AT PRIMETIME EMMYS, MAD MEN GOES 0-17

On a night of shockers at the Emmy Awards, the biggest one may not have been that Mad Men was passed over for best dramatic series — it had won the trophy four previous years — but that the series didn’t win a single award. Those connected with the series, as well as the series […]

PHYLLIS DILLER DEAD AT 95

Veteran comedian Phyllis Diller, a onetime housewife who made her TV debut as a contestant on Groucho Marx’s quiz show in the early 1950s and went on to make dozens, if not hundreds, of TV and film appearances over more than half a century, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 95. The […]

BILLY CRYSTAL WILL HOST THE OSCARS AGAIN

Acting with fast-forward speed, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has struck a deal with Billy Crystal to bring him back for a ninth time to host the Oscars. “Am doing the Oscars so the young woman in the pharmacy will stop asking my name when I pick up my prescriptions. Looking forward […]

GILLIGANS ISLAND, BRADY BUNCH CREATOR SCHWARTZ DEAD AT 94

Sherwood Schwartz, who began his career as a comedy writer for Bob Hope on radio and spent seven years in the ’50s and ’60s as head writer for Red Skelton before creating two of television’s most enduring sitcoms, Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 94. Both […]

CRITICS ON 83RD OSCARS: SAME OLD, SAME OLD

One would be hard-pressed to blame Deadline.com’s Nikki Finke’s early release of the full run-down of Sunday night’s Oscar telecast for the fact that not a single surprise materialized during the entire show. “Predictable” was the description used by many TV columnists in their assessment of the affair. Virtually all of the favorites won: best […]