Comedy Series
How ‘Abbott Elementary’ Changed a 72-Year-Old Actor’s Life Since His Failed ‘Friends’ Audition
Abbott Elementary’s Mr. Johnson typically makes you laugh. This time, he made folks cry. In the season three finale of the Emmy-winning series, the janitor and Quinta Brunson’s Janine Teagues have a short but serious talk about pursuing life and living with regrets. “It’ll be all right, trust me,” he reassures her. “I got a […]
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Busy Philipps, Janelle James, Michael Cera and More on the Scenes That Kept Them Up at Night
Michael Cera Life & Beth (Hulu) The scene that kept me up at night The scene where I’m diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. I didn’t want this to be played for melodrama or be over-the-top. It’s a diagnosis that countless people get every day, people of all ages and at all junctures of life, and […]
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What It’s Like to Act With a 13-Foot Dummy and Boots Riley: “All of Me Was Intimidated”
Jharrel Jerome didn’t quite know what he was getting into when he received a somewhat cryptic email from filmmaker Boots Riley early one morning during the 2020 pandemic with the subject line “13-Foot-Tall Black Man in Oakland,” but it was enough to make him jump out of bed. “For any actor to get a personal […]
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‘Abbott Elementary”s Favorite Try-Hard Teacher on Recent Wins and That Passive-Aggressive Breakup
Abbott Elementary always spreads its wealth among the seven principal castmembers, but this has been a particularly robust year for Chris Perfetti, who portrays the lovably awkward, overeager history teacher Jacob Hill. In season three, Jacob broke up with his long-term boyfriend, Zach (Larry Owens), watched his best friend, Janine (Quinta Brunson), leave Abbott for […]
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Jamie Lee Curtis on Keeping Her ‘The Bear’ Role a Secret: “None of Us Said a Word to Anyone”
It’s well known that Jamie Lee Curtis is a woman of many talents. The veteran star is an Oscar-winning actress, best-selling author, entrepreneur, producer, director and philanthropist. But she’s got another skill not found on her IMDb profile that came in clutch while guest starring on The Bear: Jamie Lee Curtis can keep a secret. […]
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Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder Weigh in on ‘Hacks’ Season 3 Finale: “My Baby Has Learned Her Lessons Well”
[This story contains spoilers from the Hacks season three finale, “Bulletproof.”] Just hours after Hacks was renewed for a fourth season, the cast and creative team behind the hit comedy reunited for a conversation about its twisty season three finale. The final episode, which dropped this week, saw Deborah Vance (played by Jean Smart) beginning […]
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Emmys: 20 Supporting Actors Who Stole the Show
Tadanobu Asano Shōgun (FX on Hulu) The ways in which I’m like my character I’m like Kashigi Yabushige in the sense that he goes “all out” during every interaction on the show. Similarly, when I’m performing, I just go for it. And the ways that I’m not The fact that I’m not going to boil […]
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How ‘Hacks’ Season 3 Was Hatched
The three creators and showrunners of Hacks are as concerned with amusing lead Jean Smart as they are with entertaining their audience. Storylines, set pieces and even guest stars are often engineered just to get a reaction from the venerable actress, who has now won two Emmys — she has five in total — for […]
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“When I Stopped Giving a F***”: Quinta Brunson, Kristen Wiig and the THR Comedy Actress Roundtable
Michelle Buteau, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Ego Nwodim and Maya Rudolph also join a raucous and revealing conversation about ignoring industry expectations, the pressure to mine their personal lives and tap-dancing for the patriarchy: “My knees are tired, but fish oil helps."
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‘Abbott Elementary’ Bosses Explain Janine and Gregory Reveal in Season 3 Finale
[This story contains spoilers from the Abbott Elementary season three finale, “Party.”] If there’s one issue viewers have had with the beloved ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary over its three seasons, it’s that Janine (Quinta Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) have yet to take their working relationship to the next level, as fans have been […]
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“The Show Is Often Silly and Absurd, But We Do Like to Be Real”: ‘THR Presents’ Q&A With the ‘Ghosts’ Cast and Showrunners
Season 2 of Ghosts ended with a big cliffhanger (the question of which character got “sucked off,” which is the supernatural comedy’s term for heading off into the afterlife), so when showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman set their sights on Season 3, they knew they’d have to focus a lot of time crafting the […]
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‘Palm Royale,’ the TV Series That Looks Like “a Movie From 1969 That Broke the Studio”
Palm Royale got a lot of mileage out of its impressive cast, notably the women. But Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney, Laura Dern and even the legendary Carol Burnett needed help to create the titular Palm Beach private club and 1960s-set high society that Maxine Dellacorte Simmons (Wiig) spends the first season trying to infiltrate. That […]
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