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      Shirley Jo Finney, 74, Dies; Addressed the Black Experience Onstage

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      After an acting career that included playing the Olympic sprinter Wilma Rudolph in a TV movie, she became known as a director for her work at regional theaters.The actor and director Shirley Jo Finney in 1974 in Sacramento, Calif., where she studied drama. “I have, basically, always been ‘the first African American,’” she once said.Frank Stork/Sacramento Bee, via the Center for Sacramento HistoryShirley Jo Finney, an actor who became a prolific and award-winning director of plays that dug deeply into the Black experience, died on Oct. 10 in Bellingham, Wash. She was 74.The cause of her death, in a hospital, was multiple myeloma, said Diana Finney, her sister and only immediate survivor.Ms. Finney worked for nearly 40 years at regional theaters, where she directed dramas like Pearl Cleage’s “Flyin’ West, which tells the story of late-19th-century Black female homesteaders in Kansas; Ifa Bayeza’s “The Ballad of Emmett Till,” about the 14-year-old boy who was kidnapped, tortured and shot by two white men in Mississippi in 1955; and Dael Orlandersmith’s “Yellowman,” which examines interracial prejudice through the story of two young lovers, one with a light complexion and one with a dark one.“She was very much drawn to material by great playwrights of color,” Sheldon Epps, the artistic director emeritus of the Pasadena Playhouse, where Ms. Finney directed twice, said by phone. “But it was also a result of the categorization that artists of color still suffer, where they are assigned to Black plays and not thought of for plays by other writers.”Ms. Feeney was, Mr. Epps said, “passionate and relentless in all the right ways.”When asked about her choice largely to direct plays about Black characters and themes, Ms. Finney recalled her background.“I have, basically, always been ‘the first African American,’” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1999, during the run of “Flyin’ West” at the Pasadena Playhouse. “My family was the first African American family to move into the neighborhood that I integrated, and then I had to go to the elementary school there — so I’ve always done that. At U.C.L.A., I was the first African American to be in their M.F.A. program.”She added: “How do you break out of the box, and where do you fit into society? How do we maintain the tradition of a tribe and still transcend our own humanity?”Among the many venues at which Ms. Finney worked were the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Cleveland Play House, the Actors Theater of Louisville and the Goodman Theater in Chicago. But if she had a professional home, it was the Fountain Theater in Los Angeles, where she had directed eight plays since 1997, including “The Ballad of Emmett Till.”In 2015, Ms. Finney was asked by Stephen Sachs, the Fountain’s artistic director, to direct his adaptation of “Citizen: An American Lyric” (2014), Claudia Rankine’s book-length poem and series of essays about race in today’s society.“I read it, and I went, ‘Oh, this is my life,’” she said in a 2017 interview featured on the website of the Center Theater Group, home to the Taper, Kirk Douglas and Ahmanson Theaters in Los Angeles. “Citizen,” she said reminded her of “walking through and navigating those torrential waters of mainstream America when you are a person of color or ‘other,’ and what you have to swallow in order to survive.”When the Fountain observed its 25th anniversary in 2015, Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times’s theater critic, wrote that Ms. Finney had infused “Citizen” with “the spirit of public reckoning” and added, “Her cast didn’t so much portray characters as stand in solidarity with the nameless voices reflecting, mourning and expressing outrage over the micro and micro aggressions (from a careless bigoted remark to police abuse) confronting Black people on a daily basis.”Shirley Jo Finney was born on July 14, 1949, in Merced, Calif., about 55 miles northwest of Fresno. Her mother, Ricetta (Amey) Finney, was a teacher and counselor. Her father, Nathaniel, sold auto parts. In 1959 she moved to Sacramento with her mother, her sister, her stepfather, Charles James, a municipal court judge, and her stepbrother, also Charles James.In high school, she was in the drama club. She then attended Sacramento City College for one semester before transferring to Sacramento State College (now California State University, Sacramento). At a party, she met Wilma Rudolph, the sprinter who had won three gold medals at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and was teaching at the school. They became friends, and Ms. Finney became a babysitter for Ms. Rudolph’s children.“I told her, ‘One day, I’m going to make a film about you,’” Ms. Finney recalled in an interview with The Sacramento Bee in 2000.She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in drama in 1971 and earned a master’s degree in theater arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, two years later.After appearing in several television series and films, she was cast by the director Bud Greenspan in the TV movie “Wilma” (1977), which also starred Cicely Tyson as Ms. Rudolph’s mother. It received mixed reviews, but John J. O’Connor of The New York Times wrote that it was “given a touch of substance through a good performance by Shirley Jo Finney.”Ms. Finney as the sprinter Wilma Rudolph, who won three gold medals at the 1960 Summer Olympics, alongside Jason Bernard playing Ed Temple, her coach, in the 1977 television movie “Wilma.”Archive PL/AlamyShe continued to act occasionally into the 1990s, on series like “Lou Grant,” “Hill Street Blues” and “Night Court,” but by that time she had also begun to direct plays.“I love actors, and I love that process of bringing people who are strangers together, to work for a common purpose,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1999. “I love creating an atmosphere where you feel comfortable enough to share who you are, to create. And then you can go within to give the best you can give.”She called that process “orgasmic.”Mr. Sachs of the Fountain Theater said that Ms. Finney developed her own shorthand to communicate with actors.“Actors had to learn to speak ‘Shirley Jo,’” Mr. Sachs said by phone. “She spoke a language unto herself, with body movement and her cackling laugh. She had a way. When she spoke, she’d stand up, pace around the room, or rock on a chair and say, ‘I’m feeling it, I’m feeling it.’ She was almost like a shaman.”Among the honors Ms. Finney received were three Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for her direction of individual plays and the organization’s Milton Katselas Award for her career work.Although she worked around the country, Ms. Finney never directed on Broadway. Her only chance at it ended in 2008, when financial backing fell apart for a revival of Ntozake Shange’s play “For Colored Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf.”Ms. Finney received a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012 from the University of California, Los Angeles. Eric Charbonneau/WireImage, via Getty ImagesIn 2010, shortly before rehearsals were to begin for “The Ballad of Emmett Till,” the play’s director, Bennett Bradley, was stabbed to death. Mr. Sachs asked Ms. Finney to take over.“She came into the rehearsal room that day, unprepared, and took over like she had been destined to do it,” Mr. Sachs recalled. “She delivered a benediction to the company; she brought the cast together to tell this story and said that what happened to Ben echoed what happened to Emmett Till. In five or 10 minutes, she turned us around.” More

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      Dark Hedges: 6 ‘Game of Thrones’ Trees Will Be Cut Down

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      Six of the Dark Hedges beech trees, a tourist destination in Northern Ireland for fans of the HBO fantasy series, will be cut down because they are in poor condition, officials said.Six trees with long branches that twist up to the sky that were made famous by the series “Game of Thrones” will be cut down in the coming weeks, officials in Northern Ireland said on Monday.The trees are part of the Dark Hedges, an international tourist attraction for fans of the HBO fantasy series. As many as hundreds of tourists visit each day. The beech trees, which form an arch over a road, have become one of the most photographed spots in Northern Ireland.Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure said that the six trees, in bucolic County Antrim, needed to be cut down because they were in poor condition and posed a risk to the public. An additional four trees will require remedial work and a fifth will be assessed, the statement said. The work will begin on Nov. 20.Essential public safety works, including removal and remedial works, to a number of trees at The Dark Hedges on Bregagh Road, Armoy will start on Monday 20 November 2023.More details: https://t.co/DLvlOTHzMQ pic.twitter.com/Vl4sjT3SOb— Department for Infrastructure (@deptinfra) November 13, 2023
      “This decision has not been made lightly and whilst the amenity value afforded by the corridor of trees is acknowledged, the safety of road users is paramount,” the Infrastructure Department said. The government said it would engage with the landowner and others to determine a strategy for protecting the other trees.“Game of Thrones” is based on the first five novels in George R.R. Martin’s series “A Song of Ice and Fire.” The Dark Hedges appear in the first episode of Season 2, when Arya Stark, disguised as a boy, escapes from her enemies in a cart, traveling north on the Kingsroad.“Game of Thrones” was filmed in locations around Northern Ireland, including at Titanic Studios in Belfast. Popular tourist locations for fans include Cushendun Caves, the beach where the priestess Melisandre gives birth in a cave to a supernatural assassin, and Ballintoy Harbour, built in the 1700s. There were more than 20 “Game of Thrones” filming locations in Northern Ireland, including medieval castles, harbors and coastlines, according to the country’s tourism board, which advertises of “Game of Thrones” tours.The Dark Hedges were also featured in “Transformers: The Last Knight.” There were originally about 150 trees, but today just 86 remain, with some having been damaged in storms or by rot.The trees that make up the Dark Hedges, which sit on privately owned land on Bregagh Road, were planted by the Stuart family in the 18th century. They were arranged to impress visitors as they approached the entrance to a Georgian mansion, Gracehill House. According to local lore, the area is haunted by a ghost known as the Grey Lady.A line from one of Martin’s books, “A Storm of Swords,” gives readers a sense of how foreboding the Kingsroad could be: “I’d stay well clear of that kingsroad, if I were you,” a peasant says. “It’s worse than bad, I hear. Wolves and lions both, and bands of broken men preying on anyone they can catch.” More

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      ‘A Murder at the End of the World’ Review: P.I. Meets A.I.

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      The story of death at a mogul’s retreat (no, not “Glass Onion”) has a few interesting ideas about tech within a familiar mystery scenario.An eccentric tech billionaire invites a slew of notables to a private retreat, where a detective must solve a mysterious death. If the premise of “A Murder at the End of the World” jumps out at you, it may be because you not so long ago encountered it as the premise of Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”Or it may jump out at you because “Murder” is the latest creation from Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij of Netflix’s “The OA.” That series was a poetic and baffling testament to the force of human connection, involving interpretive dance and a telepathic octopus. The murder mystery, in comparison, is among the most literal, plot-reliant of genres. Could Marling and Batmanglij really have made something that … ordinary?FX’s “Murder,” which begins Tuesday on Hulu, is neither as weird as you might hope or as conventional as you might fear. (Or vice versa.) It takes an Agatha Christie scenario and spins it into a chilly, stylized cyber-noir with ideas about artificial intelligence and some familiar Marling/Batmanglij themes of global consciousness. Think of it as “Glass OAnion.”The detective here is a relative newcomer. Darby Hart (Emma Corrin), an intense young computer hacker, tracked down a serial killer with Bill Farrah (Harris Dickinson), a moody amateur investigator she met online and fell in love with. Her true-crime memoir earns her some literary notice, as well as an invitation from Andy Ronson (Clive Owen), a tech magnate who is convening a meeting of “original thinkers” — artists, entrepreneurs, an astronaut — at a sleek, remote hotel that he had built in Iceland.The purpose of this Arctic TED Talk is, ostensibly, to cogitate on the existential threat of climate change to humanity. Andy, however, has another intelligence at his disposal — an advanced A.I. called “Ray” that manifests in the holographic form of a neatly goateed man in black (Edoardo Ballerini). Andy believes in the transformative power of this technology and others, but transformative to and for whom?Darby questions whether and why she fits in with the luminaries at the gathering. But she accepts the invitation for the chance to meet a tech idol: Not Andy, but his wife, Lee Andersen (Marling), a renowned coder who dropped out of public life after a Gamergate-style harassment campaign and lives in seclusion with Andy and their young son (Kellan Tetlow).But another guest grabs Darby’s attention: Bill, now a famous artist, whom she has not seen since a falling-out at the end of their investigation. Before they have time to catch up — don’t say the title didn’t warn you — somebody turns up dead, and Darby’s wiring for suspicion kicks in.Misogyny and technology are the twin themes of “A Murder.” Darby was drawn into the serial-killer case by her talent for hacking and her empathy for forgotten female victims. A common theme of her investigations is how little credibility she is granted as a young woman. When she pulls her hoodie over her head, yes, it is a universal visual symbol for “hacker,” but she also might as well be drawing an invisibility cloak.Then there’s A.I., which pervades the story like it does Andy’s icy retreat. In some cases technological reality has moved faster than the TV production process. A scene in which Ray produces a Harry Potter story in the voice of Ernest Hemingway astonishes the guests, for instance, but you’ve likely seen a dozen similar examples over the past year.Still, “A Murder” has a multifaceted view of A.I., not just as a threat but as a possible helpmeet. On the one hand, Andy is another arrogant billionaire who looks to software to compensate for the deficiencies that annoy him in humans. But the surveillance features built into the retreat’s setting, however creepy, are also a trove of clues. As Darby digs into the mysterious death, she finds herself using Ray as a source and even an aide — part Sherlock Holmes’s Watson, part IBM’s.The present-day whodunit isn’t especially inventive, but Corrin carries the story with a nervy, febrile performance that invests Darby with the life that the dialogue sometimes fails to provide. And the series has atmosphere to spare, making the most of the stark volcanic beauty of its location in Iceland. (It also shot in Utah and New Jersey.)The flashbacks to Darby and Bill’s serial-killer chase, which take up much of the seven episodes, are emotional and involving; Dickinson gives Bill an open-wound vulnerability. But rather than adding resonance to the whole, these scenes end up outshining the long, talky story they’re meant to flesh out.“A Murder,” in its main arc, feels like a bit of an artificial life form itself. The blandly drawn retreat guests get no more than a stroke or two of characterization and are weighted with self-serious dialogue. Andy mostly plays to bullying tech-mogul type. And while Marling always uses her enigmatic air as a performer to good advantage, Lee is more of a riddle — how did a coding revolutionary become a tech tradwife? — than a rounded character.Marling and Batmanglij’s work has often been more about the delivery of ideas and intangibles than plotting or naturalism, however. At its best, “A Murder” has grandeur, chilly beauty and intellectual adventurousness (and it pulls off a satisfying final twist). It might have been more effective if, as with so many limited series lately, it were tighter and shorter. In this sense, technology is the culprit: Streaming-TV bloat has its fingerprints all over this case. More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘BlackBerry’ and ‘Jay-Z and Gayle King: Brooklyn’s Own’

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      AMC airs its original program in three parts. And Gayle King interviews Jay-Z on CBS.With network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Nov. 13-19. Details and times are subject to change.MondayLOVE HAS WON: THE CULT OF MOTHER GOD 9 p.m. on HBO. On April 28, 2021, police searched a house in Moffat, Colo., where they had gotten reports of a dead body. The remains they found belonged to Amy Carlson, a livestreamer and leader of a group called “Love Has Won.” Carlson and her followers believed that she was a reincarnation of Jesus, Cleopatra and Joan of Arc, among others, and referred to her as Mother God. The coroner reported that her cause of death was a combination of alcohol abuse, anorexia and chronic colloidal silver ingestion, which she sold as supplements. This three-part documentary series interviews former cult members, including her partner, who calls himself Father God.BLACKBERRY 10 p.m. on AMC. This film, which originally had a limited release in Canadian and U.S. theaters, is coming to small screens after the filmmaker Matt Johnson reworked it into a three-episode limited series with 16 minutes of previously unseen footage added. “BlackBerry” is scripted and fictional, but shot like a docu-series, looking behind the scenes of the company that created the BlackBerry pagers, personal digital assistants and cellphones. It stars Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton and Johnson.TuesdayFrom left: William McInnes, Mavournee Hazel and Olivia Swann in “NCIS: Sydney.”Daniel Asher Smith/Paramount+NCIS: SYDNEY 8 p.m. on CBS. This spinoff in the extremely popular “NCIS” universe was originally meant to air only in Australia — but after other American-based NCIS franchise series had their release dates delayed to 2024 because of strikes by the Hollywood writers and actors unions, the network decided to air the Australian show here as well. It centers on a joint task force of U.S. NCIS agents and the Australian Federal Police working to uncover naval crimes.JAY-Z AND GAYLE KING: BROOKLYN’S OWN 9 p.m. on CBS. Jay-Z, the famously private rapper, sat down with the interviewer Gayle King for three hours in conjunction with the opening of “Book of HOV,” billed as a tribute exhibition, at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The exhibition follows him from his Brooklyn childhood to stardom and devotes attention to each of his releases as well as to his philanthropic work and to artifacts from his life. Though some of this interview aired on CBS in October, this special features longer excerpts from the interview and portions never aired before.WednesdayDaniel Radcliffe and David Holmes in “David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived.”via HBODAVID HOLMES: THE BOY WHO LIVED (2023) 9 p.m. on HBO. While David Holmes was working on “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” as Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double, his neck was broken in an on-set accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Through it all, his friendship with Radcliffe continued. This documentary contains interviews with Holmes, Radcliffe, friends and family about how Holmes overcame his injury and adjusted to life after the accident.ThursdayCREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) 8 p.m. on TCM. While now we have “Saw,” “Hereditary” and “A Quiet Place” as modern-day horror films, this one is a classic. When a group of scientists treks to the Amazon rainforest to try to capture and study a jungle-dwelling prehistoric beast, all hell breaks loose.THE BLOB (1958) 9:30 p.m. on TCM. If the creature from the lagoon doesn’t raise the hairs on the back of your neck, you can scream in terror as you watch a giant blob of jelly from another planet consume everything in its path. “One thing you can count on with ‘The Blob,’” Howard Thompson wrote in his review for The New York Times, “goo galore.” (My father made me watch this movie when I was way too young and I probably haven’t been the same since.)FridayNATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION 8 p.m. on TBS. It seems like this year while some of us are still buying festive fall decorations and pinning recipes for creative Thanksgiving sides, TV has decided to skip right to Christmas. If you’re ready to indulge, this winter favorite is already on the schedule. Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo, at the helm of the Griswold family Christmas planning, see their arrangements go awry when a long lost country cousin shows up with his family that needs a place to live.SaturdayFrom left: Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Judy Garland and Bert Lahr in “The Wizard of Oz.”Everett CollectionTHE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) 8:45 p.m. on TBS. “We’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz!” In this essential movie, the magic begins when a tornado picks up Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog, Toto, from Kansas and drops them in Oz. There, she meets all sorts of colorful and often frightening characters and teams up with the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), who wishes for a brain, the Tin Man (Jack Haley), who longs for a heart and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), who desperately needs courage, for a perilous journey up the yellow brick road to Emerald City in the hope of asking the wizard to grant all their wishes.SundayANNIKA 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). This show about the Glasgow Marine Homicide Unit, starring Nicola Walker in the title role, is wrapping up its second season this week. In the six new episodes, the team investigates more complicated murders that metaphorically — and literally — wash up on the shores of Scotland. More

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      Peter S. Fischer, Who Helped Create ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ Dies at 88

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      He spent many years as a writer and producer of the hit mystery series starring Angela Lansbury. He later wrote his own mystery novels, set in Hollywood.Peter S. Fischer, a creator, writer and producer of “Murder, She Wrote,” the long-running television series that starred Angela Lansbury as a mystery novelist and amateur sleuth, died on Oct. 30 in Pacific Grove, Calif. He was 88.His death, at a care facility, was confirmed by his grandson Jake McElrath, who said he did not know the cause.In 1983, Mr. Fischer and the prolific producers Richard Levinson and William Link pitched CBS on a new series. The three had worked together on “Columbo,” the hit show starring Peter Falk as a rumpled, underestimated police detective, and “Ellery Queen,” with Jim Hutton as a detective who was also an author. This time, their idea was “Blacke’s Magic,” about a magician who solves mysteries.At a meeting with a CBS executive in late 1983, they were told that the network was more interested in a murder mystery series with a female lead. Soon after, Mr. Fischer, he came up with an idea when he watched A Caribbean Mystery,” a CBS-TV movie starring Helen Hayes as Miss Jane Marple, the amateur detective created by Agatha Christie.“Why don’t we meld Miss Marple and Miss Christie into one character, a mystery writer who actually solved murder mysteries using logic, good sense, observations and a twinkly sense of humor that masks the sharp brain lurking beneath a very attractive hairdo?,” Mr. Fischer recalled thinking in his 2013 autobiography, “Me and ‘Murder, She Wrote.’”He came up with the names of both the character, Jessica Fletcher, and the fictional town where she solved murders — Cabot Cove, Maine.But they needed a star. Jean Stapleton, who had portrayed the saintly, ditsy Edith Bunker on “All in the Family,” turned them down. Then they heard that Ms. Lansbury, who was renowned for her work in Broadway shows like “Sweeney Todd” and films like “The Manchurian Candidate,” was willing to star in a TV series. She signed on.Ms. Lansbury with Erin Moran and Tom Bosley in a scene from a 1986 episode of “Murder, She Wrote.”Everett CollectionThe series was an immediate hit and lasted 12 seasons. Mr. Fischer wrote a few dozen episodes and was the executive producer from 1984 to 1991. He shared nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding dramatic series three times and won the Golden Globe Award for best drama series twice. In 1985, Mr. Fischer won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the “Murder, She Wrote” episode “Deadly Lady.”“Peter was a very good showrunner,” Ms. Lansbury, who died last year, told the Television Academy in 1998. “He was really quite brilliant at what he did.”But, she said, “I always wanted to make it appeal to more people and to enlarge our audience even more.”One of the changes she made after succeeding Mr. Fischer as executive producer in 1992, was to move Jessica part time to an apartment in Manhattan, where she taught criminology at a college and tracked down killers in a new location. He disagreed with that decision, but it was no longer his to make.“To throw this over to become a ‘big city woman’ violated everything I believed about her,” he said in interview with his son Christopher in 2012 after he started writing mystery novels.Mr. Fischer in 2018. He retired from television in the 1990s and later wrote murder mysteries set in postwar Hollywood.Nic Coury/Monterey County WeeklyPeter Stephen Fischer was born on Aug. 10, 1935, in Queens. His father, Paul, worked for Johnnie Walker, the Scotch whisky maker. His mother, Dorothy (Sullivan) Fischer, was a homemaker.Peter fell in love with reading at a young age and started writing short stories as a boy. He wrote plays in high school and at Johns Hopkins University, where he studied in a department devoted to writing, speech and drama, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1956.He married Lucille Warnock in 1957.Mr. Fischer did not become a full-time writer right away; instead he made a living in direct mail, as an insurance investigator and as a trade magazine editor. He also published a monthly magazine, Sports Car News, out of his house in Smithtown, N.Y., on Long Island.At 35, he got his screenwriting break. He had written a script about a dystopian future in which couples are permitted only one child and people over 65 are denied medical care. With help from his brother, Geoffrey, a casting director at Universal Television, the script found its way to the producer Aaron Spelling and was made into an ABC movie, “The Last Child” (1971), with Michael Cole and Janet Margolin as a couple who are willing to defy the law to have a second child after the death of their firstborn.He then wrote episodes of several Universal series, including “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” “Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law,” “Kojak,” “Baretta” and “Columbo,” for which he also worked as a story editor.Three shows Mr. Fischer created or co-created had short runs: “The Eddie Capra Mysteries” (1978), starring Vincent Baggetta as a lawyer; “The Law & Harry McGraw” (1987), a spinoff of “Murder, She Wrote” starring Jerry Orbach as a private investigator; and “Blacke’s Magic” (1986), starring Hal Linden — the collaboration with Mr. Link and Mr. Levinson that CBS did not want. (It ended up on NBC.)In addition to his grandson, Mr. Fischer is survived by his daughter, Megan McElrath; four other grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; his half sisters, Paula Shorts and Stephanie Donnelly; and his half brother, Stephen Fischer. His wife died in 2017. His sons also died before him — Stephen in 2014, Christopher in 2020.Mr. Fischer retired from television in the 1990s. He recast himself a decade ago as a murder mystery writer. He self-published more than 20 books set in postwar Hollywood, with a studio press agent as the sleuth and real movies as backdrops.“He loved old movies,” Ms. McElrath, his daughter, said by phone. “So he came up with this idea of a Jessica Fletcher-like character who’s not in law enforcement but finds himself tripping over all these murders.” More

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      Lara Parker, a Memorable Witch on ‘Dark Shadows,’ Dies at 84

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      Her three-dimensional portrayal of a character who was also a vampire helped the Gothic soap opera develop a cult following.Lara Parker, who found small-screen fame in the 1960s and ’70s as a beguiling and vengeful witch on the popular Gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows,” died on Oct. 12 at her home in Topanga, Calif. She was 84.The cause was cancer, said Kathryn Leigh Scott, a friend and fellow “Dark Shadows” actress.“Dark Shadows,” seen daily on ABC from 1966 to 1971, was a departure from standard soap opera fare, blending romantic intrigue with horror and science fiction. The show chronicled a wealthy and eccentric Maine family dealing with the usual soap melodramas — but also time travel, ghosts, werewolves and vampires.With her icy beauty and elegant demeanor, Ms. Parker proved coolly seductive in her primary role among several on the show, Angelique, an 18th-century servant girl and witch who puts a curse on a wealthy shipping scion, Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) after he spurns her for Ms. Scott’s character, Josette, turning him into a vampire and dooming the two to carry on a tempestuous cycle of passion and revenge as they time-hop through history.Despite the pulpy premise, Ms. Parker brought a complexity to her role. “I played her as somebody who was much more of a tragic figure, who was desperately, desperately in love,” she said in a 2016 interview with Den of Geek, a pop culture website.In doing so, Ms. Parker, whose character also dabbled in vampirism, and Mr. Frid helped expand the two-dimensional portrayals of vampires and witches seen in old Hollywood B-movies.“When you’re invited into someone’s living room in a show that is essentially bodice-ripping horror, you have to make yourself palatable to the household, which in those days mostly meant housewives and children,” Ms. Scott said in a phone interview. “Lara and Jonathan did that by bringing a dimension of vulnerability, so you cared about the characters as people, not just evil forces. In that way, ‘Dark Shadows’ was really the granddaddy for all contemporary vampire films.”As the show grew in popularity, Ms. Parker found herself continually recognized by loyal viewers on the streets — although not always in ways she expected. “I used to get on the subway platform when school let out at 3:15 in the afternoon,” Ms. Parker said during a television appearance in the early 1990s, “and instead of the fans coming up and asking for an autograph, they would run.”Ms. Parker brought a complexity to her portrayal of Angelique. She played the character, she said, as someone “who was desperately, desperately in love.”Everett CollectionLara Parker was born Mary Lamar Rickey on Oct. 27, 1938, in Knoxville, Tenn., to Albert and Anne (Heiskell) Rickey. Her lineage included the Confederate general James Longstreet and L.Q.C. Lamar, a Mississippi statesman who achieved a national profile as a congressman, senator and Supreme Court justice after the Civil War.Ms. Parker, who went by the name Lamar, grew up in Memphis, where she attended Central High School, and eventually earned a scholarship to Vassar College, where she studied philosophy, before transferring to Southwestern (now Rhodes College) in Memphis.She later studied speech and drama in a master’s program at the University of Iowa and had several lead roles at a repertory theater in Pennsylvania before moving to New York City. Within two weeks, she was in the cast of “Dark Shadows.”After the show went off the air, Ms. Parker moved to Los Angeles, where she turned her attention to prime-time television, appearing on “Hawaii 5-0,” “Kung Fu,” “Baretta,” “The Incredible Hulk” and other shows, as well as several television movies. She also had a powerful, if brief, role as a prostitute who tries to revive a client after he has a heart attack in the 1973 feature film “Save the Tiger,” for which Jack Lemmon won the Academy Award for best actor.Still, Ms. Parker’s relationship with the show that made her famous was far from over: “Dark Shadows” become an enduring cult favorite to new generations of horror fans, and Ms. Parker fed their obsession after turning her attention to writing. In 1998, she published “Dark Shadows: Angelique’s Descent,” the first of her four novels inspired by the show, which chronicled the early life of her character.She also helped revive the show on the big screen, appearing, along with her former co-stars Ms. Scott, Mr. Frid and David Selby, in a cameo role in the 2012 feature-film version of “Dark Shadows,” directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas, with Eva Green as Angelique.Ms. Parker’s survivors include her husband, Jim Hawkins; two sons, Rick and Andy Parker; a daughter, Caitlin Hawkins; and a grandson.In the years following her breakout role, Ms. Parker discussed the significance of the show, which in her view helped modernize — and sexualize — the vampire figure in the years before “Twilight.” To her, this seemed only natural.“The bite itself is like the act of sex,” she once said. “There is penetration, and there is pleasure and there is abandonment.”“The story of the vampire goes back to before the Egyptians, before the Greeks, and exists in every single culture,” she added. “Why is it so widespread? Not because it’s true, but because it contains the truth of our fears and our desires.” More

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      Late Night on the GOP Debate

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      “Oh, yeah, there was name-calling, wild rants and personal attacks. Even Trump was watching like, ‘Game recognize game,’” Jimmy Fallon said of the event.Welcome 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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.‘Game Recognize Game’The third Republican presidential debate took place on Wednesday, with five G.O.P. hopefuls taking the stage in Miami.On Thursday, late-night hosts weighed in on the debate, which Jimmy Fallon said was “being described as ‘unhinged.’”“Oh, yeah, there was name-calling, wild rants and personal attacks. Even Trump was watching like, ‘Game recognize game,’” Fallon joked.“Yeah, it was vicious. At one point, Lester Holt was like, ‘We interrupt this debate with a Real Housewives reunion already in progress.’” — JIMMY FALLON“During last night’s debate, Vivek Ramaswamy criticized Nikki Haley’s foreign policy views and said she was ‘Dick Cheney in three-inch heels.’ ‘Hey, I’m right here,’ said Ron DeSantis.” — SETH MEYERS“During the two-hour debate, Nikki Haley got the most questions, Tim Scott spoke the longest, and Ron DeSantis spoke the [cough] shortest.” — JIMMY FALLONOn “The Daily Show,” the guest host Sarah Silverman pointed to Vivek Ramaswamy’s disparaging comments about Nikki Haley’s daughter’s use of TikTok, calling him “really annoying.”“I mean, Nikki Haley was America’s top diplomat at the United Nations. She literally kept her cool with the worst dictators in the world, and eight minutes onstage with Vivek, and she’s like, ‘You are scum!’” — SARAH SILVERMAN“Ramaswamy elicited a reaction from me that I thought was impossible when he said, ‘You might want to take care of your family first.’ I actually thought, ‘Donald Trump would never!’ No, I’m kidding, of course he would.” — SETH MEYERS“He is so insufferable. He should just lean into it, you know? He should say, ‘Make me president so I can annoy our enemies for America.’ Like, he’ll have one meeting with Vladimir Putin, and 20 minutes later Putin will mysteriously kill himself.” — SARAH SILVERMAN“Then, the moderator tried to calm things down. He was like, ‘Nikki, Vivek, remember, none of you are going to be president.’” — JIMMY FALLONMerry Christmas, the Strike is OverSAG-AFTRA reached a tentative deal with studios on Wednesday, allowing Hollywood actors to return to work after 118 days. Jimmy Kimmel thanked viewers for “Take Your Actor Back to Work Day.”“One member of the actors’ negotiating committee said that there were ‘tears of exhilaration and joy’ in the room after the deal was approved, and it only took them a few takes. It was very realistic.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It is a big night: the S.A.G. strike is over. Which means Hollywood can finally get back to what they do best: turning your children gay.” — SARAH SILVERMAN“The strike is over! So, tune in tomorrow when my guests will be everyone.” — JIMMY FALLON“When the actors heard a deal had been reached, they gasped, screamed, laughed, cried, and then were like ‘I also do accents.’” — JIMMY FALLON“The Hallmark Channel immediately started shooting all 1,200 of its Christmas movies this morning.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Tim Scott’s Girlfriend Edition)“Politico published an article today after last night’s debate titled, ‘Tim Scott’s Girlfriend Is, in Fact, Real.’ However, jury’s still out on Tim Scott.” — SETH MEYERS“For a while now, Tim Scott has claimed to have a girlfriend, but no one has ever seen her, and donors have been worried it’s hurting him in the race so, after the debate he brought her up onstage. Yeah, when asked how they met, she was like, ‘I was his Uber driver on the way over.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Aw, that’s so sweet! Man, you look for love your whole life, and you finally find it with a respectable-looking woman just two months before the Iowa caucus. I mean, what are the odds?” — SARAH SILVERMAN“He really should have just proposed right there, got down on one knee, like, ‘Mindy, would you make my campaign manager the happiest man alive?’” — SARAH SILVERMAN“It’s just too bad for Tim that he had to get this nonunion actor to play his girlfriend. I mean, if he had waited one more day for the strike to end, he could have gotten a professional actor fake girlfriend.” — SARAH SILVERMAN“It’s a smart move by Tim Scott. He’s never going to be president, but at least people will know that he has a fake girlfriend, so that’s good: ‘She lives in Canada, you guys don’t know her.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingThe drag star Trixie Mattel read to a group of unimpressed children from Sen. Ted Cruz’s new book, “Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America,” on Thursday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This OutWritten and directed by the philosopher and activist Paul B. Preciado, the movie “Orlando, My Political Biography” draws inspiration from a Virginia Woolf novel.Sideshow and Janus FilmsIn Paul B. Preciado’s film, “Orlando, My Political Biography,” the Spanish-born philosopher and activist shared the title role with 20 trans and nonbinary performers to make a point about identity. More

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      Late Night Mocks the GOP Debate

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      Kimmel called the five candidates in the latest G.O.P. face-off “a Who’s Who of who has no chance to beat Donald Trump.”Welcome 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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Not-So-Heated DebateThe third Republican debate aired on Wednesday night without the participation of the front-runner, former President Donald Trump.Jimmy Kimmel predicted that no one would tune in, saying, “The GOP ‘dopefuls’ were just happy to be on television.”“Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott — it’s a Who’s Who of who has no chance to beat Donald Trump.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It was quite a night. There were five candidates onstage, three moderators asking questions, and two people watching at home.” — JIMMY FALLON“Putting the Republican debate on opposite the C.M.A. awards — it makes no sense. It’s like putting lasagna up against a Swedish meatball.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“But for these five Republicans, the stakes were higher than the lifts in a pair of Ron DeSantis’s boots.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Whatever you think about Trump, Republican debates are kind of meaningless without him. It’s like a football game without Taylor Swift.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Surprising Election Results Edition)“Well, guys, yesterday was Election Day, and despite some recent polls that show former President Trump leading President Biden, Democrats had a surprisingly strong night. Yep, Republicans were like, ‘How is that possible?’ and Democrats were like, ‘No, seriously, how is that possible?’” — JIMMY FALLON“Yep, Democrats had a strong night in Republican-leaning states like Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia. It’s odd — it’s like hearing BTS swept every category at tonight’s Country Music Awards.” — JIMMY FALLON“You’re telling me Trump, the guy who stocked the Supreme Court with ’80s movie villains with the explicit goal of overturning Roe v. Wade, is leading the polls in Ohio, where voters just overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to protect abortion rights? This makes so little sense, even Steve Kornacki’s big board last night said ‘I give up.’” — SETH MEYERS“Yep, yesterday Americans went to the polls, and today we’re learning a lot about the new ballot measures each state approved. They’re pretty interesting. For instance, Ohio voted to legalize marijuana. Meanwhile, Indiana voted to enjoy the contact high from Ohio.” — JIMMY FALLON“The fact is, abortion limits have become such a losing issue that some conservatives have purportedly decided the problem isn’t pro-life policies but the phrase ‘pro-life.’ They’re looking to rebrand it but, personally, I think they should be forced to carry this phrase to term.” — SARAH SILVERMAN, guest host of “The Daily Show”The Bits Worth WatchingThe Grammy-winning Americana artist Margo Price, on Wednesday’s “Daily Show,” talked about writing her album “Strays” while on mushrooms.What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightHilary Duff will chat with Seth Meyers about her new children’s book, “My Little Sweet Boy,” on Thursday’s “Late Night.”Also, Check This OutMs. Hill, center, with members of the Rollettes, at a dance rehearsal in North Hollywood.Magdalena Wosinska for The New York TimesThe champion dancer and choreographer Chelsie Hill has changed lives and shaped careers with the Rollettes, a Los Angeles-based dance team for women who use wheelchairs. More