Television

John Swartzwelder, the prolific, admired and reclusive comedy writer best known for his work on The Simpsons, spoke about his life and career in his first major interview, published in The New Yorker on Sunday. Swartzwelder worked on The Simpsons between 1989 and 2003, writing 59 episodes, far more than any other writer in the show’s long history. His credits on The Simpsons include a litany of classic episodes, and the list of personal favorites Swartzwelder gave in the interview serves as a solid primer: “Itchy & Scratchy & Marge,”...

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. Is it possible we’ll be getting a new Star Wars or Marvel series every month on Disney+? That seems to be the service’s ambition. This month sees the debut of the hotly anticipated Star Wars: The Bad Batch, but it would be a typically bustling month for Disney+ even without it, thanks to choices that include some vintage...

“I’ll bet you I can rob a casino,” Allie Fox tells his wife Margot midway through the first season of the Apple TV+ drama The Mosquito Coast. This is a mark both of how desperate their circumstances are and how highly Allie regards his ability to accomplish what others call the impossible. Margot, meanwhile, doesn’t so much as indulge him with an eye-roll, instead moving on to more practical solutions for their latest debacle. Though no casinos are robbed over the course of these seven episodes of television, I wouldn’t...

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. It’s May, and when it comes to entertainment, that means only one thing: the beginning of the summer movie season. Except maybe not this year. While theaters have started to stir back to life and resume business as usual as more of the moviegoing public gets vaccinated and feels safe returning to theaters, for the second year in...

“Oh man, this . . . I’m so sorry, but this is fucking crazy. It’s just … It’s so compelling.” Justin Theroux is halfway through answering a question about the price of fame before he raises his eyebrows, and, as surreptitiously as humanly possible, turns his head to glance at the person behind us. We’re sitting outside a Sullivan Street cafe within spitting distance of the 49-year-old writer-actor’s apartment, on what feels like the first real spring day New York has had in eons. He’s wearing his “uniform,” a signature Theroux-chic mix of stylishly scuffed leather...

Michael Strahan sat down for this latest episode of Rolling Stone’s The First Time to share a number of firsts, including starting his apparel line ‘MSX by Michael Strahan,’ acting in a movie (Magic Mike XXL), and how he first came up with his recent April Fools’ Day prank. The Good Morning America co-host kicked off the interview with what it was like joining the show. “My first time hosting Good Morning America was even more frightening than hosting ; more frightening than hosting Fox NFL Sunday; more frightening than playing in...

Netflix has released a new trailer for the second season of the Mexican thriller, Who Killed Sara? set to arrive on the streaming service on May 19th. The series is centered around Alex Guzman (Manolo Cardona), who is determined to find out who killed his sister, Sara (Ximena Lamadrid), after spending 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. The primary target of Alex’s ire is the Lazcano family, although solving the mystery and getting revenge comes with the risk uncovering even more damning secrets. Season Two of the...

Jean Smart plays a legendary Las Vegas comedian who hires a young comedy writer in an attempt to resuscitate her career in Hacks, a new series coming to HBO Max next month. In the new trailer for the show, Smart plays Deborah Vance, a comedy legend who loses her Vegas residency to singing group Pentatonix. Despite a legacy as an influential female comic, the wealthy Vance is reduced to appearing at promotional appearances and ribbon cuttings to stay relevant. Enter a struggling 25-year-old writer (Hannah Einbinder) who is hired by...

Comedian Leslie Jones will host the 2021 MTV Movie and TV Awards. The show is set to air live from the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 16th at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Jones is also up for one MTV Movie and TV Award – Best Comedic Performance for her turn in Coming 2 America. Along with starring in the sequel to Eddie Murphy’s classic this year, Jones continues to host and serve as an executive producer on Supermarket Sweep. In 2020 she dropped a new one-hour stand-up special,...

Rose Byrne stars as a forlorn Eighties housewife who pivots to teaching aerobics dance classes in Physical, a new 10-episode dramedy from creator Annie Weisman (Almost Family, Desperate Housewives). The first three episodes of the series will premiere on June 18th on Apple TV+, with each subsequent episode premiering every Friday on the streaming platform. Set in the suburbs of Eighties San Diego, Physical follows Sheila Rubin (Byrne) as she dutifully supports her husband’s controversial bid for state assembly, all while growing to resent him behind closed doors. Struggling to find...

Hulu has released a new teaser for Nine Perfect Strangers, an upcoming limited series starring Nicole Kidman that’s set to premiere later this year. Based on Liane Moriarty’s 2018 novel by the same name, Nine Perfect Strangers stars Kidman as Masha, the director of a boutique health-and-wellness center that promises unique treatments to cure whatever ails its visitors. And while the new 30-second spot doesn’t offer much in the way of specifics, it appears that Masha’s techniques are all about taking new age cures to their extremes (in one wild...

Netflix announced Monday that Aziz Ansari’s comedy series Master of None will return to the streaming service for its third season on May 23rd. The first trailer of Season 3 — which tonally seems more like an independent film than an acclaimed comedy series — focuses on Lena Waithe’s Denise and her relationship with Alicia, played by Naomi Ackie. The season was co-written by Waithe and Ansari, who also directed the “Moments in Love” episode; Ansari’s Dev character also appears briefly in the trailer. Ansari and Waithe previously won a...

In the new Peacock sitcom Rutherford Falls, Ed Helms and Jana Schmieding play best friends Nathan and Reagan, who grew up together in the titular northeast town named for his ancestor who famously brokered peace with her ancestors in the (fictional) Minishonka Nation. The pair are inseparable, but they’ve lived very different lives: privilege for him, struggle for her. In one episode, a drunk friend of Nathan’s trashes a local historical site, and while taking the guy home, he asks Reagan to leave a note for the state parks official...

How I Met Your Father, a “sequel” to How I Met Your Mother, has been given a 10-episode order from Hulu, with Hilary Duff set to star in the streaming service’s take on the beloved sitcom. HIMYM creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas will return as executive producers, with This Is Us’ Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger tapped to serve as showrunners. “Kids, I’m going to tell you an incredible story: It’s the story of how two writers got lucky enough to make their dream TV show for nine seasons...