#peak television. comedy gold

[s-h-a-s-e]

i love doctor who :D

transcript attempt below the cut:

(a bandage-wrapped Frankenstein-like figure lies unmoving on a slab. the Doctor and Ian creep reluctantly down a rickety set of stairs towards it. with no apparent cause, the Doctor spins to face Ian, finger pressed to his lips.)

the Doctor: shhh, someone's coming!

Ian: well, take cover!

(the pair move faster down the stairs. they've barely made it into the room, Ian still on the last few steps, when a Dalek appears in an archway.)

Dalek: where are the time travellers?

(the seemingly confused Dalek looks Ian up and down, attempting to move further into the room.)

Ian: the time travellers? they're-

(Ian lunges forward without warning, pulling a lever and sending a portcullis crashing down in front of the Dalek. the eyestalk of which swivels most disgruntledly at the sudden blockade. with a mildly smug head tilt, the Doctor makes to step back over to Ian, only for Frankenstien's monster to sit up. Ian and the Doctor freeze.)

Dalek: do not move!

(whether this command is aimed at the "time travellers" or Frankenstien's monster or both is not made apparent. either way, neither party listens: Frankenstien's monster swings its legs off the slab and stands up, and Ian and the Doctor make quick work of dashing back up the stairs.)

the Doctor: the TARDIS, quick!

Dalek: do not move! i am a Dalek!

(the Dalek shoots Frankenstien's monster as if to prove its point. the shot causes the blacks and whites of the scene to invert for a moment. and that's it. because apart from that, Frankenstien's monster is completely unaffected. almost seeming to enjoy being shot, the thing begins lurching towards the Dalek, movements wild and uncontrolled.)

Dalek: we are invincible!!

(Frankenstien's monster pulls the same lever Ian had before, sending the portcullis back up and giving the thing access to the Dalek. which it wastes no time setting upon. the camera angle changes, to what can only be assumed is the Dalek's perspective, and the whole screen is filled with gleeful snarls and flailing arms as Frankenstien's monster presumably beats it to death.)

Dalek: stop! stop! aargh! aaargh!!

//

(Ian and the Doctor run across the landing and down the main stairs of a large manor house that looks to once have been grand but is now rather rundown, adding to the "spooky" vibe. or, at least, attempting to. the DARDIS (Dalek time machine) sits in view off to one side. once Ian reaches the bottom of the stairs, Vicki runs onto the scene.)

Vicki: oh, there you are!

(Ian and Vicki clasp their hands together as they meet.)

Ian: hello, Vicki :)

(Barbara also runs onto the scene, and Ian, in turn, clasps her hand as well. the Doctor joins the trio as he too reaches the bottom of the stairs.)

the Doctor: well, where have you both been, hm?

Vicki: we found some secret tunnels, and we went down-

Ian: well, don't bother to tell us now. the Daleks are here!

Barbara: the Daleks!?

the Doctor: yes-!

Vicki: look out!!

(the camera angle changes to show the other side of the room. a Dalek is sliding sideways towards the group. at the same time, a caped figure with slicked-back hair steps out of the shadows next to it. the Dalek does not seem to notice.)

Dalek: halt! you will be exterminated!

the caped figure: good...ee-vening...

(the Dalek spins around in apparent shock.)

Ian: quick! into the TARDIS while we've still got a chance!

(Ian, Barbara and the Doctor rush over to the TARDIS, parked a little ways away from the DARDIS. but Vicki hangs back with a troubled look on her face, instead vying to warn the caped figure.)

Vicki: look out, he'll kill you! you'll be killed!!

(the Dalek shoots and the camera zooms on the caped figure's face as the colours are inverted. the shot, once more, does nothing, but the zoom allows us to see fangs protruding from the figure's mouth. hand raised, its lips barely move in time to its speech.)

the caped figure: i...am...Count...Drak-cula...

(Count Dracula(?) turns back to the shadows. the camera then flicks back to Vicki as she finally decides to follow the others, dashing towards the TARDIS. but two more Daleks appear, one from within the DARDIS, the other from [convenient location just out of shot]. the pair corner her, blocking her from entering the TARDIS, which then promptly begins to dematerialise without her.)

Dalek (the one that tried to shoot Count Dracula): eradicate her!

(Frankenstien's monster suddenly reappears (now with added suit jacket and pants), lurching behind the Dalek (the one that came from within the DARDIS). the TARDIS then dematerialises fully, stranding Vicki in this utter madhouse. Frankenstien's monster grabs the Dalek by the dome and begins to tip it over as Vicki runs from the scene.)

Dalek (the same one as before): obliterate!

(as the Dalek is shouting yet seemingly too confused to act, Count Dracula steps behind it again.)

Count Dracula: i...am...Count...Drak-cula...

(the Dalek spins around and, not quick to forget their previous encounter, backs away in what can only be described as fear. seeing this, Count Dracula reaches toward it, stepping steadily closer. with each step, he alternates which hand is reaching out, cape flapping as he moves.)

Count Dracula: don't go...don't go...don't go...

(as Count Dracula's mantra continues, the camera switches back to Frankenstein's monster, who proceeds to lift the Dalek before slamming it to the ground with an inhuman yell. the camera cuts abruptly to a ghostly figure shrieking at the top of the stairs. one of the Daleks attempts to shoot the thing, to the continued soundtrack of Count Dracula begging it not to go. the colour inverts once more, but again, it's to no avail, and in fact, the ghost shrieks happily with laughter as if thoroughly enjoying it. the camera switches again to a shot from within the entrance of the DARDIS. two upright Daleks are visible at the bottom of the staircase, along with one laid out across the floor, currently being beaten by Frankenstein's monster. Vicki runs warily inside, trying to escape via the only time machine available, even if it means stowing away on a Dalek-manned ship. the camera shifts one last time as Frankenstein's monster continues to senselessly beat the already defeated Dalek. defeated to the point where parts are falling off. the remaining [see: not currently becoming shrapnel] Daleks scramble to flee in a panic.)

Dalek 1: embark at once!

Dalek 2: at once!

Dalek 1: yes! embark!

Dalek 2: embark! embark at once!!

Daleks 1&2: embark! embark! embark! embark!

(the pair wobble feverishly towards the DARDIS. Frankenstein's monster snarls at them as they pass, before slamming against the defeated Dalek's dilapidated shell once more.)

the end :)

[serve-update]

Isaac Hayes Net Worth: What Is His Career To Success In Her Life?

American musician, actor, songwriter, and composer Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. Date of birth: August 20, 1942; location: Covington, Tennessee, USA. During the mid-1960s, he collaborated with David Porter to found the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he worked as a songwriter, session guitarist, and record producer.

Isaac Hayes Net Worth

At the time of his death in 2008, American composer, singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer Isaac Hayes was worth an estimated $2 million. In addition to being elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005, Isaac Hayes was awarded an Oscar for his work on "Theme from Shaft" in 1971. The song "Soul Man," originally performed by the soul and R&B duo Sam & Dave, was written by Isaac and David Porter and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Must read about Deangelo Hall Net Worth. Isaac released more than 20 studio albums, including the Gold albums "Hot Buttered Soul" (1969), "Joy" (1973), "Chocolate Chip" (1975), and "Don't Let Go" (1979). From 1997 to 2006, Hayes provided the voice of Jerome "Chef" McElroy on the animated Comedy Central series "South Park." https://twitter.com/sorece992/status/733416213448003585 He also appeared in more than 70 other films and television shows, such as "Truck Turner" (1974), "Escape from New York" (1981), "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" (1988), "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" (1993), "Blues Brothers 2000" (1998), "Hustle & Flow" (2006). On August 10, 2008, at the age of 65, Isaac passed away.

Isaac Hayes Career

In the early 1960s, Isaac began his recording career as a session musician for Stax Records. As a co-writer with Sam & Dave, he is credited for the smash hits "Soul Man," "Hold On, I'm Comin'," and "You Don't Know Like I Know." On the record label for Booker T. and the M.G.s' "Winter Snow," it says "Introducing Isaac Hayes on piano." Hayes also produced music for Sam & Dave and other Stax Records performers. His first album, 1968's "Presenting Isaac Hayes," and the next four albums, 1969's "Hot Buttered Soul," 1970's "The Isaac Hayes Movement," 1971's "...To Be Continued," and 1971's "Black Moses," all debuted at the top of the "Billboard" Soul Albums chart. Must check this Toni Kukoc Net Worth. Isaac won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his score to the film "Shaft" in 1971. Both the 1974 blaxploitation films "Truck Turner" and "Three Tough Guys" featured him, and he contributed to their respective soundtracks. First, in 1975, Hayes published the Gold album Chocolate Chip on his own Hot Buttered Soul label. Then, in 1975, he released Disco Connection, and in 1976, he released Groove-A-Thon and Juicy Fruit (Disco Freak) (1976).

Isaac Hayes Net Worth The albums "New Horizon" (1977), "For the Sake of Love" (1978), "Don't Let Go" (1979), "Royal Rappin's" (1979), "And Once Again" (1980), and "Lifetime Thing" (1981) were all released after Isaac signed with Polydor Records in 1977. (1981). Don't Let Go, his 1979 single, peaked at #11 on "BillboardHot "'s Soul Singles list. As Gandolph Fitch, Hayes was a regular on "The Rockford Files" from 1976 to 1977. Must read about Jenna Ortega Net Worth. He later appeared as a guest performer on "The A-Team" (1985), "Hunter" (1986), and "Miami Vice" (1987). (1987). U-Turn (1986) and Love Attack (1988) were released on Columbia Records; Wonderful (1994) was released on Fantasy Records; Raw & Refined (1995) and Branded (1995) were released on Point Blank Records. https://youtu.be/rRkSUQcmybY Ending Words If you are a fan of the series “Isaac Hayes Net Worth,” this is a must-watch. The series is about a celebrity and his net worth details, which will make you go “Geeeeez” while watching it (even if you don’t like this expression). Its high-quality graphics make it mesmerizing, along with the animation effects. It will engage you for hours, so if you have not watched it yet, do so and let me know how much you like it in the comment section. If you liked this article, follow our website, serveupdate.com, and don’t forget to follow our social media handles. Read the full article

[rachelsswindler]

modern bb honestly peaked when kaitlyn couldn’t manage to put a three piece children’s puzzle together to win her way back into the house

[rhcenyra]

#when your sibling is looking like an idiot in front of their crush

ROSWELL NEW MEXICO ⇢ 1x06

[pvtjoker22]

So with Riverdale ending I want to share some of the fuckin’ bonkers plot developments presented on a reddit thread about it because I couldn’t be bothered to watch most of it past season 2-3ish I think:

Then there’s this poor sod trying to make sense of things:

and this beautiful reply:

Alas, we can’t forget about Cheryl, duchess of bees

also some more left-field twists:

and finally, the clearest plot summary:

To be fair to the show, there’s a really good Youtube video about this show from SuperEyePatchWolf where he describes getting bored of the so-so/okay-ish murder mystery first season and then getting far more entertainment value out of the ‘trash’ later seasons and their wild developments. 

I think at least some of this had to have been intentional camp, I mean Archie met the goddamn Punisher in the comics.

Riverdale was genuinely a fever dream.

[sinsandsuccubus]

Shit Cover in Gold - Chris Evans

Context: “Silly little me to think that we would make it this far”

Genre: Angst

Pairings: Chris Evans X Fem!Reader

Warnings: none

A/N: Inspired by the song Shit Covered In Gold by Mac Ayres, check him out. His voice is amazing

-

Masterlist ☽☾

“Shit covered in gold

You won't know what you're missing 'til I go”

                                          ☽ ☾

The lights were off in the house, the dark ambiance adding to the emotions you were feeling. The curtains in your apartment were slightly drawn, allowing some moonlight to cast into your bedroom. The soft sound of the television mixed with the hum of your computer filled the room, alongside your own breath.

“Personally, this hurts, yeah

A little more than most”

You had seen the articles. Had watched the news. Had seen all the social media platforms. And truth be told, it didn’t bother you, not much. You had a life to live, a busy life at that. And you were already well established within yourself and confidence to not care what the public said about you.

At the end of the day, you had to come back home to all your own thoughts, problems and small insecurities - so who the hell were they to take up space in your brain?

What did hurt, however, was his reaction to everything. How he went on about his life as if nothing happened. As if he hadn’t broken your heart and taken a piece with him. As if the “new” girl on his arm wasn’t the reason for your demise.

That hurt the most.

“We've been through what seems like eternity”

You and Chris’s relationship went way back, the both of you acting in films together, him your co-star in your debut movie. He had always called you his “little sister” of a co-star because of your age difference and closeness of the two of you.

You didn’t mind. He loved you and you love him. Enough to progress into a loving year long relationship.

Or so you thought.

“All your rights turned wrong, time uncovered your stone”

You had moved from the film making industry to television shows, starring in comedies, romance series, and what you were currently in right now: crime television.

You loved your role as a detective on the hit new television series, and the world loved you too, having won plenty awards for “Best Actress”. Chris was so supportive of you.

In the beginning.

You had noticed him beginning to drift away at the beginning of the show, to which you were now 2 seasons deep. He began coming home later, giving shit excuses about being with friends or with his brother.

Even though you had talked to Scott just moments prior.

You often wondered if it was you? Was it your career? You knew it couldn’t have been, Chris had always told and shown how proud of you he was, so that couldn’t have been an answer.

Maybe it was because you too hadn’t been around each other as much. However, you had thought Chris would have understood, as you did at the beginning of your relationship when he went away for films for months at a time.

But apparently, he didn’t.

Because if he did, then why did he have another woman in your shared home? Why was there an empty wine bottle of wine on the dinning room table? And why was there a pair of heels, that clearly weren’t yours because of the cheap material, near the entrance way with a purse next to them?

You couldn’t bring yourself to go look for him, and the woman he brought home. And thankfully you didn’t, as Dodger’s warm greeting and loud bark coaxed Chris out of the bedroom and into the hallway; shirtless.

You looked at him, tears in your eyes.

“Y/N… it’s not what it looks like.” At that a woman peaked her head out the door way, shoulder and chest probably bare from what you could make of her figure. Your eyes flickered from her to him, you shaking your head.

“I’ll be back to pick my stuff up tomorrow.” You spoke softly, leaning down to kiss the top of Dodger’s head. Chris couldn’t even get a word out before you disappeared out the door.

“If I stay, put the blame on you

It's a shame, thought we would change the game or so

But I sit back and wonder

Think about how life could be if you never did me dirty”

Your new apartment was nice. And the dog you adopted, Roxy, was the perfect size and the perfect company.

And she was right beside you. Curled up into a little neat ball, her light snores adding to the sounds. You smiled as you pet her head, her nuzzling into you with a small smile. You clicked away at your computer, not being to help yourself as you looked at your ex lover.

How could he do this to you? You had been there for him, thick and thin. Anxiety attacks and all. Nervousness and all. Fear and all. Upgrading cell phones and all.

You couldn’t figure out when or where things had gone south.

Was it something you had done?

“But still in my weary heart I see the best in you”

Yet you couldn’t bring yourself to be mad at him. And you couldn’t be mad at yourself either.

Chris’s reasons for cheating was horrendous.

“You were gone all the time, I needed someone to fill the space.”

“And you weren’t Chris? Traveling the world for films while I stayed at home waiting for you. And not once was I tempted to be unfaithful.”

“Come on Y/N, let’s be real here. We were drifting apart. And if I hadn’t done it, surely you would have-“

“I will not allow you to speak to me that was Christopher.”

You learned that one in therapy.

“Y/N please… we can work this out. I- I’ll do better, I promise.” He grabbed your hands, looking you directly into your eyes. You nodded your head, letting out a sigh.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Somebody gone

Better you than me my friend I know

I'll fight on my own”

And when the next day came, you picked up the rest of your stuff in silence, asking Scott to keep Chris occupied for you.

Scott was not only your friend, but your co-star, and just because his brother was an ass to you, it didn’t have to change your relationship.

And it didn’t.

You left a note for him on the counter, explaining your decision. You should have just written “no” in bold letters with your signature, but you figured you’d spare him the cruelty.

So you wrote a small note, signed your name at the bottom, left his house key.

And never looked back.

“Shit covered in gold

You won't know what you're missing 'til I go”

Life went on, just like it normally does. You grew stronger, and so did your career. You would see Chris at events, did a couple of segments with him, all while being cordial.

It got under his skin. And you loved that.

Overall, you were the better person. You grew into a new you, fell in love, and lived your life like you never had before. You felt free and happy, once again.

But sometimes you couldn’t help but wonder.

“Silly little me to think that we would make it this far”

-

[yehet-me-up]

Zhang Yixing 张艺兴 (LAY) 🐑 Overview

Zhang Yixing, known professionally as Lay Zhang or simply Lay, is a Chinese rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, director, dancer, actor, author, and brand ambassador. He has been listed on Forbes list of the top 100 Chinese celebrities since 2017, at 20th, 11th, 5th, and 6th respectively for the subsequent years. In 2012 he debuted as a rapper, singer, and dancer with EXO. Please join me in celebrating EXO’s 🐑

Yixing is also an accomplished film and television actor, and has been active since his first role at six years old in the 1998 Chinese drama We The People. He later began his career as a child star after winning third place in a competition organized by the Hunan-based television show Star Academy in 2005. In November 2015, Zhang made his film debut with a supporting role in the Chinese romantic comedy movie Ex-Files 2: The Backup Strikes Back, which was a box office hit and garnered 2 billion in sales within 10 days of its release. The Mystic Nine series that he starred in placed first in television ratings and has accumulated over 12 billion views in total. 

In 2015, he founded a personal agency for his solo activities that serves as a management firm, and in 2020 Zhang established his own group of companies in China, called Chromosome Entertainment Group, and began the process of recruiting trainees from all over the world. His autobiography, Standing Firm at 24, was a best-seller in China, breaking several sales records. Yixing has additionally served as a mentor, producer, and presenter for numerous singing and dancing reality shows in China. Zhang also currently tops the list for K-Pop idols with the most endorsement deals, partnering with over 30 companies.

"Monodrama," written by Lay and co-composed and arranged with Divine Channel, broke records by staying at number one on YinYueTai's V Chart for five consecutive weeks. In 2016, Zhang released his first EP, Lose Control, in South Korea and China to commercial success; it peaked at number one on the Gaon Album Chart and number four on Billboard's US World Albums chart. His first studio album, Lay 02 Sheep, broke five records on QQ Music: Gold, Double Gold, Triple Gold, Platinum and Diamond Record. Lit, his third studio album, had pre-orders of over 1.5 million copies within seven minutes; Lit went on to sell 2.5 million records, making Lay the best-selling artist in China in 2020. 

Lay is involved in much of the production of his albums as a producer, and is often personally in charge of the composition, arrangement and writing of every song – as well as translation of the lyrics himself into other languages, including English, Korean and Japanese.

This post is part of an effort to celebrate the accomplishments of EXO over the past 10 years and to provide tangible avenues for supporting these artists in 2022 and beyond 🖤 On 8 April 2022, Lay announced that he would be departing from SM Entertainment after the conclusion of his ten-year contract with the company - we look forward to his future projects, both as a solo artist and as a member of EXO 💕

*Due to time/energy levels (not because I don’t love Yixing!) I won’t be including links this time, but this should be a thorough summary of his projects, music-related and otherwise :) His songs and albums are all available to listen on Spotify and Youtube, and his albums are for sale at most major retailers!*

🎵 Individual Music 🎶

🌔 Lose Control (2016) 1st EP/mini-album 🌔

1. Lose Control (失控) 2. What U Need? (你要什么) 3. Tonight 4. MYM 5. MYM (Acoustic Ver.) 6. Relax (守望)

❄️ Winter Special Gift (2017) 2nd EP/mini-album ❄️

1. Goodbye Christmas (聖誕又至) 2. Can You Feel Me (你的感覺) 3. Christmas Love (聖誕的愛) 4. Gift to XBACK (小小禮物) 5. Goodbye Christmas (English Ver.) 6. Goodbye Christmas (Instrumental Ver.)

🐑 Lay 02 Sheep (2017) 1st Studio Album 🐑

1. Sheep (羊) *Alan Walker re-lift version ∴ Lollapalooza 2018* 2. I Need U (需要你) 3. Peach (桃) 4. Hand (匕首) 5. Boss (老大) 6. Shake (摇摆) 7. Too Much (太多) 8. Mask (面罩) 9. Director (导演) 10. X Back (兴迷)

🌲 Namanana (2018) 2nd Studio Album 🌲 *2 Disc CD - first side is Chinese versions and second is English versions

1. 集结号 (The Assembly Call) 2. 梦不落雨林 (Namanana) *also a single remix in 2020* 3. 爱到这 (Give Me a Chance) 4. 催眠术 (Lay U Down) 5. 爱的引力 (Save You) 6. 坚持 (Hold On) 7. 幸福上瘾 (Thing for You) 8. 麻婆豆腐 (Mapo Tofu) 9. 香水 (Flavour) 10. 快门回溯 (Don't Let Me Go) 11. 贝壳女孩 (Tattoo)

🍯 Honey (2019) 3rd EP/mini-album 🍯

1. Honey (和你) (English version) 2. Bad (坏的) 3. Amusement Park (游乐园) 4. Honey (和你) (Chinese version)

🐲 蓮 LIT (2020) 3rd Studio Album 🐲  *Was released in two parts, each with 6 songs

1. 蓮 (Lit) 2 玉 (Jade) 3. 鷹 (Eagle) 4. 水 (H2O) 5. 飛 (Fly) 6. 靈 (Soul) 7. 沸 (Changsha) 8. 妈 (Mama) 9. 蹦 (Boom) *also Boom R3HAB remix* 10. 唤 (Call My Name) 11. 夜 (Late Night) 12. 愿 (Wish)

🎼 Producer (2021) 4th Studio Album 🎼 

1. Joker 2. 愛蓮說 (Love Lay) 3. 小城姑娘 (Flipped) 4. 十面埋伏 (Ambush) 5. 略過 (Stay With Me) 6. 馬 (Horse) 7. 炎黃子孫 (Descendants of the Dragon) *also has a remix* 8. 癡 (Obsessed) 9. 湘江水 (XiangJiang River) (Ft. 功夫胖 (Kungfu Pen))

🌄 東 EAST (2021) 4th EP/mini-album 🌄

1. 飛天 (Flying Apsaras) 2. 三昧真火 (Samadhi Real Fire) by LAY & GALI 3. 苦行僧 (Ascetic Monk) 4. 牧童 (The Shepherd Boy)

🚀 Singles and OSTs 🚀

⇢ Spectrum (2012) SM The Performance group single ⇢ Because of You (2013) Non-Album Single ⇢ I'm Coming (2014) Hunan TV special performance ⇢ Alone (One Person) (2015) Ex-Files 2 OST ⇢ Happy Youth with Jiang Wen and Li Xiaolu (2015) Oh My God OST  ⇢ Monodrama (2016) SM Station single  ⇢ A Man Thing with Royal Treasure cast (2016) Royal Treasure OST ⇢ Pray (2017) Operation Love OST  ⇢ Dream High (夢想起飛) (2017) SPD Bank Theme Song ⇢ When It’s Christmas (2018) Non-Album Single ⇢ Youth Day (theme song) (2018) ⇢ Everything Like You (2018) I'm Around You OST ⇢ Let’s Shut Up & Dance with Jason Derulo + NCT 127 (2019) Non-Album Single ⇢ No Man's Land with Anti-General and Jasmine Sokko (无人之域) Non-Album Single ⇢ Lovebird with Far East Movement (2019) Non-Album Single ⇢ I'm Not Well (我不好) (2019) Non-Album Single ⇢ Grandma (外婆) (2019) Non-Album Single ⇢ Love You More with Steve Aoki and will.i.am (2020) Steve Aoki's Neon Futures IV ⇢ Clear Sky Ballad with Panta Q (晴空谣) Non-Album Single ⇢ Gluttony (2020) Non-album Single ⇢ Bee With You (2021) Non-Album Single  ⇢ Dawn to Dusk with 24kGoldn (2022) Single Album ⇢ Jiu (酒) (2022) Non-Album Single 🌌

🎭 Acting Roles 🎭

⇢ (1998) We The People tv show - Huan Huan ⇢ (2015) Oh My God movie - Le Yi ⇢ (2015) Ex-Files 2: The Backup Strikes Back movie - Lee Xianghe ⇢ (2016) Royal Treasure movie - self ⇢ (2016) To Be A Better Man TV show - Xiao Cai (Cai Mingjun) ⇢ (2016) The Mystic Nine TV show - Er Yuehong ⇢ (2016) The Mystic Nine Side Story: Flowers Bloom in February web movie - Er Yuehong ⇢ (2017) Operation Love TV show - Yan Xiaolai ⇢ (2017) Kung Fu Yoga movie - Zhu Xiaoguang ⇢ (2017) Cars 3 movie - Jackson Storm (Chinese dub voice) ⇢ (2017) The Founding of an Army movie - Lu Deming ⇢ (2018) The Island movie - Xiao Xing  ⇢ (2018) Tomb of The Sea TV show - Jie Yuchen ⇢ (filmed 2018, release ?) Unexpected Love movie - Han Bin ⇢ (2019) The Golden Eyes TV show - Zhuang Rui ⇢ (2019) Empress of The Ming TV show - Zhu Qizhen ⇢ (2021) Faith Makes Great TV show - Xiong Dachen ⇢ (2021) Crime Crackdown TV show - Lin Hao ⇢ (2022) Challenges at Midlife TV show - Ning Shu

*TBD release - No More Bets movie - main role

📺 Other TV Credits 📺

⇢ (2014) Star Chef reality show - contestant ⇢ (2016, 2018) Happy Camp reality show - guest ⇢ (2019-present) Go Fighting! variety Series - main cast ⇢ (2018, 2019) Idol Producer reality show - main mentor, presenter ⇢ (2018) Rave Now reality show - mentor ⇢ (2019) Youth with You (Idol Producer S2) - main mentor, presenter ⇢ (2019) Roast reality show - guest ⇢ (2020) I'm CZR II reality show - singer-songwriter ⇢ (2020) We Are Young reality show - main mentor, presenter ⇢ (2020, 2021) Street Dance of China reality show - team captain ⇢ (2020, 2021) Let's Chat variety show - main cast ⇢ (2020) Dance Smash - team leader ⇢ (2021) The winter dream promise (TV Special) Self ⇢ (2021) Youth and Melody - Producer ⇢ (2021) Back to Field variety show - main cast

🏆 Awards 🏆

⇢ Awards and nominations complete list! 

🕺🏻 Fashion + Brands 🕺🏻

⇢ Zhang attended a Samsung event held at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China as the ambassador of Samsung Galaxy A8s and performed on-stage alongside ASAP Ferg and Steve Aoki. ⇢ Zhang attended the 61st Annual Grammy Awards as its promotion ambassador on the red carpet event and live ceremony. ⇢ Yixing’s third wax figure was revealed in Madame Tussauds Hong Kong in 2019, following his wax figures in Madame Tussauds Shanghai and Beijing. ⇢ Zhang is a brand ambassador of over 30 brands, including Converse, MAC Cosmetics, Chaumet Paris, Ray-Ban, Milka Chocolate, H&M and Perrier. ⇢ In 2019, he was announced as Calvin Klein's first Chinese global spokesperson for Calvin Klein's underwear and jeans lines. ⇢ As an ambassador of high-end fashion brand Valentino, Zhang has attended multiple fashion shows and events in Asia and Europe, as well at the annual Met Gala wearing a custom-made suit titled "Time Traveller" designed by Valentino Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli. ⇢ He served as a promotional ambassador for Huawei Nova smartphones from 2015 to 2018. ⇢ Since 2016 Zhang has served the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) of Changsha as a publicity ambassador, the first celebrity to hold such title. ⇢ In October 2017, Zhang signed a contract with the vice president of Tencent Music Entertainment Group and became a member of "Music+ Plan" (Music+ 计划) alongside TFBoys, Wang Leehom, and more. ⇢ In September 2018, Zhang signed an agreement with Easy Entertainment in which his personal studio will collaborate with Easy Entertainment to create a new team to manage Zhang's promotional activities.

🌟 Miscellaneous 🌟

⇢ Grand Line: The First Concert (2019) Solo concert ⇢ In 2015 Zhang's autobiography, Standing Firm at 24, was published. The book documents important events throughout his life and broke several online sales records with 400,000 copies sold within six months. He took the fourth place on the 10th Chinese Celebrity Writers List, becoming the youngest celebrity author to enter the charts. He was also the champion of the 2015 installment of the Annual Celebrity Book Sales and took the top spot of Asia's Best Books twice during its monthly ranking and six times on the weekly chart.  ⇢ At CCTV’s Spring Gala Festival in 2017 he sang a duet alongside Chinese actor Jing Boran ⇢ Goosebump music video (2017) Kung Fu Yoga OST featured dancer ⇢ 2019 20 January, Zhang attended a Samsung event held at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China as the ambassador of Samsung Galaxy A8s and performed on-stage alongside ASAP Ferg and Steve Aoki, respectively new level and boom shakalaka ⇢ On the 2011 SHINee world tour he was a stand in for Jonghyun, who was briefly unable to participate in the tour ⇢ Zhang performed a Chinese New Year song alongside Dilraba Dilmurat, Phoenix Legend, Wallace Chung, and Zhou Dongyu at the 2019 CCTV New Year's Gala. ⇢ Zhang attended the 2018 CCTV New Year's Gala where he performed a dance collaboration stage with Huang Bo and William Chan. ⇢ Yixing is also a talented songwriter and composer of most of his own solo music, as well as the song "Promise" from the repackaged edition of Exo's second studio album, Love Me Right. He also wrote the lyrics for the Chinese version of the song, while the Korean version was co-written by Chen and Chanyeol. Apart from Karen Mok, he holds composition credits to songs released by Yu Quan, MC Jin and Show Luo. ⇢ He participated in the national anthem and its music video for Youth Day in China in May 2018. ⇢ Magazine Covers listed here

⇢ Follow Yixing on Instagram @ layzhang, on Twitter @ layzhang, and on YouTube at LAY

Thank you for supporting EXO Yixing 😘

And if you want to help spread this post to folks who haven’t experienced the magic of Yixing yet, please reblog this and tell me what your favorite Yixing moments and performances are! ✨

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Glen Campbell who Died: August 8, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee

Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television from 1969 until 1972. He released 64 albums in a career that spanned five decades, selling over 45 million records worldwide, including twelve gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album.

Born in Billstown, Arkansas, Campbell began his professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles, spending several years playing with the group of instrumentalists later known as "The Wrecking Crew". After becoming a solo artist, he placed a total of 80 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Among Campbell's hits are "Universal Soldier", his first hit from 1965, along with "Gentle on My Mind" (1967), "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (1967), "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" (1968), "Wichita Lineman" (1968), "Galveston" (1969), "Rhinestone Cowboy" (1975) and "Southern Nights" (1977).

In 1967, Campbell won four Grammys in the country and pop categories. For "Gentle on My Mind", he received two awards in country and western; "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" did the same in pop. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), while Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owned trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA's top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. Campbell played a supporting role in the film True Grit (1969), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. He also sang the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Glen was born on April 22, 1936, in Billstown, a tiny community near Delight in Pike County, Arkansas, to John Wesley (a sharecropper) and Carrie Dell (Stone) Campbell. Campbell was of Scottish descent and was the seventh son of 12 children. As a child he almost died from drowning. His family went to Church of Christ, and Campbell's brother Lindell became a Church of Christ minister. In 2011 he claimed his mother was Irish, although this was not true. The family lived on a farm, where they barely managed, by growing cotton, corn, watermelons, and potatoes. "We had no electricity," he said, and money was scarce. "A dollar in those days looked as big as a saddle blanket." To supplement income the family picked cotton for other farmers. "I picked cotton for $1.25 a hundred pounds," said Campbell. "If you worked your tail off, you could pick 80 or 90 pounds a day."

Campbell started playing guitar at age four after his father gave him a Sears-bought five-dollar guitar as a gift, with his uncle Boo teaching him the basics of how to play. Most of his family was musical, he said. "Back home, everybody plays and sings." By the time he was six he was performing on local radio stations.

Campbell continued playing guitar in his youth, with no formal training, and practiced when he was not working in the cotton fields. He developed his talent by listening to radio and records and considered Django Reinhardt among his most admired guitarists, later calling him "the most awesome player I ever heard." He dropped out of school at 14 to work in Houston alongside his brothers, installing insulation and later working at a gas station.

Not satisfied with that kind of unskilled work, Campbell started playing music at fairs and church picnics and singing gospel hymns in the church choir. He was able to find spots performing on local radio stations, and after his parents moved to Houston, he made some appearances at a local nightclub.

In 1954, at age 17, Campbell moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to join his uncle's band, known as Dick Bills and the Sandia Mountain Boys. He quit high school in 10th grade. He also appeared there on his uncle's radio show and on K Circle B Time, the local children's program on KOB television. It was there that he met his first wife, whom he married when he was 17 and she was 16.

In 1958, Campbell formed his own band, the Western Wranglers. "We worked hard," he said. "Six, sometimes seven nights a week. I didn't have my eye set on any specific goals or big dreams."

In 1960, Campbell moved to Los Angeles to become a session musician. That October, he joined the Champs. By January 1961, Campbell had found a daytime job at publishing company American Music, writing songs and recording demos. Because of these demos Campbell soon was in demand as a session musician and became part of a group of studio musicians later known as the Wrecking Crew.

Campbell played on recordings by the Beach Boys, Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, the Monkees, Nancy Sinatra, Merle Haggard, Jan and Dean, Bing Crosby, Phil Spector, Sammy Davis Jr., Doris Day, Bobby Vee, The Everly Brothers, Shelley Fabares, The Cascades, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Wayne Newton, The First Edition, The Kingston Trio, Roger Miller, Gene Clark, Lou Rawls, Claude King, Lorne Greene, Ronnie Dove and Elvis Presley. He befriended Presley when he helped record the soundtrack for Viva Las Vegas in 1964. He later said, "Elvis and I were brought up the same humble way – picking cotton and looking at the south end of a north-bound mule."

In May 1961, he left the Champs and was subsequently signed by Crest Records, a subsidiary of American Music. His first solo release, "Turn Around, Look at Me", a moderate success, peaked at number 62 on the Hot 100 in 1961 but reached number 7 on the Hot 100 in a 1968 Vogues cover. Campbell also formed the Gee Cees with former bandmembers from the Champs, performing at the Crossbow Inn in Van Nuys. The Gee Cees, too, released a single on Crest, the instrumental "Buzz Saw", which did not chart.

In 1962, Campbell signed with Capitol Records. After minor initial success with "Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry", his first single for the label, and "Kentucky Means Paradise", released by the Green River Boys featuring Glen Campbell, a string of unsuccessful singles and albums followed. By 1963 his playing and singing were heard on 586 recorded songs. He never learned to read music, but besides guitar, he could play the banjo, mandolin and bass.

From 1964 on, Campbell began to appear on television as a regular on Star Route, a syndicated series hosted by Rod Cameron, ABC's Shindig! and Hollywood Jamboree.

From December 1964 to early March 1965, Campbell was a touring member of the Beach Boys, filling in for Brian Wilson, playing bass guitar and singing falsetto harmonies. He was then replaced on the Beach Boys' tours by new member Bruce Johnston.

In 1965, he had his biggest solo hit yet, reaching number 45 on the Hot 100 with a version of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Universal Soldier". Asked about the pacifist message of the song, he said that "people who are advocating burning draft cards should be hung."

Campbell continued as a session musician, playing guitar on the Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds, among other recordings. In April of that year, he joined Rick Nelson on a tour through the Far East, again playing bass.

When follow-up singles did not do well, and Capitol was considering dropping Campbell from the label in 1966, he was teamed with producer Al De Lory. Together, they first collaborated on "Burning Bridges" which became a top 20 country hit in early 1967, and the album of the same name.

Campbell and De Lory collaborated again on 1967's "Gentle on My Mind", written by John Hartford, which was an overnight success. The song was followed by the bigger hit "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" later in 1967, and "I Wanna Live" and "Wichita Lineman" in 1968, remaining on Billboard's Top 100 charts for 15 weeks. He won four Grammy Awards for "Gentle on My Mind" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix".

In 1967, Campbell was also the uncredited lead vocalist on "My World Fell Down" by Sagittarius, a studio group. The song reached number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1968, Campbell released "Wichita Lineman", a song written by Jimmy Webb. It was recorded with backing from members of the Wrecking Crew and appeared on his 1968 album of the same name. It reached number 3 on the US pop chart, remaining in the Top 100 for 15 weeks. In addition, the song also topped the American country music chart for two weeks, and the adult contemporary chart for six weeks.

The 1969 song "True Grit" by composer Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Don Black, and sung by Campbell, who co-starred in the movie, received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Song and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

After he hosted a 1968 summer replacement for television's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour variety show, Campbell was given his own weekly variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, which ran from January 1969 through June 1972. The show's comedy writers included Steve Martin and Rob Reiner. At the height of his popularity, a 1970 biography by Freda Kramer, The Glen Campbell Story, was published.

With Campbell's session-work connections, he hosted major names in music on his show, including the Beatles (on film), David Gates, Bread, the Monkees, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller, and Mel Tillis. Campbell helped launch the careers of Anne Murray and Jerry Reed, who were regulars on his Goodtime Hour program.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Campbell released a long series of singles and appeared in the movies True Grit (1969) with John Wayne and Kim Darby and Norwood (1970) with Kim Darby and Joe Namath.

After the cancellation of his CBS series in 1972, Campbell remained a regular on network television. He co-starred in a made-for-television movie, Strange Homecoming (1974), with Robert Culp and up-and-coming teen idol Leif Garrett. He hosted a number of television specials, including 1976's Down Home, Down Under with Olivia Newton-John. He co-hosted the American Music Awards from 1976 to 1978 and headlined the 1979 NBC special Glen Campbell: Back to Basics with guest-stars Seals and Crofts and Brenda Lee. He was a guest on many network talk and variety shows, including Donny & Marie and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where he performed "Rhinestone Cowboy". He also appeared on Cher, the Redd Foxx Comedy Hour, The Merv Griffin Show, The Midnight Special, DINAH!, Evening at Pops with Arthur Fiedler and The Mike Douglas Show.

In the mid-1970s, he had more hits with "Rhinestone Cowboy", "Southern Nights" (both U.S. number one hits), "Sunflower" (U.S. number 39) (written by Neil Diamond), and "Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.)" (U.S. number 11).

"Rhinestone Cowboy" was Campbell's largest-selling single and one of his best-known recordings, initially with over 2 million copies sold. Campbell had heard songwriter Larry Weiss' version while on tour of Australia in 1974. Both songs were in the October 4, 1975, Hot 100 top 10. "Rhinestone Cowboy" continues to be used in TV shows and films, including Desperate Housewives, Daddy Day Care, and High School High. It was the inspiration for the 1984 Dolly Parton/Sylvester Stallone movie Rhinestone. The main phrase of Campbell's recording was included in Dickie Goodman's Jaws movie parody song "Mr. Jaws". Campbell also made a techno/pop version of the song in 2002 with UK artists Rikki & Daz and went to the top 10 in the UK with the dance version and related music video.

"Southern Nights", by Allen Toussaint, his other number one pop-rock-country crossover hit, was generated with the help of Jimmy Webb, and Jerry Reed, who inspired the famous guitar lick introduction to the song, which was the most-played jukebox number of 1977.

In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was announced in April 2008 that Campbell was returning to his signature label, Capitol, to release his new album, Meet Glen Campbell. The album was released on August 19. With this album, he branched off in a different musical direction, covering tracks from artists such as Travis, U2, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jackson Browne, and Foo Fighters. It was Campbell's first release on Capitol in over 15 years. Musicians from Cheap Trick and Jellyfish contributed to the album as well. The first single, a cover of Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", was released to radio in July 2008.

In March 2010, a then-farewell album titled Ghost on the Canvas was announced which served as a companion to Meet Glen Campbell (2008).

Following his late 2010 Alzheimer's diagnosis, Campbell embarked on a final "Goodbye Tour", with three of his children joining him in his backup band. He was too ill to travel to Australia and New Zealand in the summer of 2012. His final show was on November 30, 2012, in Napa, California. After the end of the tour, Campbell entered the studio in Nashville to record what would be his final album, Adiós, which would not be revealed until five years later. According to his wife, Kim Campbell, he wanted to preserve "what magic was left", in what would be his final recordings. In January 2013, Campbell recorded his final song, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You", during what would be his last recording sessions. The song, which is featured in the 2014 documentary Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me, was released on September 30, 2014, with the documentary following on October 24. On January 15, 2015, Campbell and fellow songwriter Julian Raymond were nominated for Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards.

On August 30, 2016, during the 10th Annual ACM Honors, Keith Urban, Blake Shelton and others performed a medley of Glen Campbell's songs in tribute to him. His wife Kim Campbell accepted the Career Achievement Award on his behalf. Alice Cooper described him as being one of the five best guitar players in the music industry.

Campbell's final album Adiós, featuring twelve songs from his final 2012–13 sessions, was announced in April 2017. It was released on June 9, 2017. Adiós was named by the UK's Official Charts Company as the best-selling country/Americana album of 2017 in Britain.

Campbell died in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 8, 2017, at the age of 81. He was buried in the Campbell family cemetery in Billstown, Arkansas.

[holmesapothecary]

'Schitt’s Creek' cast reflects on series' beloved characters, lamented end

The Rose family is all here, albeit in small rectangular windows on screens scattered across North America. Dan Levy is in his Los Angeles home with his rescue pup, Redmond. Annie Murphy connects from Toronto. Catherine O’Hara can’t get her video to work but then appears in all her glory from L.A. Eugene Levy is the last to join. Apparently his watch is 10 minutes slow — he holds it up to the camera as proof — prompting an eye roll from son, Dan.

“You could use your phone, you know?” he says, his tone of exasperated reproach instantly recognizable from the beloved television show the Levys created, the late, great “Schitt’s Creek.”

This quartet has done this kind of thing before, gathering with the show’s cast and crew to watch the “Schitt’s Creek’s” series finale on Zoom in April. It was a bittersweet evening. They were together, but, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, not in the same room, a celebration punctuated by laughter and a few tears — not all that different from the conversation today. Of late, almost every time this group unites, there are a couple of lump-in-the-throat moments amid the acerbic humor and good-natured ribbing.

“Here we go,” Eugene says after longtime friend O’Hara reacts with sympathy to an emotional story Dan tells about the final day of filming. “It never ends.”

Except it has. After six seasons and a journey that has taken the series from cult status to Emmy favorite, “Schitt’s Creek” has finished its run in a manner that few shows do — on its own terms, at the peak of its popularity and, perhaps, just a bit sooner than some of its cast members (and nearly all of its devoted fans) would prefer. When Dan Levy, who took over running “Schitt’s Creek” in its third season, laments ending the series just as many people began binge-watching it on Netflix during the COVID-19 quarantine, Murphy perks up.

“Being cooped up in my house for months has led me to write seven more seasons,” he says.

Finding their place

“Schitt’s Creek” premiered on the little-known Pop network in 2015 as a straightforward fish-out-of-water comedy about the wealthy Rose family — businessman Johnny (Eugene), soap actress Moira (O’Hara) and their adult children David (Dan) and Alexis (Murphy) — who lose their entire fortune, save for ownership of the isolated titular town once purchased as a gag. They relocate there, taking up residence in adjoining rooms at the shabby Rosebud Motel.

Initially, the show’s stories followed the Roses’ attempts to scrape some money together and restore some semblance of their old lives. But slowly, over the course of 80 episodes, the family discovers the small pleasures of community and a real love and understanding for one another.

The Roses’ perfectly paced journey of self-discovery, which included David meeting and, in the finale, marrying his fiance Patrick, imbued “Schitt’s Creek” with a warmth that deepened its connection with its audience. You could feel that appreciation not long ago when the cast toured the country with the “Schitt’s Creek: Up Close & Personal” evenings, gatherings that fostered such a sense of tribal belonging that, O’Hara says, “We almost didn’t need to be there.”

“There was a family thing going on in the audience, and we just got to have the love come our way,” she says.

The cast was scheduled to take a victory lap with a farewell tour this spring and summer. In fact, we spoke when they were supposed to be together in Los Angeles for an evening at the Orpheum Theatre. “I miss it,” O’Hara says. “Oh, how I miss the kindness that you’d feel radiating toward you on those nights.”

Planning for the end

But there’s a difference, Dan says, between communing with the fans and being beholden to them. One benefit from having the show fly under the radar for most of its run came with the timing of its conclusion. When “Schitt’s Creek” was renewed for two more seasons after its fourth year, Levy began charting the arc of its ending. The series had seen a bump in its viewership since Netflix began streaming it in January 2017. But it didn’t really start peaking until its fifth season, by which time Levy knew when and how he wanted to wrap up the show. And he had plotted it without worrying about satisfying audience expectations — though, of course, he hoped everyone would like it.

“It was important to make the show’s last episodes just feel like very great episodes and not feel bloated with a backlog of revelations that we need to quickly wrap up,” the younger Levy says. “To me, ‘Six Feet Under’ was one of the greatest finales ever made — fresh, unexpected, creative, emotional. It spoke to the format of the show in a way that was, ‘Of course, this is how it should end,’ and yet, as a viewer, it was the last thing you could have ever imagined.”

Levy did make one concession to fan service in the “Schitt’s” finale. He knew Moira’s ensemble would have to somehow top all the fabulous wigs and iconic couture that had come before. When O’Hara learned she would be officiating David’s wedding in the episode, she suggested a papal theme. That’s the only direction costume designer Debra Hanson needed. Moira wound up wearing a white Alexander McQueen gown, along with a gold chain belt and gold metallic gloves, her Botticelli-inspired hair wrapped around a hat that Pope Francis would bless.

“I will always remember Catherine walking on set for the first time in that garb,” Murphy says. “There was a long silence and then a collective intake of breath and then just slow applause from everyone on set.”

“I loved that the look could be what it was and not take the focus from the beautiful wedding,” O’Hara says. Levy nods. “It’s something to consider when you have a look like that,” he says. “But even though she was in knee-high gold Tom Ford boots,” and here O’Hara bursts out laughing at the image, “there was a calmness and softness about it that allowed it to sit in the background.”

Saying goodbye

Now that we know David and Patrick are married, Alexis is pursuing a career in New York, and Johnny and Moira are heading to Los Angeles so Moira can work on a soap opera reboot costarring Nicole Kidman (“I’m not sure I like the direction my career is heading, but I’d do anything with Moira,” Kidman says with a laugh over the phone from her Nashville home), it would seem the story is over. But Dan, who has a three-year deal with ABC, does remain open to revisiting the characters.

“The hardest thing for me these past few years,” Eugene interjects, “was just to kind of walk in and pretend it’s just another day at work without going up to everyone on set and saying, ‘What do you think about the work this kid is doing?’ It’s been a very rewarding experience for me.”

“And I understand people are sad it’s over,” he continues. “I’m sad too. For the past few years, people have been looking for something to pick them up a little, and they’ve gravitated toward this show as this tonic they could go to for a half-hour and forget what was happening in the world.”

Eugene pauses. “When you think about it, the fact that it went out (during) a pandemic seems almost apropos in a way. People couldn’t feel any worse, and here’s our show going out.”

(X)

[wrestlingisfake]

NWA 73 preview

This is the NWA's 73rd anniversary show, which kicks off at 8pm EDT from the Chase Hotel in St. Louis. It'll be streaming live on Fite.tv for $24.99. However, if you can still get the $39.99 bundle for this show and last night's Empowerrr, I'd recommend doing that.

Nick Aldis vs. Trevor Murdoch - For the third time, Murdoch is challenging Aldis for the NWA men's world heavyweight title. After coming up short on June 6 and July 24, Murdoch put his career on the line for this match; if he doesn't win, he will retire from pro wrestling.

Aldis has been champion for over 1,000 days. To put that into perspective, he won the title from Cody Rhodes at the NWA's 70th anniversary show, in October 2018. Prior to Cody's brief title reign, Aldis held the ten pounds of gold for an additional 266 days. In short, he's been the champion for most of the last four years. He's been so utterly dominant that I seriously think Murdoch may retire.

Murdoch is the embodiment of a wrestling journeyman. He got his first big break in the last days of ECW. Then in 2005 he debuted in WWE as a tag team with Lance Cade. This was at the peak of WWE's mentality of recruiting handsome muscle-y guys like Cade, so Murdoch's flabby, white-trash trucker look immediately made him stand out. He was different, which made him interesting, but WWE released him almost as soon as they broke up the team in 2008. At the time, getting cut from WWE usually meant no chance of getting back in, and few alternatives to make good money at wrestling. So he fell off the radar in the 2010s, only to re-emerge on Billy Corgan's version of the NWA, which seemed tailor-made for him.

The big question here is whether the NWA would actually take the world title off of their one heavily-protected superstar and put it on a guy who would be (and has been) a midcard also-ran in any other promotion. The other question is what happens with Aldis if he drops the belt--it's possible his contract is coming due, and that may be forcing the issue of a title change. If Aldis is on his way out, Murdoch is the best guy they have left to take over as champion. If not...well, I don't know how you book Aldis underneath Murdoch. I wouldn't mind finding out, though.

I'm leaning towards Murdoch winning the title. But it's a credit to how well they've protected Aldis that I can't shake the feeling that he'll win yet again and hold the title another 1,000 days.

Chris Adonis vs. James Storm - Adonis (better known as "The Masterpiece" Chris Masters in WWE) is defending the NWA national championship. Storm was a regular with the NWA up until January 2020. Other than coming in for some tapings where he dropped the tag title, he hasn't been around since then. So maybe this is a one-off or maybe he's back for good. The finish will probably depend on that. I'm sort of thinking Storm wins the title, but I could be wrong.

Kamille vs. Chelsea Green - Green won the NWA Women's Invitiational Cup last night to earn this shot at Kamille's NWA women's world title. I'm still kinda sore that Tootie Lynn didn't win after that huge hometown pop she got. It'll be worth it if they have something good planned for this match, but I'm not expecting a lot. Green is a free agent that could end up anywhere, but I don't think she'll end up in the NWA, so I don't think she's going to win the title.

Mickie James vs. Kylie Rae - When James was announced as the producer of the Empowerrr show, she vowed that she would not book herself to wrestle on the show, so this is her big chance to compete in an NWA ring this weekend. Kylie, meanwhile, is coming off a loss last night. It feels like Mickie needs to go over to establish her as the big star coming into the territory, but for all I know she's not sticking around, or she might prefer to put over the younger talent. This another match where I just can't be sure who wins, which is good for this card.

Aron Stevens & JR Kratos vs. Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf 450 - Stevens and Kratos are defending the NWA men's tag team title against representatives of AAA's faction La Rebelion. The last time I really kept up with the NWA, Stevens was doing a comedy karate gimmick with Jocephus dressed up as The Question Mark. Somewhere along the way (prior to Jocephus's death), Stevens ended up with Kratos instead. On paper you'd expect the team with Stevens on it to get clobbered, because he's the Wile E. Coyote of pro wrestling. But I doubt Bestia and Mecha Wolf are sticking around, so a tag title change wouldn't make a lot of sense. So look for Stevens to pull some kind of chicanery.

Thom Latimer vs. Tim Storm vs. Crimson - This is being billed as the "Brawl in the Lou" (i.e., St. Louis), which I assume means there are no disqualifications or count-outs, and falls count anywhere. Latimer is part of Nick Aldis's stable Strictly Business (along with Chris Adonis and Kamille). Tim Storm is 57 years old and sort of plays the role of an NWA legend without actually having been around when the NWA was really legendary. Crimson had been teaming with Jax Dane over the past few years but I'm not sure if that's still a thing. I have no idea why these three are fighting, and it may be just because there was nothing else for them to do on this show. I don't know who should win and I'm not sure it matters.

Tyrus & Jordan Clearwater & The Masked Man vs. Da Pope & Odinson & Parrow - Tyrus used to be Brodus Clay in WWE; currently he's the NWA television champion, with Austin Idol as his manager. Clearwater is part of Idol's stable. The Masked Man seems to be an x-factor in this match, and I don't know enough about the story to venture a guess as to why he's involved here. Pope appeared in WWE as Elijah Burke, and even though that's his real name he's tended to just go by "Da Pope" ever since. Odinson and Parrow are a tag team called The End.

The only storyline I can discern is that Tyrus won the TV title from Pope. I'm not sure what the Masked Man and The End have to do with anything. I tried looking for a promo on Youtube to explain things but I just ended up listening to a long, go-nowhere Austin Idol promo that reminded me why I don't watch NWA Powerrr much. I guess Pope's team wins, maybe?

12-man battle royale - This appears to be a standard battle royale, with everyone in the ring at the start, and eliminations occurring when the participants leave the ring over the top rope. The last competitor left in the ring wins the match and receives a future match for the NWA men's world title. No participants have been announced, and I'm real curious if the NWA even has twelve men available that aren't already booked for the other matches. For all I know the undercard guys may be doing double duty tonight.

This feels like a good place to have a surprise wrestler debut to win the whole thing and shake up the main event scene. Whether the NWA has anyone like that lined up remains to be seen. But WWE did lay off a lot of men who haven't shown up anywhere else yet, so maybe it could happen.

[helenarlett-rex]

My Halloween watch list so far. All the movies I’ve watched this October leading up to Halloween.

Clue (1985) - Not exactly a horror movie but it’s about an evening of mass murder in a creepy old mansion so I think it still fits. Besides, how can you not want to watch Clue, regardless of the season? That movie’s brilliant.

Invasion of the Star Creatures (1962) - This one was my wife’s pick. She thought I really needed to see it. I wasn’t disappointed with experience. Although it’s more of a comedy than a horror movie. Still, it is technically a monster movie. A monster movie staring two guys who really wanted to be Abbott and Costello.

Crimson Peak (2015) - There is a scene in this movie where the protagonist describes the book she is writing by saying “It’s not a ghost story. It’s a story with ghosts in it.” If I had known that was also the description of this movie I could have probably saved myself the trouble of watching it. Although if you’re the kind of person who likes gothic thrillers but always find yourself saying “It’s just not V.C. Andrews enough for me,” then you’ll probably like it.

WNUF Halloween Special (2013) - I was blown away by this movie. I know found footage is overdone at this point, but God... If I didn’t know better I would have sworn I was watching an actual VHS tape recorded off of local television in the 80s. This movie hit the nail on the head so hard. It really did capture exactly what the 80s was like down to the very last detail. Probably the best movie I’ve seen this Halloween. Maybe even the best movie I’ve seen this year.

Scare Me (2020) - A movie about about a couple of people sitting around telling each other scary stories during a blackout doesn’t really sound all that original. Sounds like a standard horror anthology movie. But when you tell me that you are actually just watching people tell the stories instead of seeing the stories themselves, I think... That sounds even worse... You’re not making use of your visual story telling medium... But somehow it actually managed to be interesting. I never thought you could make an entire movie that is nothing but people sitting around talking and it would hold my interest the way it did. Although the ending left me feeling less impressed and spawned an entire lecture on why modern horror isn’t scary anymore. I’ll spare you from having to listen to it.

Hack-O-Lantern (1988) - My feelings about this movie are so confused. I just can’t figure out if I loved it or hated it. I’ve heard people refer to it as a so bad it’s good movie, but I don’t even know if that’s right. It was very, very 80s. I don’t think a single woman in this movie got through without showing her tits at the least (although full frontal nudity seemed to be the standard). The twist ending honest to god surprised me. I actually didn’t see it coming... And it didn’t use loud music stings on the false jump scares. (That’s a whole different lecture, but it’s actually a good thing and you just don’t see it done very much.) But on the other hand it was a slasher movie that just didn’t have a whole lot of slashing going on. The acting, dialogue, and just general happenings of the movie bordered on Trolls 2 territory without going far enough. And things like random, out of nowhere music videos and stand up comedy acts invading the movie for no reason pulled me right out of it and just left me wondering what the hell just happened. I feel like this should have been 80s shlock gold, but it just wasn’t...

Becky (2020) - I love home invasions gone wrong. One of my favorite kind of horror movies. And this one’s about a 13 year old girl killing Neo Nazis after they invade her home and take her family hostage? This should have been perfect for me. But it just turned out to be an R rated cut of Home Alone with a protagonist who started out as a bitch, remained a bitch, and ended as a bitch. You’re Next is still my favorite and this one didn’t even come close to comparing. Maybe if the kills had been more intense it could have been better... but I always say that. I keep waiting for someone to top the first kill from the Last House on the Left remake, but no one ever does... Although I will say I was very impressed with Kevin James playing the lead Nazi. I didn’t even know it was him until I looked it up. I had no idea the man could actually act in a serious role... let alone be scary... But as horrific as his death was, it was just so quick and unsatisfying... Like the movie as a whole...

[theexecutionerssong]

Okay, i gave these questions a lot of thought because i was trying to answer for myself and i got curious what your answers would be😂 whats your favorite first episode of the season? Favorite last episode of the season? Favorite episode overall? Favorite ___!dean/sam/cas? (Like demon!dean or Gadreel..) favorite male/female side character ? (Besides charlie bc that’s obviously a favorite) Favorite funny episode or moment? Favorite break of fourth wall? (i feel like fanfiction ep is an obvious one at least for me so let’s say besides that one) favorite “oh shit/wtf” moment? (for me that was demon!dean i remember my jaw dropping) you already mentioned Abaddon was your favorite villain which is understandable but lets say second favorite? Favorite Cas/dean/sam moment? (Doesnt matter if its a together moment or them separately) and the last one to this interrogatin is favorite case they worked on or i guess memorable one that was just one of their cases and not emd of the world related? anyway sorry for a shit ton of questions, you can ignorite it if you’d like i was just curious.

Alright let’s tackle this! 

Fav first episode of a season: either Lazarus Rising or I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here.

Favorite last episode of the season: Sacrifice. That’s for sure, no hesitation.

Favorite ___!dean/sam/cas? (Like demon!dean or Gadreel..) : Purgatory!Dean, hands down. I could write essays about the line “it felt pure”. I propably have.  Honestly every version of Cas always all the time except for Casifer and endverse!Cas. Early seasons Cas, human!Cas, hell, even Godstiel, I loved. And don’t get me wrong, I obviously love endverse!Cas but it hurts too much. Same with endverse!Dean. And for Sam... I like regular Sam just fine but if I had to pick another version then soulless!Sam. It made for very funny moments.

Favorite male/female side character ? (Besides charlie bc that’s obviously a favorite): well, first of all, rude that I can’t pick Charlie, but then... Jo or Donna. Or Claire. Ugh this is hard.

Favorite funny episode or moment?: First one that comes to mind is in Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie when Dean can’t stop laughing at Sam covered in glitter after killing the clowns. And Sam’s face in the French Mistake when Genevieve shows up. Gold. Pure GOLD. The bitchface in Tall Tales when Sam says “Dean, WHAT do you think you are doING?” lmao I lose it every time sdfghjkl and Jensen’s delivery as demon!Dean in Reichenbach when he says “What did you think was going to happen, huh? You just stroll up here and say, 'My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.' And I'd just roll over?” with the accent and the smirk and everything....... peak comedy.

Favorite break of fourth wall? (i feel like fanfiction ep is an obvious one at least for me so let’s say besides that one): Fanfiction and The French Mistake and Meta Fiction and the entire Season 15 obviously come to mind but honestly my favorite is when they reference Bugs. I even made a gifset here. I think it’s hilarious.

Favorite “oh shit/wtf” moment? (for me that was demon!dean i remember my jaw dropping): I had seen that one coming for a long time but, yeah, it was very well done. My favorite is the angels falling in Sacrifice because we all thought that Cas was going to fall but I don’t remember anybody back then thinking that all angels were gonna fall. I also didn’t think Dean was really going to go to Hell at the end of s3 so that was a BIG oh shit moment. The 4 months that followed until Lazarus rising were STRESSFUL. Oh and Dean making up a complete set of memories of what really happened in Purgatory. I remember losing it when we found out that Cas chose to stay, I mean do you understand how LOUD that is???

you already mentioned Abaddon was your favorite villain which is understandable but lets say second favorite?: if not Abaddon then Alastair, especially the second actor. He was terrifying, so so good, no wonder Jensen got scared. And obviously, the first Death but I don’t consider him really a villain. 

Favorite Cas/dean/sam moment? (Doesnt matter if its a together moment or them separately): as Team Free Will you mean? Honestly 9x22 when Cas asks “do you really think we three will be enough?” and Dean replies “always have been”. I mean... that’s why the finale sucked so bad, isn’t it? They obliterad that fact to millions of pieces.

and the last one to this interrogatin is favorite case they worked on or i guess memorable one that was just one of their cases and not end of the world related?: oh la. that is soooo hard... But for very obvious reasons, Heaven Can’t Wait with the angel killing people in pain, I mean it had Cas holding a baby, Dean to the rescue, the whole “kicking and screaming” speech, the mere concept of a monster being drawned to pain. Yeah, I enjoyed that. Bad Boys was also an excellent monster of the week episode and throwback to early Supernatural. And I love Dean with kids. Which makes me think of Dead in the Water, so so good and scary. And I’m also a sucker for Djinn episodes, especially the first one What Is and What Should Never Be. It’s such a great concept.

That is clearly more than just one favorite but when you have 230+ hours of television... it gets tricky so you’ll excuse me ^^ and thanks for asking!!! no i wanna know yours!

[papermoonloveslucy]

MOTHER-IN-LAW

November 4, 1949

“Mother-In-Law” (aka “George’s Mother Visits”) is episode #60 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on November 4, 1949. 

Synopsis ~ George gets a letter from his mother that she’s moving to Sheridan Falls. Liz has no doubt that means staying with them!  But when will she ever leave?

This was the tenth episode of the second season of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND. There were 43 new episodes, with the season ending on June 25, 1950.

Although similarly titled, this radio episode is not the basis for the “I Love Lucy” episode “Lucy’s Mother-in-Law” (ILL S4;E8) in 1954. 

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz, a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

Bea Benadaret (Iris) and Gale Gordon (Rudolph) do not appear in this episode. 

GUEST CAST

Hans Conried (Mr. Benjamin Wood) first co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942). He then appeared on “I Love Lucy” as used furniture man Dan Jenkins in “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8) and later that same season as Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13) – both in 1952. The following year he began an association with Disney by voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan. On “The Lucy Show” he played Professor Gitterman in “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (TLS S1;E19) and in “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (TLS S2;E1). He was probably best known as Uncle Tonoose on “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas, which was filmed on the Desilu lot. He joined Thomas on a season 6 episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1973. He died in 1982 at age 64. 

Mr. Wood is the Cooper’s next door neighbor. He has eleven children. 

Eleanor Audley (Leaticia Cooper, George’s Mother) previously played this character in “George is Messy” on June 14, 1950. She would later play Eleanor Spalding, owner of the Westport home the Ricardos buy in “Lucy Wants To Move to the Country” (ILL S6;E15) in 1957, as well as one of the Garden Club judges in “Lucy Raises Tulips” (ILL S6;E26).

Peter Leeds (Deliveryman) was born in Bayonne, NJ, was also heard on “My Favorite Husband in “Too Many Television Sets” in October 1949 and “Dance Lessons” in June 1950. He will be seen as the Reporter questioning the Maharincess of Franistan in “The Publicity Agent” (ILL S1;E31). He starred with Lucy in the films The Long, Long Trailer (1953) and The Facts of Life (1960) with Bob Hope. Coincidentally, he also appeared in “Lucy and Bob Hope” (ILL S6;E1) as well as an episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1971.

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on Sheridan Falls and the Coopers,  Liz is in the living room reading a magazine as Katie the maid dusts around the room.”

Liz asks about the mail, but Katie is light-heartedly singing “April Showers.” 

"April Showers" is a popular song written by Louis Silvers and B. G. De Sylva in 1921. It it is one of many popular songs whose lyrics use a "Bluebird of happiness" as a symbol of cheer. The song was introduced in the 1921 Broadway musical Bombo, where it was performed by Al Jolson. That same musical introduced the song “California, Here I Come!” which was famously sung by the cast of “I Love Lucy” in January 1955.

Liz correctly assumes that Katie is so happy because Mr. Negley, the mailman, has flirted with her. Katie says they were “playing post office.”

KATIE: “He’s so creative. He said my mouth was like a postage stamp. Then he canceled me!” 

Katie hands her the mail and Liz finds a letter from her mother-in-law.

LIZ: “No one else addresses a letter ‘To George Cooper Only’ marked personal all over and then seals it with Scotch tape!” 

Liz says that George’s mother does not acknowledge their marriage, let alone address her as Mrs. George Cooper.  Liz decides to sneak a peak at what’s inside the envelope.

LIZ: “I can just see some of the writing. It says ‘Keep Out Nosy’!”

Lucy Ricardo was adept at secretly opening and reading sealed envelopes. In 1951′s “Drafted” (ILL S1;11) she uses the old fashioned steam method, but by 1960′s “Lucy and the Mustache” (LDCH S3;E3) she’s using knitting needles and holding the envelope up to a lamp. 

When George comes home from work, Liz doesn’t even bother with a kiss before giving George the mail. George opens the letter from his mother, which reads “say hello to what’s-her-name.” George’s mother is moving to Sheridan Falls and Liz wants to put her up at the Sheridan Arms (far away) but George proposes the Garden Court (two blocks away). 

That night, Liz wants to smooch in case they have to ‘ration their passion’. Liz is sure Mother will want to move in with them. Mother (Eleanor Audley) enters mid-smooch. Despite the clinch, Mother pretends she doesn’t recognize Liz as Mrs. Cooper! 

Mother ‘mother smothers’ George, much to Liz’s chagrin. George admits that they haven’t found her an apartment yet. Mother quickly agrees to stay with them - only for a few days.

LIZ: “It sounds longer when she says it.”

A Deliveryman (Peter Leeds) rings the bell to announce that they’ve finished unloading Mother’s things: 

LIZ: “Six suitcases, a trunk, an easy chair, a potted plant, a barrel of dishes, two crates of books - just enough for a few days. She’s landed! She’s moved her supplies up and she’s dug in for the winter. You can throw away your calendar, George. From now on, every day is mother’s day with us!”

Two weeks later, Mother is still there and Katie is ready to quit. George’s mother has changed everything in the kitchen around. Liz confides that she’s had no privacy with George. 

LIZ: “The three of us have been inseparable ever since she’s been here. I’m beginning to feel like one of the Andrews Sisters. I’d better go in and see how Patty and LaVerne are getting along.”

The Andrews Sisters were a very successful trio of singing sisters during World War II with 19 gold records and sales of nearly 100 million copies. In 1937, the sisters scored their first big hit with “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen.” In addition to “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” their best-known songs included “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” and “Rum and Coca Cola.” The trio officially broke up after the death of LaVerne in 1967, when a suitable replacement could not be found. Patty Andrews guest starred on “Here’s Lucy” as herself in 1969. The plot had Lucy Carter and her daughter Kim (Lucie Arnaz) stepping in for the other two singers for a charity show. During a poker game in “Be a Pal” (ILL S1;E2), Lucy calls her two queens ‘sisters.’ When Fred looks at his newly-dealt hand he quips “You can tell your two Andrews Sisters not to wait up for LaVerne.”

In the living room, Liz finds Mother and George laughing about old times back home. Mother mentions Betty Johanson, a girl George ‘knew slightly’ a dozen years ago. Mother adds that she ‘hasn’t changed a bit.’

Later, Liz tells George that Katie has quit due to his mother’s meddling. George thinks Liz is out looking for an apartment, when Liz saw going to the movies at the Strand Theatre. At first Mother denies going to a movie, but Liz tricks her.

LIZ: “Well, if you were tired, you should have gone to a show. There’s a good one at the Strand: ‘Tokyo Joe’ with Clark Gable.” MOTHER: “Gable? No, it was Humphrey Bogart, I....”  

Mother has been caught in her lie, so she fakes illness and goes to her room. 

Tokyo Joe is a crime film directed by Stuart Heisler and starring Humphrey Bogart. It premiered October 26, 1949, a week before this broadcast. At the time, Clark Gable’s film Any Number Can Play was still in theatres. 

Liz dissolves into tears at the prospect of her mother-in-law staying forever and runs next door to talk to Mr. Woods (Hans Conried) about it over a cup of tea. Mr. Woods says the same thing happened to him with his mother-in-law. 

MR. WOODS: “She moved out after the birth of our eleventh child!” LIZ: “Is that the only cure?”

George comes over to find his wife and Mr. Wood acts as intermediary, shouting at George through the window. They are successful at patching things up. George has told his mother to leave and (unbelievably) she’s graciously agreed to go. Just as she’s about to leave, she gets a spell and faints.

LIZ: “George! Look out!  A mouse!  Running across the floor right near your mother’s hand!” 

Mother jumps up and runs away from the invisible rodent. Liz tricks has tricked her again!  But when Mother sprints across the room, she trips and sprains her ankle!  Six weeks of recuperation ahead!  

GEORGE: “How did this happen?” MOTHER: “I tripped and fell over my suitcase!  Someone put it by the front door!” LIZ: “Oh, no!”

his ending is identical to the play and film The Man Who Came To Dinner by Kaufman and Hart. In it, Sheridan Whiteside is a bombastic houseguest is finally convinced to leave when he slips on the ice and must stay on to recuperate, much to the frustration of his hosts. The 1939 stage play and 1942 film featured Lucille Ball’s friend Mary Wickes as Whiteside’s nurse.  

In the bedtime tag, Liz and George are asleep in bed. Liz wakes George to wonder why he’s smiling. He’s dreaming about the most beautiful creature in the world: a rainbow trout! 

LIZ: “If I ever find one scale on your lapel I’ll swim upstream to mother. Goodnight, George!” 

End of Episode

[ayliffe]

🌶 - you need to stop making your hit British variety and stand-up comedy television series 'big show' its not funny. you peaked at comedy roadshow. :/ sorry

listen the bit where i invade people’s bedrooms at midnight is comedy fucking gold

[in-flagrante]

ALL CHANGE With Michelle Dockery

Best known as Downton Abbey’s indelible Lady Mary, MICHELLE DOCKERY effortlessly transitions from haughty aristocrat to corrupt cockney in Guy Ritchie’s new gangster movie, The Gentlemen. LAURA CRAIK talks to the British star about her working-class roots, embracing a golden age of opportunities for female actors and why working with Ritchie, Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant and her idol Jeremy Strong was a dream come true

Michelle Dockery is about as different from Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary as is imaginable. Dressed in Totême boyfriend jeans, white Adidas trainers and a black cashmere turtleneck, she is warm, effusive and quick to laugh where Lady Mary is frosty and composed, and she has an accent not dissimilar to Victoria Beckham’s. “It may come as a bit of a shock to everyone when I open my mouth in the film,” she smiles.

“The film” is The Gentlemen, a classic gangster caper written and directed by Guy Ritchie in a return to the genre that first made him famous. “Charlie [Hunnan, one of Dockery’s co-stars] is calling The Gentlemen ‘vintage Ritchie’, and I think that’s right,” she says of the British director behind Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. “I play Rosalind, who is the wife of Matthew McConaughey’s character, Mickey,” Dockery explains. “He has these marijuana farms that are growing underneath stately homes, hence the title The Gentlemen.”

Marijuana farms? What would Carson say? Dockery laughs. After six years playing Lady Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey– first in the well-loved TV series (which has won 15 Emmys and been watched by an estimated 270m people worldwide) and latterly in the movie – her role in The Gentlemen was a great departure for the 38-year-old British actress. “Rosalind runs a car dealership, which she’s inherited through her family. She’s a real, tough, east-London girl. I grew up in Essex, and my family has a sort of east-London background, so it was great to step into that world.”

To say the cast of The Gentlemen is “stellar” is an understatement: in addition to Dockery, McConaughey and Hunnam, the movie stars Hugh Grant (who plays equally against type and appears as a corrupt and predatory reporter), Colin Farrell, Henry Golding, and Jeremy Strong, most recently seen as the troubled Kendall Roy in HBO’s Succession – of which Dockery is a huge fan. “I mean, this whole interview could be about Succession,” she laughs. “It’s absolutely brilliant, the best thing on TV. Every single character is Shakespearean. I loved working with Jeremy. We only had one scene together, a dinner-party scene, and I would never have seen his character the way he played it. He was a joy to watch, and worlds away from Kendall.”

Working with Ritchie – and the laugh-a-minute, largely male cast – was, Dockery says, a dream. “There’s one scene where I arrive at my garage, and Guy wanted to add a bit of dialogue, just off the cuff. I had to be on my toes, and I really enjoyed that. So often, when I’m working, the process is very much word for word, and on this film it was malleable. It was liberating.” She also relished collaborating with Ritchie on Rosalind’s look. “Even though Rosalind works in a garage, I get to wear the most beautiful Balmain jumpsuit, and the first scene is me walking into the garage in a pair of Louboutins, which is hilarious. Rosalind has clearly worked her way up to where she is, really enjoys the lifestyle and having money, but still wants to work. I love that about her character, that she still gets her hands dirty.”

Dockery says she is happy with the quality of roles she has been offered in her career (she graduated from London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2004), while being aware that, in the past, female actors have lamented the paucity of fully rounded female characters. “I do feel I stepped into this industry at a time when things were really beginning to change, especially for women. It’s the golden age of television, where creators have the luxury of writing 10 hours as opposed to just two, so there’s room to explore a character in greater depth. It’s now becoming much more normal to start a job or to read a part and for me to have a dialogue with the creators – if there are moments where it’s felt the female character is not involved, for example – whereas I guess in the past, it would have felt like more of a fight.”

Does she have any aspirations to write or direct herself? She laughs. “I do think about, you know, doing other things. Right now, I’m not sure exactly what, but…” she tails off, laughing. The glint in her eye suggests she has something in the pipeline

After a six-month stint in Boston, where she was filming Defending Jacob, a harrowing miniseries about a family whose lives are torn apart after the death of a boy at their son’s school (“it’s not a comedy,” she notes wryly), she is very much enjoying being home in north London, where she lives close to her two sisters (Dockery is the youngest of three). “It’s a cozy time of year to be home,” she smiles, nursing a cup of tea. “It’s great catching up with friends and family – and, because I travel a lot for work, every time I come back to London, I appreciate it much more. Recently a friend came over from LA and we went to the Antony Gormley exhibition. It took my breath away.”

Can she walk around London fairly anonymously? “Yes, more so here than in America. But that’s the thing with our culture. Brits are too cool to approach you, but in America people have more confidence to come over and say something. It still takes me very much by surprise, but it goes in waves. When the Downton film came out, it peaked again.”

She laughs as she explains that she can never tell who’s going to be a Downton fan. “I got into a cab a little while ago, and the driver was this big, burly Guy Ritchie type. ‘Where you going, love?’ he said. And then it went a bit quiet. And then he was like, ‘You alright?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah,’ and told him about my day. And he suddenly went, ‘Shame about your sister in season 3.’ And I just laughed out loud. People really surprise me sometimes.”

Would she say she’s an introvert or an extrovert? “I’m an introvert.” Although not the stay-at-home type. “I do like to go out and dance. For me, it’s not a night out unless I’m on the dance floor. Every couple of months, I just need to dance; have one of those… dance-y nights.”

Her interest in fashion is modest rather than craven. “I love clothes but can be ignorant of certain designers. I like supporting young ones coming up.” She’s also what she calls “a coat girl”, with more coats than shoes. But her most cherished possession is a St Christopher necklace her mom gave her. “It comes everywhere with me. I’ve had it for 15 or 20 years.” She recently started donating her old clothes to Smart Works, a British charity of which the Duchess of Sussex is a patron, which helps unemployed women get back to work. “They’ve got all my skinny jeans.”

Our time being almost over, I finish with the question few subjects want to answer. Is she in love at the moment? She laughs and draws an imaginary zip across her mouth. The line of enquiry is especially sensitive as Dockery’s fiancé, Irishman John Dineen, passed away in 2015. She is now rumored to be dating Jasper Waller-Bridge, brother of the feted Phoebe, creator of Fleabag and Killing Eve. If this is true, perhaps we’ll see her in a comedy soon? “There are things on the back burner, but I can’t say,” she says. Then, in a quick flash of Lady Mary, she concludes with a polite, “Thank you so much. It’s been really lovely.”

The Gentlemen is released on January 1, 2020

[blackkudos]

Darius Rucker

Darius Carlos Rucker (born May 13, 1966) is an American singer and songwriter. He first gained fame as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, which he founded in 1986 at the University of South Carolina along with Mark Bryan, Jim "Soni" Sonefeld, and Dean Felber. The band released five studio albums with him as a member and charted six top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Rucker co-wrote most of the songs with the other members.

He released a solo R&B album, Back to Then in 2002 on Hidden Beach Recordings but no singles from it charted. Six years later, Rucker signed to Capitol Nashville as a country music singer, releasing the album, Learn to Live that year. Its first single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It", made him the first black artist to reach number one on the Hot Country Songs charts since Charley Pride in 1983. (Ray Charles hit number one in March 1985 in a duet with Willie Nelson with "Seven Spanish Angels".) It was followed by two more number one singles, "It Won't Be Like This for Long" and "Alright" and the number three hit "History in the Making". In 2009, he became the first black American to win the New Artist Award from the Country Music Association, and the second black person to win any award from the association. A second album, Charleston, SC 1966, was released on October 12, 2010. The album includes the number one singles, "Come Back Song" and "This".

Early life

Rucker was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, where his family history goes back generations. He lives in Charleston with his wife and three children. His single mother, Carolyn, a nurse at Medical University of South Carolina, raised him with his three sisters and two brothers. According to Rucker, his father was never around, and Rucker saw him only before church on Sundays. His father was in a gospel band called The Traveling Echoes. Rucker has said that he had a typical Southern African-American upbringing. His family attended church every Sunday and was economically poor, and at one point, his mother, her two sisters, his grandmother and 14 children were all living in a three-bedroom house. But he says that he looks back on his childhood with very fond memories. His sister, L'Corine, recalled that singing was always his dream.

Hootie & the Blowfish

Darius Rucker has been the lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish since its formation in 1986. He met fellow band members Mark Bryan, Jim "Soni" Sonefeld, and Dean Felber while attending the University of South Carolina. Bryan first heard Rucker singing in the shower, and the two became a duo, playing R.E.M. covers at a local venue. They later recruited Felber and finally Sonefeld joined in 1989. As a member of Hootie & the Blowfish, Rucker has recorded six studio albums: Cracked Rear View – 1994, Fairweather Johnson – 1996, Musical Chairs – 1998, Scattered, Smothered & Covered – 2000, Hootie & the Blowfish and Looking for Lucky – 2005, also charting within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 six times. All six albums feature songs that Rucker, Bryan and Felber wrote. As the frontman, Rucker began to be called simply "Hootie" by fans, though the band title combines the nicknames of his college friends. Before his rise to fame, he lived in the basement of the Sigma Phi Epsilon house at the University of South Carolina, attempting to launch his career through the college bar scene.

Rucker's signature contribution to the band is his baritone voice, which Rolling Stone has called "ingratiating," TIME has called "low, gruff, [and] charismatic," and Entertainment Weekly has characterized as a "barrelhouse growl." Rucker said they "flipped" the formula of the all black band with a white frontman, like Frank Sinatra performing with Count Basie. Musically, he has sometimes been criticized or spoofed for not being "black enough". Saturday Night Live ran a sketch of Tim Meadows playing Rucker leading beer-drinking, white fraternity members in a counter-march to Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March. He also received death threats for singing the Hootie song "Drowning," a protest song against the flying of the Confederate flag above the South Carolina statehouse.

Shortly after gaining a measure of fame, Felber and Rucker (who consider themselves best friends) moved into an apartment in Columbia, South Carolina. With Rucker's recognition as the frontman of a successful band came increased opportunities. In October 1995, he was asked to sing the national anthem at the World Series. Frank Sinatra invited him to sing at his 80th birthday party; he sang "The Lady Is a Tramp." That same week, he made a voice cameo in an episode of the sitcom Friends. He also joined Nanci Griffith on the song "Gulf Coast Highway" for her 1997 album Blue Roses from the Moons, and sang backing vocals on Radney Foster's 1999 album See What You Want to See. He encouraged Atlantic Records to agree to a deal with Edwin McCain and made a guest appearance on McCain's debut album, Honor Among Thieves.

In regard to the future of Hootie & the Blowfish, Rucker was quoted by CBS news as stating in late 2011, "I don't think we'll ever break up totally. We're Hootie & the Blowfish. ... We'll make another record and do another tour someday. I don't know when, but it will happen. There's one more in us." After a ten-year hiatus, Rucker and the band announced that they will be touring with Barenaked Ladies in 2019 while releasing a new album the same year.

Their sixth studio album Imperfect Circle was released on November 1, 2019.

Solo career

In 2001, he made his solo R&B debut album, The Return of Mongo Slade, for Atlantic Records. Because of contractual changes, it was never released by the label. Hidden Beach Recordings, an independent label, acquired the masters from Atlantic and released the album as Back to Then in July 2002. The album included work from the production team of Jill Scott, and she made an appearance on the track "Hold On." The single "This Is My World" was featured in the 2001 comedy film Shallow Hal. In regards to the album, "That was just a minute in my life," he later told The Arizona Republic about the record. "I was listening to a lot of Notorious B.I.G. and Lauryn Hill at that time, and I wanted to make a neo soul record." He also said in the article that he doesn't anticipate recording an R&B-styled disc again. "Country music is my day job now. I'll probably do this till it's all over, but that album was a lot of fun."

Rucker appeared on a pop-star edition of the quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in July 2001. He also portrayed a singing cowboy in a television commercial for the fast-food company Burger King, promoting its TenderCrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch sandwich in 2005. In the commercial, he sang a jingle set to the tune of "Big Rock Candy Mountain." In 2006 Rucker lent his voice to the track "God's Reasons" written by Dean Dinning and Joel A. Miller for the film The Still Life.

Country music2008–2009: Learn to Live

In early 2008, Rucker signed to Capitol Records Nashville as the beginning of a career in country music. His first solo single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" (which he co-wrote with Clay Mills) debuted at No. 51 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts for the week of May 3, 2008. It is the first single from his second album, Learn to Live. For this album, Rucker worked with Frank Rogers, a record producer who has also produced for Brad Paisley and Trace Adkins. Rucker also made his Grand Ole Opry debut in July 2008. The single reached number one in September, making Rucker the first solo, African-American artist to chart a number one country hit since Charley Pride's "Night Games" in 1983.

Learn to Live was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 6, 2009, and received a platinum certification on August 7, 2009. The album's second single, "It Won't Be Like This for Long", spent three weeks at the top of the country chart in mid-2009. Its follow-up, "Alright", became Rucker's third straight No. 1 hit, making him the first singer to have his first three country singles reach No. 1 since Wynonna in 1992. The album's fourth single, "History in the Making" was released in September and peaked at No. 3. The singles also crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at 35, 36, 30 and 61.

Billboard magazine said that "there's a sense of purpose that makes Rucker feel like a member of the country family, rather than calculating interloper." Rucker made visits to various country stations around the United States, explaining that he was aware that he was the "new kid on the block." Mike Culotta, the program director of Tampa, Florida, radio station WQYK-FM expected that Rucker would be "somebody who would have entitlement," but instead said that "Darius engaged everybody." When Rucker found that "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" went to number one, he cried. On November 11, 2009, Rucker won the Country Music Association New Artist of the Year award (formerly known as the Horizon Award), making him the first African American to do so since the award was introduced in 1981. Only one other African American has won at the CMAs: Charley Pride, who won entertainer of the year in 1971 and male vocalist in 1971 and 1972.

2010–2011: Charleston, SC 1966

Rucker released his second country album, Charleston, SC 1966, on October 12, 2010. The title is inspired by Radney Foster's solo debut album, Del Rio, TX 1959. Its first single was "Come Back Song," which Rucker wrote with Chris Stapleton and Casey Beathard. It was his fourth country number one as well as a NO. 37 hit on the Hot 100. The album's second single was "This", which was released to radio in November 2010 and also reached No. 1 in the country chart. Rucker wrote it with Rogers and Kara DioGuardi. "I Got Nothin'" was the album's third single, peaking at No. 18. Also included on the album is a duet with Brad Paisley titled "I Don't Care". Charleston, SC 1966 received a gold certification.

2012–2014: True Believers

On May 20, 2011, Rucker delivered the commencement address to the graduating class of the Medical University of South Carolina.

On December 14, 2011, CBSnews.com reported that Rucker was working on a third country album with recording set to begin January 2012 followed by the release of the album early in the year. The album's lead-off single, "True Believers," made its chart debut in September. On October 12, 2012, Rucker told Broadway's Electric Barnyard that his album would also be titled True Believers. "True Believers" peaked at No. 18. Its second single is a cover of Bob Dylan and Ketch Secor's "Wagon Wheel" (previously made famous by Old Crow Medicine Show), featuring backing vocals from Lady Antebellum. "Wagon Wheel" reached No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart in May 2013. True Believers was released on May 21, 2013. The album's third single, "Radio", was released to country radio on July 22, 2013. The album's fourth single, "Miss You", was released to country radio on February 3, 2014.

On October 2, 2012, Rucker was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry. Halfway through his set at the Opry that night he answered questions from the audience which included a question from Brad Paisley. Paisley said: "I have two questions. One, are you still the worst poker player in the world? And two, would you like to become the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry?" Rucker accepted, and it became official on October 16.

Rucker was a featured performer at the C2C: Country to Country festival in London on March 17, 2013, which was headlined by Carrie Underwood.

On News Year's Day 2013. he sang the national anthem at the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida.

On May 11, 2013, Rucker was the speaker at the commencement ceremony for the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Before his speech, he received an honorary doctorate of music.

Rucker also sang the national anthem at the NBA finals on June 16, 2013.

On December 6, 2013, it was announced that Rucker's version of "Wagon Wheel" had earned him a nomination for Best Country Solo Performance for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. At the awards ceremony on January 26, 2014, Rucker won, becoming only the third African American recording act (the first being Charley Pride, the second being The Pointer Sisters) to win a vocal performance Grammy Award in a country music category.

2014–2015: Southern Style and Home for the Holidays

On August 25, 2014, Rucker released a new single titled "Homegrown Honey" to country radio and to digital retailers. It served as the lead single to his fourth country studio album, Southern Style, released on March 31, 2015. It reached No. 2 on the Country Airplay chart in April 2015. The album's second single, the title track, released to country radio on May 4, 2015.

On September 15, 2014, it was announced that Rucker had completed his first Christmas album and that it would be released on October 27, 2014. Included is a collaboration with Sheryl Crow on "Baby, It's Cold Outside".May 30, 2015 Rucker headlined Philadelphia's famous XTU 31st Anniversary Show at the Susquehanna Bank Center. Christopher Bousquet named President of the Hootie fan club

Rucker makes an appearance on Sister Hazel's new album, Lighter in the Dark.

2016–present: When Was the Last Time

On January 6, 2016, Rucker announced that he was working on his fifth country album. The album's lead single, "If I Told You" was released to country radio on July 5, 2016. It reached number one in the Country Airplay chart nearly a year later, and peaked at number four on the Hot Country Chart. Rucker also returned to the C2C: Country to Country festival in the UK in March 2017, where he was second on the bill to Reba McEntire.

On May 29, 2016, Rucker performed the national anthem prior to the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. Rucker also performed the national anthem for a game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets on September 15. Rucker agreed to perform the song at the behest of personal friend and former Bills player Bruce Smith, whose jersey was being retired that night. He sang the national anthem again ahead of the Saints-Dolphins game held at London's Wembley Stadium in October 2017, as part of the NFL International Series.

Rucker was selected as one of 30 artists to perform on "Forever Country", a mash-up track of "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "On the Road Again" and "I Will Always Love You", which celebrates 50 years of the CMA Awards. On July 24, 2017, Rucker released the second single from his upcoming album, titled "For the First Time." On July 26, 2017, he shared details of his fifth country album, titled When Was the Last Time and it was released on October 20, 2017.

Rucker appeared as a mentor on seventeenth season of The Voice for Team Blake.

Personal life

Rucker is an ardent South Carolina Gamecocks fan as well as a Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Reds fan. He also likes the film Stir Crazy, which he has seen more than 100 times.To show his loyalty to his University, he gave a free concert which was held at the Colonial Life Arena after the football team was able to win 6 games following a pair of losing seasons after joining the Southeastern Conference.

Rucker's mother died in November 1992 of a heart attack. His grief inspired two Hootie & the Blowfish songs: "I'm Goin' Home" and "Not Even the Trees." On April 21, 1995, his girlfriend (Elizabeth Ann Phillips) gave birth to Rucker's first child, Carolyn Pearl Phillips. His second daughter, Daniella Rose, was born to his wife, Beth, on May 16, 2001. They had a son, Jack, in 2005. The Hootie song "Where Were You" is about Rucker's strained relationship with his father, and was released only in Europe, where Rucker thought that his father would be unlikely to hear it. His country single "Alright" was inspired by his marriage.

Rucker is a friend of the golfer Tiger Woods, whom he met in a bar when Woods was 18. Rucker sang at the golfer's wedding with Hootie & the Blowfish and at his father's funeral. His interest in golf goes well beyond his relationship with Woods; he was a VIP guest of Team USA at the 2016 Ryder Cup, and he attended Arnold Palmer's funeral shortly before the Cup.

On November 7, 2016, Rucker told ESPN that he had become a partner in MGC Sports, a sports agency that currently represents golfers (among them Steve Stricker and Kenny Perry), football players, and coaches. He added that he was planning to reduce his performance commitments from 100 dates per year to about 30, and that he thought that his experience in the entertainment business would be an asset to potential clients. Rucker will be able to work without restrictions for golfers, but because he is not registered with the NFL players' union, he initially will only be able to meet with NFL players under very limited circumstances.

For the Undercover Boss series episode "Celebrity Undercover Boss: Darius Rucker" which premiered May 12, 2017, Rucker disguised himself as a 62 year old music teacher, ran an open mic night and worked as a roadie.

Philanthropy and impact

Rucker has regularly worked with charities that support sick and underprivileged children, via benefit concerts, volunteering, the PGA The First Tee Program, and the Hootie & The Blowfish Foundation which has raised nearly $4.5 million to provide funding to public education systems throughout South Carolina.

He serves as a board member of the MUSC Children's Hospital in Charleston, SC. where his mother worked for over 30 years from the time Rucker was a child, and has helped fundraise millions of dollars to help build a new hospital.

He also made a commitment to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital after touring the facility in 2008. Since then, Rucker has spearheaded an annual event focused on amazing music, memorable collaborations and heartfelt stories resulting in over $1.6M raised for St. Jude's to date.