Eliana Willis

More stories

  • 138 Shares179 Views

    in Television

    Late Night Is a Bit Concerned About Trump’s Last Nine Days

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBest of Late NightLate Night Is a Bit Concerned About Trump’s Last Nine DaysJimmy Kimmel wants him out, but admits that “usually when the Senate tries to ram something through that quickly, it’s a conservative Supreme Court justice.” “Personally, I don’t think we should impeach him twice. I think we should impeach him three times, just to make sure it sticks,” Jimmy Kimmel said of President Trump.Credit…ABCJan. 12, 2021, 3:02 a.m. ETWelcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. We’re all stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.‘Déjà Coup’Jimmy Kimmel opened his show on Monday with a “special shout-out” to international viewers watching on YouTube, “enjoying our comeuppance from afar.”“And I don’t blame you,” he said, making air quotes: “We had it coming here in the ‘United’ States.”Kimmel marveled at Vice President Mike Pence’s reluctance to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office over the siege of the U.S. Capitol last week, which Democrats seeking the president’s ouster accuse him of inciting.“Pence has reportedly said privately that he’d consider invoking the 25th if Trump becomes ‘more unstable,’” Kimmel said. “More unstable? That’s like Noah saying, ‘If this rain gets any worse, I might have to build an ark.’”“Several of them are saying nine days isn’t enough time to hold impeachment hearings — and they’ve got a point. You know, usually when the Senate tries to ram something through that quickly, it’s a conservative Supreme Court justice.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Some people are saying, ‘Why bother? He’s only got nine days left in office.’ To them I reply: He’s got nine days left in office! You can do a lot in nine days. That’s enough to create the universe, and then take a three-day weekend.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Yep, Trump is being impeached again. Right now everyone in America is having déjà coup.” — JIMMY FALLON“Also, why are we waiting for Pence to act? He spent four years by this president’s side as he’s repeatedly excused or incited violence and sowed the destruction of our democracy. I feel like we’re a group of schoolchildren at the zoo waiting for the sloth to do something: ‘He’s not going to do anything — let’s go see the polar bear!’” — SETH MEYERS“Personally, I don’t think we should impeach him twice. I think we should impeach him three times, just to make sure it sticks.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (User Not Found Edition)“Well, if you think Trump’s upset about getting impeached, imagine how he felt the other day when Twitter announced that they’re permanently suspending his account. A lifetime ban! A lifetime ban. Trump’s basically the Pete Rose of social media.” — JIMMY FALLON“Oh, damn! A lifetime Twitter ban has got to sting. They took away his precious.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The only thing scarier than Donald Trump tweeting is Donald Trump not tweeting. It was a way for us to know where he was. It’s like when they put a bell on a cow.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“According to a senior administration official, when he found out, ‘the president went ballistic’ — a troubling description of the guy who still has the nuclear codes.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Now he’s just getting Kayleigh McEnany to write his tweets on poster board and hold them out by the underpass.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Many in Trumpland believe that it’s wrong to encourage a corporation to ban someone for their political statements. Which, oh wait — who was the guy who told the N.F.L. to ban the players who kneeled? Oh, that was Donald Trump? I guess that was different.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Trump started this year thinking he should be on Mount Rushmore, now he can’t even get on Instagram.” — JIMMY FALLON“Right now, Trump’s phone is stuffed into a pile of rice after being drenched with tears.” — JIMMY FALLON“Seriously, in one weekend, Trump’s phone became a $2,000 flashlight.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingJoss Stone sang “Walk With Me” on “The Late Show.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightThe actress Brie Larson will appear on Tuesday’s “A Little Late With Lily Singh.”Also, Check This OutReplacing longtime hosts like Bob Barker, left, of “The Price Is Right” and Alex Trebek of “Jeopardy!” can be a challenge.Credit…From left: CBS; Jeopardy ProductionsAlex Trebek is irreplaceable, but “Jeopardy!” can still survive, as other game shows have after losing iconic hosts.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

  • 150 Shares119 Views

    in Television

    Pat Loud, Reality Show Matriarch of ‘An American Family,’ Dies at 94

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyPat Loud, Reality Show Matriarch of ‘An American Family,’ Dies at 94A mother of five, she unapologetically laid bare the drama of her family life as a star of the first reality show.The Loud family (clockwise from top): Kevin, Lance, Michele, Pat, Delilah, Grant and Bill.Credit…John Dominis/The LIFE Images Collection, via Getty ImagesJan. 11, 2021Updated 5:11 p.m. ET Before “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” before the Kardashians, before the idea of living large and unscripted on camera became a TV staple, there was a startling program on public television called “An American Family” with a startling female character named Pat Loud.Ms. Loud was a California mother of five. She drank, she plotted her divorce, she adored, and accepted, her openly gay son. She did it all in Santa Barbara and all on camera — in 1973. Loving, boisterous, witty, resilient and sometimes angry and hurt, she did not act like most women on television at the time. But she was ostensibly not acting at all. She was the first reality television star on the first reality show — and she paid a price for breaking new ground.Critics called her materialistic and self-absorbed. An “affluent zombie,” one said. What wife and mother would do such a thing? Newsweek put Ms. Loud, her husband, Bill, and their children on its cover with the headline “The Broken Family.”Many others, however, saw her as honest and brave, uninhibited and unconditional in her love for her children.Ms. Loud died on Sunday at her home in Los Angeles, her family said in a Facebook post. She was 94. She was 47 when the show that made her famous first aired, and she spent much of the rest of her life explaining why she had done it and how it had changed her family. She made few apologies.She told the talk show host Dick Cavett in no uncertain terms that she had no problem with her son Lance’s homosexuality. She wrote in her autobiography, “Pat Loud: A Woman’s Story” (1974), that given how she felt that her family had been mistreated after the show aired, “now we are all unabashedly trying to get anything we can from the instant fame.”But life went on. Once a homemaker and Junior League volunteer, Ms. Loud found new work with Ron Bernstein, a literary agent, and later with the fashion designer Rudi Gernreich. She moved to New York, then England, before returning to California in the late 1990s to be with Lance after he became sick with H.I.V. in 1987. (He died of complications of hepatitis C in 2001.) She divorced her husband, though they reunited many years later.Ms. Loud with her son, Lance, in 1990. She was forthright in asserting her acceptance of his open homosexuality when “An American Family” was generating wide publicity in the 1970s.Credit…Ann Summa/Getty ImagesBy the time she was in her 80s, public perception of her had shifted. Where once she had been seen as an unmitigated self-promoter, now she was a wise, refined matriarch of a genre gone astray.Speaking of the “Real Housewives” franchise, Ms. Loud told The New York Times in 2013, “It just seems like all these beautiful blond girls, all made up, with stem glasses of white Chablis, and they’re all just fighting at dinner somewhere.”Critics of “An American Family” accused it of being contrived, but the Louds long maintained that they had behaved as normally as they could with cameras constantly trailing them. Craig Gilbert, a producer for WNET, chose the Louds for his subject because the family had lots of children — and because they said yes.“We asked the kids, and they all agreed,” Ms. Loud told The Times in 2013. “It seemed like a fun thing to do.”The family expected the filming to last for just a few weeks and doubted that the final product would find many viewers. In the end, more than 300 hours of film captured over seven months was reduced to 12 one-hour episodes.“They just went for the sensational stuff,” Ms. Loud said.The most sensational involved scenes from Lance Loud’s flamboyant life in New York — where he performed in a rock band and where his mother visited him, accompanied by cameras — and the breakup of the Louds’ marriage.Bill Loud had been unfaithful for years, and his wife knew it. In one wine-saturated conversation captured on film, she complained about his affairs to her brother and sister-in-law. She told The Times in 2013 that she had been “coerced” into letting the scene be filmed. Mr. Gilbert rejected that assertion.“I said, ‘Pat, we must shoot that,’” he told The Times in 2013. “She said, ‘I do not want you to.’ I said, ‘We must, Pat, because otherwise it’s going to come out of the blue. No one will understand it.’ She finally agreed, and her brother and sister-in-law were in the room when she agreed to it. And now she says she was coerced.”In a later episode, Ms. Loud told her husband that she wanted a divorce. “By the time she asked Dad for a divorce, she didn’t care if the entire city of Santa Barbara was watching or the whole world,” her daughter, Delilah, said in an interview for this obituary in 2014. “She just wanted Dad out.”Ms. Loud in 2013. By the time she was in her 80s, public perception had recast her from a self-promoter into a wise matriarch of a genre, reality TV, that had gone astray.Credit…Robert Caplin for The New York TimesPatricia Claire Russell was born Oct. 4, 1926, in Eugene, Ore., the daughter of an engineer. Her family was close with another family that had a little boy named Bill Loud. They met when she was about 6. Years later, when she was studying history as an undergraduate at Stanford, Mr. Loud would visit her from the University of Oregon.“He would drive down and pick her up and then go to Tijuana to see bull fights,” Delilah Loud said. “They had quite a courtship.”Ms. Loud graduated from Stanford in 1948. The Louds eloped to Mexico in March 1950. By the time the cameras showed up, in 1971, Mr. Loud had built a successful business making parts for mining equipment, and the family was living an affluent life. They had a house with a pool and a Jaguar in the driveway. They took long vacations to Europe.Ms. Loud was widely read, and she talked with her children about art, music and books. Life was bigger than Santa Barbara, she told them.“They were adventurous types,” Delilah Loud said, recalling the family conversation about whether to participate in “An American Family.” “They wanted us to experience the world and they thought, ‘Well, what the heck, it’ll be a new experience.’’’Bill Loud, with whom Ms. Loud reunited in 2001 at the request of Lance, died in 2018 at 97.Ms. Loud’s is survived by Delilah and another daughter, Michele, as well as two sons, Kevin and Grant, according to the family’s Facebook post.Ms. Loud moved to New York with her daughters in 1974 and lived in an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for more than a decade while working as a literary agent and doing other work.She lived in Bath, England, in the early 1990s before moving back to California to live with Lance. In 2001, Lance, who had led the rock band the Mumps and was a freelance writer, asked the original camera and sound equipment operators of “An American Family” to document his final days. He did not tell his mother that the cameras would show up.“I don’t know why Lance did that, but he wanted to do it,” she told The Times.In 2003, public television aired “Lance Loud! A Death in an American Family.”Alex Marshall and Alex Traub contributed reporting.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

  • 150 Shares99 Views

    in Theater

    Side Hustles and Handouts: A Tough Year Ahead for U.K. Theater Workers

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySide Hustles and Handouts: A Tough Year Ahead for U.K. Theater WorkersWith playhouses closed for the next few months, actors and backstage crews are looking for new ways to make ends meet.The actress Amanda Lawrence modeling an outfit by Ti Green, a costume and set designer who has turned to selling clothing online while Britain’s theaters are closed.Credit…Craig FullerJan. 8, 2021LONDON — Last August, Tom Boucher was among the first in Britain’s theater industry to get back to work, after theaters were closed for months because of the coronavirus.For six weeks, Boucher, 29, was a lighting technician for “Sleepless: A Musical Romance” a show based on the popular 1993 movie “Sleepless in Seattle.” He felt so lucky to have a job again, he recalled in a telephone interview.Every day, until the run ended, Boucher went to the Troubadour Wembley Park Theater, where he was tested for the coronavirus before bathing the stage with warm tones to conjure the show’s romantic atmosphere.But that joy was short-lived, he said.Tom Boucher, shown onscreen and onstage at rear, was a lighting technician for “Sleepless: A Musical Romance.”Credit…Dale DriscollFreelancers — both actors and backstage crew members like Boucher — are the lifeblood of Britain’s theaters, making up an estimated 70 percent of the country’s 290,000 workers in the performing arts, according to U.K. Theater, a trade body. But that workforce’s flexibility makes it particularly exposed to any changes in coronavirus restrictions.Facing a new wave of the virus, England on Monday went into a national lockdown again. Theatrical performances are banned for months, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said restrictions could last until March 31, which means Britain’s estimated 200,000 freelance theater workers are once more facing financial trouble and looking for ways to get by.Boucher guessed it would be April, at best, before he could work again in a theater. On Monday, with bills piling up, he applied to the Theater Artists Fund, a body that gives emergency grants to theater freelancers imperiled by the pandemic. He was hoping for 1,000 pounds, or about $1,350.“I know it sounds silly,” Boucher said, “but £1,000 can really go a long way at the moment.”The Theatre Artists Fund, which was created by the film and theater director Sam Mendes as a response to the pandemic, gave out around 4,600 grants last year in three funding rounds, Eva Mason, a spokeswoman for the program, said in an email. It reopened to applications on Monday and received “hundreds” in two days, she added.Just a few weeks ago, Britain’s theaters seemed to be on the verge of a triumphant return. On Dec. 5, “Six,” the hit musical about the wives of Henry VIII, returned to the West End, in London, alongside several other shows including a concert version of “Les Misérables.” But then restrictions were tightened in the city, forcing those to shut, and then came the nationwide lockdown — England’s third since March.“Six” a musical about the wives of Henry VIII, returned briefly to the West End, in December.Credit…Suzanne Plunkett for The New York TimesAccording to Freelancers Make Theater Work, a campaigning organization, 36 percent of freelancers in the industry are not eligible for help under the British government’s coronavirus support programs. “I fell through every single possible crack to get government support,” Boucher said.Another private program, the Fleabag Support Fund, created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and the producer Francesca Moody, also saw a boom in applications this week. It opens for five days each month to applicants, and has given out 772 grants since April, worth an average £742.But such generosity only goes so far. In telephone interviews this week, four theater freelancers said they had set up their own businesses to get through the pandemic; another said he was working as a delivery driver; and another said she was relying on a combination of unemployment checks and parental support.Cakes from Flour and Fold, a baking business started by Jessica Howells, who used to work as a sound engineer.Credit…Jessica Howells“The situation actually feels worse than March,” said Jessica Howells, a sound engineer who had been working on “Phantom of the Opera” in the West End when the pandemic struck. “Back then I didn’t know anyone who had coronavirus. Now, I know a lot of people,” she added.Last summer, Howells was laid off, so she started a baking business, she said. She now makes brownies and party cakes that are delivered to customers across Britain. “It’s enough to pay the bills, to survive,” she said. Her partner, also a theater freelancer, now delivers eggs door-to-door, she added.Ti Green, a Tony Award-nominated costume and set designer, started a business a little closer to her usual line of work, making bespoke women’s wear. She loved still doing something creative, she said in a telephone interview, but was desperate to “get back into a dark theater, where everyone’s working together to create.”She had no idea when that would be, she said, but added, “I’m trying not to lose hope.”Moody of the Fleabag Support Fund said she was worried that many freelancers would leave the industry for good. “I do think we’ll lose a large swath to other jobs,” she said. “It’s a real problem for theater, as we’ll have a smaller talent pool,” she added.None of the six freelancers interviewed said they were intending to change career. One, at least, was trying to channel a new line of work back into something dramatic. Stewart Wright, 46, an actor, said in a telephone interview that last year he started working as a courier to get by. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, he cycled around Bristol, England, delivering takeout.Bristol has many hills, and Wright can only last four hours on his bike per night, he said, but the experience had inspired him creatively: He was now working on a script for a sitcom, called “Downhill,” about a middle-aged man who loses his high-profile job and ends up as a pizza delivery guy.The actor Stewart Wright as Santa Claus in a 10-minute production he performed on doorsteps around Bristol, England.Credit…Mark DawsonWright had not given up performing entirely, he added. Last month, he co-created a 10-minute Christmas show which he performed, dressed as Santa Claus, on doorsteps in Bristol. (The production was a partnership with the Tobacco Factory theater in the city.) “I suppose I’ve been in this fight or flight mode, where I’m just trying to piece together a living from all sorts of stuff,” Wright added.He doesn’t expect to get any theatrical work this year, he said, but was trying not to think about that. “I’m not spending energy on asking, ‘When will I get work in a theater again?’ as it’s just wasted,” he said. Wright needed all the energy he could get, after all: He had to get back on his delivery bike.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

  • 88 Shares119 Views

    in Television

    Late Night Is Unimpressed by Titanic-Fleeing Republicans

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBest of Late NightLate Night Is Unimpressed by Titanic-Fleeing Republicans “Resigning with two weeks left feels less like some moral stand and more like leaving early to beat traffic,” Jimmy Fallon said of the departing officials.Jan. 8, 2021, 2:05 a.m. ETWelcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. We’re all stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Sinking ShipThe late-night hosts were still reeling along with the rest of the country on Thursday, the day after a Trump-incited mob stormed the Capitol.“Well, guys, it’s been a pretty epic 24 hours,” Jimmy Fallon said at the top of “The Tonight Show.” “Joe Biden was certified as our next president, several staffers have resigned from the White House, Trump’s social media accounts were banned, and yet, compared to yesterday, it’s a slow news day.”“Since yesterday’s riot, resignations have poured in at the White House, and sources expect they’ll keep coming. Although resigning with two weeks left feels less like some moral stand and more like leaving early to beat traffic.” — JIMMY FALLON“My question is, how do you put in your two weeks’ notice when your job ends in less than two weeks?” — JIMMY FALLON“I’ve been watching the news, and these ‘experts’ keep saying ‘history will not look back kindly’ on the politicians who continue with this charade. As if those people care about history. Those people don’t even care about climate change. At this rate, we’ll be lucky if we even have a history for them to be ashamed of.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Last night marked the end of the longtime romance between Donald Trump and his golden Graham, Lindsey, who used his time before the Senate last night to issue a very public breakup.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Lindsey Graham said he and Trump ‘had a hell of a journey,’ but ‘enough is enough.’ And he decided not to give him the final rose.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“That was something to watch. I’d like to commend Senator Graham for this courageous act, two weeks after he called to try to get the Georgia secretary of state to change the election results. Now he’s appalled. But heroes come in many forms, folks.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“And after that ugly day yesterday, President Trump’s mental state has now come into question, with one senior adviser saying Trump has, quote, ‘lost it.’ I’ve got to say, it’s very brave of Republicans to start speaking out against Trump only 99.9 percent of the way through his term in office. You know, not to quibble about this, but for someone to ‘lose it,’ first they must ‘possess it,’ mustn’t they?’ — JAMES CORDEN“People were comparing this big wave of resignations to rats fleeing the Titanic, but I really don’t think that’s fair. At one point, the Titanic actually had some direction. It was going somewhere.” — JAMES CORDEN“It makes sense, though. You want to get out into the job market before the Trump administration gets blocked on LinkedIn as well.” — JAMES CORDENThe Punchiest Punchlines (Blocked and Banned Edition)“Trump was suspended by Twitter. He’s blocked by Facebook and Instagram, too. Still on Match.com.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Well, yesterday we learned that if you incite a coup against the U.S. government, you will face up to 12 hours without a Twitter account.” — SETH MEYERS“Aside from his fear of removal or prosecution, maybe baby just wants his toy back, because Twitter locked the president’s account after his riot on Capitol Hill. Good to know Twitter is finally treating a violence-inciting fascist as harshly as a teenager who used seven seconds of an Imagine Dragons song.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“He also got blocked from posting to Facebook and Instagram indefinitely. YouTube pulled his video address to the rioters, citing election misinformation, and Amazon banned him from ordering Pixy Stix because they get him too wound up before bedtime.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“In other news, guess who doesn’t want to ban TikTok anymore.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingJulien Baker performed her timely new song “Faith Healer” on Thursday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutMartin Scorsese and Fran Lebowitz, as seen in the new Netflix documentary series “Pretend It’s a City,” are longtime friends. “It’s about being around Fran,” said Scorsese, who directed the series.Credit…NetflixFran Lebowitz and Martin Scorsese reminisce about old New York in their new Netflix documentary series, “Pretend It’s a City.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

  • 138 Shares169 Views

    in Television

    On Alex Trebek's Last ‘Jeopardy!,’ Johnny Gilbert Gives a Final Introduction

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn Alex Trebek’s Final ‘Jeopardy!,’ a Last Introduction From a FriendJohnny Gilbert, 92, started on the game show with Trebek in 1984. Now, he must imagine a ‘Jeopardy!’ without his longtime colleague.“I have never thought of anyone as host of the show except Alex,” said Johnny Gilbert, who had been with the show for as long as Alex Trebek. He’ll have to adjust to introducing new hosts.Credit…Jeopardy! ProductionsJan. 7, 2021Updated 11:45 a.m. ETFor more than 36 years, Johnny Gilbert has said the same 10 words, with the same mixture of razzle-dazzle and lofty cadence of a practiced showman: “And now, here is the host of ‘Jeopardy!’… Alex Trebek!” Trebek would appear with a wave and a smile, and the game would begin.He has delivered some version of that familiar warm-up more than 8,000 times, ever since Trebek’s first episode, which aired on Sept. 10, 1984, when the newly minted host strode onto the stage sporting a dark, bushy mustache and a pale pink pocket square. But on Friday, television audiences will see Gilbert’s final introduction of a longtime colleague who had become a pal, as the last episode that was filmed before Trebek’s death in November is broadcast.Johnny Gilbert introducing Alex Trebek on TV for the first time.“As much pain that he was in, I just never thought he was actually dying,” Gilbert said. “The day I heard that, part of me left this world.”Next week “Jeopardy!” will return with Gilbert introducing a new name: Ken Jennings, a record-breaking former contestant, who will be the first in a series of new, interim hosts.“It was a very bizarre feeling,” Gilbert, 92, said in an interview on Wednesday. “I have never thought of anyone as host of the show except Alex.”After Trebek’s death, Gilbert, who has had a roughly 70-year career in entertainment, said that he wondered whether it was the right time to leave. At that point, because of the pandemic, he had not been working at the studio, in Culver City, Calif., but had been recording his announcements from a bedroom in his Venice Beach home.“I thought, ‘Gee, can I go on doing this? Can I still do what the show needs?’” he said. “And I decided, yes, I would go on. I would go on because Alex wanted the show to go on.”When Trebek died at age 80 in November after battling Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, the show’s producers made clear that there would be no rush to fill the role of a man who had been the face and voice of “Jeopardy!” for so long. Only 10 days before his death, Trebek had been in the studio filming, and the show had enough episodes to finish the year. Instead of finishing in the last week of 2020, a chaotic week for television and for viewers, the show decided to push Trebek’s final five episodes to this week.The show also recognized that Gilbert was among many who felt unsettled by a new host delivering “Jeopardy!” clues. Instead of choosing a permanent successor right away, they opted for a series of interim hosts. Jennings, the only guest host who has been officially announced, has already taped 30 episodes, a spokeswoman for the show said. (In recent days, Jennings has received some flak on social media for posting insensitive tweets in the past, for which he apologized, raising questions about whether he would be in the role permanently.) The Los Angeles Times reported this week that Katie Couric had been signed as another guest host, but the show would not confirm that.Gilbert, the announcer on “Jeopardy!,” started with the show’s first episode in 1984.Credit…Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic, via Getty ImagesGilbert and Trebek, who both worked in television in the early 1980s, met at a party in Hollywood a couple of years before Merv Griffin decided to mount a new production of “Jeopardy!” Gilbert was already a known entity in daytime TV, having worked as a golden-voiced announcer for “The Price Is Right” and Dinah Shore’s daily talk show.In his memoir, published last summer, Trebek wrote that he had recommended Gilbert to Griffin: “How could you forget a voice like that?” (Gilbert’s voice wasn’t just used for announcing; he was a singer early in his career and recorded two albums in the 1960s.)What resulted, Gilbert said, was a friendship that involved a lot of chatting in dressing rooms, good-natured teasing in front of studio audiences and a deep mutual respect. On the set of “Jeopardy!,” Trebek would often poke fun at Gilbert’s age, joking that he had been the announcer for Abraham Lincoln.“We’ve been together longer than either one of our marriages, and we’ve never had a cross word,” Trebek wrote of Gilbert in his memoir.Wearing one of his many “Jeopardy!” branded varsity-style jackets, Gilbert would warm up the audience before the tapings, urging them to talk to Trebek during commercial breaks and ask him any questions that they might have. When the time came, Trebek would talk with audience members endlessly, Gilbert recalled, adding that more than once Trebek’s involved chats with members of the studio audience would outlast commercial breaks.Gilbert recalled how Trebek continued to work through his illness. When Trebek was receiving chemotherapy treatments, Gilbert said, there were times when he was clearly in great pain. Sometimes he was too unwell for the usual banter between episodes with the production staff.Trebek wrote in his memoir that there were days during his illness where he could barely walk to production meetings. But after Gilbert delivered his trademark introduction — “And now, here is the host of ‘Jeopardy!’… Alex Trebek!” — Trebek wrote that he would feel like himself again, and be able to walk out onto the stage.That transformation was apparent to Gilbert, too.“Regardless of how he felt when he walked out onstage,” Gilbert said, “when I introduced him, there was Alex Trebek.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

  • 63 Shares119 Views

    in Television

    Stephen Colbert Goes ‘Unexpectedly Live’

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBest of Late NightStephen Colbert Goes ‘Unexpectedly Live’“It’s a horrifying day that will go down in U.S. history, however much longer that is,” Colbert said after President Trump incited a mob of his supporters to storm the Capitol.“Who could have seen this coming? Everyone? Even dummies like me,” Stephen Colbert remarked of Wednesday’s angry pro-Trump mob.Credit…CBSJan. 7, 2021, 3:23 a.m. ETWelcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. We’re all stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.No Laughing MatterLate-night hosts got serious Wednesday after an angry, violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, where lawmakers had convened for what is normally the routine certification of the presidential election results. Stephen Colbert went “unexpectedly live,” addressing the Republican leaders he deems responsible for supporting President Trump’s desperate attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory as well as his inflammatory rhetoric.[embedded content]“Hey, Republicans who supported this president — especially the ones in the joint session of Congress today — have you had enough? After five years of coddling this president’s fascist rhetoric, guess whose followers want to burn down the Reichstag?” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Who could have seen this coming? Everyone? Even dummies like me. This is the most shocking, most tragic, least surprising thing I’ve ever seen.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“For years now, people have been telling you cowards that if you let the president lie about our democracy over and over and then join him in that lie and say he’s right when you know for a fact that he is not, there will be a terrible price to pay. But you just never thought you’d have to pay it, too.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“I really do hope you’re enjoying those tax cuts — and those judges, because those judges are really going to be working hard. They’re going to be busy throwing these idiots in jail — and by ‘idiots’ I include the Republicans who let this happen. Like you, Senator Josh Hawley, raising your stupid fist to the mob outside the Capitol. Look at that — it’s like ‘Black Power’ but the opposite. There really should be a name for that. And, obviously, he has to keep his fist closed, because if he opened it, you’d see all the blood on his hands.” — STEPHEN COLBERTJimmy Fallon dispensed with jokes altogether, saying he wanted to help.“Being here tonight and talking to you at home and reassuring you that we’re going to be OK and that this is not what our country is about is how I can help,” he said.Fallon spent the top of the show speaking with Dan Rather, the former CBS News anchor, about the day’s events.James Corden said there was still reason for hope during what he called “the last dance at the worst party any of us have ever been to.”“The America that so many aspire to will be back,” he said. “It’s just been hijacked by a lunatic.”The Punchiest Punchlines (Treason Finale Edition)“Remember this morning the news was all saying Democrats now control the Senate? I’m going to say that report was a little premature. ‘The Late Show’ is ready to project Senate control has passed to Majority Leader Shirtless Freak in a Viking Hat.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Thank you for joining us for the treason finale of the Donald Trump era.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It’s a horrifying day that will go down in U.S. history, however much longer that is.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The Capitol was besieged by MAGA-hatters in all manner of crazy costumes. It was like a psychotic ‘Price Is Right’ audience forcibly taking control of the ‘Plinko’ wheel.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“That’s a very upsetting Paul Revere remix: ‘The red hats are coming! The red hats are coming!’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“And the wildest part is these MAGA marchers think Donald Trump cares about them. He doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t care about your wife or your job or your health care or the air you breathe, the water you drink. He cares about himself. And only about himself. Unless you were pushing a lawn mower, he wouldn’t let you into his golf club. He’d roll his limo right over you to get a Chick-fil-A sandwich.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“He does not give a damn about you. He went home to watch it on TV. You’re just entertainment for him — and, of course, a steady stream of merchandise sales.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Anyway, this isn’t how any of this works. We don’t decide elections on who’s most upset; we decide them by who gets the most votes, portioned by state through a weird Electoral College that was instituted to maintain the political power of slave states. It’s a long story.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Come on, Republicans. Don’t go up to Capitol Hill for a government handout. Pull yourselves up by your own bootstraps and just work a little harder.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Remind me: Are we great again yet?” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingDon Cheadle managed to talk a little bit about the return of his Showtime series “Black Monday” on Wednesday’s “Tonight Show.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightThe author Fran Lebowitz will tell Seth Meyers about her new Netflix series with Martin Scorsese on Thursday’s “Late Night.”Also, Check This OutTed Danson, left, and Bobby Moynihan in “Mr. Mayor,” a new NBC sitcom created by Robert Carlock and Tina Fey.Credit…Mitchell Haddad/NBCTed Danson plays the titular role in “Mr. Mayor,” NBC’s new political satire from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More