This post is dedicated to my favorite siblings, Dianne and Barbara.
Happy National Siblings Day, y’all! In honor of the occasion, here is a selection of iconic pop culture siblings and, as always, a few of my favorites.
The March sisters – Little Women
We’re on a first name basis with the March girls: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. From the beloved 1868 Louisa May Alcott novel to the numerous adaptations, including three Oscar-winning feature films, generations have grown up with the sisters.
Monica and Ross Geller – Friends
The relationship between the Geller siblings provided Friends with some of its funniest moments, but at its core, their relationship was built on mutual love and respect – and the occasional sibling rivalry.
Fun fact: Monica is Ross’s younger sister but in real life, Courteney Cox is two years older than David Schwimmer.
Lindsay and Sam Weir – Freaks and Geeks
In a refreshingly candid series like Freaks and Geeks, it’s no surprise to find a sibling pair as heartwarming and hilarious as Lindsay and Sam Weir. I’ve professed my undying love for this lovely little one-season wonder before – and I’ll do it again. If you’ve never seen this gem of a show, do yourself a favor and check it out (you can stream it on Hulu and Paramount Plus).
The Bennet sisters – Pride and Prejudice
Another set of iconic pop culture sisters – Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia Bennet – made their first appearance in Jane Austen’s 1813 literary classic. Notable adaptions include a 1995 BBC production and the beloved 2005 film version for which Keira Knightley received a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
Fun fact: Bridget Jones’s Diary is one of many loose adaptations of Pride and Prejudice. Colin Firth, who played Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC miniseries, also portrayed Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones trilogy.
Lucas and Erica Sinclair – Stranger Things
On a series full of sibling pairs – Mike and Nancy Wheeler, Will and Jonathan Byers, creators Ross and Matt Duffer – the one that stands out for me is Lucas and Erica Sinclair. Sarcastic and whip smart, Erica is her big brother’s nemesis early on, until the gang recruits her for D & D and, later, monster hunting.
A typical Lucas/Erica exchange, from the season three premiere
Elliott, Michael, and Gertie – E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
The magic of E.T. isn’t just the special effects; it’s the combination of writing, directing, casting, and acting that gave us one of the most believable families in cinema history. The three siblings share an awfully big secret – there’s an alien living in their bedroom closet – but their relationship is grounded in relatable sibling dynamics.
Fun fact: Among the actresses who auditioned for the role of Gertie were Juliette Lewis and Sarah Michelle Gellar. I love them both, but I can’t imagine anyone but Drew Barrymore in the role.
The cast had an adorable reunion last year on Barrymore’s talk show, in honor of the film’s 40th anniversary
HAIM
Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim are multi-talented songwriters, vocalists, instrumentalists, and all-around badasses (Alana also made a splash – and earned BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations – for her role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza). HAIM is one of my favorite musical artists of the past ten years, just pure pop perfection.
I’ve watched this at least a dozen times, and I’ll never be over how fucking awesome it is
The Brothers Gibb
The Gibbs – Barry, twins Robin and Maurice, and baby brother Andy – have been serenading audiences since the 1950s, when the three eldest brothers formed their first band, the Rattlesnakes. The Bee Gees sold more than 220 million albums and achieved icon status with the release of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Barry, the sole living Gibb brother, is still recording and performing.
I made this playlist in 2021 to celebrate Barry’s 75th birthday
Sparks
Ron and Russell Mael – better known as Sparks – have been making some of rock’s weirdest music for more than fifty years. The brothers have steadfastly defied categorization, moving from art rock to glam to synth pop – and back again. The duo’s latest single, released in March, is titled “The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte”; the music video features Oscar winner Cate Blanchett.
“I Predict” was my introduction to Sparks, and the first of their singles to hit the Billboard Hot 100
Their duet with Go-Go Jane Wiedlin was also a minor hit
I love this so much
Wednesday and Pugsley Addams
This iconic sibling pair was created by Charles Addams for The New Yorker; they’ve appeared in numerous adaptations since their first appearance in 1938, including a beloved 1960s sitcom, an animated series, a film series, a live musical, and most recently, the Netflix series Wednesday.
For many, the favorite Wednesday/Pugsley combo is from the 1991 feature film and its sequel (Christina RIcci and Jimmy Workman)
Dottie Hinson and Kit Keller – A League of Their Own
Yes, A League of Their Own is about the members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. But at its heart, the beloved film is about two sisters: Dottie, the older and worldlier of the two, ready to settle down and have kids with her GI husband, and Kit, her feisty baby sister. I’ve always loved the chemistry between Geena Davis and Lori Petty; the rivalry feels authentic and earned but at the end of the day, their affection for each other shines through.
Fun fact: A League of Their Own is the most successful baseball movie in history. In fact, it’s made as much at the box office as Field of Dreams and Bull Durham combined.
Alex and Maia Shibutani
Known collectively as the “Shib sibs”, Alex and Maia are eight-time US medalists, two-time Olympians (they placed 9th at the Sochi games and 3rd in Pyeongchang), and three-time World medalists. They are absolute cutie pies, but most importantly, they are amazing skaters. I heart these two.
The Pointer Sisters
June, Ruth, and Anita Pointer are one of the most successful sibling pop vocal groups ever, earning thirteen top-twenty hits in the US and winning three Grammy Awards (sister Bonnie left the group in 1978 to pursue a solo career). The trio reached the height of their success in the early 1980s with the albums So Excited! and Break Out. Anita and Bonnie are no longer with us, but Ruth is still performing as the Pointer Sisters with her daughter Issa and her granddaughter Sadako.
The best thing about ’80s videos is how they could ironically juxtapose lyrics about sex with literal long jumpers
The Brady kids – The Brady Bunch
No list of pop culture siblings would be complete without the musical Brady children: Greg, Marcia, Peter, Jan, Bobby, and Cindy.
Ann and Nancy Wilson
Ann Wilson was a founding member of Heart; younger sister Nancy joined the band in time for its 1975 debut, Dreamboat Annie. Though they made their best music in the 1970s, they experienced a commercial resurgence in the late ’80s and early ’90s. They formed a side gig, The Lovemongers, to record a blistering remake of Led Zeppelin’s song “The Battle of Evermore” for the soundtrack to the movie Singles, directed by Nancy’s then-husband Cameron Crowe.
I grew up in the 1970s, the golden age of Saturday morning cartoons, and the various iterations of the Super Friends/Justice League hour was one of my favorites. I particularly loved the shape-shifting superheroes-in-training Zan and Jayna, AKA the Wonder Twins. The twins’ powers were hilariously specific: Zan could only transform into some form of water and Jayna could only become an animal. When they fist-bumped to activate their powers, I couldn’t wait to hear what weird combo it would be.
Fun fact: Zan and Jayna’s personalities were inspired by another iconic sibling pair, Donny and Marie Osmond.
The Von Trapp kids – The Sound of Music
And finally, from my all-time favorite movie musical, the Von Trapp children: Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. Nothing else needs to be said:
I had intended this post to be longer, but I ran out of time and had to make some cuts (the Cusacks, AWrinkle in Time‘s Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, the Coen brothers, and the Sanderson sisters from Disney’s Hocus Pocus, among others). Perhaps I’ll do a volume two at some point. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from y’all: who are YOUR favorite pop culture siblings?
The other night, hubby and I finished watching a PBS docuseries titled The U.S. and the Holocaust. Directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein, the series takes an unflinching look at the human toll of the Nazis’ “Final Solution” and how the United States, desperate to maintain neutrality in the early years of WWII, failed to do anything to help the millions of European Jews our government knew were in peril. The U.S. and the Holocaust makes excellent use of voiceover, not only the narration by Burns’ longtime collaborator Peter Coyote, but guest stars including Meryl Streep (who provides the voice for Eleanor Roosevelt), Paul Giamatti, Joe Morton, and Bradley Whitford. The series also incorporates stunning archival footage and interviews with Holocaust survivors such as Eva (Geiringer) Schloss, a childhood friend of Anne Frank’s. The U.S. and the Holocaust is not an easy watch, nor should it be. The series ends by convincingly connecting the dots between Nazi Germany and a recent rise in fascism and antisemitism here in the U.S. If you have access to PBS’s catalog, I highly recommend this series, which holds a 100% rating and an audience score of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Obviously, this series has a content warning for antisemitism, genocide, war, and other atrocities
I also just finished watching a Showtime true crime docuseries called Buried, which covers a case I was unfamiliar with. Twenty years after her best friend Susan Nason was murdered, Eileen Franklin suddenly remembered what her conscious mind had tucked away – that her father had committed the crime. The controversial case was the first instance of a recovered memory being used as evidence in a criminal prosecution. Buried is an absolutely fascinating look at generational trauma and the power of memory.
A Place in the Sun, directed by George Stevens and starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on this day in 1951. Based on the 1925 Theodore Dreiser novel An American Tragedy – and loosely based on the real-life 1906 murder of Grace Brown – A Place in the Sun went on to win six Academy Awards, including Best Director, as well as the first ever Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama.
Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor
Japanese electronic music pioneer and Oscar-winning film composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has died at the age of 71. His BAFTA-winning score for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a personal favorite of mine; he earned his Oscar four years later – along with a Golden Globe and a Grammy – for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. Among the other films Sakamoto scored are The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha, Snake Eyes, and The Revenant. He also composed music for the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics.
One of Sakamoto’s most popular – and beautiful – tracks, “Bibo no Aozora”, plays over the final scene in 2006’s Babel
On this day in 1965, the 37th Academy Awards were held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. It was the only time in Oscar history that three films were each nominated for at least twelve awards (Mary Poppins with 13, My Fair Lady and Becket with 12). My Fair Lady was the night’s big winner, with eight awards, but the highlight was Julie Andrews – who had originated the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway but was passed over for the film adaptation in favor of established star Audrey Hepburn – taking home the Best Actress prize for her debut, Mary Poppins (Hepburn, whose singing was dubbed by Marti Nixon without her knowledge, wasn’t even nominated).
” I know you Americans are famous for your hospitality, but this is really ridiculous”
Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things, based on the book by Cheryl Strayed, premieres this Friday. The glorious Kathryn Hahn stars as Clare, an advice columnist whose personal life is falling apart. Emmy winner Merritt Wever co-stars as Clare’s mom in flashbacks. I haven’t read the source material, but the series is getting fantastic reviews and honestly? I’d watch Kathryn Hahn in literally anything. I’m in.
Also coming soon (April 14th) is Apple TV’s The Last Thing He Told Me, which is based on the novel of the same name by Laura Dave and stars Jennifer Garner as a woman unraveling the mystery of her husband’s disappearance. The supporting cast includes Mare of Easttown‘s lovely Angourie Rice, Aisha Tyler, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
Also arriving on the 14th is Universal’s Renfield, which puts Dracula’s (Nicholas Cage) long-suffering servant, played by Nicholas Hoult, front and center. Based on this gruesome, hilarious trailer, this flick is going to be entertaining as hell.
The second teaser and additional promotional materials have been released for the upcoming theatrical release, Barbie. Written by romantic partners Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, and directed by Gerwig, the film stars Margot Robbie as the iconic doll and Ryan Gosling as Ken, as well as a tremendous supporting cast that includes Issa Rae, Nicola Coughlan, Kate McKinnon, Simon Liu, Michael Cera, and many more (oh, and Helen Mirren narrates!). They can just take my money now because I will be the first in line for this.
And finally, Disney+ has released the first teaser for The Muppets Mayhem, a series that follows the iconic Muppets house band, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, as they attempt to record their first album. I actually cancelled my Disney+ subscription a while back, but I’ll probably need to re-up for this one.
***** CONTENT WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS REFERENCES TO HOMOPHOBIA, TRANSPHOBIA, PEDOPHILIA, MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, SUICIDE, GUN VIOLENCE, AND HOMELESSNESS *****
Drag is under fire these days, mainly from far-right radicals with neither a sense of humor nor a basic understanding of history. The narrative – that they’re protecting children from LGBTQ+ “groomers” – is absolute bullshit, and they know it (not that these people care about statistics, but the vast majority of pedophiles are cisgender, heterosexual men). The question that keeps getting asked is, “How will we explain drag to the children?” The simple fact is we have all been exposed to drag, usually from a very young age. Animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Mulan, Robin Hood‘s Little John, The Lion King‘s Timon, and SpongeBob SquarePants have been dressing in drag for decades.
Mulan (depicted here in Disney’s 1998 animated feature), in a tradition that dates back centuries, disguised herself as a man to join the military
So, if most of us were exposed to drag from a young age and didn’t need it explained, what are these people protesting? It’s actually quite simple; they’re protesting queerness. Because these people fetishize LGBTQ+ folks, they can’t picture them in a non-sexual scenario. The conclusion is drawn that a drag queen reading a book to children must be a lascivious act. Obviously, that couldn’t be further from the truth; these events are wholesome AF, and your kid is far safer there than alone with the wrong teacher, priest, Boy Scout leader, or family member. In fact, the only people I’d want to shield my kid from are the protesting bigots. I’m not a parent – I’m not getting into it here, but if you’re interested in the whole story: https://peanut-butter-and-julie.com/2021/05/05/the-baroness-of-barrenness/ (CW for infertility) – but if I had a child who asked me about a drag performer, I’d say something like, “Sometimes adults play dress-up, too.”
The right – emboldened by T*ump and fueled by conspiracy theories – is chipping away at LGBTQ+ rights, passing laws that criminalize LGBTQ+ folks for existing in public spaces. TERFs like She Who Must Not Be Named spew their transphobic hate all over social media. These people actively do harm and don’t even try to pretend otherwise. And they’re doing it all “for the children,” which is absolutely laughable. If these people really cared about children, they’d work to improve access to school lunches and sex education and health care, or maybe do something – ANYTHING – to make it a little harder for people to commit mass shootings. And if all this makes me woke, then fuck yes, because woke is an adjective meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” I’ll never get over how many people side with prejudice and discrimination.
Teaching children tolerance should not be controversial, but here we are. Children are far more open-minded than many adults give them credit for. Children aren’t born with hate; they learn it. No one is trying to turn kids gay (the gay agenda, as far as I can tell, is survival, equal rights, and maybe brunch if there’s time). For kids questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity, for those enduring bigotry or bullying or abuse, and for those who just feel different and aren’t really sure why, finding a role model – someone who lets them know that it’s okay to be themselves – can be lifesaving. Gender-affirming care can be lifesaving. LGBTQ+ kids have higher suicide rates and incidences of mental health issues. They’re more likely to experience homelessness, bullying, and violence. Many are abused and disowned by their families. It will be worth it if these drag story hours save even one young life. Plus, they look like a blast.
The history of drag in pop culture dates back to ancient Greek and Roman times. Many societies banned women from appearing on stage, so men played female roles. Instances of drag appear in mythology, folklore, literature, and opera. Women have dressed in drag for centuries to enter male-dominated spaces such as the labor force and the battlefield.
Among the many women who disguised themselves as men to fight in the US Civil War was Frances Louisa Clayton, known to her fellow soldiers as Jack WIlliams. To pass as a man, Clayton took up gambling, swearing, and cigar-smoking.
Drag in cinema dates back to the 1910s, when motion pictures were in their infancy. Silent film artists such as Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, who honed their craft in the English music halls of the late 19th century (more on those later), often dressed in drag for comedic effect. Bugs Bunny, who debuted in 1939, often dressed in drag to confound opponents like Elmer Fudd. In 1959, drag was a key plot point in what many consider the greatest American comedy of all time, Some Like It Hot.
Best. Last. Line. EVER.
After the end of the Hays Code era (ICYMI: https://peanut-butter-and-julie.com/2021/04/01/the-hays-code/, CW for SA and racism), drag in film went mainstream, with beloved movies like Rocky Horror Picture Show, Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire, and The Birdcage and pop culture icons like RuPaul, Dame Edna (Barry Humphries), and Divine. During the same period, live drag shows also became increasingly popular. Musicians such as David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Boy George, and Prince dabbled in androgyny. Today, drag is everywhere: Pride celebrations, reality competitions like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Tyler Perry’s blockbuster Madea franchise, and yes, even children’s story hours.
So, in celebration of drag in all its forms, here is a timeline of drag in popular culture and, as always, a few of my personal favorites.
Ancient Greece and Rome
In ancient Western societies, women were not allowed to perform onstage, so female roles were, by necessity, portrayed by men. In Greece, men and boys were required to dress in drag for certain religious ceremonies.
A depiction of Greek actors in drag
Mummers’ play
Mummers’ plays are folk plays that originated in the British Isles, with troupes of traditionally all-male performers. The written history of Mummers’ plays is sparse, but it’s believed to date back at least to the 13th century. The tradition is still upheld, with variations of Mummers’ plays performed for holidays like Christmas, Easter, and Plough Day, an English holiday celebrating the beginning of the agricultural year.
A modern-day Mummers’ play
Shakespeare
In the English Renaissance Theater, women were still forbidden to appear onstage, so Shakespearean heroines were played by men. Shakespeare also used drag as a plot device, most notably in Twelfth Night (heroine Viola impersonates a man and winds up in a love triangle).
FUN FACT: English laws against women appearing on stage began to relax during the reign of Charles II, who took the throne in 1660, almost fifty years after Shakespeare died.
In 1998’s Shakespeare in Love, Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) pretends to be a man in order to appear on stage in Romeo and Juliet
Music Halls
Another English tradition, music hall entertainment, was the direct ancestor of vaudeville. Music halls were Victorian-era variety shows featuring a mix of songs, comedy, and specialty acts like magicians, ventriloquists, and both male and female drag artists.
Music hall drag stars Winifred Emms AKA Hetty King (L) and Arthur Askey (R)
Silent film
In the early days of film, comedians such as Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, who came to the US in 1910 as part of Fred Karno’s comedy troupe, often dressed in drag in the English music hall style. Later comedians such as the Three Stooges, Milton Berle, and Flip Wilson carried on that tradition.
Charlie Chaplin in drag in the 1915 short film A Woman
Ball Culture
The Ballroom scene originated in the late 19th century when LGBTQ+ folks began to organize drag shows in defiance of anti-drag laws. In the 1920s, tired of the racism and discrimination at many of these events, black and Latino drag queens started organizing their own underground balls in New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia. In the 1980s, ball culture inspired a dance style called Vogue, which gained mainstream notoriety in 1990 with Madonna’s #1 smash hit single of the same name and the award-winning documentary feature Paris Is Burning.
FUN FACT: The origin of the word “drag” is disputed, but one theory suggests it is derived from the term “grand rag,” a historical slang term for a “masquerade ball.”
1920s drag queensParis is Burning
The video for “Vogue”, directed by David Fincher, won three MTV Video Music Awards but lost Video of the Year to Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” (Fincher took home the Best Director prize, though)
One more, because this is too perfect not to share
Bugs Bunny
One of the ultimate drag icons, Bugs Bunny has appeared in drag more than forty times. Other LooneyTunes characters to dress in drag are Wile E. Coyote, Porky Pig, and Daffy Duck. Since the ascendence of Bugs, countless animated characters – including Fred Flintstone, SpongeBob SquarePants, and many a Disney sidekick – have appeared in drag, delighting children and adults alike. Drag is also a common plot element in Japanese anime.
Some Like It Hot
Because of its depiction of cross-dressing, Some Like It Hot was released without the approval of the Motion Picture Production Code (AKA the Hays Code). Despite that lack of support, the film was a critical and commercial success, and a six-time Oscar nominee (inexplicably, it was not nominated for Best Picture). Some Like It Hot‘s success was a key step in the relaxing of standards in the 1960s and the ultimate abolition of the Code.
TheRocky Horror Picture Show
Going to a Rocky Horror midnight show was a Gen-X rite of passage. And Tim Curry dressed in drag as Dr. Frank-N-Furter – “the sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania” – also provided many a sexual awakening. Rocky Horror was one of the first notable cinematic instances of queer drag, making it a landmark film for LGBTQ+ visibility; the earliest midnight screening attendees were queer folks celebrating their newfound representation.
Torch Song Trilogy / La Cage aux Folles / The Birdcage
Beginning with 1982’s Torch Song Trilogy, Tony-winning actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein helped usher in an era of mainstream media depictions of drag. In the three-act play, Fierstein plays torch singer and drag queen Arnold Beckoff. Torch Song Trilogy was a watershed moment in LGBTQ+ history; its frank representations of gay marriage and adoption were unusual for the time. Two years later, Fierstein wrote the book for LaCage aux Folles, a musical adaptation of the 1973 French play of the same name, about a gay couple forced to play it straight when their son invites his fiancée’s ultra-conservative parents to dinner. If that plot sounds familiar, it’s because La Cage auxFolles was also the basis for 1996’s The Birdcage.
Tootsie
In some respects, Tootsie has not aged well. Let’s be honest, Michael Dorsey is an asshole, and it enrages adult me that he ends up with Julie despite his lies and manipulations (she deserves so much better). But certain scenes are still comedy gold, like when Michael, dressed as Dorothy, meets his agent (Sydney Pollack) at the Russian Tea Room to test his new disguise. Tootsie was a critical and commercial smash, earning more than any 1982 movie that wasn’t E.T. and garnering ten Oscar nominations (and winning one, Best Supporting Actress for Jessica Lange).
Hairspray
The Hairspray franchise began in 1988 with a film by John Waters featuring his muse (and drag icon) Divine as housewife Edna Turnblad. In 2002, the film was adapted into a Broadway musical, which co-starred Harvey Fierstein in a Tony-winning performance (the show won eight Tonys in all, including Best Musical). John Travolta took over as Edna in the 2007 musical feature, but Fierstein reprised the iconic role for a 2016 live performance on NBC.
OG Edna Turnblad Divine
RuPaul
RuPaul Andre Charles, known simply as RuPaul, burst onto the national scene in 1993 with the album Supermodel of the World and its hit single, “Supermodel (You Better Work).” Modeling contracts, more recordings, and a VH1 talk show quickly followed. In 2008, RuPaul launched a reality competition franchise with RuPaul’s Drag Race. Arguably the most commercially successful drag queen of all time, RuPaul is the winner of multiple awards, including a Tony, twelve Emmys, and a GLAAD Vito Russo Award.
RuPaul has won twelve Emmy Awards for the wildly entertaining – and wildly popular – RuPaul’s Drag Race
Mrs. Doubtfire
In 1993, Robin Williams brought equal amounts of humor and heart to his dual role of Daniel Hillard/Euphegenia Doubtfire. In the process, Williams won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and America’s collective heart. In one of my favorite scenes, Daniel transforms into Mrs. Doubtfire with the help of his makeup artist brother (Harvey Fierstein, AGAIN!).
Williams’ acceptance speech – in which he channels both Euphegenia Doubtfire AND Harvey Fierstein – showcases his power to make you laugh through your tears
Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
A personal favorite, Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a decidedly Australian film starring Terence Stamp in an Oscar-worthy performance as Bernadette, a trans woman traveling cross-country with two drag queens (Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving) in a dilapidated old bus they christen Priscilla. Come for the Oscar-winning costume design by Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel and the killer soundtrack; stay for Stamp’s gorgeous, BAFTA- and Golden Globe-nominated performance.
Madea
Mable Earlene Simmons, AKA Madea, is filmmaker Tyler Perry’s ode to the strong-willed, street-smart women in his life. In Perry’s words, Madea is “exactly the PG version of my mother and my aunt, and I loved having an opportunity to pay homage to them. She would beat the hell out of you but make sure the ambulance got there in time to make sure they could set your arm back.” Madea, the most prolific drag queen of the 21st century, has appeared in eleven plays, thirteen films, a handful of series, and a 2006 book, Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings.
More depictions of drag in pop culture:
The Rocky twins, drag vaudeville performers who gained fame in 1930s ParisKatharine Hepburn in 1935’s Sylvia Scarlett (L) and her frequent co-star Cary Grant in 1938’s Bringing Up Baby (R)1949’s Kind Hearts and Coronets, in which Alec Guinness plays eight characters, including Lady AgathaBarry Humphries, AKA Dame EdnaOne of M*A*S*H‘s most memorable characters, Jamie Farr’s Corporal Klinger, dresses in drag in an attempt to obtain a Section 8 dischargeAttendees of a drag ball in 1970s HarlemJulie Andrews, in her Oscar-nominated performance in 1982’s Victoria/VictoriaBarbraStreisand with Mandy Patinkin in 1983’s Yentl, about a young Jewish woman who dresses and lives as a boy in order to receive an education in Talmudic lawJoyce Hyser, center, and the cast of 1985’s Just One of the Guys, a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night1994’s Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp as the cross-dressing cult filmmakerTimon in 1994’s The Lion KingAttendees at the 10th annual Wigstock festival in Manhattan’s East Village (1995)Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo, and Patrick Swayze in 1995’s To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar1999’s Flawless, skippable except for Philip Seymour Hoffman’s heartbreaking, SAG Award-nominated performance as drag queen Rusty
2005’s Kinky Boots, the basis for the hit musical (that’s Chiwetel Ejiofor as Lola, the role that would later earn Billy Porter a Tony)
2006’s She’s the Man, another adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
IT’S SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!! Time to stuff your face, drink some beer, and watch the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Philadelphia Eagles. And when the game is over, and the NFL champions have been crowned, you can stick around and watch Gordon Ramsey in the season premiere of Next Level Chef, this year’s Super Bowl lead-out program.
Gordon Ramsay, center, with Richard Blais and Nyesha Arrington on Next Level Chef, which apparently has a rotating, three-level kitchen
The history of the Super Bowl lead-out program dates back to before the championship game was even CALLED the Super Bowl. Did you know that Super Bowl I was referred to as the AFL and NFL World Championship Game? Or that it actually aired on two networks? NBC and CBS held the exclusive rights to broadcast AFL and NFL games, respectively, and the game was only referred to as the Super Bowl retroactively (in fact, the moniker wasn’t adopted until 1969). On January 15, 1967, after the Green Bay Packers finished spanking the Chiefs, both networks went with family-friendly fare for the post-game program: CBS aired an episode of Lassie titled “Lassie’s Litter Bit”, and NBC aired something called “Willie and the Yank: The Mosby Raiders” for Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. The two networks combined received a 59% share that night, meaning more than half of American television sets were tuned in.
I couldn’t find a good picture, but “Willie and the Yank: The Mosby Raiders” co-starred Jeanne Cooper and a 16-year-old Kurt Russell
For the first eighteen years of its existence, the Super Bowl aired exclusively on NBC and CBS, and the two networks continued to use the lead-out for G-rated content: GE CollegeBowl, 60 Minutes, golf tournaments, and more episodes of Lassie. In 1982, the NFL renegotiated its deal with the networks, and ABC got in on the action with Super Bowl XIX. The network used the coveted post-game time slot to air the pilot of MacGruder and Loud, a series that lasted one season. I don’t remember it, nor do I remember The Last Precinct, which aired the following year after NBC’s coverage of Super Bowl XX. In fact, the lead-out slot is littered with the corpses of series that didn’t make it to season two.
L: MacGruder and Loud starred John Getz and Kathryn Harrold as partners who keep their marriage a secret from their boss (he sneaks into her apartment through a secret door behind her grandfather clock!) R: The Last Precinct – with Adam West and Ernie Hudson – was about a wacky group of Police Academy-style rejects in a seedy LAPD precinct. Both series were cancelled after one season.
In more recent years, the networks have utilized the lead-out slot to air established properties: special episodes of popular series (TheSimpsons, House, and TheBlacklist, to name a few) or season premieres of highly rated reality shows like Survivor and The Voice. Last year, NBC returned us to the Winter Olympics (fun fact: under the new contract that takes effect in 2024, NBC will air the Super Bowl exclusively in Winter Olympics years, so expect that to be a regular occurrence). These days, the Super Bowl lead-out tends to receive lower ratings, which isn’t all that surprising. With hundreds of cable channels and countless streaming options, more and more people are tuning out as soon as the game is over. Each year, the ratings dwindle a little more, and the networks put less work into making the time slot a special event. That’s why reality competition programming – which is far cheaper to produce than a scripted series – has become a common lead-out; something like NextLevelChef gives Fox a much bigger ratings bang for their buck.
The Simpsons, “Sunday, Cruddy Sunday”, Super Bowl XXXIII
So, in honor of Super Bowl Sunday, here are some notable Super Bowl lead-outs – and a couple of my personal favorites.
Friends – “The One After the Super Bowl” (Super Bowl XXX, January 28, 1996)
If you’re wondering, “What’s the highest-rated post-Super Bowl episode of all time?”, wonder no more. It’s Friends‘ imaginatively titled “The One After the Super Bowl”, and it’s not even close. After watching Dallas beat Pittsburgh by ten, 46% of households – almost 53 million people – tuned in for this one-hour episode of the Gen X sitcom. Not only was Friends (then in its second season) a ratings smash, but one of its actors (Matthew Perry) was dating the biggest movie star on the planet, Julia Roberts. Roberts guest starred on this episode, along with Brooke Shields, Chris Isaak, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Fred Willard, and Dan Castellaneta.
Matthew Perry and Julia Roberts in “The One After the Super Bowl”
Like a lot of Friends episodes, this one hasn’t aged particularly well. Brooke Shields is a scene-stealer, but the stalker storyline, which pokes fun at the character’s obvious mental illness, just feels icky. And Monica and Rachel fighting over JCVD is just *eye rolls*. My favorite storyline is Phoebe singing for the kids at the library; Lisa Kudrow’s chemistry with guest star Isaak is adorable (“Are you gonna kiss me?” “Thinkin’ about it”) and this scene cracks me up every time.
Fun fact: Brooke Shields, who was best known at the time for romantic dramas like TheBlueLagoon and EndlessLove, earned rave reviews for “The One After the Super Bowl”. The gig helped Shields land her own series, SuddenlySusan, for which she received two Golden Globe nominations.
Alias – “Phase One” (Super Bowl XXXVII, January 26, 2003)
Few shows have pushed the reset button as hard as this spy thriller did on Super Bowl Sunday, 2003, midway through its second season. After a cold open that gives the show an excuse to show off Jennifer Garner’s ridonkulous body (not to mention her badassery), Sydney, Vaughn, and the CIA are finally able to infiltrate SD-6 and shut it down. Sydney and Vaughn share their long-awaited first kiss, and Sydney deals with the fallout of having had to lie to her SD-6 partner Marcus. And in a shocking twist, the episode ends with the murder of Sydney’s BFF Francie – and the installation of Francie’s “double” Allison into Sydney’s life. “Phase One” was the highest-rated episode of Alias; unfortunately, it was also one of the lowest-rated Super Bowl lead-outs ever, and because the episode didn’t begin until after 11 pm EST, it wasn’t in the coveted prime time bracket. It’s too bad, because “Phase One’ could have earned Alias a lot of new fans.
RIP, Francie
“Phase One” set the stage for one of my favorite fight scenes ever (“I just remembered, Francie doesn’t like coffee ice cream”)
Homicide: Life on the Street – “Gone for Goode” / Pilot (Super Bowl XXVII, January 31, 1993)
One of the best network procedurals of all time began as the Super Bowl XXVII lead-out program thirty years ago. Academy Award nominee Paul Attanasio created the series, based on David Simon’s book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. The cast (all hail Andre Braugher!) is sublime. “Gone for Goode”, though a ratings disappointment for NBC, earned Oscar winner Barry Levinson an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.
The cast of Homicide: Life on the Street, circa 1997
Fun fact #1: Richard Belzer’s Law & Order: SVU character John Munch was created for Homicide. After the series ended, Munch moved from Baltimore to New York City, just in time for the series premiere of SVU.
Richard Belzer, left, with his Law & Order: SVU partner, Ice-T
Fun fact #2: David Simon, then a journalist for The Baltimore Sun, spent a year (1988) with the homicide unit at the Baltimore PD before writing the Edgar Award winning Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. The cases he wrote about served as inspiration not only for Homicide: Life on the Street, but for Simon’s later series, The Wire, as well.
The A-Team – “Children of Jamestown” (Super Bowl XVII, January 30, 1983)
The A-Team – about a Special Forces unit convicted of a crime they didn’t commit who escape prison and become a team of mercenaries – kicked off with a two-hour pilot episode the week before and aired its first regular episode after Super Bowl XVII. Starring George Peppard, Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz, and Mr. T, The A-Team was a formulaic, cartoonishly violent series – and viewers couldn’t get enough. The series spawned a franchise that includes comic books, video games, and a (terrible) 2011 film adaptation.
Fun fact: NBC did not have high expectations for The A-Team, but one person predicted from the beginning that the show would be a hit, and that was star George Peppard.
The Wonder Years – Pilot (Super Bowl XXII, January 31, 1988)
After Washington routed Denver 42-10, ABC aired the pilot for its new coming-of-age dramedy, TheWonder Years. Starring Fred Savage as ’60s suburban kid Kevin Arnold, with voiceover narration by the criminally underrated Daniel Stern as a middle-aged Kevin, The Wonder Years was an instant hit. For its abbreviated (six episode) first season, The Wonder Years won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series; the following year, thirteen-year-old Savage became the youngest-ever nominee for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy alongside legends like Ted Danson, Michael J. Fox, John Goodman, and eventual winner Richard Mulligan. Hubby and I recently binged the entire series on Hulu, and I’m pleased to say it holds up pretty well.
Fun fact: The Wonder Years was the inspiration for a 2021 Disney+ series of the same name starring Dulé Hill. That series was renewed for a second season, which will air sometime in 2023.
The X-Files – “Leonard Betts” (Super Bowl XXXI, January 26, 1997)
After years on the sidelines, Fox made the most of its first Super Bowl outing with this outstanding episode of its hit sci-fi series, The X-Files. Paul McCrane stars as the titular character, a cancer-eating mutant with the powers of regeneration. It’s also the episode where viewers learned of Scully’s cancer diagnosis (it’s a pretty important plot point). Almost 30 million viewers tuned in for “Leonard Betts”, making it the most-watched episode of the series’ eleven season run.
“I’m sorry, but you’ve got something I need” <shivers>
Survivor: The Australian Outback – “Stranded” / Survivor: All-Stars – “They’re Back!”
The inaugural season of Survivor was a runaway ratings success in the summer of 2000, so naturally CBS rushed a second season into production as soon as possible. The season two premiere aired after Super Bowl XXXV, more than 43 million Americans tuned in, and a franchise was born. Three years later, Survivor‘s first all-star season was the lead-out for Super Bowl XXXVIII, and 33 million watched. Twenty-two years later, Survivor is still on the air (season 44 will premiere on March 1), a testament to the franchise’s staying power.
The cast of Survivor: The Australian Outback was stacked with future all-stars like Colby Donaldson, Tina Wesson, Amber Brkich (later Mariano), Kimmi Kappenberg, and Jerri Manthey
60 Minutes (Super Bowl XXVI, January 26, 1992)
CBS initially planned to air its news magazine series, 48 Hours, after Super Bowl XXVI. But at the last minute, this abbreviated episode of 60 Minutes was added to the schedule to address presidential nominee Bill Clinton’s relationship with Gennifer Flowers. Flowers, who had sold her story to a tabloid, claimed that she and Clinton carried on a long-term affair, a claim Clinton initially denied (spoiler alert: he lied). This interview is best remembered for Hillary Clinton’s statement that “I’m not sittin’ here, some little woman, standing by my man like Tammy Wynette.” Wynette took Clinton to task for her remarks, but the two later made up.
Criminal Minds – “The Big Game” (Super Bowl XLI, February 4, 2007)
For its time in the post-Super Bowl spotlight, CriminalMinds wrote the game into the plot (a couple is murdered after hosting a party) AND gave us a cliffhanger (Reid is kidnapped by the killer). “The Big Game” also introduced us to one of the show’s most memorable unsubs, James Van Der Beek’s Tobias Hankel. The storyline wrapped up three nights later with the episode “Revelations”, and Van Der Beek proved he was much more than Dawson’s Creek.
Malcolm in the Middle – “Company Picnic” (Super Bowl XXXVI, February 3, 2002)
This dysfunctional family sitcom was in its third season when it received the coveted post-Super Bowl time slot. The episode, titled “Company Picnic”, gives Bryan Cranston the opportunity to show off his slapstick skills. Guest stars include Christina Ricci, Bradley Whitford (then-husband of series star Jane Kaczmarek), Patrick Warburton, Stephen Root, and NFL legends Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long.
Malcolm in the Middle has one of my favorite theme songs of all time, courtesy of art rock/power pop duo They Might Be Giants
Fun fact: When Vince Gilligan was casting BreakingBad, AMC – who knew Bryan Cranston only as Malcolm in the Middle‘s Hal – were skeptical that Cranston was right for the role of Walter White. AMC’s choice for the role was either John Cusack or Matthew Broderick. Thankfully, Gilligan (who had worked with Cranston on an episode of The X-Files called “Drive”) stuck to his guns, and Cranston went on to win a whopping four Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
The Office – “Stress Relief” (Super Bowl XLIII, February 1, 2009)
I’ve saved the best for last. “Stress Relief” is the gold standard of Super Bowl lead-outs. First, there’s this masterpiece of a cold open, The Office at its chaotic best:
Then there’s this:
Michael confusing “Stayin’ Alive” with “I Will Survive” is perfection
I rest my case.
Fun fact: Jeffrey Blitz won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for “Stress Relief”. The episode was also nominated for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Comedy Series but lost to 30 Rock.
The 2023 nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced this week. Kate Bush, my all-time favorite female artist, has been nominated for the fourth time in six years. Among the first-time nominees are Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Willie Nelson, The White Stripes, and Warren Zevon. You can vote daily for your favorite artists here:
Speaking of nominations, the Oscar class of 2022 has been announced. EverythingEverywhere All at Once leads the pack with eleven nominations. Sixteen of the twenty acting nominees are first-timers, the most in history. The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 12. Here is the complete list of nominees:
Two of my childhood favorites – Laverne and Shirley‘s Cindy Williams and The Addams Family‘s Lisa Loring – passed away this week. A BAFTA nominee for Best Supporting Actress for her role in American Graffiti, Williams is best known for playing Shirley Feeney opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne DeFazio on ABC’s long-running Happy Days spinoff. Loring, the OG Wednesday Addams, began modeling at the age of three; she was just six years old when she won the role that would make her a television icon. She also portrayed Cricket Montgomery on As the World Turns in the early 1980s.
L to R: Cindy Williams as Shirley Feeney, Lisa Loring as Wednesday Addams, Loring in more recent years
The Last of Us is so. damn. good. This week’s exceptional episode, “Long, Long Time”, explores the relationship between Bill (Nick Offerman, who should absolutely be nominated for an Emmy for his performance) and Frank (Murray Bartlett, also terrific). No spoilers here, but if you haven’t checked out The Last of Us yet, I highly recommend you do so.
I redeemed an offer for three free months of Apple TV just in time for Shrinking, the hilarious and poignant new series from Scrubs showrunner Bill Lawrence. Lawrence co-created the show with Ted Lasso‘s Brett Goldstein and star Jason Segel, who plays a therapist coping poorly with the death of his wife. The excellent supporting cast includes Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, Michael Urie, and Christa Miller. I’m all in on this one.
TheMidnight Special premiered on NBC fifty years ago this week. The series, produced by Burt Sugarman, was known for featuring musical artists singing live (rather than lip-synching, which was the custom at the time).
Sixty-four years ago today, a plane crashed in a cornfield near Clear Lake, Iowa. Along with pilot Roger Peterson, the crash killed J.P. Richardson (better known as “The Big Bopper”), Buddy Holly, and Ritchie Valens. Richardson, who was suffering from the flu, had asked Waylon Jennings, a member of Holly’s backing band, to give up his seat; Valens, just 17 at the time, “won” his seat on a coin toss. In 1971, singer-songwriter Don McLean coined the phrase “the day the music died” for his single, “American Pie”.
L to R: Buddy Holly, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, Ritchie Valens
At more than eight and a half minutes, “American Pie” was the longest #1 single in Billboard history for almost fifty years
Pixar, which began in 1979 as a division of Lucasfilm known as the Graphics Group, became an independent company on this day in 1986 (thanks to a $10 million investment from Steve Jobs). At the time, though they had produced short films (including Luxo Jr., the tiny desk lamp that serves as Pixar’s mascot), the technology was still too expensive for feature-length animation. While waiting for the tech to catch up, Pixar formed a working relationship with Disney, working on films like The RescuersDown Under. Disney would ultimately agree to a three-picture deal with Pixar; that deal produced Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2. Since 2006, Pixar has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios; they’ve now produced 27 feature films, including this summer’s Elemental. Here are some of my personal favorites:
Toy Story, Pixar’s first feature (fun fact: Paul Newman, Robin Williams, and Clint Eastwood were all considered for the role of Woody, which ultimately – thankfully – went to Tom Hanks)Monsters, Inc.Finding Nemo, my personal favorite of the Pixar animated feature filmsWALL-EThe gorgeous, heartbreaking UpThe gorgeous, heartbreaking Inside OutThe gorgeous, heartbreaking Soul
I’m super excited for this one, scheduled to hit theaters on June 16
These albums are all turning forty this year. This list is in chronological order by release date and covers albums released between January and June of 1983.
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) – Eurythmics
CHART POSITION: #15 in the US, #3 in the UK, top ten in five other countries
SINGLES: “This Is the House”, “The Walk”, “Love Is a Stranger”, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “I Could Give You (A Mirror)” and “This City Never Sleeps”
FUN FACT: Eurythmics, the only artist to make two appearances on this list, were nominated for Best New Artist at the 26th Grammy Awards but lost to Culture Club (though they did take home the same prize at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards).
PERFECTION
Pyromania – Def Leppard
CHART POSITION: #2 in the US, #4 in Canada
SINGLES: “Photograph”, “Rock of Ages”, “Foolin'”, “Too Late for Love”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Rock Rock (Till You Drop)”
FUN FACT: Pyromania was produced by Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who also worked on classics like Foreigner’s 4, AC/DC’s Back in Black, and The Cars’ Heartbeat City (and who later had a tabloid fodder marriage to – and divorce from – frequent collaborator Shania Twain).
Frontiers – Journey
CHART POSITION: #2 in the US, #6 in the UK
SINGLES: “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”, “Faithfully”, “After the Fall”, “Send Her My Love”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Chain Reaction”
FUN FACT: “Only the Young” was recorded for Frontiers but didn’t make it on the finished product; the song reached the US top ten two years later when it was featured on the soundtrack for Vision Quest.
I fucking love this movie! Fun fact: Madonna made her film debut in Vision Quest!
Porcupine – Echo & The Bunnymen
CHART POSITION: #2 in the UK, # 137 in the US
SINGLES: “The Back of Love”, “The Cutter”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Back of Love”, “My White Devil”, and “Heads Will Roll”
FUN FACT: Echo & the Bunnymen, my second favorite band from Liverpool, were once booed off the stage after two songs while opening for ska faves Madness (more on them later).
Kilroy Was Here – Styx
CHART POSITION: #3 in the US, #67 in the UK, #6 in Sweden, #3 in Norway (apparently, Scandanavians really love Styx)
SINGLES: “Mr. Roboto”, “Don’t Let It End”, “High Time”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Cold War” and “Double Life”
FUN FACT: The album’s title was inspired by the famous graffiti tag (pictured, above right) used by US soldiers during WWII. After the Nazis found the tag on a piece of captured American equipment, Hitler came to believe that “Kilroy” was the code name of an Allied spy.
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Seconds” and “Surrender”
FUN FACT: Many of the album’s lyrics were written in August, 1982, while Bono was on honeymoon in Jamaica with his wife Ali, which is perhaps the most Bono thing ever.
Side Kicks – Thompson Twins
CHART POSITION: #34 in the US, #2 in the UK (where it was known as Quick Step & Side Kick)
SINGLES: “Lies”, “Love on Your Side”, “We Are Detective”, “Watching”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “If You Were Here” (known to movie fans as the song that plays over the romantic final scene of Sixteen Candles) and “Love Lies Bleeding”
FUN FACT: The trio’s name was inspired by the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson in the English language version of the comic strip The Adventures of Tintin. The duo, by the way, is voiced by Nick Frost and Simon Pegg in the 2011 feature-length adaption from Steven Spielberg.
Dazzle Ships – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD)
CHART POSITION: #162 in the US (where OMD wouldn’t catch on for another two years), #5 in the UK
SINGLES: “Genetic Engineering” and “Telegraph”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “The Romance of the Telescope” and “Of All the Things We’ve Made”
FUN FACT: The album’s cover art was inspired by Vorticist artist Edward Wadsworth’s 1919 painting, Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool (pictured, above right). Wadsworth frequently worked with nautical themes after spending WWI designing dazzle camouflage for the Royal Navy.
True – Spandau Ballet
CHART POSITION: #19 in the US, #1 in the UK, New Zealand, and Netherlands
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Heaven Is a Secret”
FUN FACT: The title track, the first Spandau Ballet single to reach the Billboard Hot 100, is the band’s signature tune; it’s been used extensively in pop culture, in movies like SixteenCandles and 50 First Dates and television series such as Modern Family. It was also sampled for the 1992 song “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” by P.M. Dawn.
The Hurting – Tears for Fears
CHART POSITION: #73 in the US, #1 in the UK
SINGLES: “Suffer the Children”, “Pale Shelter”, “Mad World”, “Change”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “The Hurting” and “Watch Me Bleed”
FUN FACT: In 2001, Michael Andrews and Gary Jules covered “Mad World” for the DonnieDarko soundtrack.
The Final Cut – Pink Floyd
CHART POSITION: #6 in the US, #1 in seven countries, including the UK
SINGLES: “Not Now John”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “The Post War Dream”, “The Hero’s Return”, and “Paranoid Eyes”
FUN FACT: The album began life as a soundtrack to the motion picture Pink Floyd – The Wall (released in 1982); several of The Final Cut‘s tracks, including “When the Tigers Broke Free”, were recorded during sessions for The Wall album three years earlier.
Eliminator – ZZ Top
CHART POSITION: #9 in the US, top five in five countries, including the UK
SINGLES: “Gimme All Your Lovin'”, “Sharp Dressed Man”, “TV Dinners”, “Legs”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Got Me Under Pressure” and “If I Could Only Flag Her Down”
FUN FACT: The custom 1933 Ford coupe seen on the cover was used in the videos for three of the album’s singles, including “Legs”, which won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video.
Naked Eyes – Naked Eyes
CHART POSITION: #32 in the US, #88 in Australia (where it was known as Burning Bridges)
SINGLES: “Always Something There to Remind Me”, “Promises, Promises”, “When the Lights Go Out”, “Voices in My Head”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “I Could Show You How”, “Fortune and Fame”, “Burning Bridges”, “Low Life” and “Emotion in Motion”
FUN FACT: “Always Something There to Remind Me”, Naked Eyes’ only US top ten hit, is a remake of a Burt Bacharach/Hal David song that was originally recorded by Dionne Warwick.
The Luxury Gap – Heaven 17
CHART POSITION: #72 in the US, #4 in the UK
SINGLES: “Let Me Go”, “Temptation”, “We Live So Fast”, “Come Live with Me”, “Crushed by the Wheels of Industry”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Who’ll Stop the Rain”
FUN FACT: Two of Heaven 17’s members – Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware – founded The Human League in 1977; they left that band in 1980 over creative differences with lead singer Philip Oakey.
Murmur – R.E.M.
CHART POSITION: #36 in the US
SINGLES: “Radio Free Europe”, “Talk About the Passion”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: Literally all of them – this album changed my fucking life
FUN FACT: R.E.M.’s bright, jangly guitar drew comparisons to The Byrds (both used Rickenbacker guitars, known for their distinctive chime sound). But their melodic basslines, courtesy of Mike Mills, combined with Michael Stipe’s cryptic, mumbly lyrics, gave R.E.M. a sound uniquely their own.
Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes
CHART POSITION: #171 in the US and #34 in Australia
SINGLES: No singles were released but that didn’t stop songs like “Blister in the Sun”, “Kiss Off”, “Add It Up”, and “Gone Daddy Gone” from making a lasting mark on ’80s pop culture
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Please Do Not Go”, “Prove My Love”, and “Good Feeling” (AKA Lily and Marshall’s “song” on How I Met Your Mother)
FUN FACT: In 2021, Trixie Mattel recorded a version of “Blister in the Sun” for her EP Full Coverage, Vol. 1.
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Ricochet” and “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)”
FUN FACT #1: One of the musicians who played on Let’s Dance – a then-unknown blues guitarist named Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose debut album had yet to be released – will appear later on this list.
FUN FACT #2: After his good friend John Lennon’s death, Bowie was looking for a new creative direction and he chose Chic’s Nile Rogers to produce Let’s Dance. Bowie and Rogers discovered they shared a love of ’50s music, which informed the sound of the album.
Whammy! – The B-52s
CHART POSITION: #29 in the US, #33 in the UK
SINGLES: “Legal Tender”, “Whammy Kiss”, “Song for a Future Generation”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Moon 83”, a reworking of “There’s a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon)” from the B-52’s’ 1979 self-titled debut
FUN FACT: Whammy! was the final album credited to guitarist Ricky Wilson, who died of AIDS in 1985 while the group was at work on their fourth studio album, Bouncing Off the Satellites.
Cargo – Men at Work
CHART POSITION: #3 in the US, #1 in Australia, #8 in the UK
SINGLES: “Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive”, “Overkill”, “It’s a Mistake”, “High Wire”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Settle Down My Boy”
FUN FACT: My parents and I were vacationing in northern Michigan that August and they surprised me with tickets to the Men at Work/INXS concert at Castle Farms in Charlevoix. We were out to dinner earlier in the evening; our server asked if we were going to the show and I said, “I wish!” It turns out that I was going, I just didn’t know it at the time. Men at Work ended up having a relatively short shelf-life, with the first split occurring just a year later, so I was glad I got the chance to see them before they imploded.
Hootenanny – The Replacements
CHART POSITION: N/A
SINGLES: None
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Color Me Impressed”, “Take Me Down to the Hospital”, “Within Your Reach”
FUN FACT #1: The album cover was inspired by the cover of the Crestview Records compilation The Original Hootenanny (pictured, above right).
FUN FACT #2: Six years after the release of Hootenanny, “Within Your Reach” was included on the soundtrack to the quintessential Gen-X rom-com, Say Anything…
In Outer Space – Sparks
CHART POSITION: #88 in the US
SINGLES: “Cool Places”, “All You Ever Think About Is Sex”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Popularity” and “I Wish I Looked a Little Better”
FUN FACT: “Cool Places”, a duet with Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s, was Sparks’ highest-charting single, reaching #49 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Madness – Madness
CHART POSITION: #41 in the US (North American release only)
SINGLES: None, because this is a compilation album released in North America to capitalize on the success of “Our House”, Madness’ only US top ten hit
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Our House”, “Tomorrow’s Just Another Day”, “It Must Be Love”, “Primrose Hill”, “House of Fun”, “Rise and Fall”, “Cardiac Arrest”
FUN FACT: Madness – along with bands like The Specials and The Beat – were part of the Two-Tone (named for the 2 Tone record label, pictured above right, to which several of the bands were signed) movement, which fuzed ska and reggae with elements of punk and new wave.
Power, Corruption & Lies – New Order
CHART POSITION: #4 in the UK, #3 in New Zealand, #38 in Australia
SINGLES: “Blue Monday”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Blue Monday”, “Age of Consent”, “The Village”, “Ultraviolence”, “Leave Me Alone”
FUN FACT: “Blue Monday”, which was only included on the cassette version of the album (and later, the CD), is the best-selling 12-inch single of all time.
“Weird Al” Yankovic – “Weird Al” Yankovic
CHART POSITION: #139 in the US
SINGLES: “Another One Rides the Bus”, “Ricky”, “I Love Rocky Road”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Stop Dragging My Car Around” and “My Bologna”
FUN FACT: “Weird Al” was just sixteen years old when he had his first comedy song played on The Dr. Demento Radio Show; Yankovic later quipped, “If there hadn’t been a Dr. Demento, I’d probably have a real job now.”
I didn’t realize at the time how young Yankovic was (23!)
Holy Diver – Dio
CHART POSITION: #56 in the US, #13 in the UK
SINGLES: “Holy Diver”, “Rainbow in the Dark”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Stand Up and Shout”, “Holy Diver”, “Caught in the Middle”, “Rainbow in the Dark”
FUN FACT: Holy Diver, Dio’s debut album, also features the first appearance of the band’s demonic mascot, Murray.
Too Low for Zero – Elton John
CHART POSITION: #25 in the US, #7 in the UK, #2 in Australia
SINGLES: “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues”, “I’m Still Standing”, “Kiss the Bride”, “Cold as Christmas (In the Middle of the Year)”, “Too Low for Zero”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Whipping Boy” and “One More Arrow”
FUN FACT: After a several-album slump, Too Low for Zero marked a critical and commercial comeback for John. And yes, that IS Stevie Wonder playing the harmonica on “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues”.
Speaking in Tongues – Talking Heads
CHART POSITION: #15 in the US, #21 in the UK, top twenty in nine other countries
SINGLES: “Burning Down the House” and “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Making Flippy Floppy”, “Girlfriend is Better”, and “Slippery People”
FUN FACT: “Burning Down the House” was Talking Heads’ only US top-ten hit but the single wasn’t successful outside of North America (though a 1999 cover version by Tom Jones and the Cardigans reached the top ten in several countries, including the UK and Australia).
State of Confusion – The Kinks
CHART POSITION: #12 in the US
SINGLES: “Come Dancing”, “Don’t Forget to Dance”, “State of Confusion”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Definite Maybe” and “Heart of Gold”
FUN FACT: “Come Dancing”, which peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, was the band’s most successful American single since 1965’s “Tired of Waiting for You”.
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Wild Heart” and “I Will Run to You” (duet with Tom Petty)
FUN FACT: “Stand Back” was inspired in part by the lush synthesizers on Prince’s “Little Red Corvette”, which Nicks heard on the radio the day she married Kim Anderson; the couple stopped and got a tape recorder on the way to their honeymoon destination, where they recorded the first version of the song. After telling Prince the story of how the song came to be, Nicks invited him to appear on the record and though his contribution wasn’t credited on the album, Nicks did agree to split the royalties with him 50-50.
Texas Flood – Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
CHART POSITION: #38 in the US
SINGLES: “Love Struck Baby”, “Pride and Joy”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Texas Flood” and “Testify”
FUN FACT: Jackson Browne heard Vaughan and Double Trouble perform at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival and offered them three free days in his studio, where Vaughan recorded the demo that got the band signed to Epic Records.
Synchronicity – The Police
CHART POSITION: #1 in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Italy
SINGLES: “Every Breath You Take”, “Synchronicity I”, “Wrapped Around Your Finger”, “King of Pain”, “Synchronicity II”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of them except “Mother”, written and sung by Andy Summers; “Mother” should have been left off the album in favor of the far superior “Murder by Numbers”, which was a bonus track on the cassette version.
FUN FACT: Synchronicity was inspired by Arthur Koestler’s The Roots of Coincidence, which delved into Carl Jung’s theory of synchronicity. Koestler, who (coincidentally?) died on March 1, 1983 (about three and a half months before Synchronicity‘s release), drew on Jung as well as the work of Paul Kammerer, “collector of coincidences”. Koestler claimed that while he was writing The Roots of Coincidence, he was subjected to “a meteor shower” of coincidences as if Kammerer was sending him a message from beyond.
“Every Breath You Take” was the best-selling single of 1983 in the US and won the Song of the Year award at the 26th Grammys
Here is the 1983 playlist, which I will update once I publish the second volume of this post:
This year-end episode of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s Sneak Previews popped up in my YouTube feed so obviously, I clicked on it. The films of 1980 are so notoriously awful that they inspired the 1st annual Golden Raspberry Awards, held in publicist John J. B. Wilson’s living room on March 31, 1981 – the night of the 53rd Academy Awards.
Obviously, there were some terrific movies released that year, including Raging Bull, TheEmpire Strikes Back, Fame, Melvin and Howard, Coal Miner’s Daughter, and Ordinary People, all of which won at least one Oscar. But Wilson knew those films would get their due at other awards ceremonies. Inspired by a double feature of Can’t Stop the Music and Xanadu, Wilson – a publicist whose work included film marketing – decided to use his Oscar night gathering of about thirty friends to host an impromptu celebration of the year’s worst, and the Golden Raspberry Awards were born. Among the films honored that night, Can’t Stop the Music led the pack with seven nominations; it won Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay (Xanadu received six nominations but went home empty-handed).
The following year, the attendance at Wilson’s Oscar party doubled, and the 2nd annual Razzies celebrated the worst of 1981 (Mommie Dearest was the night’s big “winner”, with five awards). In 1983, attendance doubled again; in 1984, Wilson had to move the event to a public location and CNN was on hand to provide coverage.
The Golden Raspberries are now in their 43rd year; the 2022 nominations were announced this morning (there’s a link at the bottom of the post). In honor of the occasion, here are some of the Razzies’ most memorable moments.
The Shining receives two nominations and Brooke Shields wins the first Worst Actress Razzie (1980)
Do the Razzies always get it right? No, they don’t. In fact, sometimes they get it very, very wrong; such was the case at the inaugural event. Inexplicably, The Shining received two nods at the first Razzies ceremony, for Worst Director (Stanley Kubrick) and Worst Actress (Shelley Duvall). In 2022, after allegations resurfaced of Kubrick’s deplorable on-set torment of Duvall, that last nomination was rescinded (I won’t go into the potentially triggering details, but you can Google that shit if you want).
One of my biggest complaints about the Razzies is the nomination of children, who often have little or no say in their career choices. Brooke Shields, who was sexualized from a young age and who at the very least didn’t have anyone looking out for her best interests, was fourteen years old when she made The Blue Lagoon. Yes, the movie is capital-T terrible, but giving Shields this award felt exploitative and mean-spirited. By the way, not everything about The Blue Lagoon was awful; the film was actually nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar (it lost that one to Roman Polanski’s Tess).
James Coco receives Oscar and Razzie nominations for the same role (1981)
James Coco, who played Marsha Mason’s gay neighbor in the Neil Simon adaptation Only When I Laugh, was the first of only three performers to be nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Raspberry for the same performance (the second was Amy Irving for 1983’s Yentl and the third was Glenn Close for 2020’s Hillbilly Elegy).
Flashdance is the first Oscar winner to be nominated for a Razzie (1983)
I can love a movie with all my heart while also acknowledging how bad it is. So it is with Flashdance, a 96-minute-long music video rightfully nominated for a Worst Screenplay Razzie (it lost to The Lonely Lady, which was based on a Harold Robbins novel and starred Pia Zadora). The following evening, at the 56th Academy Awards, Giorgio Moroder, Irene Cara, and Keith Forsey shared the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Flashdance… What a Feeling”; Flashdance received three additional nominations, for Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Song (for “Maniac” by Michael Sembello).
A huge shout-out not only to Oscar-nominated editors Bud S. Smith and Walt Mulconery, but also to Jennifer Beals’ dance doubles Marine Jahan and breakdancer Crazy Legs
Metropolis earns two Razzie nominations (1984)
In 1984, the 1927 German silent film Metropolis was restored and reissued with a new score by Giorgio Moroder, who also co-wrote (with Freddie Mercury!) a theme song for the film. Both the score and the song were nominated for Golden Raspberries and while I personally think “Love Kills” is fantastic, it does seem incongruous with the expressionistic sci-fi classic.
The first Worst Picture tie (1986)
The 7th Golden Raspberries saw the first-ever tie for Worst Picture between Howard theDuck and Under the Cherry Moon, both worthy choices. Prince is one of my favorite musical artists, but he did not have a gift for filmmaking.
THIS SOUNDTRACK THOUGH:
Wall Street wins a Best Actor Oscar and a Worst Supporting Actress Razzie (1987)
Daryl Hannah was unhappy with the part and director Oliver Stone later admitted he knew Hannah wasn’t right for the role. Was Hannah actually the worst supporting actress that year? Probably not. But Wall Street remains the only film to win both an Oscar and a Razzie.
Mac and Me (1988)
Mac and Me is best known these days for its part in one of the funniest long-term gags ever, but it wasn’t even the worst movie of 1988, at least according to the Razzies. The Worst Picture winner that year? Cocktail.
Alan Menken wins an Oscar and a Razzie in the same year (1992)
At the 13th Golden Raspberries, famed composer Alan Menken won a Worst Original Song award for Newsies‘ “High Times, Hard Times”. The following evening, he won his fifth and sixth Oscars for Aladdin. He is one of only three people to earn an Oscar and a Razzie in the same year; Brian Helgeland became the second in 1997 when he won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for L.A. Confidential and the Worst Screenplay Razzie for The Postman (I’ll get to the third one in a bit).
Paul Verhoeven is the first Razzie “winner” to accept their award in person (1997)
The less said about Showgirls, the better, but I give props to Verhoeven for graciously accepting his Razzie in person.
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn is the most meta winner ever (1998)
If you’re not familiar with the Alan Smithee legend, here’s the nutshell: Smithee is a pseudonym the Director’s Guild allowed filmmakers to use if they wished to disavow the finished product. An Arthur Hiller-directed mockumentary, with Eric Idle playing a director whose real name is Alan Smithee, was so bad that Hiller requested his name be taken off the film; with that, Burn Hollywood Burn became a literal Alan Smithee film – and the most meta Razzies winner ever.
Battlefield Earth makes a clean sweep (2000)
This legendarily terrible sci-fi film, based on a book by L. Ron Hubbard, stars longtime Scientologist John Travolta. Quentin Tarantino, who had worked with Travolta on 1994’s Pulp Fiction, was the first choice to direct; when Tarantino turned it down, the job went to Roger Christian, a production designer and set decorator who’d won an Oscar for Star Wars. Battlefield Earth was nominated for eight Razzies in seven categories – and took home a prize in every single one.
Fun fact: Roger Christian also directed a couple of music videos back in the 1980s, including “Election Day” by Duran Duran side project Arcadia.
George W. Bush, Condoleeza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld receive Razzies for their “performances” in a Palme d’Or-winning documentary feature (2004)
Somewhat controversially – because Fahrenheit 9/11 was a widely acclaimed film – the Razzies nominated Bush, Rice, and Rumsfeld for their “roles” in this Michael Moore doc.
Sandra Bullock accepts her Razzie in person the night before winning the Best Actress Oscar (2009)
When you think of Sandra Bullock winning an award for a 2009 film, you probably think of TheBlind Side (which earned Bullock an Oscar and a Golden Globe) or maybe The Proposal (which also garnered her a Golden Globe nomination). But Bullock made a third movie that year, the critical flop AllAbout Steve, which has a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Like the good sport she is, Bullock showed up to accept her Razzie with a DVD copy for everyone in the room. The following evening, she took home her Academy Award.
Ben Affleck wins the inaugural Razzie Redeemer Award (2013)
After the one-two punch of the Oscar-winning Argo and the critical darling GoneGirl, Ben Affleck won the first Razzie Redeemer Award, eleven years after his Worst Actor Razzie for Gigli.
Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie (2021)
Since 2019, Bruce Willis has starred in twenty-six direct-to-video movies. Eight of those movies – Cosmic Sin, American Siege, Apex, Deadlock, Fortress, Midnight in the Switchgrass, Outof Death, and Survive the Game – came out in 2021, prompting the Razzies to institute a new, one-time-only category. I’ve seen exactly zero of these flicks (in fact, I’d never heard of most of them until today), but I’m sure they’re all varying degrees of awful and probably would have been awful without Willis’s participation. But in 2022, we all learned some new information that prompted the Razzies to retract the category: Willis was retiring from acting after receiving a diagnosis of aphasia.
Oh, look, they’re still nominating children (2022) 😠😡🤬
Among the nominees this year is twelve-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong, who plays Charlie in the Firestarter remake no one asked for – but can we please not punish a literal child for the fact that no one asked for it?
Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, and Ryan Gosling? YES, PLEASE!! Written by Gerwig with her frequent collaborator – and real-life partner – Noah Baumbach, Barbie promises to be a meta blast, based on the parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey in the teaser (narrated by Helen Mirren). The supporting cast includes Simu Liu, America Ferrera, Issa Rae, and Kate McKinnon. Two-time Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat, who worked with Gerwig on her previous directorial effort, 2019’s gorgeous Little Women, will compose the score.
Barbie is scheduled to open in theaters on July 21.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Plans for a feature film adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes began before the novel was even published. It made sense; The Hunger Games film series was one of the most profitable of the 2010s. Surely there would be an audience for this prequel, set during the 10th Hunger Games as a young Coriolanus Snow mentors the female District 12 tribute. Francis Lawrence, who helmed the last three Hunger Games movies, will direct; James Newton Howard, who has scored every single film in the series, will return as well. Tom Blyth and West Side Story‘s Rachel Zegler will play Snow and the District 12 tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, respectively. Then there’s the spectacular supporting cast, which includes Jason Schwartzman, Peter Dinklage, and Viola Davis.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is scheduled to open in theaters on November 17, 2023.
Spinning Gold
Oh HELL yes! Look, is Spinning Gold going to be a GOOD movie? Probably not, but I’m going to enjoy the shit out of it anyway. This biopic traces the journey of Neil Bogart, who went from the housing projects of Brooklyn to the head of his own label, Casablanca Records. Many of the label’s artists – including KISS, Donna Summer, Gladys Knight, Bill Withers, George Clinton, Ron Isley, and Giorgio Moroder – are represented in the film, which was written and directed by Bogart’s son, Timothy Scott Bogart.
Spinning Gold is due in theaters on March 31.
“‘Midnight plane to Houston?’ My people are from Georgia, they would never take a plane to Houston.”
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret / Judy Blume Forever
Full disclosure: Judy Blume was essential to my childhood, as she was to many a Gen-X girl. Her seminal YA novel, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, astonished us with its candid depictions of the perils of puberty. Margaret’s milestones – her first bra, her first period, her first crush – mirrored our own. After fifty years, Blume finally sold the book rights to producer James L. Brooks. Kelly Fremon Craig, who tackled adolescence beautifully with her previous film The Edge of Seventeen, wrote and directed; the cast includes Rachel McAdams and Benny Safdie as Margaret’s parents and the inimitable Kathy Bates as her grandmother.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is due in theaters on April 23.
Judy Blume Forever, a documentary celebrating Blume’s trailblazing life and career, will debut next week at the Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok, the doc will feature interviews with authors and other artists inspired by Blume’s work, as well as Blume herself.
Elemental
Elemental, Pixar’s newest feature, explores the relationship between fiery Ember and go-with-the-flow Wade, who just happen to be elements. Director Peter Sohn, the child of Korean immigrants, wanted the film’s bustling city to mirror his experience growing up in the Bronx in the 1970s and ’80s. Based on the teaser trailer, the animation looks colorful and gorgeous; the story – per Sohn, “…about our differences that bring us together” – is universal.
Elemental is slated to debut in theaters on June 16.
Squaring Circles: The Story of Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis (Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell), the English art collective responsible for creating some of the most iconic album covers of the rock era before transitioning to music videos in 1983, is the subject of a new documentary feature directed by Anton Corbijn (who got his own start in music videos back in the ’80s). I don’t know much more about this project, but I don’t need to: I am IN.
Among Hipgnosis’ most iconic album covers (L to R): Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, The Alan Parsons Project’s I, Robot (those are Storm Thorgerson’s assistants in the escalator tubes of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris)Hipgnosis designed the first three Peter Gabriel solo albums, all self-titled and referred to by their cover art (L to R): Car, Scratch, Melt
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
The upcoming Amazon adaptation of Doug Liman’s 2005 feature film will star Maya Erskine and Donald Glover, who co-created the series with Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Waller-Bridge was also set to co-star, but left the project over “creative differences” with Glover). The supporting cast will include Parker Posey, Michaela Coel, John Turturro, and Paul Dano. No teasers have been released yet; stay tuned to PBandJulie for more information.
Maya Erskine and Donald Glover
The 1619 Project
“You cannot tell the story of America without telling the story of Black America” – Nikole Hannah-Jones
Based on Hannah-Jones’ Pulitzer Prize-winning work for The New York Times, this docuseries will likely draw as much controversy as the original project, which some historians argued was factually inaccurate. The topic has become a political lightning rod, with far-right lawmakers like Florida governor Ron DeSantis banning the teaching of critical race theory in schools. This docuseries is sure to ruffle some feathers, in the best possible way.
The 1619 Project premieres on Hulu on January 26.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part I
The penultimate Mission Impossible entry promises more of everything we love about this series. Tom Cruise, now sixty, performing death-defying stunts? Check. A delightful supporting cast, including series regulars Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Vanessa Kirby, as well as newcomers Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, Esai Morales, and Cary Elwes? Check. Car chases, fight scenes, the iconic MI score? Check, check, and check.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part I will arrive in theaters on July 14.
True Detective: Night Country
Here’s where I confess I’ve never watched True Detective, HBO’s acclaimed but wildly uneven anthology series. I’ve just…never gotten around to it. But you better believe I will tune in to season four, which stars one of the all-time greats, Jodie Foster. The rest of the cast consists of Kali Reis, John Hawkes, Christopher Eccleston, and Fiona Shaw.
True Detective: North Country will premiere on HBO sometime in 2023.
Love & Death
HBO’s take on the Candy Montgomery story comes on the heels of the Hulu series Candy, which starred Jessica Biel as Montgomery, a Texas housewife accused – and ultimately acquitted – of the ax murder of her friend Betty Gore (Montgomery was sleeping with Gore’s husband Allen). Elizabeth Olsen steps into the role of Montgomery and Lily Rabe will portray Gore; the outstanding supporting cast includes Jesse Plemons, Patrick Fugit, Keir Gilchrist, Elizabeth Marvel, Krysten Ritter, Beth Broderick, and Brian d’Arcy James. As a true crime obsessive, I will definitely be tuning in for this.
Love & Death will premiere on HBO sometime in 2023.
This video include peeks at True Detective: Night Country and Love & Death
Hello, all! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season!
This year, like the last several years, has been one of challenge and growth for me. A much-needed mental health break led to an extremely stressful job search in the summer and fall, and while I’m happy with how things have worked out, the process took a toll on my mental health – and on my productivity as a writer. Several occasions I wanted to observe – including Roald Dahl Day, Stephen King’s 75th birthday, and the 50th anniversary of the release of Free to Be… You and Me – came and went. I wanted to tell you all the reasons I loved Wednesday, to commemorate the wonderful Christine McVie’s life, and to discuss my favorite albums of 1982 and my favorite movies of 1997. I’d hoped to give you a Christmas movie-themed pop quiz. I have several pieces – the creepiest Criminal Minds unsubs, my favorite electronic film scores, and a new entry in my Gen-X series – in various stages of completion.
I want to thank all of you who are reading this. Whether you are a long-time reader or you just joined the party, I appreciate you taking time out of your day to read my words. My therapist asked me if I’m the sort of person who makes New Year’s resolutions. My response? “No, but my goal for this year is the same as every year: to do my best.” I want that to be your goal for 2023 as well. Just do your best. Don’t worry about whether it’s good enough; I am here to tell you that it is. Be kind to yourself. Experience joy where you can. Allow yourself to make mistakes and try to learn from them.
I do have one resolution, though: I resolve to continue bringing you the best content I possibly can. It’s what I’ve done so far and I couldn’t be more proud of where this journey has taken me. As I look ahead to 2023, I see a bright future for PBandJulie, and I am exceedingly grateful that you are along for the ride.
As always, a new year means new pop culture content, so here are some of the movies and series that I am most excited about in 2023. Look for part two of this post in the coming days.
Yellowjackets, season two
I haven’t been this excited for a second season since 2017 (Stranger Things, obvi). I just rewatched season one to prep and oh my god I fucking love this show! The casting news has kept fans on the edge of their seats: Lauren Ambrose will play adult Van! Elijah Wood will reunite with his The Ice Storm co-star Christina Ricci as a fellow member of Misty’s Citizen Detective club! Melanie Lynskey’s real-life husband, Jason Ritter, will appear in an undisclosed role! Showtime, in a wise move, has already renewed Yellowjackets for a third season; season two will premiere on March 24. I’ll post the trailer as soon as it’s available; so far all we’ve gotten is this tantalizingly tiny teaser.
Daisy Jones & the Six
Riley Keough and Sam Claflin
Second only to season two of Yellowjackets on my “super pumped to see this” list, Daisy Jones & the Six is based on the splendid novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Starring Riley Keough and Sam Claflin, the ten-part limited series explores the rise and fall of a 1970s rock band and the fallout that ensues from the complicated relationship between its co-lead-singers (think Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham). The music promises to be a highlight; Reid wrote the lyrics to several songs for the novel and Tom Howe (Primetime Emmy nominee for TedLasso) composed the music. Presumably, the cast will sing their own songs; Claflin is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and Keough’s bona fides are hereditary (she’s the granddaughter of Elvis Presley).
Daisy Jones & the Six is scheduled to premiere on Amazon Prime on March 3.
The Last of Us
Three years into the COVID pandemic, I am still uncertain about committing to another post-apocalyptic story, but I can’t deny that HBO’s series – set to debut this coming Sunday – looks incredible. Based on the beloved, best-selling 2013 video game of the same name, The Last ofUs follows a smuggler (Pedro Pascal) attempting to transport teenaged Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across a post-apocalyptic United States (a fungal infection has turned most humans into cannibalistic monsters and Ellie may hold the key to a vaccine). Original game developer Neil Druckmann co-created the show with Chernobyl showrunner – and two-time Emmy winner – Craig Mazin. The advance reviews have been rapturous. My guess is HBO will have a huge hit on their hands with this one.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Based on David Grann’s masterful true crime book of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon will reunite director Martin Scorsese with both Robert DeNiro (their tenth collaboration!) and Leonardo DiCaprio (their sixth film together). The rest of the cast – including Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, and John Lithgow – is outstanding. Frequent Scorsese collaborators, such as Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker and composer Robbie Robertson, will be on hand as well. In 2019, Scorsese met with the Osage Nation in Oklahoma to discuss their involvement in the film’s production, which will hopefully lend Killers of the Flower Moon an air of authenticity.
Killers of the Flower Moon will debut in theaters and on Apple TV sometime in 2023.
Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
The first Indiana Jones movie NOT directed by Steven Spielberg, Dial of Destiny will reteam Indy with John Rhys-Davies’ Sallah; supporting cast members include the magnificent Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, and Mads Mikkelsen. James Mangold took the director’s chair, with Spielberg and George Lucas serving only as executive producers. The film is set in 1969 with a flashback to 1944 (because Nazis, duh); de-aging technology was used to match Harrison Ford’s appearance to the earlier Indy movies (Ford was said to be “spooked” by the results). Waller-Bridge should add a wonderful spark to the proceedings, and John Williams will be composing the music. After the disappointment of the last installment in the series (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), I’m cautiously optimistic about returning to the world of my favorite adventure series of all time.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will open in theaters on June 30th.
White House Plumbers
THIS CAST! Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, Domhnall Gleeson, Lena Headey, Judy Greer, Kiernan Shipka, John Carroll Lynch, F. Murray Abraham, Kathleen Turner, and many more star in this limited series based on the Egil and Matthew Krogh book Integrity. Harrelson and Theroux portray E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, whom Nixon put in charge of stopping the leaks (hence, “plumbers”) coming out of the White House after the damaging release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971. David Mandel, who executive produced Veep, Curb Your Enthusiam, and Seinfeld, should bring a similarly sharp comedic tone to the festivities.
White House Plumbers is scheduled to premiere on HBO in March.
A new Christopher Nolan picture is always a cause for celebration, and this one promises to be a doozy. Starring Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the film will explore the creation of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. The supporting cast – Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, and Kenneth Branagh, among others – is to die for. The music will be composed by Ludwig Göransson, who earned an Oscar for BlackPanther and an Emmy for The Mandalorian.
Oppenheimer will open in theaters on July 21.
Renfield
Renfield, scheduled for release on April 14, looks like an absolute blast. Starring Nicholas Hoult in the titular role, Renfield explores what happens when Dracula’s loyal, long-suffering servant has second thoughts about his role in feeding his boss’s thirst. Dracula will be played by Nicolas Cage, whose over-the-top tendencies should be a perfect match for the material. I love a horror-comedy, and Renfield looks to be entertaining as hell.
Renfield is scheduled to open in theaters on April 14.
Christine McVie died on November 30 after a brief illness. I just don’t have the words yet.
Irene Cara died on November 25 at the age of 63. Born Irene Cara Escalera on March 18, 1959, Cara made her Broadway debut at the age of nine in Maggie Flynn and starred in her first feature film, Aaron Loves Angela, in 1975. The following year, she made a splash as the titular character in Sparkle, a period musical set in Harlem during the 1950s and ’60s. Cara became a household name in 1980 when she starred as Coco Hernandez in Alan Parker’s Fame (a PBandJulie fave). Post-Fame, Cara’s focus was music; most notably, she co-wrote (with Keith Forsey and Giorgio Moroder) and performed the title track to 1983’s Flashdance, for which she won an Oscar, a Grammy, a Golden Globe, and an American Music Award. Cara passed away at her home in Largo, Florida (no cause of death has been announced).
Clarence Gilyard Jr. has also passed away. Best known for his television roles in Matlock and Walker, Texas Ranger, and his entertaining appearances in films like Top Gun and DieHard, Gilyard was also an associate professor in the theatre department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Gilyard died on November 27 at the age of 66 after a long illness.
Gilyard is responsible for what is perhaps my husband’s all-time favorite movie quote, from Die Hard: “And the quarterback’s toast!”
I saw Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery with my sister and nephew the day after Thanksgiving and it’s a goddamn delight. The film is funny and twisty (refreshingly, the trailer gives away nothing, down to the A-list cameo that confirms Benoit Blanc’s sexual orientation), with a to-die-for cast and sumptuous visuals. Glass Onion will be available to stream on Netflix on December 23.
I really enjoyed this piece about costume designer Jenny Eagen, who should be in the conversation come awards season:
All Things Must Pass, the seminal solo album by George Harrison, was released on November 27, 1970. Harrison’s first solo single, “My Sweet Lord”, was a worldwide smash, going to #1 in thirteen countries, including the US and the UK. The single also proved to be controversial, as Harrison ultimately lost a years-long copyright infringement suit brought by Bright Tunes Music, owners of the Ronnie Mack-penned “He’s So Fine” (in his memoir, I Me Mine, Harrison said of the similarities between the tunes, “Why didn’t I realise?”). In the end, Harrison was found to have unintentionally plagiarized “He’s So Fine”. Legal drama notwithstanding, “My Sweet Lord” became one of Harrison’s signature tunes. But All Things Must Pass is so much more than “My Sweet Lord”; it is, quite simply, the greatest solo album by any of the former Beatles. The album was Harrison’s coming out: after years of playing a decidedly supporting role with The Beatles, his songwriting – and his absolutely amazing guitar work – took center stage. Co-producer Phil Spector applied his “Wall of Sound” technique to create layers of gorgeous tones and textures. All Things Must Pass was a commercial and critical sensation, spending weeks at the top of the charts in the US and the UK and earning a Grammy nod for Album of the Year (it lost to Carole King’s Tapestry).
Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, the debut album from Soft Cell, was released on November 27, 1981. “Tainted Love” was one of the best-selling singles on both sides of the pond that year and helped usher in the Second British Invasion.
Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940. One of the most iconic figures in 20th-century cinema, Lee combined his knowledge of several disciplines to create his own mixed martial arts method he referred to as “Jeet Kune Do” (“The Way of the Fist”). He starred in five Hong Kong action films (including 1972’s Fist of Fury and 1973’s Enter the Dragon) – and shattered Asian stereotypes – before tragically passing away from cerebral edema on July 20, 1973, at the age of 32.
The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour had its US release on November 27, 1967. The album includes the soundtrack to the made-for-television film of the same name (side one) and a handful of other non-album singles released by the band that year (side two). Among the album’s more iconic tracks are “Magical Mystery Tour”, “I Am the Walrus”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, and “Penny Lane”. The album went to #1 on the Billboard 200 and earned the band their fourth of five Album of the Year Grammy nominations.
“Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” by Bing Crosby and David Bowie was finally released as a single on November 27, 1982, five years after it was recorded for Crosby’s 1977 television special, Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas.
Natalie Wood died on November 29, 1981, while spending the holiday weekend with her husband Robert Wagner, as well as her friend and Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken, aboard Wagner’s yacht, Splendour. Her cause of death, which has officially been listed as “drowning and other undetermined factors”, remains a mystery; the investigation by the LA County Sheriff’s Department is still open. Wood’s body was covered in fresh bruises and abrasions, consistent with either an assault or being thrown out of the boat. Wagner has always maintained his innocence, insisting that Wood voluntarily left on the yacht’s dinghy and that her death was a tragic accident. Wood’s sister Lana, though, alleges that Wood was terrified of the water and would never have gotten in the dinghy on her own, particularly at night. Additionally, the boat’s captain, Dennis Davern, admitted in 2011 that he had initially lied at Wagner’s direction and that Wood and Wagner had argued earlier in the evening (apparently, Wagner accused Wood of flirting with Walken). Davern also alleged that Wagner instructed him not to turn on the yacht’s searchlights or notify the authorities of Wood’s disappearance. In 2018, Wagner was listed as a person of interest in the case, but he has since been cleared.
Wood with Wagner in 1972 (left) and in 1983’s Brainstorm with Walken
Andrew McCarthy celebrated his 60th birthday this week. Best known as an actor who appeared in ’80s classics like St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink, and Weekend at Bernie’s, McCarthy later segued into writing and directing. He has directed episodes for series such as Orange is the New Black, The Blacklist, New Amsterdam, and The Sinner. His travel writing, including a stint as Editor at Large for National Geographic Traveler magazine, earned him awards. He published a YA novel titled Just Fly Away in 2017 and a memoir, Brat: An ’80s Story (a cheeky reference to the “Brat Pack” moniker that McCarthy spent decades attempting to escape), in 2021.
On December 1, 1957, Buddy Holly made his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
On December 2, 1982, NBC aired the 100th episode of Taxi, titled “Elaine and the Monk”.
Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot, starring Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, Robert Goulet, and Roddy McDowall, opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre on December 3, 1960. The Arthurian musical won four Tony Awards, including Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for Burton, and was adapted into a 1967 feature film.
PB & Julie + Julie C. Trivia 