her fellow Entenmann’s loving Mah Jongg buds would decide to sport hot pants. With a caustic drag on her Marlboro 100 she’d … Read more