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      What’s on TV This Week: CMA Fest and ‘Becoming Elizabeth’

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      ABC airs footage from the 2022 CMA Fest. And a period drama on Starz wraps up its first season.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, Aug. 1-7. Details and times are subject to change.MondayCAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016) 7 p.m. on TNT. Usually the Avengers work together to fight against alien armies or a supervillain warlord trying to decimate the planet. But in this movie, Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) make it personal and battle over political beliefs: Captain America thinks that superheroes should operate without interference, but Iron Man wants the government to be involved. A.O. Scott called it a “very crowded, reasonably enjoyable installment in the Avengers cycle” in his review for The New York Times. “The best part of the movie,” Scott wrote, “is a six-on-six rumble at an airport, in which two teams of costumed co-workers, with a few ringers in the mix, face off to work out their issues.” The battle, he said, “is entertaining precisely because the stakes are relatively low.”TuesdayTian Richards in “Tom Swift.”Fernando Decillis/The CWTOM SWIFT 9 p.m. on CW. This mystery show, named after the long-running series of young adult books that inspired it, ends this week after just one season. It has followed the title character, played by Tian Richards, as he sifts through conspiracy theories and mysterious phenomena to solve the disappearance of his father with the help of his best friend (Ashleigh Murray), his bodyguard (Marquise Vilson) and his A.I. companion (LeVar Burton).EDGE OF THE EARTH 9 p.m. on HBO. Skiers, kayakers, climbers and surfers show off their skills and put themselves to the test by completing near-impossible challenges around the world in this four-part documentary mini-series. The first three episodes featured skiing in Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park; kayaking in the Chalupas River in Ecuador; and climbing around Pik Slesova in Kyrgyzstan. The final installment, airing Tuesday, brings the surfers Ian Walsh and Grant Baker (known as Twiggy) to Africa’s western coast.WednesdayCMA FEST 8 p.m. on ABC. This music festival that took place at Nissan Stadium in Nashville in early June comes to small screens, with footage of select performances airing on Wednesday. Elle King and Dierks Bentley, who previously worked together on the songs “Worth a Shot” and “Different for Girls,” host the three-hour broadcast. It will feature performances from Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Luke Combs, Thomas Rhett and others, as well as collaborations between Bentley and Billy Ray Cyrus; Wynonna Judd and Carly Pearce; Zac Brown Band with Darius Rucker; and more.ThursdayFrom left, James Murray, Sal Vulcano and Brian Quinn in “Impractical Jokers.”truTVIMPRACTICAL JOKERS 10 p.m. on TruTV. The ninth season of this long-running prank show has not been without speed bumps: Production had to adhere to Covid-19 protocols, which required the show to rethink its entire format — instead of going up to strangers in public places, they rent out locations and film over longer periods of time. Since Joe Gatto, one of the series’s founders, abruptly stopped appearing on the show earlier this year, it has brought in celebrity guests including Jillian Bell, Adam Pally and Colin Jost. Brooke Shields will join for this week’s season finale.FridayAN ORSON WELLES MARATHON from 2 p.m. on TCM. See the varied talents of Orson Welles — as a director, actor and screenwriter — in this lineup of classics. The marathon starts off at 2 p.m. with THE STRANGER (1946), followed by MR. ARKADIN (1955) at 4 — both of which Welles directed, starred in and wrote. Then, OTHELLO (1952) — which Welles acted in and directed — airs at 6, followed by THE THIRD MAN (1949), directed by Carol Reed, which Welles acted in and was a writer of. THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948) follows at 10, with CITIZEN KANE (1941) at 11:45.THE INN AT LITTLE WASHINGTON: A DELICIOUS DOCUMENTARY (2020) 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). A fight for three Michelin stars, an old garage converted into an inn and a seasoned chef: This documentary follows the cook Patrick O’Connell as he plans the 40th anniversary celebration for the Inn at Little Washington, a quaint hotel and restaurant that he founded in 1978. The documentary shows the execution of many of O’Connell’s culinary creations and discusses the tumultuous history of the inn.SaturdayROMAN HOLIDAY (1953) 8 p.m. on TCM. Audrey Hepburn was only 24 when this romantic comedy was released, and it turned out to be her breakout movie. The story follows a European princess, Ann (Hepburn), who takes a night off from her overwhelming life. Instead of having an enjoyable night out, things go awry and she is rescued by Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), an American reporter. A love story begins, despite Bradley’s intentions to take advantage of the princess’s fame.SundayFrom left, Alicia von Rittberg, Romola Garai and Oliver Zetterström in “Becoming Elizabeth.”StarzBECOMING ELIZABETH 8 p.m. on Starz. In 1547, Queen Elizabeth I — then known as Elizabeth Tudor — watched her 9-year-old half brother become king after the death of her long-absent father, the infamous King Henry VIII. These are the true circumstances that set off the fictionalized telling of Elizabeth’s teenage years in this series. The show, which ends its first season on Sunday, centers on Elizabeth (Alicia von Rittberg) and her siblings, Mary (Romola Garai) and Edward (Oliver Zetterström), as their personal lives are scrutinized by the royal court and the public.BET SPECIAL: 37TH ANNUAL STELLAR GOSPEL MUSIC AWARDS 8 p.m. on BET. The gospel artists Jekalyn Carr and Kierra Sheard host this awards show, which was recorded live in Atlanta in mid-July. The ceremony features performances by Kirk Franklin, Erica Campbell, Maverick City Music, Marvin Sapp and others. More

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      Pat Carroll, Stage Star Who Voiced Disney’s “Ursula,” Dies at 95

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      Tired of sitcoms and game shows, she reinvented herself in a one-woman show about Gertrude Stein — and, later, in a gender-bending Shakespeare role.Pat Carroll, who after many years on television as the self-described “dowager queen of game shows” went on to earn critical acclaim for her work on the stage, died on Saturday at her home on Cape Cod, Mass. She was 95. Her daughter Kerry Karsian, confirmed the death to The Associated Press. She did not specify the cause.Ms. Carroll broke into television as a sketch comedian in the 1950s and later became a fixture on “Password,” “I’ve Got a Secret” and other game shows. She was also seen frequently on sitcoms like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and dramas like “Police Woman.” But a part she took in 1977, when she was 50, inspired her to change direction.In a 1979 interview with The New York Times, she recalled being cast as Pearl Markowitz, an overly protective mother, on the short-lived comedy “Busting Loose,” and asking herself, “Is this all there is left — playing mothers on TV?”Rather than sinking comfortably into that stereotype, Ms. Carroll provided a bold answer to her own question by commissioning Marty Martin, a young Texas playwright, to write a one-woman play for her about the poet Gertrude Stein.“Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein” opened Off Broadway in 1979 and received glowing reviews. Ms. Carroll won Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards in 1980 for the performance, and in 1981 her recording of the play won a Grammy Award in the “best spoken word” category.“It was the jewel in my crown,” Ms. Carroll said in an interview for this obituary in 2011, recalling how the play came about. “I was recently divorced, I had gained a lot of weight, and the phone was not ringing. It was not the agents’ or directors’ or producers’ fault that the phone was not ringing. I thought, ‘I am responsible for creating some kind of work.’ And I began thinking of people to do.”Ms. Carroll in 1979 in the title role in the Marty Martin play “Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein” at the Circle Repertory Theater. “It was the jewel in my crown,” she said of the play.Gerry GoodsteinA decade later, Ms. Carroll, still looking for challenging work, sought out the role of the conniving, overweight — and, obviously, male — Falstaff in a production of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” in Washington.“When Ms. Carroll makes her first entrance,” Frank Rich wrote in The Times, “a nervous silence falls over the audience at the Shakespeare Theater at the Folger here, as hundreds of eyes search for some trace of the woman they’ve seen in a thousand television reruns. What they find instead is a Falstaff who could have stepped out of a formal painted portrait: a balding, aged knight with scattered tufts of silver hair and whiskers, an enormous belly, pink cheeks and squinting, froggy eyes that peer out through boozy mists. The sight is so eerie you grab onto your seat.”“One realizes,” Mr. Rich continued, “that it is Shakespeare’s character, and not a camp parody, that is being served.”Patricia Ann Carroll was born on May 5, 1927, in Shreveport, La., and grew up in Los Angeles. Her father, Maurice, worked for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; her mother, Kathryn (Meagher) Carroll, worked in real estate and office management.Ms. Carroll attended Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles on an English scholarship but left before graduating. “I realized that what I was learning was not going to advance what I wished to do,” she said in 2011. “I always thought experience was the best preparation.”In 1947, Ms. Carroll left Los Angeles for Plymouth, Mass., where she worked at the Priscilla Beach Theater and, she said, ate, drank and breathed the theater. She made her professional stage debut there that year in “A Goose for the Gander,” starring Gloria Swanson. Soon after, she made it to New York, where, among other odd jobs, she shined shoes.She initially made her mark in the early 1950s as a comedian — first at Le Ruban Bleu, the Village Vanguard and other nightclubs, then on television, on “The Red Buttons Show” and other variety series.She was a regular on the Sid Caesar sketch show “Caesar’s Hour,” for which she won an Emmy in 1957, and, in the early 1960s, on “The Danny Thomas Show,” on which she played the wife of the Thomas character’s manager.Ms. Carroll made the first of her four Broadway appearances in 1955 in “Catch a Star!,” a revue written by Neil and Danny Simon. Her performance did not win the kind of notices that foreshadow stage success: Brooks Atkinson of The Times, for example, wrote that she did not have “a bold enough technique to come alive in the theater.”The response was different in 1959 when she played Hildy, the flirtatious cabdriver who tries to persuade a shy sailor on 24-hour shore leave to come to her apartment with the song “I Can Cook, Too,” in a revival of the Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical “On the Town” at the Carnegie Hall Playhouse. “If the evening has a star,” Arthur Gelb of The Times wrote, “it is Pat Carroll, a blue-eyed blonde with a genius for the deadpan and double take.”Ms. Carroll’s work at the Folger Theater garnered her three Helen Hayes Awards: outstanding lead actress for her roles in “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children” and outstanding supporting actress for her role as the nurse in “Romeo and Juliet.”Ms. Carroll married Lee Karsian, a William Morris agent, in 1955. The couple, who divorced in 1975, had three children: a son, Sean, who died in 2009, and two daughters, Kerry Karsian and Tara Karsian, who survive her. Ms. Carroll played an Appalachian grandmother in the film “Songcatcher.” The role earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination and a jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.James Bridges/Lions Gate FilmsAlthough she spent most of her career on television (where her later work included appearances on “ER” and “Designing Women”) and the stage, Ms. Carroll also had some memorable roles on the big screen. In 1968 she played Doris Day’s sister in “With Six You Get Eggroll.” In 2000 she played an Appalachian grandmother in “Songcatcher,” a role that earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination and a jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.For many of her film and TV performances, Ms. Carroll went unseen: She provided voices for numerous cartoon characters, most notably Ursula, the menacing sea witch, in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” in 1989. That role, she once said, was “the one thing in my life that I’m probably most proud of.”“I don’t even care if, after I’m gone, the only thing that I’m associated with is Ursula,” she added. “That’s OK with me, because that’s a pretty wonderful character and a pretty marvelous film to be remembered by.” More

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      Pat Carroll, TV Mainstay Turned Stage Star, Dies at 95

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      Tired of sitcoms and game shows, she reinvented herself in a one-woman show about Gertrude Stein — and, later, in a gender-bending Shakespeare role.Pat Carroll, who after many years on television as the self-described “dowager queen of game shows” went on to earn critical acclaim for her work on the stage, died on Saturday at her home on Cape Cod, Mass. She was 95. Her daughter Kerry Karsian, confirmed the death to The Associated Press. She did not specify the cause.Ms. Carroll broke into television as a sketch comedian in the 1950s and later became a fixture on “Password,” “I’ve Got a Secret” and other game shows. She was also seen frequently on sitcoms like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and dramas like “Police Woman.” But a part she took in 1977, when she was 50, inspired her to change direction.In a 1979 interview with The New York Times, she recalled being cast as Pearl Markowitz, an overly protective mother, on the short-lived comedy “Busting Loose,” and asking herself, “Is this all there is left — playing mothers on TV?”Rather than sinking comfortably into that stereotype, Ms. Carroll provided a bold answer to her own question by commissioning Marty Martin, a young Texas playwright, to write a one-woman play for her about the poet Gertrude Stein.“Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein” opened Off Broadway in 1979 and received glowing reviews. Ms. Carroll won Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards in 1980 for the performance, and in 1981 her recording of the play won a Grammy Award in the “best spoken word” category.“It was the jewel in my crown,” Ms. Carroll said in an interview for this obituary in 2011, recalling how the play came about. “I was recently divorced, I had gained a lot of weight, and the phone was not ringing. It was not the agents’ or directors’ or producers’ fault that the phone was not ringing. I thought, ‘I am responsible for creating some kind of work.’ And I began thinking of people to do.”Ms. Carroll in 1979 in the title role in the Marty Martin play “Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein” at the Circle Repertory Theater. “It was the jewel in my crown,” she said of the play.Gerry GoodsteinA decade later, Ms. Carroll, still looking for challenging work, sought out the role of the conniving, overweight — and, obviously, male — Falstaff in a production of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” in Washington.“When Ms. Carroll makes her first entrance,” Frank Rich wrote in The Times, “a nervous silence falls over the audience at the Shakespeare Theater at the Folger here, as hundreds of eyes search for some trace of the woman they’ve seen in a thousand television reruns. What they find instead is a Falstaff who could have stepped out of a formal painted portrait: a balding, aged knight with scattered tufts of silver hair and whiskers, an enormous belly, pink cheeks and squinting, froggy eyes that peer out through boozy mists. The sight is so eerie you grab onto your seat.”“One realizes,” Mr. Rich continued, “that it is Shakespeare’s character, and not a camp parody, that is being served.”Patricia Ann Carroll was born on May 5, 1927, in Shreveport, La., and grew up in Los Angeles. Her father, Maurice, worked for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; her mother, Kathryn (Meagher) Carroll, worked in real estate and office management.Ms. Carroll attended Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles on an English scholarship but left before graduating. “I realized that what I was learning was not going to advance what I wished to do,” she said in 2011. “I always thought experience was the best preparation.”In 1947, Ms. Carroll left Los Angeles for Plymouth, Mass., where she worked at the Priscilla Beach Theater and, she said, ate, drank and breathed the theater. She made her professional stage debut there that year in “A Goose for the Gander,” starring Gloria Swanson. Soon after, she made it to New York, where, among other odd jobs, she shined shoes.She initially made her mark in the early 1950s as a comedian — first at Le Ruban Bleu, the Village Vanguard and other nightclubs, then on television, on “The Red Buttons Show” and other variety series.She was a regular on the Sid Caesar sketch show “Caesar’s Hour,” for which she won an Emmy in 1957, and, in the early 1960s, on “The Danny Thomas Show,” on which she played the wife of the Thomas character’s manager.Ms. Carroll made the first of her four Broadway appearances in 1955 in “Catch a Star!,” a revue written by Neil and Danny Simon. Her performance did not win the kind of notices that foreshadow stage success: Brooks Atkinson of The Times, for example, wrote that she did not have “a bold enough technique to come alive in the theater.”The response was different in 1959 when she played Hildy, the flirtatious cabdriver who tries to persuade a shy sailor on 24-hour shore leave to come to her apartment with the song “I Can Cook, Too,” in a revival of the Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical “On the Town” at the Carnegie Hall Playhouse. “If the evening has a star,” Arthur Gelb of The Times wrote, “it is Pat Carroll, a blue-eyed blonde with a genius for the deadpan and double take.”Ms. Carroll’s work at the Folger Theater garnered her three Helen Hayes Awards: outstanding lead actress for her roles in “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children” and outstanding supporting actress for her role as the nurse in “Romeo and Juliet.”Ms. Carroll married Lee Karsian, a William Morris agent, in 1955. The couple, who divorced in 1975, had three children: a son, Sean, who died in 2009, and two daughters, Kerry Karsian and Tara Karsian, who survive her. Ms. Carroll played an Appalachian grandmother in the film “Songcatcher.” The role earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination and a jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.James Bridges/Lions Gate FilmsAlthough she spent most of her career on television (where her later work included appearances on “ER” and “Designing Women”) and the stage, Ms. Carroll also had some memorable roles on the big screen. In 1968 she played Doris Day’s sister in “With Six You Get Eggroll.” In 2000 she played an Appalachian grandmother in “Songcatcher,” a role that earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination and a jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.For many of her film and TV performances, Ms. Carroll went unseen: She provided voices for numerous cartoon characters, most notably Ursula, the menacing sea witch, in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” in 1989. That role, she once said, was “the one thing in my life that I’m probably most proud of.”“I don’t even care if, after I’m gone, the only thing that I’m associated with is Ursula,” she added. “That’s OK with me, because that’s a pretty wonderful character and a pretty marvelous film to be remembered by.” More

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      Nichelle Nichols, Lieutenant Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 89

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      She was among the first Black women to have a leading role in a TV series. She later worked with NASA to recruit minorities for the space program.Nichelle Nichols, the actress revered by “Star Trek” fans everywhere for her role as Lieutenant Uhura, the communications officer on the starship U.S.S. Enterprise, died on Saturday in Silver City, N.M. She was 89.The cause was heart failure, said Sky Conway, a writer and a film producer who was asked by Kyle Johnson, Ms. Nichols’s son, to speak for the family.Ms. Nichols had a long career as an entertainer, beginning as a teenage supper-club singer and dancer in Chicago, her hometown, and later appearing on television.But she will forever be best remembered for her work on “Star Trek,” the cult-inspiring space adventure series that aired from 1966 to 1969 and starred William Shatner as Captain Kirk, the heroic leader of the starship crew; Leonard Nimoy (who died in 2015) as his science officer and adviser, Mr. Spock, an ultralogical humanoid from the planet Vulcan; and DeForest Kelley (who died in 1999) as Dr. McCoy, a.k.a. Bones, the ship’s physician.A striking beauty, Ms. Nichols provided a frisson of sexiness on the bridge of the Enterprise. She was generally clad in a snug red doublet and black tights; Ebony magazine called her the “most heavenly body in ‘Star Trek’” on its 1967 cover. Her role, however, was both substantial and historically significant.Uhura was an officer and a highly educated and well-trained technician who maintained a businesslike demeanor while performing her high-minded duties. Ms. Nichols was among the first Black women to have a leading role on a network television series, making her an anomaly on the small screen, which until that time had rarely depicted Black women in anything other than subservient roles.In a November 1968 episode, during the show’s third and final season, Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura are forced to embrace by the inhabitants of a strange planet, resulting in what is widely thought to be the first interracial kiss in television history.Ms. Nichols’s first appearances on “Star Trek” predated the 1968 sitcom “Julia,” in which Diahann Carroll, playing a widowed mother who works as a nurse, became the first Black woman to star in a non-stereotypical role in a network series.Ms. Nichols and William Shatner on “Star Trek,” sharing what is believed to be the first interracial kiss on television.CBS via Getty Images(A series called “Beulah,” also called “The Beulah Show,” starring Ethel Waters — and later Louise Beavers and Hattie McDaniel — as the maid for a white family, was broadcast on ABC in the early 1950s and subsequently cited by civil rights activists for its demeaning portraits of Black people.)But Uhura’s influence reached far beyond television. In 1977, Ms. Nichols began an association with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, contracting as a representative and speaker to help recruit female and minority candidates for spaceflight training; the following year’s class of astronaut candidates was the first to include women and members of minority groups.In subsequent years, Ms. Nichols made public appearances and recorded public service announcements on behalf of the agency. In 2012, after she was the keynote speaker at the Goddard Space Center during a celebration of African American History Month, a NASA news release about the event lauded her help for the cause of diversity in space exploration.“Nichols’s role as one of television’s first Black characters to be more than just a stereotype and one of the first women in a position of authority (she was fourth in command of the Enterprise) inspired thousands of applications from women and minorities,” the release said. “Among them: Ronald McNair, Frederick Gregory, Judith Resnick, first American woman in space Sally Ride and current NASA administrator Charlie Bolden.”Grace Dell Nichols was born in Robbins, Ill., on Dec. 28, 1932 (some sources give a later year), and grew up in Chicago. Her father was, for a time, the mayor of Robbins, and a chemist. At 13 or 14, tired of being called Gracie by her friends, she requested a different name from her mother, who liked Michelle but suggested Nichelle for the alliteration.She was a ballet dancer as a child and had a singing voice with a naturally wide range — more than four octaves, she later said. While attending Englewood High School, she landed her first professional gig in a revue at the College Inn, a well-known Chicago nightspot.There she was seen by Duke Ellington, who employed her a year or two later with his touring orchestra as a dancer in one of his jazz suites.Ms. Nichols appeared in several musical theater productions around the country during the 1950s. In an interview with the Archive of American Television, she recalled performing at the Playboy Club in New York City while serving as an understudy for Ms. Carroll in the Broadway musical “No Strings” (though she never went on).In 1959, she was a dancer in Otto Preminger’s film version of “Porgy and Bess.” She made her television debut in 1963 in an episode of “The Lieutenant,” a short-lived dramatic series about Marines at Camp Pendleton created by Gene Roddenberry, who went on to create “Star Trek.”Ms. Nichols appeared on other television shows over the years — among them “Peyton Place” (1966), “Head of the Class” (1988) and “Heroes” (2007). She also appeared onstage occasionally in Los Angeles, including in a one-woman show in which she did impressions of, and paid homage to, Black female entertainers who preceded her, including Lena Horne, Pearl Bailey and Eartha Kitt.At the 15th annual “Star Trek” convention in Las Vegas in 2016, Ms. Nichols was the subject of a panel titled “Tribute to Nichelle Nichols.” Gabe Ginsberg/Getty ImagesBut Uhura was to be her legacy: A decade after “Star Trek” went off the air, Ms. Nichols reprised the role in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” and she appeared as Uhura, by then a commander, in five subsequent movie sequels through 1991.Besides a son, her survivors include two sisters, Marian Smothers and Diane Robinson.Ms. Nichols was married and divorced twice. In her 1995 autobiography, “Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories,” she disclosed that she and Roddenberry, who died in 1991, had been romantically involved for a time. In an interview in 2010 for the Archive of American Television, she said that he had little to do with her casting in “Star Trek” but that he defended her when studio executives wanted to replace her.When she took the role of Uhura, Ms. Nichols said, she thought of it as a mere job at the time, valuable as a résumé enhancer; she fully intended to return to the stage, as she wanted a career on Broadway. Indeed, she threatened to leave the show after its first season and submitted her resignation to Roddenberry. He told her to think it over for a few days.In a story she often told, that Saturday night she was a guest at an event in Beverly Hills, Calif. — “I believe it was an N.A.A.C.P. fund-raiser,” she recalled in the Archive interview — where the organizer introduced her to someone he described as “your biggest fan.”“He’s desperate to meet you,” she recalled the organizer saying.The fan, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., introduced himself.“He said, ‘We admire you greatly, you know,’ ” Ms. Nichols said, and she thanked him and told him that she was about to leave the show. “He said, ‘You cannot. You cannot.’”Dr. King told her that her role as a dignified, authoritative figure in a popular show was too important to the cause of civil rights for her to forgo. As Ms. Nichols recalled it, he said, “For the first time, we will be seen on television the way we should be seen every day.”On Monday morning, she returned to Roddenberry’s office and told him what had happened.“And I said, ‘If you still want me to stay, I’ll stay. I have to.’”Eduardo Medina contributed reporting. More

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      Bernard Cribbins, British Actor Known for ‘Doctor Who,’ Is Dead at 93

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      Mr. Cribbins’s long career included roles on stage, film and television.Bernard Cribbins, a British actor who had roles on “Doctor Who” and “Fawlty Towers,” and whose contributions to children’s programs delighted young audiences over a career that spanned seven decades, has died, his agent said on Thursday. He was 93.In a statement, the management and talent agency, Gavin Barker Associates, did not say when or where Mr. Cribbins died.Mr. Cribbins worked well into his 90s, the agency said, in a career that influenced some of the best-known comedy, drama and children’s programs in Britain. He started acting at the age of 14 in the Oldham repertory company. This period of onstage work broadened into other media, including television and film, for which he became widely known, according to IMDB.He was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 2011 for his contributions to the arts. In addition to dozens of roles in film and television, he recorded the 1960s novelty song “Right Said Fred.”For three decades, Mr. Cribbins was regularly featured on “Jackanory,” a BBC children’s program in which an actor read books to young audiences. The program, which ran between 1965 and 1996, was meant to arouse an interest in reading.In one of his more than 100 readings, of “The Wizard of Oz” in 1970, Mr. Cribbins infused the voices of Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Wizard and other characters with a full dramatic repertoire of whispers, tremors and shrieks.When he was awarded a BAFTA Special Award in 2009, he grew serious in an interview when asked about the hugely popular “Jackanory” and how it had influenced young audiences.“All you have to do,” he said, “is look down the lens, find one child, and just talk to that child. And you pull them in.”“It really works, and you think all over the country there will be little kids saying, ‘Just a minute, Mum,’ and they will be looking. And the stories, as I said before, were wonderful,” he said.Mr. Cribbins was born in Oldham, England, just outside Manchester, on Dec. 29, 1928, according to IMDB. After his early stage career, he narrated “The Wombles,” a 1970s animated television program created from a series of books about underground creatures, and joined the cast of the science-fiction TV series “Doctor Who” from 2007 to 2010. He had also appeared in a Doctor Who movie, “Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.,” in 1966.Mr. Cribbins, left, and his co-star David Tennant collected an award for “Doctor Who,” which was named most popular drama at Britain’s National Television Awards in 2010.Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty ImagesIn the TV series, which the producer Russell T Davies revived in 2005, Mr. Cribbins played a recurring role as the grandfather of one of the Doctor’s companions, Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate. In an Instagram post on Thursday, Mr. Davies wrote that Mr. Cribbins “loved being in Doctor Who. He said, ‘Children are calling me grandad in the street!’”Mr. Davies wrote that Mr. Cribbins had once “turned up with a suitcase full of props, just in case, including a rubber chicken.” He added, “He’d phone up and say, ‘I’ve got an idea! What if I attack a Dalek with a paintball gun?!’ Okay, Bernard, in it went!”Mr. Cribbins also starred in the 1970 film “The Railway Children,” based on the children’s book by Edith Nesbit. A review in The New York Times called it “a perfectly lovely little British movie” and said Mr. Cribbins was “excellent” as the stationmaster Albert Perks in a “simple tale about three children who putter around a Yorkshire village, sharing a loving kindness learned at home.”In 1975, Mr. Cribbins appeared in an episode of the comedy series “Fawlty Towers,” starring John Cleese as the hapless manager of a seaside hotel. Mr. Cribbins played a guest mistaken by Mr. Cleese’s character for a hotel inspector, who is trying to order a cheese salad for lunch and instead is served an omelet.A list of survivors was not immediately available. Mr. Cribbins’s wife, the actor Gillian McBarnet, died in October last year.In the interview after receiving the BAFTA award in 2009, Mr. Cribbins and his “Doctor Who” co-star Ms. Tate spoke about how quickly time had gone by during his long career.“I can remember a lot of things with total clarity, total recall,” he said, before adding jokingly, “I’ve got stories I haven’t even thought of yet.” More

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      Stephen Colbert Thinks a New Trump Investigation Has Potential

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      Colbert said he was “potentially very excited” about the Department of Justice’s “potential” investigation into 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.Trump’s Full of ItThe Justice Department, as part of its Jan. 6 investigation, is looking into information about former President Donald Trump’s potential crimes in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.“‘Potential’ fraud? It’s the ‘false-electors scheme’!’” Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday. “You don’t call something a ‘scheme’ and ‘false’ if it’s on the level.”“It is about damn time. At this point, the investigators are like the last person at the office to catch on to a popular TV show: ‘So get this, guys — there are dragons, but they hardly ever show them. There’s lots of nudity. I’m really looking forward to the Red Wedding episode. I’m so happy for Robb Stark. He deserves all the love. Everyone in the family’s going to be there!’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“I am potentially very excited, because all of this is potentially huge, because no former president has ever been charged with a crime in the country’s history. So what? Before John Wayne Gacy, no one ever executed a birthday clown.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Yeah, another investigation, and I don’t know, guys, at this point, I feel like the Justice Department is just going to have to dedicate an entire division to Trump, you know? Just give him his own one. You know, like they’ll have national security division, the civil rights division and the ‘What the hell did Donald Trump do now’ division?” — TREVOR NOAHThe Punchiest Punchlines (Back in Action, Jack Edition)“Well, guys, here’s some good news today. President Biden officially ended his quarantine after testing negative for Covid. That’s right. And now that he’s got a few weeks of immunity, Biden’s about to rage, oooh. ‘[imitating Biden] Jill, we’re having dinner at seven tonight. Oh, yeah.’” — JIMMY FALLON“First of all, President Biden has officially tested negative for Covid and he got his doctor’s approval to come out of isolation. Yes, it’s great. Really is great. It is also the only positive approval he has at the moment, you know. But that’s a start.” — TREVOR NOAH“Yeah, Biden beat Covid, and luckily, Covid conceded gracefully.” — JIMMY FALLON“Even though he tested negative, not that much changes for Biden. He still works from home, avoids crowds, and takes 20 pills a day.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth Watching“The Daily Show” correspondent Ronny Chieng investigated why some Eastern Oregon citizens want to adjust the Idaho border.What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightBilly Porter will appear on Thursday’s “Tonight Show” to talk about his directorial debut with “Anything’s Possible.”Also, Check This OutLauren Ridloff, who became the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first deaf superhero, in “Eternals.”Marvel/DisneyA new study shows that disability representation onscreen is improving but still falls short, especially on television. More

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      Final ‘Jeopardy!’: Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik to Split Hosting Duties

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      The popular game show, which has had trouble finding a new host since Alex Trebek died in 2020, will stick with the hosts who served temporarily this year.For more than a year, there was one question that fans of “Jeopardy!” could never seem to get a clear answer to: Who would succeed its popular longtime host Alex Trebek after his death, becoming the new face of the popular quiz show?First came a rotating cast of temporary hosts — including LeVar Burton, who had a legion of online fans boosting him as the permanent choice, and Mehmet Oz, a celebrity doctor who followed his hosting stint with a bid for U.S. Senate. Then, the show announced its succession plan — its executive producer, Mike Richards, would take over as host during the regular season, while Mayim Bialik would tape prime-time specials. That plan imploded after revelations that Richards had made offensive comments on a podcast.To fill the hosting vacuum, the program then turned to Bialik and to the former champion Ken Jennings, asking them to fill in temporarily and split hosting duties. It was a temporary arrangement that got extended, and on Wednesday, the show made it permanent, opting for the status quo rather than another major shake-up.“I write today with the exciting news that we have closed and signed deals with Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings to be the hosts of ‘Jeopardy!’ moving forward,” the show’s executive producer, Michael Davies, wrote in an announcement posted to the show’s website.The rationale for two hosts, he explained, was the show’s rapidly expanding brand, which includes a “Celebrity Jeopardy!” spinoff and a Second Chance tournament that invites standout contestants back to compete.Read More About ‘Jeopardy!’A New Legend: When Amy Schneider’s 40-game streak ended, she left as the highest-winning woman in the show’s history.Star Players: Schneider’s success is not a one-off. “Jeopardy!” has seen an unusual trend of big winners lately.A Signature Look: Mattea Roach, the show’s most high-profile Gen Zer, has a personal style that reflects her generation and helped make her a star.“The fact is, we have so much ‘Jeopardy!’ to make, and so many plans for the future, that we always knew we would need multiple hosts for the franchise,” Davies wrote.Jennings will be hosting the regular season shows through December, and Bialik will take over in January, according to the announcement.In a gesture to the show’s loyal but vocal fan base, Davies sought to give them some reassurances: “We know you value consistency, so we will not flip-flop the hosts constantly and will keep you informed about the hosting schedule.”The new arrangement makes official the stopgap solution the show hit upon after Richards departed the show last August. The program initially announced that Bialik and Jennings would share the job through the remainder of 2021. Then, in December, the show said the arrangement would continue into 2022.But while the show was struggling to find its footing behind the scenes, it continued to generate excitement — and ratings — with a series of star contestants. Within just one season, four new champions were added to the show’s all-time leaderboard, fueling plenty of theorizing among fans about what was behind the new streak of winning streaks. For a while, the growing celebrity of the winning contestants — including Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio and Mattea Roach — offered a welcome distraction from the lack of clarity around who would become the permanent face of the show.Jennings remains the champion with the highest number of consecutive wins (74) and the highest amount of money won in regular-season games ($2.5 million) in the show’s history. Bialik, who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and is best known for her role as a scientist in the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” has made clear from the beginning that she is interested in getting the job permanently, though she has had to balance it with the demands of her sitcom “Call Me Kat,” and faced criticism for endorsing a “brain health supplement” for a company that settled a lawsuit accusing it of false advertising. Jennings has also received criticism for old social media posts, apologizing for tweeting “unartful and insensitive things” after he was initially revealed as a “Jeopardy!” guest host following Trebek’s death.After Richards’s departure, Davies, a veteran game-show producer who developed the original American version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,” took over temporarily as executive producer — and that job, too, soon became permanent.Under Davies, the show has worked to expand beyond its traditional structure and to cater to its passionate fans, announcing daily statistics for each contestant and, on Wednesday, a new podcast.And there are more specials coming. Bialik will host “Celebrity Jeopardy!,” which debuts on ABC in September, while Jennings will host the first Second Chance Tournament, as well as the upcoming Tournament of Champions. In his announcement, Davies hinted that there could be more spinoffs ahead, noting that Bialik would also host a couple of new tournaments, in addition to the college championship. More

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      Why Brandon Perea’s ‘Nope’ Audition Made Jordan Peele Cry

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      The actor’s unexpected take on Angel, the Fry’s worker, so won over the director that he decided during their meeting to rewrite the script.When Brandon Perea was 15, touring the country as a professional dancer and roller skater, he had an epiphany in the parking lot of a Blue Coast Burrito: He would move from Chicago to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.But dreams rarely account for the rough patches. Perea thought he had it made when, at 20, he booked the series-regular role of student Alfonso Sosa, known as French, on the enigmatic Netflix serial “The OA,” but the show was canceled two seasons into its planned five-year arc.“I had so much confidence where I was like, ‘Oh man, I’m probably going to book a bunch of stuff after this,’” Perea said, though new roles proved elusive. “It’s that weird middle ground where ‘The OA’ was a good, life-changing job, but it’s not a piece on your résumé that’s going to beat out the A-list people that want the great stuff. You’re auditioning just in case they say no, and who the hell is going to say no to something great?”Still, Perea kept plugging away at his dream, and his efforts were rewarded when he scored a breakout role in Jordan Peele’s new film “Nope,” which stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as siblings trying to photograph an extraterrestrial entity looming above their California ranch. Their efforts eventually involve the bleach-blond electronics-store employee Angel, whom Perea has a ball playing: Though Angel appears terminally bored when we meet him, he quickly warms to the brother-sister duo, oversharing about his recent breakup and chatting eagerly about “Ancient Aliens” even as their circumstances grow ever more outlandish.Peele was so pleased with Perea’s work that he beefed up the role during the shoot, and now that “Nope” is out (and No. 1 at the box office), the 27-year-old actor is glad he stuck to his convictions.“I call this the miracle job for a reason — this is a God-given miracle for me, because this is far bigger than what I could ever imagine or dream,” Perea told me last week over Zoom. “To be working in Hollywood is a privilege and it’s tough to keep, so you’ve got to be grateful if you can keep it. If I wasn’t grateful, kick me out.”Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.With Daniel Kaluuya, left, and Keke Palmer in “Nope.” Perea met the film’s stars for the first time during filming. Universal PicturesWhat was going on in your life when you were cast in “Nope”?I hadn’t worked on anything truly significant in a long time, and there were a lot of lows before “Nope.” I got close to a big show — I went in the room three or four times and I just thought, “Oh man, this is it, I’m back” — and then I didn’t get that role. Then there was a really good script, and I felt like I murdered that audition. People I showed the audition to were like, “Oh man, you’re going to book this thing,” and I didn’t end up getting it.But there was a switch for me where I was just like, “You know what? I’m proud at the level that I’m performing at, and someone will trust me someday.” That eased the pressure I put on myself. It was the first time that I came to terms with it so I could move on and not sulk over a job.And then you heard about “Nope”?I got an email for an untitled Jordan Peele project, my first big audition in a long time. I was assuming it’d be a one-liner or something because he’s at the point where he can get any actor in the world to be in his films, but then I saw it was one of the leads. I was like, “Oh my God, he’s seeing auditions for a lead role? That’s insane. I’m going to deliver the best that I can, but what can I do that’s going to be different than everyone else?”So what was your take on the character?The initial audition was just three pages of simple dialogue of this dude working at an electronics store: “Hi, I can help you over here. Would you like an account with us?” It was very happy, very up. And I was like, “Hmm, you don’t see that when you go into an electronics store. The employees do not want to be there.” So, I played it that way, sent the tape off into the universe, and two weeks later I got a callback to meet with Jordan on Zoom.How did you feel?I was excited, humbled, nervous. I was like, “Man, I’m just happy to meet the dude. If I get the role, great, but also, I’m happy with where I got.” But then I had people around me that were like, “No, dog. Ask, believe, receive. This is your job and you’re going to get this.” And my roommate at the time introduced me to some Steve Harvey motivational videos and that really helped, because that got my confidence way up.I went in with this energy that was like, “I’m not here to audition, it’s a work session. I’m going to set. I’m not here to beg for the job.” And I acted like I already knew Jordan, because I had watched so many of his interviews to prep — I was like, “Yo, what’s good, J.P.? How we doing?” Just very comfortable and not like, “Hello, Mr. Peele, how are you?”Perea said the dialogue he was handed for his “Nope” audition depicted Angel as a happy, up worker. “I was like, ‘Hmm, you don’t see that when you go into an electronics store. The employees do not want to be there.’” Victor Llorente for The New York TimesYou were bringing colleague energy rather than fan energy.Yeah, exactly, and after it was over, I was so proud that I cried. I was alone on my couch, just like, “Man, I don’t even care if I get the job, he’ll book me one day.” And two days later, my reps reach out and they’re like, “Hey, are you free for an improv session this afternoon with Jordan?” I go in the Zoom call and Jordan’s like, “The thing is, the character you brought to the table is far different than what I wrote for. So, I need to see you do it some more ways, because I’d have to rewrite my entire script to cast you in this thing.”I’m like, “Damn, I’m probably out of the job.” And he was like, “You know what? That’s what I’m going to do. Yeah, I’m going to rewrite my script.” I was like, “What?” He was like, “Yeah, man. You got the job.” Boom, instant tears. I started going on a whole spiel: “Man, with Hollywood stuff, you get beat down — it’s a roller coaster full of ups and downs. Thank you for trusting me. You go through a million nos to get one yes, and I’d go through a billion to get this one.” And Jordan started crying as well. I remember him removing his glasses just like, “You got me, man, you got me.”That’s the tricky thing about being a working actor, I’d expect: You can continue to deliver knockout auditions, but you never know if you’re exactly what they’re looking for.It took a while, but I’m so glad I didn’t get the other jobs that I thought I needed and wanted so much. “Nope” came along at the perfect time because now I’m here and I’m prepared. There’s a lot of pieces missing that I really had to learn in life, not just as an actor or as an artist.What would have happened if you booked something like this right on the heels of “The OA”?I just wouldn’t have handled success the best, I think. At that time, I probably would have let it steer me away more from the art form just to get some money grabs or a big following. There was a popular TV show I thought I was close to booking, but I think my intentions were in the wrong place, where I was like, “Oh man, I can get a lot of viewers and young people to be on my side.” I wasn’t looking at it like, “I love this character, I really want to deliver in this series.” So I’m glad there was a no on that front, because it’s a very viral show and — —Was it “Euphoria”?Ooh, you guessed it. You’re good. But everything happens for a reason, and I had to learn that.So Jordan cast you. Then what?It was just an emotional roller coaster right after that — like, “Phew, now I have to go do the job and deliver.” And there was so much mystery. There was no synopsis, I had no clue what the hell I was about to do. On the day I got the movie, Jordan sent me a movie list of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Jaws,” “Alien,” “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “No Country for Old Men.” I was like, “OK, this is a random-ass list of movies. What’s he conjuring up? How does all this stuff connect?” And then a little while later, I get a text message from him being like, “Merry Christmas,” and he sent me a link to the script.”I remember reading it, being like, “Oh my gosh, no one’s going to expect this from Jordan.” And I did not know who the cast was, either, but he just started texting me random hints — he sent me “D.K.,” and I was like, “D.K., Daniel Kaluuya?” We’d even had a little conversation about Kaluuya because I took a nugget from watching his YouTube interviews, where a director gave him a note to never play the funny, always play the truth.Perea said he learned he got the job directly from Peele during a meeting. His reaction? “Boom, instant tears.” Victor Llorente for The New York TimesAfter watching so many videos of Daniel Kaluuya, what happens when you’re actually acting opposite him?The first time that we all met in person was the first time that we met on-screen. I was a stranger to him and Keke, and they already had their bond, so I was like, “Let me play this to my advantage. I’m just going to play Angel throughout, then I’ll say what’s up after.” And that’s what we did. The beats are awkward, and I’m challenging Daniel because he’s giving me eyes. I remember hearing him say to Keke, “My eyes see everything.” So I wasn’t breaking eye contact with him — it was hard nose vs. hard nose. I was like, “I’m here with you.”You posted a video of your emotional reaction to seeing the “Nope” billboard for the first time. What does it mean for you to be on those billboards and posters?My intention when I was younger was just, “I want to be on a billboard.” I wasn’t looking at it from a more complex, deeper meaning. But if you really look at the billboard for “Nope” and dissect it, it’s like, “Wow, I’m on a billboard, but I’m a Filipino Puerto Rican kid sharing this poster with Asian representation, Black representation and a Black director in a big spectacle film.” Man, I’m glad it took this long, because now I appreciate this privilege. Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Jordan Peele — I’m working with some of the best to be doing it right now. I am the new kid on the block, so the fact that I get to share a poster with all those people? I’m very grateful that they trusted me. More