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Variety said Mr. Richards, the executive producer leading the search for a host to replace Alex Trebek, was now himself the top candidate. Sony Pictures Entertainment would not confirm the report.The man in charge of engineering a successful “Jeopardy!” succession may have found the perfect candidate: himself. More
“We made these musicals to get people who don’t go to musicals to go to musicals,” said a creator of the Off Broadway “Friends” and “The Office” parodies. “They’re a gateway drug.”The titles of the songs in “Friends! The Musical Parody,” now playing at the Theater Center on West 50th Street, will be familiar to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the sitcom about six coffee shop lingerers in New York. Joey sings an ode to the art of seduction entitled “How You Doin’?” Chandler and Monica’s amorous duet is “Could I Be Any More in Love With You?” There’s a song about adapting to challenging circumstances called “Pivot,” and, naturally, the post-interval number is “We Were on a Break.”“Friends” isn’t the only television show that has wound up on the musical stage recently. This month, audiences can go see screwy, unauthorized takes on the workplace sitcom “The Office” (“The Office! A Musical Parody”) and Netflix’s sci-fi horror series “Stranger Things” (“Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical”).The shows resemble elongated “Saturday Night Live” sketches with Off Broadway production values. (The monstrous Demogorgon in “Stranger Sings” is partly made out of pool noodles, duct tape and press-on nails.) It’s “Forbidden Broadway” for those more familiar with Ross and Rachel, or Jim and Pam, than Rodgers and Hammerstein.The creators of the “Friends” and “The Office” parodies, Bob McSmith and Tobly McSmith (both 41, and not related), have been making what they loosely call parody musicals for nearly 20 years. “We made these musicals to get people who don’t go to musicals to go to musicals,” Tobly McSmith said. “They’re a gateway drug.”The pair, who met as housemates in Park Slope, bonded over a shared appreciation — equal parts amusement and bemusement — of the high school sitcom “Saved by the Bell.” “It was just on in the morning,” Tobly said. “We’d watch it, we’d smoke pot, we’d go to work.”In that state of herbal-assisted merriment, they hit upon the idea of a “Saved by the Bell” musical. Despite their rudimentary musical skills, and the fact that neither had any experience in the theater, they wrote a bunch of songs and sketches, posted a call for actors on Craigslist, and started to put on the show for free in 2005 at Apocalypse Lounge in the East Village. The place was packed every night. “It was a beautiful mess,” Tobly said. “The audience loved it.”From left, Laura Mehl, Danny Adams and Emma Brock in “The Office! A Musical Parody.”Russ RowlandSince then, they have created spoofs of the TV shows “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Full House,” as well as a mash-up of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and the musical “Cats.” A “Parks and Recreation” parody is on the way, and when the “Friends” show leaves for its national tour — it has already played in Las Vegas; Portland, Maine; and Australia — it will be replaced by the McSmiths’ take on “Love Actually.”Each show finds its own balance between paying tribute and sending up. “We try to evoke the same humor but in different ways,” Tobly said, “and surprise people with things they notice about the show but never really internalized.” The McSmiths are also undeterred by the seeming tautology of presenting comic reinterpretations of comedies. “We call that a hat on a hat on a hat,” Tobly said. “If you can get to five hats — that’s hilarious.”In the case of “Friends! The Musical Parody,” part of the fun is the hectic combination of pointed critique, 10 seasons’ worth of plot, and extratextual jokes about the actors’ salaries and post-“Friends” careers. There’s a whole song dedicated to the near-obligatory observation of the massiveness of Monica and Rachel’s apartment but, also, more spikily, a reference to the blinding whiteness of the cast.Ross’s pet monkey, Marcel, gets a song, too. “The idea that Ross has a pet monkey for a few episodes is the most ridiculous thing,” Bob McSmith said. Ultimately, “Friends! The Musical Parody” is a show by fans for fans. “We call all our shows loving lampoons,” he said. “Parody doesn’t have to be cruel.”“Stranger Sings: The Parody Musical” — opening on Thursday at the Players Theater with book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Hogue — similarly springs from a place of love. “Parody can be a dirty word in the industry,” said Savannah-Lee Mumford, who plays Barb. “What this show does so well is take care to honor the source material rather than poke at its flaws. It enhances it.”Honoring the source material in “Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical”: From left, Adele Simms, Jalen Bunch, Dean Cestari, Patrick Howard and Ariana Perlson.Bruce GlikasThe Netflix series, about suburban adolescents battling paranormal forces, draws from a host of inspirations, including the works of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King, as well as the teen rom-com “Sixteen Candles.” “Stranger Sings” honors that spirit, musically. Eleven, the psychokinetic young girl prone to nosebleeds, has an “I Want” song modeled on “Somewhere That’s Green” from “Little Shop of Horrors.” Steve Harrington, the well-coiffed teenage lunk, has a swaggering hair-metal tune; and Joyce Byers (played by Winona Ryder on the series), the perpetually frazzled single mother of a missing boy, gets a high-camp diva number worthy of Patti LuPone.“That’s part of the fun of parody as a form,” Hogue said. “You get to throw in as many references as you want.”Hogue also incorporated some of the online discourse about the TV show. Most notably, the character of Barb — a fan favorite who abruptly met her demise, inspiring the #JusticeForBarb hashtag on social media — gets the big moment she was denied onscreen, belting out the lyric: “Clearly I’m not central to this plot.”“We heard the internet,” Mumford said. “She definitely got the short end of the stick on the TV series. So this a gift for the fans.”“Stranger Sings” originated as a concert at Feinstein’s/54 Below, where these sorts of screen-to-stage mutations are something of a mainstay: In recent years, it has hosted musical adaptations of “Star Wars,” “Dexter” and “Pokémon,” to name a few. Before “Stranger Sings,” Hogue directed his own “Friends” musical concert for Feinstein’s/54 Below.Clearly, the more improbable the transformation, the better. But are these any more unlikely than musicals adapted from, say, a B-movie about a man-eating plant or an 800-page biography of Alexander Hamilton?This is all legal, by the way, under the laws regarding parody and fair use, as long as the shows are genuine adaptations — not mere facsimiles — and don’t give the impression of being officially sanctioned. The McSmiths have had only one run-in along these lines. “Andrew Lloyd Webber did not find our Kardashians-Cats musical as funny as we did,” Tobly said. “We agreed to change the music tracks to a couple songs, including ‘Meow-mories’ sung by Cat-lyn Jenner, and they left us alone.”Perhaps, after a year’s worth of pandemic binge-watching at home, some audiences will be drawn to theater that recreates television in all its reassuring comfort-food predictability, with familiar characters in familiar settings acting out familiar story lines. There’s something to be said for a live show that manages to recreate the laid-back atmosphere of your living room.“From the outset, we were trying to parody ‘Saved by the Bell,’ but also trying to parody theater,” Tobly said. “We’ve always felt so far away from Broadway. And we like that.” More
Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz, who created that Israeli hit, are back with “Hit & Run,” a new geopolitical thriller that swoops from Tel Aviv to the back alleys of New York City.One afternoon in 2015, shortly after their gripping terrorism drama“Fauda” debuted in Israel, Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz met for lunch in Tel Aviv. More
“Cooking With Paris,” on Netflix, is just the latest in a food TV genre starring celebrities who lack professional kitchen experience, and even revel in it.In a twinkling black dress with feathery sleeves and high heels, Paris Hilton is in the kitchen making a steak dinner with her mother and sister. Before they arrive, she digs a spoon into a tin of caviar and gives a bite to her dog. Flakes of 23-karat gold stick on her fingers as she adds it to homemade truffle butter. More
The “Saturday Night Live” star shares the story of her pandemic experience and a life touched by grief in “This Will All Be Over Soon.”RHINEBECK, N.Y. — It’s hard to think of Cecily Strong and not be reminded of the effusive television characters she plays. If you’re a “Saturday Night Live” fan, you immediately conjure up her exuberant performance as a soused Jeanine Pirro crooning “My Way” while she dunks herself in a tank of wine. Or if you’ve been watching her on the Apple TV+ musical comedy “Schmigadoon!,” you think of her belting out modern-day show tunes praising the pleasures of corn pudding or smooching with a suitor. More
Our picks for August, including ‘The Chair,’ ‘The L Word’ and ‘Annette’Every month, streaming services in Australia add a new batch of movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for August. More
His credits included “General Hospital,” “Days of Our Lives” and “Port Charles.” He died while filming a western in Idaho, where he was raised.Jay Pickett, an actor known for his roles in TV soap operas like “General Hospital” and “Days of Our Lives,” died on Friday while filming a movie in Idaho. He was 60.Travis Mills, the director of “Treasure Valley,” which was set to star Mr. Pickett, said on Sunday that Mr. Pickett fell ill while preparing to shoot a scene near Oreana, Idaho. There was no official explanation for the cause of death, he said.Jim Heffel, a co-star on “Treasure Valley,” said in a Facebook post that Mr. Pickett “died sitting on a horse ready to rope a steer in the movie.”Mr. Mills said Mr. Pickett suddenly slumped over. “We were getting ready to film this scene, and he was just sitting there on horseback,” Mr. Mills said, adding that people on the set did CPR until paramedics arrived a few minutes later by helicopter. He was declared dead at the scene, Mr. Mills said.“Treasure Valley,” a western about a man who rebuilds his life after a fire destroys his family, was being filmed where Mr. Pickett grew up and had many connections, Mr. Mills said. During car rides through the valley to find places to film, Mr. Mills recalled, Mr. Pickett would make comments such as “That’s where my brother lived” and “That’s where I went to elementary school.”Jan Larison, Mr. Pickett’s younger sister, said, “His passion was to come back and make films about the lives he was raised around.”Jay Harris Pickett, the fourth of five children, was born on Feb. 10, 1961, in Spokane, Wash., to E. Richard Pickett, a cattle broker, and Virginia Pickett, who worked in agriculture for the federal government.The Pickett family moved about 400 miles south, to Caldwell, Idaho, where Jay was raised, Ms. Larison said. He graduated from Vallivue High School in 1980 and attended Treasure Valley Community College, where he played football and met the woman he would marry, Elena Bates.After community college, he attended Boise State University, where he continued to play football, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in theater arts, his sister said. Then, he went to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned a master’s degree, also in theater.While studying theater, Mr. Pickett played quarterback for his college football team and participated in rodeos, his sister said. His skills on the stage, on the field and in the saddle did not go unnoticed, particularly among some of Ms. Larison’s friends. “They all just wanted to come over and meet him,” she recalled.In his 20s, Mr. Pickett began his acting career with small roles in the TV series “Rags to Riches,” “China Beach” and “Mr. Belvedere,” which all began airing in the 1980s.Jay Pickett and Julie Pinson in “Port Charles” in 1997.Tom Queally/Walt Disney Television, via Getty ImagesIn 1991, he played Dr. Chip Lakin in “Days of Our Lives,” an NBC soap opera that featured Mr. Pickett in 34 episodes. In “Port Charles,” a spinoff of “General Hospital” about the lives of medical interns and doctors at the fictitious Port Charles General Hospital, Mr. Pickett played Frank Scanlon, a dedicated paramedic and substitute teacher. The show ran from 1997 to 2003 on ABC.Mr. Pickett’s budding fame was observable, sometimes in unexpected places. While accompanying him in Las Vegas, Ms. Larison overheard a conversation about her brother that took place in a restroom: “Oh my goodness, did you see — that was Jay Pickett out there!” she recalled one woman as saying.Mr. Pickett portrayed Detective David Harper on ABC’s “General Hospital” from 2007 to 2008, and in 2012 he wrote, acted in and produced “Soda Springs,” a western film that also starred Tom Skerritt and Michael Bowen.“The sudden passing of my pal Jay Pickett is very sad,” Kin Shriner, who worked alongside Mr. Pickett on “General Hospital,” said on Twitter. “He loved acting and Westerns, and when we got together we laughed a lot.”Mr. Pickett went on to appear in numerous shows and TV movies, including “NCIS: Los Angeles” in 2015, the TV series “Queen Sugar” in 2017 and “Soldier’s Revenge,” a movie released in 2020.Apart from “Treasure Valley,” Mr. Pickett had roles in four films that were in postproduction as of Sunday, according to the Internet Movie Database.In addition to his sister, Mr. Pickett is survived by his wife, Elena, whom he married in 1985; their three children: Maegan, 35, Michaela, 29, and Tyler, 15; and three other siblings, Dee Pickett, Ginna Maggard and Rich Harris Pickett. Mr. Pickett’s father died in 2005, and his mother died in 2013.Mr. Pickett died on the seventh day of what was supposed to be a 20-day film shoot for “Treasure Valley,” according to Mr. Mills. “I truly believe it is some of the best work he did in his career, if not the best,” he said.Mr. Mills said he might seek to publish the script of the film, which Mr. Pickett wrote, and turn the footage into a short film or video tribute to the actor. More
In a mixed but audacious first season, AMC’s feminist deconstruction of marriage stories made two sets of TV clichés into something bigger.In Disney+’s “WandaVision,” sitcoms were a prison and a haven. The Avengers’ Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), wracked with grief over the death of her android husband, Vision (Paul Bettany), conjured him back to life on a sitcom set — a magical bubble constructed of made-for-TV happy memories. More
