Tag Archives: Hollywood Flashback

Entertainment

Jon Cryer’s First Sitcom: ‘The Famous Teddy Z’

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Hollywood employment will be nice fodder for buzzy comedies, from The Larry Sanders Present to 30 Rock. However one sitcom that will have been forward of its time was The Well-known Teddy Z, which debuted on CBS 35 years in the past on Sept. 18, 1989. 

Created by Hugh Wilson, the sequence starred Jon Cryer as Teddy Zakalokis, a mailroom employee at a fictional UTA — Limitless Expertise Company — who punches Hollywood’s prime actor shortly after assembly him and is quickly picked by the Marlon Brando-esque star to be his rep. The idea was impressed by the real-life story of younger MCA agent Jay Kanter, who grew to become Brando’s rep after selecting him up at a practice station. Cryer had landed a CBS deal off the success of Fairly in Pink, however producer Richard Dubin most popular one other on-the-rise actor, Ben Stiller, who additionally auditioned. “I assumed that Jon, whereas a really ready and journeyman actor, didn’t have the cojones crucial for [Teddy],” Dubin tells THR. 

This was Wilson and Dubin’s third venture collectively, nevertheless it led to a falling-out, with Dubin leaving earlier than capturing wrapped. Rigidity spiked over Lainie Kazan (My Favourite Yr), Dubin’s choose as Teddy’s mother. After seven episodes, Wilson wasn’t pleased with Kazan and let her go, and scenes had been reshot. (Erica Yohn changed Kazan as Teddy’s grandmother.) Jane Sibbett, later referred to as Carol on Mates, performed Cryer’s love curiosity, and so they dated throughout that point. Cryer mentioned the present’s turbulence introduced them collectively: “It was a curler coaster, and whenever you’re each on the identical curler coaster, you are inclined to seize one another.” 

Critics praised Teddy Z — THR dubbed it “this season’s finest new comedy” — and co-star Alex Rocco would win a supporting actor Emmy for his flip as agent Al Floss. However low rankings led to the sequence being pulled midseason with 5 episodes unaired. “It was completely devastating, and I actually took it personally,” remembers Cryer. Now, he seems again on the present fondly: “The trouble was value it, even when it didn’t hit all the precise notes.”

This story appeared within the Oct. 30 situation of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.

Entertainment

‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ Was Social Media’s Forefather

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Lengthy earlier than user-generated video clips dominated social media, they had been the supply of snickers and prize cash on America’s Funniest House Movies, which launched 35 years in the past.

Collection creator Vin Di Bona was fascinated by Japanese comedy packages that includes dwelling footage, main him to adapt one into the Nineteen Eighties movie star recreation present Animal Crack-Ups, hosted by Alan Thicke. In 1989, Di Bona found Japanese selection present Enjoyable With Ken and Kato Chan, with two hosts quipping about viewer-submitted movies. He compiled an eight-minute pitch video utilizing Japanese clips and enlisted Animal Crack-Ups author Todd Thicke (Alan’s youthful brother) for the pilot. Thicke examined the video out on pals and remembers actress Jane Seymour loving it but in addition expressing concern for anybody taking a spill.

“That was a very good be aware,” says Thicke, an govt producer till 2015. “We referred to as it ‘restoration’ and at all times wished to indicate that nobody was actually damage.”

Earlier than it even aired, the present ran journal advertisements soliciting clip submissions. On Nov. 26, 1989, ABC debuted AFV as a primetime particular earlier than launching a full season that January, with Bob Saget — already a community fixture with Full Home — as host. Saget stepped away in 1997, however the evergreen collection remained robust with Tom Bergeron because the lead for 15 seasons.

Season 35 launched final month, with host Alfonso Ribeiro returning for his tenth yr. He proudly cites AFV as a forebear to platforms like YouTube and TikTok. “AFV is the grandfather to all of the social media channels and created a complete technology who’re used to watching issues on TV this manner,” Ribeiro says. “My purpose is to be proper again right here when [we’re celebrating] the forty fifth season.” 

This story appeared within the Oct. 9 difficulty of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.

Entertainment

Before ‘Wild Robot,’ ‘The Iron Giant’ Became Celebrated Classic

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Twenty-five years earlier than the discharge of DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robotic, The Iron Large charged into theaters. Brad Hen, who labored on The Simpsons and later helmed Ratatouille and The Incredibles, made his characteristic directorial debut with the Nineteen Fifties-set film boasting a voice forged that included Vin Diesel, Jennifer Aniston and Harry Connick Jr.; it centered on a boy befriending an alien robotic (Diesel) that the U.S. authorities sought to destroy. 

Hen and Tim McCanlies’ script was primarily based on Ted Hughes’ 1968 novel, initially revealed as The Iron Man. Hughes, who was married to novelist and poet Sylvia Plath till her loss of life by suicide in 1963, wrote it as a bedtime story for his or her children to assist them grieve. The Who’s Pete Townshend tailored Hughes’ ebook as his 1989 idea album The Iron Man: A Musical and was serving to to develop a characteristic musical adaptation. As soon as the film landed at Warner Bros. Animation with Hen hooked up, it was not envisioned as a musical, although Townshend stayed on as government producer. “I simply pitched them the thought of, ‘What if a gun had a soul?’ ” Hen mentioned in an interview. 

Voicing the robotic’s younger buddy Hogarth was Eli Marienthal, who nabbed the gig at age 11 and remembers Hen’s ingenious strategies of getting him into character, comparable to having him stand in a bucket of chilly water for a lake scene. Warners launched The Iron Large on Aug. 6, 1999, and whereas it was embraced by critics, it fizzled on the field workplace, incomes $23 million ($44 million as we speak). Throughout an interview for the film’s tenth anniversary, Hen recalled the studio’s hesitation in choosing a launch date, which the director felt “made it unattainable to get consciousness for the movie stepping into time, and we had been useless on arrival on opening day.” 

However Iron Large is cherished by followers, and in 2015, a remastered model of it was unveiled on the Toronto Movie Pageant. That’s additionally the place The Wild Robotic premieres Sept. 8. Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal and Equipment Connor voice director Chris Sanders’ movie a few robotic from outer house that’s pressured to bond with animals on an in any other case uninhabited island. As for The Iron Large, Marienthal tells THR, “It’s been a delight to observe it contact so many individuals at totally different moments.” 

This story first appeared within the Sept. 4 concern of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.

Entertainment

‘You Can’t Do That on Television’ and the Slime Boosted Ratings

The crew behind the low-budget Canadian youngsters’ sketch present You Can’t Do That on Tv didn’t know it might assist outline the Nickelodeon model when it premiered 45 years in the past.

British TV producer Roger Value had created a number of youngsters’s applications within the U.Okay. earlier than shifting to Canada, the place he aimed to launch a present that revered youngsters’ views and didn’t condescend to them. Value wasn’t one to glamorize childhood, having endured a tricky upbringing that included boarding faculty in Switzerland.

Impressed by adult-focused applications like Rowan & Martin’s Snigger-In, YCDTOT featured principally newbie baby actors taking part in youngsters who had been placing on their very own TV present whereas coping with incompetent adults. Premiering on CJOH-TV in Ottawa on Feb. 3, 1979, it earned the stateside consideration of fledgling community Nickelodeon, which started airing episodes in early 1982 to large rankings.

“With 30-second sketches, there’s no room for filler,” remembers Abby Hagyard, an grownup castmember who performed the present’s “Mother.”

Now a Nickelodeon signature, getting slimed originated on YCDTOT. Inexperienced goop would fall on anybody who stated “I don’t know” — Value selected that set off as a result of his personal youngsters used the phrase to keep away from taking duty. Value initially assumed the forged would hate getting slimed, however he was shortly confirmed incorrect.

“It was an honor to be slimed,” says Adam Greydon Reid, who joined YCDTOT as a castmember at age 11 after sending a letter to Value, and would later write episodes with him as a teen. (Plus, every castmember incomes a $50 inconvenience charge per sliming was a pleasant perk.)

Among the many present’s discoveries had been author Invoice Prady, who would later co-create The Large Bang Principle, and a younger Alanis Morissette, who appeared in 5 episodes and impressed castmates by taking part in her demo tape. The present’s 10-season run continues to dwell on in popular culture; SNL spoofed it in a 2022 episode, and Ryan Reynolds (who was as soon as engaged to Morissette) instantly cited YCDTOT when requested in a latest interview to call an necessary Canadian present.

An tried reboot fell aside a number of years in the past, however Reid has been listening to of renewed curiosity in bringing it again. Value is open to its return, however provided that the tone doesn’t change: “It has to essentially make youngsters really feel prefer it’s their present.”

This story first appeared within the August 14 problem of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.

Entertainment

When Hollywood First Dreamed Up a Woman President

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The election of the primary feminine U.S. president was performed for laughs when Kisses for My President hit theaters six many years in the past.

Directed by Curtis Bernhardt, the Warner Bros. movie stars Polly Bergen as President Leslie McCloud, who navigates relations with Soviets and a dictator in Central America. In the meantime, her husband, Thad (Fred MacMurray), struggles to just accept his position. The film’s sixtieth anniversary — it was launched Aug. 21, 1964 — arrives throughout the Democratic Nationwide Conference as Vice President Kamala Harris goals to turn out to be the primary feminine commander in chief.

THR‘s overview referred to as Kisses for My President a “topical, romantic farce”: “It considers the issues of getting a feminine president, not just for the girl, however for her husband, who should fill the features usually assumed by the ‘first woman.’”

On the finish of the film, Leslie learns she’s pregnant after fainting within the White Home and resigns. This signifies the “superiority of man,” in line with a smug Thad. He quips, “Do you notice it took 40 million girls to get you into the White Home and —” Leslie interjects, “Only one man to get me out.”

Authors Eleanor Clift and Tom Brazaitis’ 2000 e book Madam President: Shattering the Final Glass Ceiling contains evaluation of the movie and says of its ending, “Moviegoers in 1964 little doubt had been relieved that the standard social order had been restored.”

When Kisses for My President aired on Turner Basic Films in 2014 for its fiftieth anniversary, host Ben Mankiewicz addressed the dated story. “As you may anticipate from that title, this isn’t a severe have a look at anybody’s notion of equality of the sexes,” he stated. “The thought was extra alongside the strains of, ‘Hey, wouldn’t or not it’s hilarious if there have been a woman president, and the way on earth would it not really feel to be her husband?’”

However the matter was no joke to Bergen, who later performed the mom of Geena Davis’ U.S. president on ABC’s Commander in Chief and campaigned for Hillary Clinton in actual life. Mentioned Bergen’s supervisor Jan McCormack on the time of the actress’ loss of life in 2014, “She at all times thought a lady president in actual life was lengthy overdue.”

This story first appeared within the August 7 problem of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.

Entertainment

When Dark Shadows Grew Lifelong Fans

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Practically 60 years earlier than FX’s comedy What We Do within the Shadows earned its third Emmy nom for greatest comedy sequence, the ABC cleaning soap opera Darkish Shadows introduced supernatural storylines that includes vampires, ghosts, werewolves and witches to TV — albeit with much less overtly comedian qualities — when it premiered in June 1966. Crammed with melodramatic plot twists, the campy cleaning soap set within the fictional Collinsport, Maine, shortly grew to become successful with youngsters (the late afternoon airtime was excellent for post-school TV watching) and maintained a cult following lengthy after its cancellation in 1971 after 1,225 episodes.

The sequence is greatest recognized for the central character of Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), a vampire whose launch from a near-200-year imprisonment 10 months into the primary season gave Darkish Shadows a significant enhance with viewers. Frid, who introduced a compelling existentialism to Barnabas’ dilemma as a sympathetic monster who should feed on human blood, was amongst a handful of castmembers who took a hiatus from the present to movie the characteristic movie Home of Darkish Shadows, launched in theaters to nice success (and with uncensored gore) in 1970. A sequel would comply with the subsequent 12 months (simply months after the sequence’ cancellation), however Frid had by that time determined to step away from Barnabas; Evening of Darkish Shadows facilities on one other Darkish Shadows antagonist, the witch Angelique (Lara Parker).

Followers have maintained their love for the franchise within the a long time since due to syndication and residential video releases. And diehards Tim Burton and Johnny Depp turned their ardour right into a Darkish Shadows characteristic in 2012, their final movie collaboration, which noticed Depp fulfill his childhood dream of enjoying Barnabas. Taking a fish-out-of-water method, the script by Seth Grahame-Smith sees Barnabas unchained in 1972 — solely to comically battle with the trendy world, his lackadaisical ancestors (performed by Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller and Chloë Grace Moretz) and his final nemesis, Angelique (Eva Inexperienced). Whereas it was a blended bag tonally, THR praised the lead actor particularly: “Depp is correct on the cash in a studiously managed, steadfastly humorous efficiency that takes its rightful place in his private portrait gallery of one-off misfits.”

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone situation of The Hollywood Reporter journal. To obtain the journal, click on right here to subscribe.