Television

Dave Chappelle leaned into the already dubious notion that he’s been “canceled” to promote a run of special screenings for his new documentary, Untitled: Dave Chappelle Documentary Film. Chappelle shared a clip from a recent stand-up appearance on Instagram in which he addressed the ongoing controversy over his jokes about trans people in his recent special, The Closer. He claimed that, because of the backlash, festivals that had previously invited him to show Untitled had since reneged their offers. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dave Chappelle (@davechappelle)...

James Michael Tyler, who portrayed the Rachel Green-obsessed Central Perk barista Gunther on Friends, died Sunday at the age of 59. Variety reports that Tyler died at his Los Angeles home following a diagnosis of stage IV prostate cancer; the actor revealed his diagnosis in June. “The world knew him as Gunther (the seventh “Friend”), from the hit series ‘Friends,’ but Michael’s loved ones knew him as an actor, musician, cancer-awareness advocate, and loving husband,” Tyler’s family said in a statement to TMZ. “Michael loved live music, cheering on his...

A review of this week’s Succession, “Mass in Time of War,” coming up just as soon as these are relevant donuts… A fair amount happens among the broader supporting cast this week. Marcia extracts her pound of flesh in exchange for publicly reconciling with the philandering Logan. Ewan returns to help Cousin Greg hire a new (and extremely anticapitalist) lawyer (Peter Riegert, an HBO vet from The Sopranos and Show Me a Hero). Gerri tries settling into her new role as CEO, even as she’s aware both the title and...

Weekend Update tackled Steve Bannon, Facebook’s name change, Donald Trump’s social network and more on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live. “This week, former White House — I wanna say, garbage man? — Steve Bannon was held in contempt in Congress,” co-anchor Colin Jost said. “But this is what Bannon wants. Just plays into his persecuted messiah complex. Bannon is similar to Jesus in that he looks like he’s been dead for three days.” Jost added, “After weeks of intense media scrutiny, Facebook is planning to change its company...

Joe Rogan defended his friend Dave Chappelle amid the controversy surrounding his new comedy special The Closer on the latest episode of the podcaster’s The Joe Rogan Experience. Chappelle has been accused of being transphobic by the LGBTQ community and the streaming service’s transgender employees over the special, which includes jokes where Chappelle mocked trans peoples’ genitals and proclaimed himself a TERF (a trans-exclusionary radical feminist). However, Rogan said the uproar toward Chappelle is misguided, “He’s not a homophobic or transphobic person. He makes fun of himself.” “Look, it’s fun....

Dave Chappelle appears to be willing, at some point, to discuss his controversial jokes about the LGBTQ+ community in his new Netflix special The Closer. In a statement, a rep for Chappelle said, “Dave stands by his Art. Both sides of the street are talking and Dave is listening. At some point, when everyone is open, I’m sure our communities will come together. As Dave said in his special, ‘No more jokes about transgenders until we can all laugh together.’” The statement arrived after trans employees and allies at Netflix...

Peter Scolari, the actor who starred alongside Tom Hanks in the Eighties sitcom Bosom Buddies and won an Emmy for his work on Girls, has died at the age of 66. Scolari’s rep Ellen Lubin Sanitsky confirmed the actor’s death to Deadline, adding that Scolari died Friday morning following a two-year battle with cancer. The prolific television actor was nominated for four Emmy Awards over a career that spanned six decades: From 1987 to 1989, Scolari was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for the role of...

Before there was Curb Your Enthusiasm, there was the HBO comedy special Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm. Well, if we’re being pedantic, before there was either of those, there was Seinfeld, without which neither version of Curb would have a reason to exist. But back in that 1999 special, Seinfeld‘s co-creator played a lightly fictionalized version of himself, preparing to perform stand-up comedy for the first time since the NBC sitcom had made him incredibly rich and vaguely famous. Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm is fascinating for the ways in...

Halloween is approaching — which means it’s Welcome to the Blumhouse time. A collaboration between Jason Blum’s production company Blumhouse and Amazon Prime, these collaborations consists of two double features, courtesy of four different directors, all under one branded umbrella. The inaugural quartet dropped in October 2020; the second edition was released over two weekends earlier this month. It’s an ambitious way for the Hollywood horror juggernaut to expand its scare-centric empire. To understand what these projects are doing, however, we need to understand a bit about where they come...

Netflix employees staged a walkout on Wednesday outside the company’s office-studio complex in Los Angeles to protest Dave Chappelle’s stand-up special, The Closer, which has drawn criticism for its perceived transphobic comments. The special debuted on the streamer on October 5th. As Associated Press reports, the rally was also attended by counter-protestors. Most appeared to be advocating for the platform’s employees, AP noted. Transparent creator Joey Soloway spoke during the rally. Soloway said Chappelle’s decision to share “his outrage as comedic humiliation in front of thousands of people, and then...

Actress Ruby Rose detailed the injuries and difficult working conditions she says she and others endured while making the CW Arrowverse series, Batwoman.  Rose — who left Batwoman in May 2020 — leveled her allegations in a series of posts on Instagram Stories, which included video from doctors’ visits post-injury. She also detailed alleged injuries suffered by crew members and stunt people, while she accused Warner Bros. Television executive, Peter Roth, of hiring a private investigator to track her. “Enough is enough,” Rose wrote in her first post, which was...

Netflix has been under fire for Dave Chappelle’s The Closer, which detractors have lambasted for transphobic material. The company’s handling of the debacle has also been met with criticism, which the organization’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos addressed in a new interview with Variety. In a memo to staff leaked last week, Sarandos doubled-down on defending the Chappelle special, writing, “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” “Obviously, I screwed up that internal communication,” he said in the new interview, adding he should’ve led with “more humanity.” “Of course storytelling...

This post contains spoilers for the season finale of Only Murders in the Building, which is streaming now on Hulu. Early in “Open and Shut,” the conclusion to the first season of Only Murders in the Building, Oliver, the director-turned-sleuth played by Martin Short, considers where his true-crime podcast’s investigation has led and declares, “What a terrific goddamn finale this is gonna be!” This is one more self-aware joke in a season full of them — but one that also raises expectations for Only Murders the TV show. The series...

Products featured are independently selected by our editorial team and we may earn a commission from purchases made from our links; the retailer may also receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. There might be a murderer living in the apartment complex, and Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and Martin Short are determined to find the potential killer in Hulu’s latest series, Only Murders in the Building. Hulu renewed the comedic mystery for a second season back in September, and there’s just one episode left in the first season before we...