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Has the fuse finally been unlit? After 30 years of saving the world with stunts, set-pieces, spycraft and a substantial amount of sprinting, is Tom Cruise’s possibility-defying Imf agent Ethan Hunt finally hanging up his prosthetic mask? Whether or not Final Reckoning is truly the final Mission: Impossible remains to be seen. But there is a sense of an ending here, a much-deserved victory-lap for this most consistently thrilling of franchises.

It is, to some extent, ‘Mission: Impossible — The Greatest Hits’. It opens with a valedictorian montage of all seven previous films, makes a nice narrative link to Mission: Impossible III, and even offers a scene which plays out like the Seinfeld finale, Ethan’s lifetime of crimes and misdemeanours put on trial. Hapless analyst William Donloe (Rolf Saxon), a minor character from the first film, makes a welcome return here too, the resolution of an arc established in 1996 with the line of dialogue,...

Every fictional detective written in the last 100 years has a little bit of Sherlock Holmes in them. But procedural dramedy series "Monk" is patterned very explicitly after "Sherlock Holmes," down to its ensemble cast. The lynchpin of that cast is Adrian Monk, a San Francisco detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder (Ocd) and extreme germaphobia.

Though Monk shares Holmes' power of observation, it's not a perfect comparison. Monk has a tragic backstory that Holmes didn't. Similarly, Holmes is arrogant while Monk is awkward. And whereas Holmes only has Dr. John Watson by his side, Monk had two different sidekicks.

In the first two-and-a-half seasons, Monk's personal assistant/nurse/Watson is Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram), a no-bs Jersey gal. Then, after "Monk" season 3, episode 9, "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine," Sharona abruptly departs, moving back to New Jersey and remarrying her ex-husband. In the following episode, "Mr. Monk and the Red Herring," Monk meets...

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that John Mulaney is one of the funniest comedians working today. His material possesses a sharp wit that's only matched by his theatrical showmanship. Mulaney knows how to play to a crowd and, even better, subvert their expectations when it comes to delivering a great punchline. Some of his best jokes often involve him going on about a subject only he really cares about, and ultimately winning folks over to his side. It's even funnier when the joke is mostly to make himself laugh. As of late, the Emmy-award winning comedian is doing incredible work for Netflix with "Everybody's Live With John Mulaney."

It's one of the best late night talks shows on television simply because it's the only place where you can see Bonnie Aarons garbed in her full "Mulholland Drive" makeup simply for a throwaway gag.

Mulaney occupied the 2010s...

Up to 2020 I used to watch a lot of stand-up comedy. I guess my introduction to the genre was through Seinfeld. After that, I used to actively seek out old videos of Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Jim Carrey, George Carlin, and every other comic who built the bedrock of this profession. And I used to keep track of the newcomers, especially from India, because it was so interesting to get fresh and hilarious perspectives on things I encountered in my daily life. But then the pandemic happened, live shows were shut down, and all those Zoom sessions didn’t really cut it anymore. Then Bo Burnham released Inside and changed everything. Crowdwork didn’t seem funny anymore. Observations about urinals and, I don’t know, sliced bread fell flat. Jokes about the transgender community and sexist humor, which weren’t amusing to me to begin with, felt all the more crass.

Gold Derby recently gathered together four top TV showrunners to discuss how they landed their first job, what advice they would share with people starting out in show business, and what some of their favorite TV shows were that inspired them to work in Hollywood. Joining our Meet the Experts: Showrunners roundtable panel are The Better Sister showrunner Regina Corrado, Deli Boys and Shifting Gears showrunner Michelle Nader, Overcompensating showrunner Scott King, and Three Women showrunner Laura Eason.

Watch the full roundtable above. Click each person's name to watch an individual discussion.

"I actually came up through ensemble theater as a playwright," says Eason. "I was artistic director of the theater company. I was a writer, actor, director. In that capacity, I sat in a bunch of different seats. When I came into television, I had already done sort of producing, people management, running a staff, looking at a budget.

It is not hyperbole to say that "Seinfeld" is one of the most influential sitcoms of all time. The sitcom, created by comedians Jerry Seinfeld (natch) and Larry David, is certainly one of the funniest. The duo developed several episodes that are in contention for "the greatest episode of all time." It predicted the viral meme of "rawdogging" a flight, created a real holiday celebrated around the world with Festivus, and introduced several new words into the real-life English language. If you've ever called someone out for double dipping, or yada yada'd someone to get them to stop talking, you have "Seinfeld" to thank for that.

And yet, according to Jason Alexander who played the neurotic and unfortunately very relatable George Costanza on the show, the series didn't just entertain audiences. Rather, it actually helped many people change their lives for the better thanks to the extremely funny episode "The Opposite.

NBC is celebrating 100 years on the airwaves with a variety special spectacular.

The announcement was made by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler — who have both been associated with NBC for over two decades — during the NBCUniversal upfront presentation to advertisers on Monday at Radio City Music Hall.

“Hosted by a mix of legendary NBC alumni and today’s biggest stars, the night will be filled with memorable music performances, comedy tributes, behind the scenes stories and surprise reunions,” Fey said. “You’ll be hearing more soon, but I can guarantee this — because it’s twice the age of ‘SNL,’ it’s going to be twice as long as the ‘SNL’ anniversary special. That’s right, six hours of a fun decade-by-decade look back.”

No premiere date or further information was provided as to who would be appearing in the special. Some of the biggest shows in NBC history do include “Saturday Night Live,...

Lopez vs. Lopez wasn’t exactly Friends or Seinfeld when it came to dominating the ratings. Heck, it wasn’t even 2 Broke Girls. But that didn’t make the Lopez family any happier when NBC axed the sitcom after three seasons.

After the official announcement came through, George Lopez reposted a video of his daughter and co-star Mayan borrowing a viral audio clip to express her feelings about the decision. “That was rude,” she lip-syncs. “That was fucking rude.”

To be fair, Mayan appeared to have her tongue firmly in cheek in the video. But the Lopezes are publicly expressing their disappointment. In an Instagram Story over the weekend, Mayan was still sharing petitions to save the show, offering hope that the sitcom might still be picked up by another outlet.

“It was three years,” Mayan Lopez added in another Instagram Story. “I mean, the guest stars that we had,...

In the "Seinfeld" episode "The Revenge", George (Jason Alexander) has become fed up with his boring office job and wants to quit. Specifically, George is outraged by the fact that he was barred access to his company's executive washroom. He storms into his boss' office early in the episode and goes on a wrathful tirade about how his boss, Mr. Levitan (Fred Applegate), is a talentless hack and that he has no thoughts in his head. George yells, "I quit!" and angrily storms out. 

He then immediately goes to see his friend Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) to talk about his potential job prospects. He has none. George has no talents or interests. He idly muses that he could be a sports announcer, despite not having any experience in broadcasting. Jerry convinces George to go back into the office on Monday and pretend like nothing happened. Just go back to work, and...

This should have been so easy. The premise was different and still strange enough, and after viewing it, I wondered what John Mulaney was thinking. However, as viewers of his Netflix show, Everybody's Live with John Mulaney, know, one should expect the weird.

The funny is hit and miss, but at least the comedian swings for the proverbial funny fences. He isn't seemingly afraid of what people will think of some of his bits on his show, but he knows he has the freedom to do nearly anything he wants. He picks his guests, even if some aren't A-listers, because he safely assumes that if you like him, you will probably like his guests, too.

But throughout the history of talk shows, especially the great ones, each host has their own shtick. How amazing was Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent, for instance? We didn't only watch the bit because it was funny,...

Acclaimed actor Ben Stiller fondly remembers his late, great father, Jerry Stiller, on social media.

Ben Still shared a classic image of his father from all the way back in the elder Stiller's first heyday in 1974. The image, shared in a May 11 X post, was accompanied by the caption, "5 years today. Will always miss this man who was so incredibly generous, loving and funny. And the best dad."

5 years today. Will always miss this man who was so incredibly generous, loving and funny. And the best dad.â¤ï¸â¤ï¸â¤ï¸ pic.twitter.com/DJFTkINMGt— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) May 11, 2025

Jerry Stiller's career in entertainment began in the early 1950s, during which time he appeared in numerous productions of Shakespearian classics. It was also around this time when Jerry met his future wife and fellow comedian, Anne Meara. Together, Stiller and Meara found success as a comedy duo, making...

If you've ever watched a television sitcom where its main characters are morally flexible people, you have Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld to thank. You just don't get shows like "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" without "Seinfeld" to pave the way. The highly influential NBC comedy, which made /Film's ranking of the best sitcoms of all time, only grew in popularity once audiences realized this wasn't going to be like any other show on television. Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George (Jason Alexander), and Kramer (Michael Richards) were characters who would often inconvenience the world around them and rarely take responsibility for their actions.

Almost like with any other friend group, viewers were invited into their circle to get a close-up encounter of how everyone acts around people they know very well. Every character in the core four were technically friends, but that would never stop them from interjecting...

If there's one thing you don't want to be in the world of "Seinfeld," it's a promising business. It already takes a considerable amount of money to set up a good location, let alone one in New York. Anyone who's ever worked in customer service has come across the kinds of patrons that only make your job that much more difficult, so imagine your clientele being Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George (Jason Alexander) and Kramer (Michael Richards). Together, those four have been partially responsible for shuttering places like Hot Soup, Leapin Larry's Electronics and The Mom and Pop Store. It shouldn't come as a total surprise considering they're walking forces of chaos, but sometimes they find themselves in the right.

In "The Non-Fat Yogurt," a new yogurt shop that Kramer has invested in is booming on account of its tasty treats. The "Seinfeld" characters can't get enough of it,...

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"Seinfeld" is a unique sitcom in a variety of ways. It upended the genre's storytelling formula by zeroing in on the petty exploits of four self-absorbed characters who reliably make their lives and/or the lives of others a living nightmare by prioritizing their own concerns. It eschewed the obligatory will-they-or-won't-they tension between the two characters (Jerry and Elaine) most likely to hook up by revealing early on that they'd already hooked up.

Another near-singular quirk of "Seinfeld," at least at the time, is that the four main characters were based on very real people. Aside from "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (which starred the actual Nelson family), it's hard to think of a sitcom that drew so heavily from the lives of its creators. But Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, two comedians who emerged from the talent-packed 1970s stand-up club scene,...

The NBC corporate legal series "Suits" was a huge hit, running for nine seasons before ending in 2019 and earning a pretty decent following on streaming. Unfortunately, it has not been able to spark any successful spin-offs just yet. In 2019, the USA series "Pearson," which followed Gina Torres's character Jessica Pearson as she entered the world of Chicago politics, was canceled after just one season. Now, the second such spin-off, the NBC series "Suits LA," has been canceled after only one season as well. People absolutely loved the New York attorney antics of "Suits," so why didn't the Los Angeles version seem to pan out?

Despite bringing back some of the original cast from the flagship series, including Gabriel Macht's Harvey Specter, and having some pretty big-name guest stars to help fill out the world of celebrity lawyer Ted Black (Stephen Amell), "Suits LA" just couldn't live up to the charm of the original,...

The series finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm found Larry David beating the charges against him in a highly-publicized court case, unlike the Seinfeld crew. And while Larry was on trial for handing out bottled water to Georgia voters, and not for taking large sums of money to hawk a dodgy crypto company, David’s real life took a somewhat similar turn this week.

As we’ve mentioned before, back in 2022, David starred in a Super Bowl commercial for the cryptocurrency exchange Ftx. The ad showed Larry casually dismissing Ftx, the “safe and easy way to get into crypto” after we’ve just witnessed generations of Larrys doing the same to important historical inventions, including the wheel, the light bulb and the toilet.

Unfortunately, the toilet turned out to be a more apt comparison than everyone realized at the time. Later that year, Ftx collapsed, costing its customers billions of dollars.

Comedian and “The Daily Show” correspondent/host Ronny Chieng, who was born in Malaysia, recently became a U.S. citizen. And he knows what you’re thinking: “Granted, it’s a weird time to do it.”

As Chieng jokes to Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast, the fact that he’s becoming an American now, right when the country falls out of favor with the rest of the world, proves he’s committed to it: “Anyone can apply for U.S. citizenship under Obama,” he says. “That’s easy, Golden Age. Great. So apply now. If you really wanted it, do it now. And that’s what I did!”

On this edition of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, Chieng shares some of his reasoning for becoming a U.S. citizen — as first revealed during a taping of “The Daily Show,” when Bill Murray surprised Chieng on stage to congratulate him. He...

“Everybody’s ripping me off!”

That’s what Jerry shouts in Season Nine of Seinfeld when Elaine cons him into buying her lunch. While it fit perfectly within the context of “The Dealership” episode, it may also have been a bit of meta-commentary. This was the first episode to air after it was announced that the show would be ending, and Seinfeld was so popular at the time that other sitcoms were popping up left and right that seemed custom-designed to try to capture some of Seinfeld’s success.

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The most obvious Seinfeld clones were the uninspired — and usually unsuccessful — low-premise sitcoms about friends who sit around and talk. But plenty of genuinely good shows that have since become TV classics have also been accused of ripping off Seinfeld.

Here are five such shows, some of which were successful while others struggled to find an audience of their own…...

Despite the cultural insistence that "Seinfeld" was a show about nothing, the hit NBC sitcom always lived up to its original pitch as a show about how a comedian gets their material. Just about every stand-up routine involves an exaggerated version of the weirdos a comic has met in their life, and boy is this show loaded with them. Chances are, you could inadvertently end up on the show should you baffle Larry David or Jerry Seinfeld while they're out and about. While the core four have encountered several outlandish strangers across their nine-season run, some have made enough of an impact to earn themselves a recurring role. It can happen through making a memorable impact the first time, falling into an ongoing story, or simply dating Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).

Even if you don't know what Patrick Warburton looks like at first glance, you will once he opens his mouth,...

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Enthusiasts of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David's hit sitcom "Seinfeld" would be able to tell you that the title character (Seinfeld) had many, many girlfriends over the course of the show's 180 episodes. Indeed, Jerry usually only dated his partners for plot purposes, allowing them to stick around for a single episode. The following week, Jerry would be dating someone new. A metric on the show's DVDs pointed out that Jerry dated a grand total of 72 women over the course of the series' nine years. That means he dated each woman for an average of 45-and-a-half days. Only five of the 72 women dated Jerry for more than one episode.

It's easy to see why Jerry never dated anyone for an extended period. Jerry and the other three leads of "Seinfeld" were meant to be shallow, petty, childish, and awful. They were neurotic and self-serving characters,...

In Thunderbolts*, CIA director La Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine unwittingly brings together Marvel’s anti-heroes instead of the Avengers, who face a threat that could destroy the world. This unlikely team-up of our morally gray fan favorites is receiving a good reception on the big screen. The team includes Yelena Belova, U.S. Agent, Ghost, Taskmaster, Red Guardian, and Winter Soldier.

Not only is it the final film in Marvel’s Phase 5, but it also ends up being one of the most crucial films in this phase that sets up the Multiverse Saga finale. The ensemble cast returning to this film includes Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, Olga Kurylenko, David Harbour, Sebastian Stan, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Thunderbolts* cast salary: Who has the highest and lowest net worth? The cast of Thunderbolts*: Hannah John-Kamen, Olga Kurylenko, Wyatt Russell, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, and Florence Pugh | Credits: Marvel Studios

Julia Louis-Dreyfus,...

In James Mangold's safe but enjoyable "A Complete Unknown," Bob Dylan, as played by Timothée Chalamet (who just missed out on the Best Actor Oscar) tells his girlfriend Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), "People make up their past. They remember what they want, they forget the rest." The legendary musician is notorious for doing just that, spinning questionable tales about his own life in a tradition he's very much kept alive throughout his career. His 2019 "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story," for example, was ostensibly a documentary but came packed with tall tales and fictionalized accounts of non-events, all presented as if they were incontrovertible fact.

This penchant for elaboration and misdirection, combined with his massive success and prolific output, has helped Dylan attain a kind of mythical status in pop culture. As such, you're never really sure which stories about the man are actually true — and there are many of them.

Who is the top earner for Marvel’s Thunderbolts? ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Fans may’ve expected big MCU names like Sebastian Stan or Florence Pugh to top the financial charts for the movie. But plot twist — it is Julia Louis-Dreyfus who quietly flexed the fattest bank account behind the scenes.

Yep, the comedic queen who played Valentina Allegra de Fontaine had a jaw-dropping net worth of $250 million (via Celebrity Net Worth). That number left her Thunderbolts co-stars trailing by miles. While she pulled strings in the shadows on screen, off-screen she ruled the paycheck leaderboard. Julia wasn’t new to commanding attention, she dominated sitcom royalty with Seinfeld, crushed awards with Veep, and later slid into the MCU with the same effortless power.

The rest of the cast? Not exactly broke, but nowhere close. Florence Pugh, known for flipping between emotional depth in Little Women and intense action in Black Widow,...

Television homes tend to be pretty envy-inducing, but sometimes they're completely impossible to ever visit in reality. After all, multi-cam sitcoms have to be filmed on a soundstage with sets where at least one wall is completely open for the cameras (and live studio audience), making a visit to something like Jerry Seinfeld's apartment from "Seinfeld" a complete impossibility.

For fans of the classic 2000s mafia series "The Sopranos," it would theoretically be possible not only to visit the famous driveway where patriarch Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) picked up his newspaper in his slippers and bathrobe, but if the price was right and the owners were ready to sell, someone could live there. While most of the interior scenes were actually filmed on a soundstage, they were almost an exact copy of the inside of the actual house, meaning a very wealthy and lucky fan could relive their favorite moments.

Had John Mulaney not wrapped up Wednesday’s show by outlining his plan to fight three 14-year-old boys, the weirdest part of the most recent episode of Everybody’s Live likely would have been the Phish-Seinfeld mash-up that nobody saw coming.

This week’s Body Double-inspired telescope bit revealed an oddly dilapidated replica of the Seinfeld apartment, which, to everyone’s surprise, was occupied by members of the band Phish, all wearing costumes and janky makeup that made them resemble the disfigured corpses of the sitcom’s four lead characters. Although, as Mulaney randomly pointed out, guitarist Trey Anastasio was not wearing a wig. “Phish is acting like Seinfeld, that’s fascinating!” sidekick Richard Kind exclaimed.

Things got even creepier when the the show began incoherently jump cutting between various takes of the Seinfeld parody, and dubbing in inexplicable existential musings like “I’m not ever going to heaven,...

For people who can’t afford to shell out $250 for the fancy new 4K box set, the easiest way to watch Seinfeld is still on Netflix, even though the colors are weird and some of the jokes have been cropped out.

In an effort to get viewers to click on Seinfeld instead of, say, turning off the TV and interacting with a loved one, Netflix routinely introduces different pieces of thumbnail art for the show — from Jerry looking like a moody psychopath…

…to George striking his “timeless art of seduction” pose.

Reddit

Recently, a Seinfeld fan on Reddit shared a particularly “weird” Netflix thumbnail, which a number of commenters suggested could be generative A.I. There’s definitely a lot about the image that feels off: Jerry’s a full foot taller than Elaine, Kramer is either a giant or somehow hovering in the air in the hallway, George is...

It could be said that Patricia Herd had her very own Star Trek convention. The actress and author, who is now 90 years old, was married to two prolific character actors, both of whom appeared on Star Trek. She’s also worked on various films and television shows with other performers in the franchise.

Born as Patricia Ann Crowder, she was married to Joseph Ruskin from 1968 to 1979 and Richard Herd from 1980 to 2020, when he died. Ruskin guest starred as Galt in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Gamesters of Triskelion,” and later recurred as the Klingon, Tumek, in the Deep Space Nine episodes “The House of Quark” and “Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places.” He also appeared as a Cardassian in DS9’s “Improbable Cause,” a Vulcan in the Voyager hour “Gravity,” and a Suliban doctor in “Broken Bow,” which served as the pilot for Enterprise.

If you haven’t yet tuned into an episode of John Mulaney’s weekly Netflix variety series Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, a sketch featuring the members of Phish dressed as the cast of Seinfeld might seem like a hallucination straight out of a jam band-inspired acid trip. But it’s actually par for the course on Mulaney’s talk show, which has quickly become one of television’s most captivating weekly watches—largely due to the wacky, absurd sketches dreamed up by Mulaney, with Netflix picking up the tab.

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In the case of this week’s episode, Phish’s Trey Anastasio dressed as Jerry, Mike Gordon as George, Jon Fishman as Elaine, and Page McConnell as Kramer attempted to act out a Seinfeld scene. The bit started with Mulaney observing the band through his telescope, while sidekick Richard Kind wondered aloud if it was...

Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney reimagined Phish as Seinfeld — or “Seinfeld, but it’s Phish,” as the host said — on the latest episode of Netflix’s late-night show.

With Phish in Los Angeles for their three-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-snubbed jam band put on wigs and stepped into a rundown version of Jerry Seinfeld’s “show about nothing” apartment for a bizarre three-minute sketch where Trey Anastasio portrayed Jerry, bassist Mike Gordon played George Costanza, keyboardist Page McConnell channeled Kramer, and...

Thunderbolts*not only chronicles the titular team of former villains, but also the woman pulling the strings. Julia Louis-Dreyfus recently talked about her character, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine's plan and the dynamic she has with her assistant Mel, played by Geraldine Viswanathan.

Speaking with Screen Rant, Louis-Dreyfus and Geraldine Viswanathan talked about what fans can expect from their respective characters in the Phase Five MCU finale. "It was a complete treat for me to really get material that I could sink my teeth into for this," Louis-Dreyfus said. She added that she "loved peeling back the layers on Val and figuring out what makes her tick, why she's built the way she is, and to see her in action in lots of different ways."

Furthermore, the Seinfeld alum, who also featured in Black Widow and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, said she was impressed by how much Val is ahead of the curve,...

Thursday’s Good Morning America blends comedic brilliance, literary charm, and a celebration of Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Join Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, and Michael Strahan from 7:00-9:00 Am Et on ABC for a morning of entertainment and cultural appreciation. Comedy icon Julia Louis-Dreyfus, known for her Emmy-winning roles in Seinfeld and […]

Good Morning America: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Carley Fortune...

It's not uncommon for recurring characters on a popular sitcom to receive successful spin-off shows. For example, "Happy Days" spawned "Laverne & Shirley" and "Mork & Mindy," the latter of which originated from what was first thought of as a "horrible" episode script.  On the other end of the spectrum, you've got shows like "Seinfeld," which drew impressive audiences back in the day but didn't give birth to any sort of spin-off series.

However, it wasn't for a lack of trying that the "show about nothing" has nothing by way of spin-offs. George Costanza actor Jason Alexander pitched a couple of spin-off ideas, one of which would have centered on Cosmo Kramer's (Michael Richards) lawyer, Jackie Chiles (Phil Morris), who was a parody of O.J. Simpson's defense attorney Johnnie Cochran. And as it turns out, Morris made a similar pitch, as he stated at a 1999 press event (via the...

Larry David never had the easiest time at Saturday Night Live. During his brief tenure as a staff writer in the mid-1980s, he only managed to get one sketch on the air. The piece, all about one architect’s controversial plan to install a stool for an elevator operator, didn’t go over so well with the audience. The joke fared better when it was recycled for a Seinfeld episode years later.

Famously, David became so frustrated that he quit SNL, only to regret the decision and show up to work on Monday morning as if nothing had happened. This anecdote, too, was later repurposed for Seinfeld.

But that was all before David became an Emmy-winning sitcom creator and the star of his own cable series. When he returned to host the show as a venerated celebrity, surely he had an easier time getting his material on the show,...

It’s no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been kind of a mess for a while now. But while although may be frustrated by the franchise’s unresolved plot lines, disappointing streaming series and janky visual effects that resemble half-remembered nightmares…

…at least they have American treasure Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the payroll. Back in 2021, the Veep star began popping up in various Marvel shows and movies playing a shadowy government operative named Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who’s basically a slightly scarier Selina Meyer.

Louis-Dreyfus’ character will finally get some substantial screen time in Marvel’s latest offering Thunderbolts*, which is all about yet another ragtag group of conspicuously good-looking misfits who form a superhero team.

Just because Louis-Dreyfus has won 11 Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe and received the 2018 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, doesn’t mean that she won’t have to field goofy questions...

Good help is hard to find, but in the case of Thunderbolts* stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Geraldine Viswanathan, it’s even harder to define.

In director Jake Schreier’s now-critically acclaimed upcoming MCU installment, Louis-Dreyfus’ CIA Director character, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, has her back against the wall due to a congressional investigation into her many questionable practices. So she places contracts on all her hired guns — such as Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) — in an effort to mutually destroy the evidence of their collective existence at the same time.

When the band of MCU loners and rejects catch on, they form an unlikely team and take matters into their own hands against a greater threat that “Val” has unleashed. At the same time, Val’s assistant, Mel (Viswanathan), has to carry out her boss’ many impulsive directives, and while...

It's hard to imagine Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld's hit sitcom "Seinfeld" missing any one of its four lead characters. Jerry (Seinfeld) was the shallow and neurotic one. George (Jason Alexander) was the shallow and neurotic one. Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) was the shallow and neurotic one. And Kramer (Michael Richards) was the shallow and neurotic one with the get-rich-quick schemes. Each of the four actors was nominated for multiple Emmys for their acting work on "Seinfeld," with Seinfeld receiving five noms, Alexander receiving seven, Louis-Dreyfus also receiving seven (and winning one), and Richards netting five and winning three. It couldn't be made today. 

Weirdly, the character of Elaine wasn't in the pilot for "Seinfeld," called "The Seinfeld Chronicles". The fourth lead role was originally supposed to be a waitress named Claire, played by actress Lee Garlington, but the restaurant where she worked was re-tooled for the show's second episode,...

Get ready to welcome the wildest group of anti-heroes the MCU has ever assembled, on May 2. Yes, we’re talking about the Thunderbolts*. This movie isn’t just about chaotic missions and shady pasts; it’s also bringing a star-studded cast—from fan favorites like Florence Pugh to Stranger Things’ David Harbour.

So it seems that Thunderbolts* is basically going to be Marvel’s version of a rebellious group chat. But let’s be honest—while we love the action, drama, and vibes, we’re also a little nosy. So, how much are these stars actually getting paid to save (or maybe ruin) the world? Time to spill the tea on their reported salaries.

1. Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine | image: Marvel Studios

While you might consider Florence Pugh as the face value of Thunderbolts*, it seems that the Seinfeld...

It's well documented that the sitcom classic "Seinfeld" was drawn from the lives of its creators, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. The pair had been working in the American stand-up comedy scene for over a decade and, as very funny men living primarily in the weirdo-stuffed world of New York City, had accumulated more than enough wild stories to fill hours upon hours of stand-up sets. They could've dined out on this material for decades! But there's way, way more money in creating a hit network sitcom, so the duo wisely took their idea to NBC. The network, well, didn't exactly get "Seinfeld" at first, but when the ratings skyrocketed in season 4, its executives learned to overlook their confusion over the show's idiosyncratic formula.

As "Seinfeld" became a pop cultural institution, fans clamored to learn more about the people behind the series. Did Jerry really run through girlfriends like that in real life?...

Indira Varma, Olivia Williams, Alan Tudyk, Shirley Henderson, and Rufus Sewell in ‘The Trouble with Jessica’ (Photo Credit: Music Box Films)

The word “trouble” captures the essence of The Trouble with Jessica, a darkly comedic and wildly chaotic story that spirals into mayhem during one unforgettable dinner party. Divided into chapters, all with “The Trouble with…” in their titles, the initial chapter introduces the titular flirtatious (and irritating) dinner guest. As the night goes on, the titles—including one on moving a dead body through London at night—reflect the increasing turmoil. The ensemble is tossed into a pressure cooker of secrets, lies, backstabbing, heartfelt confessions, and sheer panic as writer/director Matt Winn serves up a bizarre and hilarious exploration of guilt, friendship, and the desperate lengths people will go to to protect themselves from their unjustifiable decisions.

The Trouble with Jessica kicks off with a dinner party hosted...

"Seinfeld" may be named after Jerry Seinfeld, but it's very much an ensemble show. By the end of an episode of "Seinfeld," Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) is equally as important as George (Jason Alexander), as is Kramer (Michael Richards) and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Chances are the core four will be thrust into a scenario that requires them to be on the same page à la "The Contest," but there's always this hole one or more of them will manage to dig themselves into on their own accord.

If there's a get rich quick scheme to be had, you'll find Kramer taking advantage of it. If there's a lie that needs to be maintained in order to secure a date, the consequences will always befall George. But the secret to a great Elaine plot is the subversion of someone who seemingly has it all together. She's always quick to make comedic jabs...

Regardless of genre, television series lean heavily on the will-they-or-won't-they relationship between two main characters to generate real-life and online buzz. You know how it works: two seemingly mismatched characters (e.g. the "Cheers" duo of Ted Danson's caddish Sam Malone and Shelley Long's intellectual Diane Chambers) discover, often to their own disgust, that they're hot for this person they should despise to the marrow of their bones, and it's only a matter of time before their spark-shooting flirtation leads to a full-on sexual conflagration. We've seen it more recently with Tony Dinozzo (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) on "NCIS" (which spawned the forthcoming "NCIS: Tony and Ziva"), and we'll see it over and over again because the hoary formula works.

This is another reason why "Seinfeld" is one of the most brilliant shows in television history. There was no will-they-or-won't-they because the only "they...

Back on September 19, 1994, NBC rolled the dice with ER, the medical drama that set the ’90s TV scene on fire. Critics couldn’t get enough of it, and viewers were hooked on the chaotic world of emergency rooms.

Fast forward to 2025, and with the streaming bubble long burst, nostalgia for good old-fashioned linear TV is making a comeback. Fans are craving the days of epic seasons, fewer breaks, and more drama in every episode. And guess what? The classic medical dramas are thus benefiting, basking in the spotlight!

It turns out, what was once “old TV” is now exactly what the people want. But when NBC launched ER, they didn’t just throw together another show, they spent a staggering $13 million per episode, outspending even Game of Thrones at the time. And the result was a show that not only made George Clooney a household name but also helped redefine what TV could be.

With over 100 IMDb credits to his name, Tobin Bell first debuted in an uncredited role in Woody Allen's "Manhattan" in 1979, and has been consistently performing in film and television for more than four decades. But his legacy and most memorable performance is with the "Saw" series thanks to his role as the maniacal trap architect and retribution seeker Jigsaw, aka John Kramer. "Saw" put the so-called "torture porn" subgenre on the map and features one of the most convoluted timelines in movie history, but what anchors all the twists and turns is Tobin Bell's chillingly even-keeled performance.

Interestingly, one of Tobin Bell's many credits is on the NBC sitcom "Seinfeld," in season 4, episode 18, "The Old Man." The episode centers around Jerry and the gang volunteering for a senior citizen program, which inadvertently ends up helping with Kramer and Newman's scheme to make money by selling records. Tobin Bell's...

Actress Christa Miller is widely known for portraying comic characters in television series. She has appeared in The Drew Carey Show, Scrubs, Seinfeld, CSI: Miami, and more. The actress is currently playing Liz in Apple TV+’s Shrinking, which also stars Harrison Ford, Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, and others.

Christa Miller in Shrinking | Credits: Apple TV+

The actress was highly praised for her work on the show and has proved why she is known as the epitome of a comedic presence. Created by Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein, and Jason Segel, Shrinking has received a positive response from critics as well as audiences. Not only did the fans appreciate Miller’s character, Liz, but they also pointed out the changes in her appearance, which led them to wonder if the beloved actress had undergone surgery.

Fans speculate if Christa Miller underwent the knife for cosmetic procedures

There is one thing for...

There are some shows that break into the cultural consciousness at the exact right time and "Seinfeld" is no doubt one of them. Creating a sitcom that serves as a pillar of television comedy whose fire can never be extinguished is a testament to the sharp writing of series co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. Over three decades on, "The Contest" is rightfully upheld as one of the funniest sitcom episodes ever produced. It's all thanks to the teamwork of the show's writers and the foursome ensemble, who were often a perfect storm of comedic genius. It's no accident that some of the funniest bits, however, emanate from Jason Alexander.

"Was that wrong; should I not have done that" is a great line to come out of George Costanza in defending his decision to have sex with the cleaning woman on his desk in "The Red Dot," but the two...

A real-life incident when Michael Richards had to wear a ratty hotel bathrobe to a formal NBC party? The whole story was so Kramer-esque that I can’t believe Larry David didn’t turn it into a Seinfeld episode.

It was January 1994, right in the middle of Seinfeld’s peak of popularity. NBC was gathering all of its affiliates, advertisers and muckety-mucks for a mid-season event, and the Seinfeld cast was the main attraction. The network even ponied up for a private jet. “No way NBC is flying us private unless we are red hot,” Richards wrote in his memoir, Entrances and Exits.

The flight was fancy, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus wasn’t nuts about their hotel accommodations. “This place is a dump,” she laughed when she called Richards about her less-than-swanky room. Richards wasn’t as discerning — hey, it was free and the TV worked. But it turned out that the hotel had other shortcomings.

Bill Maher may have broken bread with Donald Trump, but there is no love lost this week between the Real Time host and Larry David.

Three days after the Seinfeld co-creator ruthlessly mocked Maher in a New York Times “My Dinner With Hitler” op-end for chumming up with Trump at the White House late last month, the Rt frontman tried to save face by moving the goal posts.

“To use the Hitler thing— first of all, I think it’s kind of insulting to six million dead Jews,” Maher told Piers Morgan in a more than 30-minute video released Thursday. “That should kind of be in its own place.”

Calling fellow HBOer David a “friend,” Maher continued: “The minute you play the ‘Hitler’ card, you’ve lost the argument. Nobody’s been more prescient about Donald Trump than me. Just the fact that I met him doesn’t change that.

Amalia Ulman’s Magic Farm is in theaters beginning April 25. A New Leaf.Never have I seen one woman in whom every social grace was so lacking. Did I say she was primitive? Well, I retract that. She’s feral.—Henry Graham, of Henrietta, in A New LeafI have been dreading writing this essay because it means admitting to myself and to the world something very unfortunate: I am a loser brunette.It was 2017, and my then husband suggested we watch A New Leaf (1971) because there was a new Blu-ray restoration, which was exciting. But as I watched Walter Matthau as Henry Graham arrogantly reckoning with the fact that he had run out of money, making teary-eyed farewell visits to his Upper East Side tailor and racket club, I thought of the man sitting next to me and was shocked by the similarities. “He’s just like you,” I said to my husband,...

"Seinfeld" has been off the air for nearly 30 years, and yet it still dominates cultural conversation to this day. Whether it's the continued relevance of actors like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, co-creator Larry David's HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm" which references the show, or iconic phrases & sayings that only exist because of "Seinfeld," it's hard to forget about how popular the series was throughout the '90s. 

Despite the show's popularity still thriving in 2025, there are a lot of episodes of "Seinfeld" that, as is typical for sitcoms of that era, haven't exactly aged super well. Plenty of shows like "Friends" or "Will & Grace" were notably behind the times when it comes to issues of LGBTQ+ representation, on-screen diversity, and other aspects of modern-day political correctness. However, there are comedy series on currently that still push the envelope, like "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," and surprisingly still hold up by today's standards.

Today, Harvest Home, an organization transforming the lives of homeless pregnant women and their children, announced the return of its star-studded Broadway Voices Unite Benefit Concert.

Hosted and produced by Harvest Home Board Member Merle Dandrige, alongside producers and Stars in the House creators Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley Jackson, this year’s event will feature unforgettable performances from some of the brightest stars of stage and screen including Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), Troy Baker (The Last of Us I & II Games), Rachel Bloom (My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Kim Dawson (Vocalist), Carly Hughes (American Housewife), Rachel Bay Jones (Dear Evan Hansen Original Broadway Cast), Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue), Alex Newell, Rory O’Malley, Carly Thomas Smith, Tracie Thoms (Station 19), Carlos Valdes, and more.

The program, directed by award-winning choreographer Lee Martino, will take place on Sunday, June 22 at 7:00pm Pt at the Eli & Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Tickets are on...