Emmy Watch: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

By Abe Friedtanzer

Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple in "Ted Lasso"

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series may actually be the most competitive Emmy category this time. At the very least it's the one with the largest number of high-caliber candidates who deserve a spot. The list of returning possibilities is about as short as in any other category this year. Two-time winner Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live) is angling for her eighth consecutive bid. Cecily Strong (Saturday Night Live) was nominated last year, and Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live) is a previous honoree who could return again. Though it’s not technically for the same show but for the same role, Laurie Metcalf (The Conners) is a past nominee, and a three-time winner. There’s also Bette Midler (The Politician), who earned her show’s only major nomination last year as a guest and is now eligible here. Let’s go over the rest of the field…

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Showbiz History: "Blame It (on the Alcohol)" or Pazuzu

8 random things that happened on this day, January 26th, in showbiz history...

1931 Cimarron premieres in NYC. It becomes the first western to win Best Picture

1961 The Mark opens in theaters. You have to see the trailer to believe it (film distributors were so excited at the new raciness of the 1960s). Stuart Whitman, a rising star of the time and a last minute replacement for Richard Burton, received an Oscar nomination playing a ex-con child molester who is suspected of a new crime...

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Emmy Category Review: Outstanding TV Movie

We'll be investigating a couple handfuls of Emmy categories before the main event. Here's Juan Carlos Ojano...

Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale in "American Son"

The competition between HBO and Netflix is rarely embodied as well as it in this category for 2020. The giant streamer dominates this category with four nominees, but it's the long-standing Emmy-devouring cable network that could prove the spoiler. This year’s slate of nominees include a film festival acquisition, an interactive film, an episode of an anthology series, a “television event”, and an epilogue to an Emmy-winning drama series. (The last three winners were all episodes of the anthology series Black Mirror. They were Bandersnatch in 2019, USS Callister in 2018, and San Junipero in 2017.)

Let's consider each nominee...

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Introducing... Matty Walker / Kathleen Turner

by Nathaniel R

We thought that a nice subversive way to end our 1981 retrospective party would be to focus on the year's most memorable beginning.

A lot of very famous actors began their big screen careers in 1981 including (but not limited to) Ben Affleck, Kim Basinger, Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise, Jeff Daniels, Holly Hunter, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina, Kenneth Branagh, Demi Moore, Sean Penn, and Meg Ryan. Some of those debuts were quite promising. Others gave no clear sign of a superstar to come, just the site of an unknown actor with the ink not yet dry on their SAG card.  But the year's most exciting debut, hands down, belonged to Kathleen Turner. She was the only one of them to emerge fully formed right out of the gate; a movie star merely waiting at the bar for her filmography to arrive.  Risking the ghosts of both Lana Turner (figuratively) and Barbara Stanwyck (literally) for your debut and coming out the other side without remotely suffering from the comparisons is an all time flex...

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Streaming Roulette, August: Serenity, Red Sea Diving Resort, and two major 1981 classics

As is our practice we've selected a handful of titles and frozen the films at utterly random moments without cheating (whatever comes up comes up!). It's our way of previewing new titles streaming each month. So what should you queue up for AUGUST 2019 ?(★ means we recommend catching them.) Please do let us know if you're dying to discuss any of the films and maybe we'll write about one or two of 'em  You rarely tell us but we'll try if you do.

[COUGHING]

Jackie Brown (1997) ★  on Netflix
Is De Niro coughing to distract you from Once Upon a Time ...  in Hollywood for a minute? He's got a new trailer out and that would like a little attention, too. On the couch is Bridget Fonda giving what is easily one of her top two performances (the other one is in a little seen 80s movie called Scandal). We should probably see this particular Quentin Tarantino flick again. Beyond Fonda's perpetually baked surfer girl I don't personally remember much about it except for that  Rashomon inspired scene in the mall, and Pam Grier and Robert Forster being a fine match in the two central roles.

[HEAVY BREATHING]

Body Heat (1981) ★  on HBO
Nice wedding ring shot. That ain't her husband...

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