RIP Charles Grodin

Charles Grodin was a megastar in my household when I was a kid. Among the most rewatched taped-off-the-TV-onto VHS films I watched through the late 80s into the 90s were Taking Care of Business, Dave, Beethoven, King Kong (1976), So I Married an Axe Murderer, and The Great Muppet Caper. Later in life, I came to love his turns in films like The Lonely Guy and The Incredible Shrinking Woman. He was also one heck of a delightfully cranky, irascible guest on Letterman (it was all schtick).

He died at the age of 86 in his Connecticut home, the result of bone marrow cancer.

With a great sense of deadpan comedy and the kind of Everyman good looks that lend themselves to playing businessmen or curmudgeonly fathers, Mr. Grodin found plenty of work as a supporting player and the occasional lead. He also had his own talk show for a time in the 1990s and was a frequent guest on the talk shows of others, making 36 appearances on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and 17 on “Late Night With David Letterman.”

The New York Times is still putting his obituary together, which you can read HERE.

Amazon Video invests down under

Yesterday Amazon Prime Video announced seven productions to be produced in Australia. There's some interesting-sounding productions in the list released, but the one that caught my attention is Class of 07. What a premise!

When an apocalyptic tidal wave hits during the ten-year reunion of an all-girls high school, a group of women must find a way to survive on the island peak of their high school campus. Like Lord of the Flies (in cocktail dresses), the series follows a group of former classmates, now freshly entangled in decade-old drama, as they attempt to survive not just the apocalypse but each other.

This is from writer-director Kacie Anning. I cannot wait to check this one out.

TeeVee Snack

Happy 90th birthday, Robert Morse. He's the man who reminded us that the moon belongs to everyone.

Happy 90th Birthday to the amazing Bobby Morse! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/VNZauDZsX8
— Larry Karaszewski (@Karaszewski) May 18, 2021

Selfie fail on live TV

You'll want to scroll about 50 seconds into this clip...

Sinead O'Connor on THAT Saturday Night Live appearance

In the 90's Irish singer Sinead O'Connor performed on SNL where she famously tore a picture of the Pope on live TV as a protest against abuse in the Catholic Church. Her career was never the same after that, to put it politely.

She has a book out and is now talking about the incident:

“I’m not sorry I did it. It was brilliant,” she said of her protest against abuse in the Catholic Church. “But it was very traumatizing,” she added. “It was open season on treating me like a crazy bitch.”

Read: NYT

Curse of The Chippendales

Discovery+ has announced a four-part series Curse of the Chippendales - a true crime documentary series about the behind the scenes drama of the live stage show from the 80s.

Here's the official blurb:

The Chippendales achieved a coveted and rare goal: becoming an iconic, household name around the world. Their trademark style of barely-there costumes briefly sported by perfectly-chiseled men would be forever recognized, often emulated, and famously parodied. Their brand became a multi-million-dollar global venture, successful beyond their wildest dreams. But of three unlikely dreamers who were there at the beginning, only one would make it out alive.

There's also a very good podcast series that released its final episode called Welcome To Your Fantasy from Pineapple Street Studios that tracks this same story.