Mike Nichols
One of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century, Arthur Miller created such celebrated works as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, which continue to move audiences around the world today. He also made headlines for being targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee at the height of the McCarthy Era and entering into a tumultuous marriage with Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. Told from the unique perspective of his daughter, filmmaker Rebecca Miller, Arthur Miller: Writer is an illuminating portrait that combines interviews spanning decades and a wealth of personal archival material, and provides new insights into Miller’s life as an artist and exploring his character in all its complexity.
This intimate portrait of director, producer, and improvisational comedy icon Mike Nichols shows his final and historic interviews filmed just months before his death. Director Douglas McGrath documents Nichols’s early life, as he opens up to his friend, director Jack O’Brien, about the storied beginnings of his career.
With charm and wit, Nichols discusses his life and 50-year career as a performer and director.
Jacob Bernstein's extremely entertaining film is a tribute to his mother Nora Ephron: Hollywood-raised daughter of screenwriters who grew up to be an ace reporter turned piercingly funny essayist turned novelist/screenwriter/playwright/director. Ephron comes vibrantly alive onscreen via her words; the memories of her sisters, colleagues, former spouses, and many friends; scenes from her movies; and, above all, her own inimitable presence. Watch any given moment of Ephron being her sparkling but caustically witty self (for instance, this response to a scolding talk show host—"You have a soft spot for Julie Nixon, don't you. See, I don't...") and you find it hard to believe that she’s been gone from our midst for three years. Everything Is Copy (Ephron's motto, inherited from her mother) is a lovingly drawn but frank portrait and, incidentally, a vivid snapshot of an earlier, livelier, bitchier, and funnier moment in New York culture.
Since its inception in Venezuela in 1976, the El Sistema youth orchestra program has transformed the lives of disadvantaged children worldwide by putting musical instruments in their hands and encouraging them through the mysterious power of music. Following the lives of three participants in the Philadelphia and New York programs, Jamie Berstein’s impassioned film introduces Raven, a young violinist with natural talent, yet an overshadowing ego; Zebadiah, who needs the confidence to defeat his social awkwardness; and Mohammed, a trombonist whose falling grades threaten his ability to stay in the program.
In the wake of their friends' marriages and eventual offspring, longtime pals Julie and Jason decide to have a child together without becoming a couple. By becoming "time-share" parents, they reason, they can experience the joys of parenthood without significantly curbing their personal freedom. However, when Julie and Jason both become involved with others, they discover that they secretly harbor romantic feelings for each other.
Notoriously press and camera-shy, David Geffen reveals himself for the first time in this unflinching portrait of a complex and compelling man. His far-reaching influence - as an agent and manager, record industry mogul, Hollywood and Broadway producer, and billionaire philanthropist - has helped shape American popular culture for the past four decades. This documentary offers a rare insight into the world of the man responsible for launching the early successes of Joni Mitchell, Tom Cruise, and Guns N’ Roses; co-founded DreamWorks; produced Cats and Dreamgirls; and is one of the largest contributors to the fight against AIDS. (SBS AU) Geffen narrates his unorthodox rise from working class Brooklyn boy to billionaire entertainment power broker in extensive interviews. American Masters explores the highs and the lows in Geffen’s professional and personal life through more than 50 new interviews with his friends, colleagues and clients, as well as other media luminaries. (PBS)
Hair Battle Spectacular is an American television series that premiered on the cable network Oxygen on August 10, 2010. The show follows 10 hair stylist as they battle it out in the ring for a $100,000 grand prize and to see who can create the most outrageous hair styles that resemble everything from multilayer wedding cakes to toys with movable pieces. The Hair Battle theme song is "Nobody's Gonna Stop Us" by Taylor Lee and Russell W. The second season premiered on August 15, 2011 and ended October 3, 2011. In the "Final Hairdown," the last three remaining contestants were Kirby "Nostradamus," Ashley "Blondie," and Alejandro "Bossa Nova." Kirby "Nostradamus" took the prize winning $100,000.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox bored with his current life, plans a heist against the three local farmers. The farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with the sly fox, seek revenge against him and his family.
My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad is a reality sports TV show on NBC that premiered on February 18, 2008. The show is produced by Mark Burnett, producer of other shows like Survivor, The Apprentice, and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, and was hosted by actor Dan Cortese. Four teams of kids and their fathers compete in each episode, with the winning team having the chance to win up to $50,000. It replaced American Gladiators in its Monday 8 p.m. timeslot. The series was cancelled on April 2, 2008 after NBC announced its 2008-2009 schedule.
Ghost Hunters International was a spin-off series of Ghost Hunters that aired on Syfy. The series premiered on January 9, 2008. Like its parent series, GHI was a reality series that followed a team of paranormal investigators; whereas, the original series primarily covers only locations within the United States, the GHI team traveled around the world and documented some of the world's most legendary haunted locations.
The true story of Texas congressman Charlie Wilson's covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets had some unforeseen and long-reaching effects.
Show Me the Money is a television game show hosted by William Shatner which premiered on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 at 8pm on ABC. On December 8, 2006, after the first seven episodes had been taped, an additional six-episode order as well as a planned move to Tuesday nights starting on January 2, 2007 were announced, but the show was cancelled on December 15, 2006. Five of the original seven episodes aired. The show was taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood. It also aired in Canada on CH.
Documenting the days and weeks preceding Boy George's appearance in a New York courtroom in June 2006 for cocaine possession and his subsequent sentencing to 5 days community service as a street cleaner by order of the US justice department.
Set in 1985, the miniseries has at its core the story of two couples whose relationships dissolve amidst the backdrop of Reagan era politics, the spreading AIDS epidemic, and a rapidly changing social and political climate.
Twenty-three years after the release of the original Beatles mockumentary, 'The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash', famous artists, actors and musicians speak out on how The Rutles influenced them.
The filmmakers and lead actors of The Remains of the Day (1993) discuss how they came to make the film, and the subtle power of its execution.
A highly-evolved planet, whose denizens feel no emotion and reproduce by cloning, plans to take over Earth from the inside by sending an operative, fashioned with a humming, mechanical penis, to impregnate an earthling and stay until the birth. The alien, Harold Anderson, goes to Phoenix as a banker and sets to work finding a mate. His approaches to women are inept, and the humming phallus doesn't help, but on the advice of a banking colleague, he cruises an AA meeting, meets Susan, and somehow convinces her to marry. The clock starts to tick: will she conceive, have a baby, and lose Harold (and the child) to his planet before he discovers emotion and starts to care?
In this adaptation of the best-selling roman à clef about Bill Clinton's 1992 run for the White House, the young and gifted Henry Burton is tapped to oversee the presidential campaign of Governor Jack Stanton. Burton is pulled into the politician's colorful world and looks on as Stanton -- who has a wandering eye that could be his downfall -- contends with his ambitious wife, Susan, and an outspoken adviser, Richard Jemmons.
Jack and Judy are husband and wife, and Howard is Judys father. They live in some fictional undemocratic and repressive country, and tell us a story about their lives, mostly from Jack's point of view.
A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancé's conservative moralistic parents.
A documentary made for the PBS program American Masters about the comedy team Nichols and May.
A rule bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.
Respected lawyer, Henry Turner survives a convenience-store shooting only to find he has lost his memory, and has serious speech and mobility issues. After also losing his job—where he no longer 'fits in'—his loving wife and daughter give him all their love and support.
Substance-addicted Hollywood actress Suzanne Vale is on the skids. After a spell at a detox centre her film company insists as a condition of continuing to employ her that she live with her mother Doris Mann, herself once a star and now a champion drinker. Such a set-up is bad news for Suzanne who has struggled for years to get out of her mother's shadow, and who finds her mother still treats her like a child. Despite these problems - and further ones to do with the men in in her life - Suzanne can begin to see the funny side of her situation, and it also starts to occur to her that not only do daughters have mothers, mothers do too.
Tess McGill is an ambitious secretary with a unique approach for climbing the ladder to success. When her classy, but villainous boss breaks a leg skiing, Tess takes over her office, her apartment and even her wardrobe. She creates a deal with a handsome investment banker that will either take her to the top, or finish her off for good.
During the Second World War, Eugene enlists in the US Army during the last year of the War and is sent to basic training in Biloxi Mississippi. There he must live with a variety of fellow soldiers while enduring the whims of a mentally unstable drill sergeant.
Rachel is a food writer at a New York magazine who meets Washington columnist Mark at a wedding and ends up falling in love with him despite her reservations about marriage. They buy a house, have a daughter, and Rachel thinks they are living happily ever after until she discovers that Mark is having an affair while she is waddling around with a second pregnancy.
Four losers borrow money from gangsters to bet on a "sure thing", but lose. The gangsters go after them to get their money.
Celebrities are interviewed about the social and working lives of Bugs, Daffy, Porky and the rest of the Looney Tunes.
Set in an old folks home, senior citizen Weller Martin (Hume Cronyn) has the disease of Old Age, meets an old woman named Fonsia Dorsey (Jessica Tandy) who's diabetic. They both discuss issues such as society, the hospitals, money, families, and the folks home where they live, over a game of Gin Rummy. Fonsia has never played before so Weller teachers her. Instantly she goes on a winning streak, making it very hard for Weller not to lose his temper. But he does. Both put out an excellent performance with a lot of swearing!
A filmed version of the Broadway show starring comedienne Gilda Radner, complete with the characters she made famous on the TV show "Saturday Night Live."
Two bumbling hustlers in the 1920s attempt to gain the fortune of an heiress. Nothing will stop them, not even murder.
Dr Jake Terrell, who has been training a pair of dolphins for many years, has had a breakthrough. He has taught his dolphins to speak and understand English, although they do have a limited vocabulary. When the dolphins are stolen, he discovers they're to be used in an assassination attempt. Now he is in a race to discover who is the target, and where the dolphins are, before the attempt is carried out.
The concurrent sexual lives of best friends Jonathan and Sandy are presented, those lives which are affected by the sexual mores of the time and their own temperament, especially in relation to the respective women who end up in their lives.
A 1970 American documentary film biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., presented in the form of newsreel footage and segments of recordings by Dr. King, framed by celebrity narrators, including Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ruby Dee, James Earl Jones, Clarence Williams III, Burt Lancaster, Ben Gazzara, Charlton Heston, Harry Belafonte, The movie was produced by Richard Kaplan and Ely Landau.
A Bach recording plays in a New York apartment, while off-screen a man and a woman in bed together for the first time engage in pseudo-intellectual conversation. Based on the Nichols and May sketch.
Benjamin, a recent college graduate very worried about his future, finds himself in a love triangle with an older woman and her daughter.
A bitter, aging couple, with the help of alcohol, use a young couple to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other.
Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall is an American musical comedy television showcase starring Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett, broadcast on CBS on June 11, 1962. The special was produced by Bob Banner and directed by Joe Hamilton. Banner came up with the idea in the Fall of 1961. Burnett was then a regular on The Garry Moore Show and Andrews had appeared as a guest twice, performing the song "Big D" from the musical The Most Happy Fella in the first appearance; and in the show's 1961 Christmas special, she did a number with Burnett and fellow guest Gwen Verdon plus an early performance of "My Favorite Things" (three years before she performed it as Maria while filming The Sound of Music). Mike Nichols wrote the script and co-wrote the song "You're So London" with Ken Welch. Writing began in February 1962 and the stars rehearsed for two weeks before the March 5 taping
The Fabulous Fifties, CBS, combines style, humor, and imagination. It was rich in touches of quality showmanship and equally rich in the memories of a decade which it revived. In recognition, the Peabody Television Award for entertainment is presented to The Fabulous Fifties, with a special word of praise for producer Leland Hayward and the top talent which appeared in this memorable entertainment special*. *The two-hour special featured comic takes and commentary about the previous decade by, among others, Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Dick Van Dyke, Shelley Berman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Jackie Gleason, Eric Severeid and Henry Fonda.
Tony Palmer's award-winning feature-length documentary profile of Richard Burton.
