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There was a time when TV guest stars were pure magic, popping up like hidden gems in your favorite shows.

Long before social media spoiled every surprise, guest appearances felt like little events that brought something extra to our screens.

You’d be watching a familiar show, and out of nowhere, a face you knew and loved would walk on, adding an unexpected thrill to the episode.

Mark Harmon on The Love Boat (ABC/Screenshot)

These weren’t ratings gimmicks or social media stunts; they were genuine surprises that made TV feel alive and unpredictable.

For me, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island were cozy weekend rituals, especially when I watched with my grandma.

It wasn’t about knowing every guest star — it was about the fun of seeing who would pop up next, making each episode feel like a surprise package.

You’d sit down, and suddenly there was...

Even if you've never seen "All in the Family," there's a high probability that you're at least somewhat familiar with the character of Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), his well-meaning albeit shrill wife Edith (Jean Stapleton), and his constant conflict as a conservative patriarch against a progressively evolving world. If that sounds like the set-up for every family sitcom ever made, it's because, well, it is. "All in the Family" is one of the most influential TV shows in history, and that's not even factoring in the web of spin-offs it inspired like "The Jeffersons," "Maude," "Gloria, "704 Hauser,' "Good Times," and "Archie Bunker's Place."

The latter was a direct continuation of "All in the Family," set primarily in the neighborhood tavern purchased by Archie in the eighth season of the flagship sitcom. "Archie Bunker's Place" starts when he takes in a Jewish business partner named Murray Klein after co-owner...

Doctor Odyssey is taking its first break for its first season on ABC. When will it set sail again?

One of ABC's flashiest new shows of the 2024 season, Doctor Odyssey, is a throwback to 1970s TV shows like The Love Boat that told anthology stories involving huge guest star actors. That's no surprise, given it comes from superstar producer Ryan Murphy, who draws on his connections for some fun drama. The main focus is on the titular luxury cruise ship that takes passengers on amazing week-long trips.

The pilot has nurses Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo) and Tristian Silva (Sean Teale), who are surprised to get a new boss, Dr. Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson). Once a top-notch surgeon, Max ended up being "Patient Zero" for the Covid-19 pandemic, which nearly killed him. He's thus decided to cut back to what he figures is going to be an easy job.

It doesn't...

In the first season of Sherwood Schwartz's "Gilligan's Island," the opening theme song infamously left out character descriptors for Dawn Wells and Russell Johnson. It listed Gilligan, the Skipper too, the millionaire and his wife, the Movie Star, but then merely described Wells and Johnson as "And the rest." This was certainly unfair, as all seven members of the show's ensemble were equally important, each one bringing something valuable to the overall character dynamic. 

As many "Gilligan's" fans know, the reason Wells and Johnson weren't described was because of a stipulation in co-star Tina Louise's contract. Louise, who played Ginger the Movie Star, required that she be named last on any opening credits roll. Title star Bob Denver, however, felt that Wells and Johnson deserved more, and pulled rank on Louise. It seemed that he, too, had a contract stipulation allowing him to be listed in the credits wherever he wanted.

Sling and Pluto both offer a content mix that older viewers will enjoy, combined with an interface they’ll find familiar.

The sheer volume of content available in the streaming world can be downright overwhelming. It can be hard to know which service has which shows, and even harder to avoid titles with sex, violence, bad language and other objectionable content. There are some excellent streaming services available that allow viewers to avoid these pitfalls, however, and I’ll walk through what I think are the best two streaming services for older viewers below.

Which Streaming Services Are Best For Older Viewers?

Stream Top Cable News and Sports Channels with Sling TV

Watch TV Classics Free with Pluto TV

Final Thoughts

Stream Top Cable News and Sports Channels with Sling TV

If you’re looking to get traditional cable channels with your next streaming subscription, you should check out Sling TV.

Jack Jones, the singer and actor best-known for performing the famed “Love Boat” theme song, has died, his family confirmed. He was 86.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Jones’s stepdaughter Nicole Whitty said that Jones died after fighting Leukemia for the past two years.

Jones was born into a family of performers, the son of actress Irene Harvey and the actor-singer Allan Jones. He won two Grammys in the early Sixties for vocal performance on his songs “Lollipops and Roses” and “Wives and Lovers.” The artist was nominated five times in total,...

Jack Jones, who lit up living rooms across America for decades as an actor and hitmaker, undoubtedly best known for singing the theme song to ABC’s The Love Boat (1977-1986), died on Wednesday, October 23. Jones lost a two-year battle with leukemia at a hospital near his Coachella Valley, California, home. His death was shared by his family with Kesq News Channel 3. He was 86 years old. Born to show business parents in Hollywood, California in 1938 — his mother an actress, his father a singer — Jones struck fame of his own as a bossa-nova-style crooner. His classic songs included 1962’s “Lollipops and Roses” and 1964’s “Wives and Lovers,” composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, which both won Grammys. He also sang “The Race Is On,” “The Impossible Dream,” and many more. However, it was the theme song for the opening titles of The Love Boat that made Jones a household name.

Grammy-winning singer Jack Jones, the voice behind the iconic theme song for The Love Boat, died Wednesday following a battle with leukemia. He was 86.

Jones was known primarily as a pop singer, with hits that included “Lollipops and Roses,” “Wives and Lovers,” “The Race Is On,” “The Impossible Dream” and “Call Me Irresponsible.”

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Jack Jones, the Grammy-winning singer of popular music fare such as “Lollipops and Roses,” “The Impossible Dream,” “Wives and Lovers” and, perhaps most famously, the theme to TV’s The Love Boat, died Wednesday, October 23. He was 86.

A resident of Coachella Valley, California, Jones, who had been diagnosed with leukemia two years ago, died at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, California last night. His family announced the news today to Kesq News Channel 3 of Palm Springs.

Born into a show business family on January 14, 1938, John Allan Jones was the son of singer Allan Jones and actress Irene Hervey. He would become one of the most popular singers of the Adult Contemporary, or Easy Listening, style in the 1960s. He scored Grammy Awards in 1962 (for “Lollipops and Roses”) and 1964 (for the Burt Bacharach and Hal David composition “Wives And Lovers”), just several years after his 1959 album debut This Love Of Mine.

Jack Jones, the silky Grammy-winning crooner who had hits with “Lollipops and Roses,” “Wives and Lovers” and “The Impossible Dream” before inviting TV viewers to set a course for adventure on The Love Boat, has died. He was 86.

Jones died Wednesday night at Eisenhower Medical in Rancho Mirage, California, after a two-year battle with leukemia, his stepdaughter Nicole Whitty told The Hollywood Reporter.

Jones was born into a showbiz family. His mother, Irene Hervey, was an Emmy-nominated actress who spent more than 50 years in film and on television. His father, tenor Allan Jones, portrayed the romantic male lead in Show Boat (1936) and in the Marx Brothers’ A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937), and he managed a hit song of his own with “The Donkey Serenade.”

For eight seasons and more than 200 episodes of ABC’s The Love Boat starting in 1977, Jones extolled the virtues of...

Ron Ely, an actor best known for playing the title role in the Tarzan TV series, has died. He was 86.

Per Forbes, Ely’s cause of death has not been made public.

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Ely was the storied man of the jungle in NBC’s Tarzan, which aired from for two seasons in the mid-1960s.

Ron Ely, the hunky and handsome Texas native who portrayed the Lord of the Jungle on the first Tarzan series for television, has died, his daughter Kirsten told Fox News Digital. He was 86.

He died Sept. 29 at the home of one of his daughters near Santa Barbara, The New York Times reported.

Ely also hosted the Miss America pageant in 1980 and 1981, stepping in for longtime emcee Bert Parks, and presided over a syndicated game show called Face the Music around that time.

The 6-foot-4, blue-eyed Ely had appeared opposite Clint Walker in The Night of the Grizzly and with Ursula Andress in Once Before I Die in films released in 1966 when he was hired to don the loincloth in a new NBC series executive produced by Sy Weintraub.

Ely was offered the Tarzan gig after former NFL linebacker Mike Henry, who had played the Edgar Rice Burroughs creation in three ’60s films,...

Prior to "Gilligan's Island," Natalie Schafer had a professional acting career that lasted for decades. When she was still in her 20s, Schafer began appearing in numerous Broadway productions, often in smaller roles, and rarely in a play that ran for a very long time. She was an expert in playing a certain kind of high-society bourgeoisie biddy, and tended to play comedically clueless archetypes. Beginning in the 1940s, Schafer started to appear in films as well, appearing in multiple features a year. In the 1950s, she stretched into television, and was soon playing guest characters on many of the hottest anthology shows of the day.

At some point along the way, Shafer began telling people that she was 12 years younger than she actually was, likely hoping to avoid a stubborn, unjust stigma in Hollywood against older women. She had a stipulation in her contract that she receive no extreme closeups,...

Doctor Odyssey – ABC’s ÒDoctor OdysseyÓ stars Joshua Jackson as Dr. Max Bankman. (Disney/Pari Dukovic) Mix House and The Love Boat, and you’ve got something resembling Doctor Odyssey, the new series from Ryan Murphy and his team. Joshua Jackson stars as a cruise ship’s on-board doctor, trying to solve medical mysteries that pop up among its passengers. Jackson has been a fan of Murphy’s work for a long time, and he told us that finally getting to work with Murphy, who’s also co-written all of the show’s episodes so far, has been everything he’d hoped it would be. (Click on the media bar below to hear Joshua Jackson) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Joshiua_Jackson_Ryan_Murphy_.mp3 Doctor Odyssey airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC, and episodes begin streaming the following day on Hulu.

The post Getting On Board ‘Doctor Odyssey...

Ryan Murphy has a television empire for a reason: The man knows how to make juicy, watchable TV. And for “Doctor Odyssey” (a mashup of “The Love Boat” and “Grey’s Anatomy” strained through Murphy’s singular aesthetic), he knew that there was one aspect of cruise ship travel that simply could not be faked on a soundstage.

The pool had to be real.

“In our first meeting, Ryan had said, ‘I want this built outside. I want water slides, a jacuzzi, a pool, all working. And it’s really important for me to have it outside, so you can see the stars and see the sky and see it’s all real,'” production designer Jamie Walker McCall told IndieWire.

The task was daunting beyond the usual demands of crafting an elaborate set for a weekly network series. As McCall pointed out, “Normally in television, we don’t build things...

Update: Reports indicate that John Amos died of congestive heart failure, according to the actor’s death certificate. Sadly, Amos’s daughter, Shannon, did not learn about her father’s death until news outlets posted the story on social media. In an Instagram post, Shannon Amos said she is “without words” after learning about her father’s passing in such an impersonal way.

“I am without words…Our family has received the heartbreaking news that my Dad, John Allen Amos, Jr., transitioned on August 21st,” she wrote. “We are devastated and left with many questions about how this happened 45 days ago, learning about it through the media like so many of you.”

Original Article: The hits keep coming this week as word reaches the masses that John Amos, the beloved actor who played James Evans Sr. on Good Times, Cleo McDowell from Eddie Murphy’s 1988 comedy Coming to America, and much more,...

Ryan Murphy doesn’t do things by half.

This is a man who launched and brought back six television shows over the last two weeks including ABC’s Joshua Jackson-fronted Doctor Odyssey, FX’s Grotesquerie featuring Niecy Nash and Travis Kelce, and Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story; has another launching later this month in FX’s American Horror Stories; and is heading straight into a run that includes All’s Fair, starring the likes of Kim Kardashian and Glenn Close, reuniting with Evan Peters in FX sci-fi series The Beauty and the first iteration of American Love Story about John F. Kennedy Jr.

The data shows that such an “intense” workload is paying off.

Netflix revealed earlier Tuesday that Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story scored 19.5 million views in its first full week on the service, where it is No. 1, and totaling nearly 32M views since it launched.

Alan Hale, Jr. became a performer as part of his family's legacy. His mother was actress Gretchen Hartman who appeared in dozens of films in the 1910s, while his father, Alan Hale (real name: Rufus Edward MacKahan) racked up hundreds of credits in the silent era, typically as a reliable sidekick to Errol Flynn. Hartman retired from acting in 1929, and Hale, Sr. continued to work until his death in 1950. Alan Hale, Jr. first appeared on the screen as an infant, "starring" opposite his mother. Hale made his Broadway debut in 1931, when he was only 10, appearing in a very, very short-lived show called "Caught Wet" (it opened and closed in the same month). In 1933, Hale played uncredited role in William Wellman's Depression-era drama "Wild Boys of the Road," and it may be the first movie a casual observer would recognize him in. 

Staring in 1941, Hale began his acting career in earnest,...

“Welcome aboard The Odyssey.”

On Wednesday, Ryan Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken asked audiences to investigate the macabre with their FX horror series, “Grotesquerie.” Shifting gears towards the more pleasant side of humanity, the same series creators premiered a new medical drama the following night called “Doctor Odyssey.” Starring Joshua Jackson as Dr. Max Bankman, his Yale-educated doctor is tasked with handling emergency medical cases aboard a luxury cruise ship.

In the opening few minutes of the show’s premiere, Dr. Bankman is introduced getting dressed for his first day of work to the tune of Smokey Robinson’s “Cruisin’.” Taking on a new job can often be an intimidating endeavor, but this doctor likes to wear Hawaiian shirts, and you just know he’s easygoing. Post-covid, he traverses the next phase of his life by boarding The Odyssey, a beautifully designed and cultured cruise liner filled with honeymooners and vacationing retirees.

Note: This story contains spoilers from the “Doctor Odyssey” series premiere.

“Doctor Odyssey” is the last in a wave of Ryan Murphy-produced dramas to premiere this fall — and it’s, by design, the most fun.

After the debuts of true crime dramas “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” and “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and the FX serial killer drama “Grotesquerie,” the super-producer launched the breezy medical procedural starring Joshua Jackson Thursday on ABC. Equal parts “9-1-1” and “The Love Boat,” the show follows Dr. Max Bankman as he joins the crew of a luxurious cruise called the Odyssey as its on-board doctor, working alongside nurse Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo), nurse Tristan Silva (Sean Teale) and Captain Robert Massey (Don Johnson).

As Jackson tells it, Murphy wanted to create a “beautifully absurd” series to serve as a glossy exit from the Covid era — a chance for both...

The phenomenal success of Tracker Season 1 was rewarded with the show’s renewal for a highly anticipated second season.

According to CBS, Tracker was the most watched new series since the 2004-05 season of Desperate Housewives.

Now that Colter Shaw and his Airstream are gearing up for their sophomore round of adventures, it’s the perfect time to suggest that the series shake up the formula that has served it so well — before it gets stuck.

(Michael Courtney/CBS)

The immediate and overwhelming success of Tracker’s first season was a pleasant surprise for its network and fans.

That success was built on many time-tested TV tropes, even before someone had the brilliant idea to feature Justin Hartley sans shirt in several (but not nearly enough!) episodes.

CBS has a reputation for conventional, long-running fare (despite its recent decision to cancel the much-beloved Blue Bloods).

Tracker seemed to fit right...

Bob Denver was a gifted comedic actor that, thanks to his association with the hit series "Gilligan's Island," found himself unfortunately typecast. Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom was a massive success, and its seven lead actors, although some of them previously known, became forever linked with their roles on the series. Denver was no longer an actor who played Gilligan, he was Gilligan. Many might have assumed that Denver didn't have any acting range beyond playing a bumbling dimwit like Gilligan, and the actor never had a success quite as large as he did in 1964.

It may surprise one to learn that Denver was, by all accounts, a pretty cool guy. Indeed, he was known prior to "Island" for playing the ultra-cool character Maynard G. Krebs on the sitcom "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." Maynard was also a broad, comedic character, but he was a devoted beatnik who wrote poetry,...

Did you know that Chris Pine's dad, actor Robert Pine, played a super-tiny role on "The Office" as the father of John Krasinski's Jim Halpert? You probably didn't — but on a recent podcast, stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey discussed the elder Pine's time on their set.

In the 109th episode of "Office Ladies" — a recap podcast about the hit NBC mockumentary sitcom — Fischer and Kinsey tackled the first half of season 6's "Niagara," which centers around the wedding of Jim and Pam (Fischer). "This is where we are going to meet Jim's parents for the first time," Fischer says as the two discuss the scene featuring the couple's rehearsal dinner. "We have Betsy Halpert, played by Perry Smith, and Gerald Halpert, played by Robert Pine, who is the father of actor Chris Pine."

"People were so excited," Kinsey said, and Fischer agreed: "We were a little bit excited.

Doctor Odyssey is ready to set sail, and the trailer shows the amazing bevy of guest stars about to board the new ABC drama!

Medical dramas are a dime a dozen on TV but ABC’s upcoming Doctor Odyssey is something different. Created by producer Ryan Murphy, the series features Joshua Jackson as Dr. Max Bankman, a once-superstar doctor who nearly died during the Covid-19 pandemic. Max decides to settle for what he thinks is a less stressful job as the doctor on a cruise ship.

Max figures his days will be filled with folks battling seasickness and sunburn. He soon discovers that people have a bad habit of picking a cruise to suffer a serious medical emergency and he has to save them while lacking the resources of a hospital.

The trailer opens by showcasing the fun of Max meeting Captain Robert Massey (Don Johnson) and his nurses, Tristan...

Before "Austin Powers," "Johnny English," and "Top Secret!" there was "Get Smart," the 1960s spy sitcom that mined the genre for laughs when the James Bond and "Mission: Impossible" franchises were still in their infancies. Co-created by comedy legends Mel Brook and Buck Henry, "Get Smart" ran for five seasons from 1965 to 1970, earning seven Primetime Emmys and plenty of other accolades along the way.

Stand-up comedian Don Adams starred as Maxwell Smart, the sometimes inept top-secret agent who regularly held the fate of the world in his hands ... and often almost fumbled it. By his side was the beautiful, super-cool Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), who loves Maxwell despite his clumsiness and penchant for messing up missions. The central trio was rounded out by Edward Platt's The Chief, the supportive leader of the intelligence agency Control, which employed both Agent 99 and Maxwell.

"Get Smart" inspired a follow-up film, sequel TV show,...

Warning: This article includes mentions of sexual assault.

For super-producer Aaron Spelling, the man behind such preposterously entertaining television series as "Charlie's Angels," "The Love Boat," and "Dynasty," the best case scenario for the high school drama "Beverly Hills 90210" was that it would be a Thursday night counterprogramming hit. It certainly wasn't going to win its 9 Pm time slot. Though NBC was experimenting with its 9:30 spot (it eventually found a fairly decent fit in "Seinfeld"), "Cheers," the top-rated show on television, had the front end of the slot on lockdown. But, hey, perhaps Spelling and the show's young creator, Darren Star, could siphon off enough young viewers to convince Fox to give it a second season, preferably on a different night.

The show was barely a blip on the pop culture radar, giving Fox an easy excuse to blow millions on another hour-long block of cannon fodder to...

The Young and The Restless spoilers and updates reveal Judith Chapman, Y & R’s Gloria Abbott Bardwell is directing two theatrical performances at the same time. Judith, who has played in many soaps over the years is quite the talented lady!

The Young And The Restless Spoilers – From Natalie Bannon To Anjelica Devereaux

Judith was first introduced to soaps lovers as Natalie Bannon Hughes on “As The World Turns” from 1975–1978, and then Charlotte Greer on “Ryan’s Hope” in 1983.

She followed those roles with Ginny Blake Webber on General Hospital from 1984–1986, and Sandra Montaigne on One Life to Live (1987). Judith is well known for playing roles as scheming women, often cheating on their husbands.

She made guest appearances on popular prime time shows such as Kojak, Fantasy Island, Barnaby Jones, The Incredible Hulk, Galactica 1980, The Love Boat, and appeared twice on Magnum, P.I. Additionally, she had recurring roles in...

Homicide: Life on the Street is streaming on Peacock, bringing joy to fans of its original ’90s run, fans of Andre Braugher, and those who will become fans after their first viewing.

This popular and critically beloved show has been available on DVD for years but was Mia on any streaming service until now.

Homicide: Life on the Street joins two other classic shows, Moonlighting and Northern Exposure, that were lost to streaming until recently.

(NBC/Youtube screenshot)

Like Homicide: Life on the Street, these two shows had at least been available for purchase on DVD, whereas many other shows from that era weren’t so lucky.

Since streaming is how most people access visual media these days, just how many other forgotten gems of TV history are we missing out on?

A Priority Shift

Streaming services first established themselves by offering as many popular TV shows as they could get,...

Who do you think of when you hear the term "girl next door"? For the millions of people who grew up watching "Gilligan's Island," the answer is no doubt Dawn Wells. Wells played down-to-earth bombshell Mary Ann Summers for all three seasons of the 1960s sitcom, then continued to reprise the role in various projects for years to come.

Unlike some stars of classic TV shows, she never seemed to have a problem with being best-known for one role, and gave interviews about her time on "Gilligan's Island" for the rest of her life. According to series creator Sherwood Schwartz's book "Inside Gilligan's Island," young girls came to Wells for life advice even decades after the show had ended. "I'm still Mary Ann, I guess," he recalled her telling him.

Wells earned her role on "Gilligan's Island" around 1964, after a failed pilot the year before had conceived of a similar character named "Bunny.

Actor and singer James Darren, whose long showbiz career included memorable roles on T.J. Hooker and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, has died at the age of 88, our sister site Variety reports.

He passed away on Monday at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, with his son Jim Moret saying of Darren: “He was a good man. He was very talented. He was forever young.”

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Darren first rose to fame as leading man Moondoggie...

James Darren, who went from teen idol status acting in youth-oriented movies like “Gidget” to becoming an actor in TV shows such as “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “T.J. Hooker” and a singer and director, died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 88.

His son Jim Moret said that he had been able to express his love for his family while being treated in the cardiac unit. “He was a good man. He was very talented,” Moret said. “He was forever young.”

Moret said he was grateful that his father had been able to embrace his signature role as the surfer Moondoggie in the “Gidget” movie and that he continued to interact with his fans.

Born in Philadelphia, he studied acting with Stella Adler in New York and was signed to Columbia Pictures, where his first role was in “Rumble on the Docks.” He went on to...

50 years after its original run, the Norman Lear-produced sitcom "Good Times" is more than just "Dy-no-mite!" It's a spinoff within a spinoff and a classic Black family sitcom that inspired controversy as well as laughter. Like many beloved shows from the '70s, "Good Times" made headlines for behind-the-scenes drama and cast disagreements, but it also captivated audiences.

Originally formulated as a spinoff of "Maude" (which was itself a spinoff of unlikely hit "All in the Family"), "Good Times" retconned its central characters and setting in favor of a new premise. Henry (John Amos) became James, the family got poorer, and the setting switched from New York to Chicago, where it took inspiration from the Cabrini-Green housing projects. Audiences still dug the new show, though by the time it signed off five years later, it had changed entirely: Amos and original star Esther Rolle had left, and the show's most one-dimensional character,...

In 1977, ABC made waves with The Love Boat, and now, 47 years later, the network is making another run at a high-seas hit set aboard a luxury ocean liner. And since it’s disembarking from the mind of Ryan Murphy, the überproducer behind the action-packed 9-1-1 duo and the over-the-top American Horror Story franchise, y’all are in for something exciting and new. “This is Ryan’s fantasy version of a cruise ship,” agrees star Joshua Jackson during a break from filming in Los Angeles. “The stakes are high, everything’s elevated, but it also plays [at times] like a comedy and is mostly just easy and breezy.” After spending the past several years in such dark turns as The Affair, Dr. Death, and Fatal Attraction, the Dawson’s Creek favorite is clearly thrilled that his first network-tv role since Fox’s Fringe is a much sunnier sort of fella. “Yeah, this is...

Love it or hate it, "Sanford and Son" is one of the most groundbreaking American sitcoms of all time. The NBC series about a widowed get-rich-quick schemer (Redd Foxx) living in Los Angeles' Watts neighborhood with his adult son (Demond Wilson) was an undeniable hit during its run. It ushered in a Golden Age of Black family sitcoms thanks to dynamic performances, frank dialogue written from a working-class Black perspective, and its often uproarious scripts. It was such a ratings juggernaut that it's often credited for killing off its much more sanitized competition, "The Brady Bunch."

"It was a groundbreaking series," Eric Deggans wrote in a series retrospective for the official Emmys website, noting that "Before 'Good Times' and 'The Jeffersons' would make TV history with powerful stories focused on Black families, 'Sanford and Son' would explore the prickly relationship between a middle-aged Black man and his son.

Peter Marshall, Emmy-award winning game show host of “Hollywood Squares,” died of kidney failure Thursday in Encino. He was 98.

His wife Laurie said in a statement that he died at home.

Emmy-nominated 19 times, with five wins, he hosted more than 5,000 episodes of the original version of game show “The Hollywood Squares” and appeared in dozens of movies, stage musicals and TV shows.

Marshall was born Ralph Pierre Lacock in Huntington, W.V. He started his career as an NBC Radio page and usher at Paramount Theater. He served in the Army, working as a d.j. for Armed Forces Radio.

Marshall developed a comedy act with Tommy Noonan, touring the country and appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” As a contract player at 20th Century Fox, he appeared in films including “Ensign Pulver,” “The Rookie” and “Annie.”

He was hired to host NBC’s long-running “The Hollywood Squares” starting in 1966, featuring regulars like Paul Lynde,...

Peter Marshall, who won four Emmys hosting the first incarnation of the long-running game show Hollywood Squares, has died at the age of 98, TVLine has confirmed. Marshall died on Thursday of kidney failure at his home in Encino, California “surrounded by loved ones,” his family said in a statement.

After an early career in comedy and on Broadway, Marshall signed on to host what was then titled The Hollywood Squares in 1966, after Bert Parks hosted the initial pilot for NBC. Marshall thought he would only spend 13 weeks as the host, but that turned into 16 years, with Marshall emceeing the show...

Only a few rare songs ever turn into pop classics. But this one turned into a classic twice. “Killing Me Softly with His Song” has one of the longest, weirdest stories in pop history. In the 1970s, it hit Number One as a lush soft-soul hit for the smoothed-out R&b star Roberta Flack. In the 1990s, it became a hip-hop banger for the Fugees, showcasing Lauryn Hill’s vocals. Some fans prefer the gentle, mellow Flack hit; some prefer the reggae-inflected Fugees remake. But both versions became permanent classics...

Below Deck alum Hannah Ferrier shared the details of her medical issues. She had fans concerned when she posted about her intense treatment. Hannah addressed her serious health issues. Keep on reading to learn more.

Complicated Relationship With Below Deck Franchise

Hannah Ferrier has always been candid about her mental health issues. Below Deck Mediterranean fans remember Season 5, when she struggled with anxiety.

Hannah had a difficult work relationship with Captain Sandy Yawn. She had a prescription for Valium, which was unregistered.

Hannah’s prescription and CBD pen were found by bosun Malia White, who turned her into Captain Sandy. The two argued about cabin arrangements just prior.

Below Deck Med fans argued that Malia turned Hannah in out of revenge. Malia and Captain Sandy argued that the decision had everything to do with Maritime Law and nothing to do with revenge.

Fans are still upset with Captain Sandy Yawn...

Kevin Brophy, whose credits include the TV series Lucan and films Hell Night and The Long Riders, died on May 11 at the age of 70, according to an online obituary. He had stage 4 cancer for ten years before succumbing at the family home in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, his family relocated to the San Fernando Valley. He then moved to Del Mar, California for high school.

After graduating from the California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts) in Valencia, Brophy played the title character in the television series Lucan (1977-1978).

He was also featured in the films The Long Riders (1980) and the horror classic Hell Night (1981).

Brophy had numerous guest roles in motion pictures and television series, appearing on The Love Boat, M*A*S*H, Growing Pains, The Hardy Boys Mysteries and Hart to Hart.

He later worked at the Hotel Bel Air and the Luxe Hotel,...

Kevin Brophy, who starred as a young man raised by wolves on the short-lived ABC series Lucan and as the doomed leader of a college fraternity in the cult horror film Hell Night, has died. He was 70.

Brophy died May 11 at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, California, his family announced. He was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer 10 years ago, they said.

On 1977-78’s Lucan, his first professional acting job, Brophy portrayed a 20-year-old man who spent the first 10 years of his life with wolves in the forests of Minnesota before he’s brought into society.

His character possessed wolf-like superpowers like strength, agility and heightened senses of smell and hearing, and when angry, his eyes glowed amber.

When he got the part, Brophy asked himself, “What does a boy raised by wolves do?” he recalled in December in an interview for the Happy Horror Time podcast. “I came to...

General Hospital (Gh) fans mourn the loss of another star. Actress Janis Paige passed away in her L.A. home at the age of 101. Gh’s Kin Shriner (Scott Baldwin) posted on X/Twitter about it, stating, “Rip to Janis Paige. Had the pleasure of working with her on a couple of soaps. She always had a story or two and I relished them!” He added a lovely photo of Paige in her younger years, to the tweet.

General Hospital Alum Janis Paige’s Acting Legacy

A veteran actress, who had an amazing career in Hollywood, Paige began in the 1940s with minor movie roles, and hit Broadway in 1954, starring in The Pajama Game. She did other Broadway shows after that, including Alone Together, Mame, and Here’s Love.

Her impact on primetime television was tremendous with a hit sitcom on CBS, called It’s Always Jan. which had a nice run with two seasons.

Janis Paige, who racked up more than 100 film, TV and stage credits over six decades including The Pajama Game, Silk Stockings and Santa Barbara, died June 2 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 101.

Her friend Stuart Lambert told The Associated Press about Paige’s death.

During her long career, Paige toured with Bob Hope and danced onscreen with Fred Astaire, along with originating the Babe Williams role in The Pajama Game on Broadway in 1954. That same year she headlined It’s Always Jan, a CBS sitcom about the problems of single-parenthood during which she usually sang a song. It lasted a single season.

Born Donna Mae Tjaden on September 16, 1922, in Tacoma, Wa, she began singing in talent shows at a tender age and moved to Los Angeles after graduating high school.

Paige made her Broadway debut in 1951 opposite Jackie Cooper in the mystery comedy Remains to Be Seen but...

Legendary producer and director Roger Corman, who died recently at age 98, had an immeasurable impact on American cinema as we know it. The number of actors, writers, and directors who learned their craft on a Corman production is staggering, and he was known for giving people chances to prove themselves on the low-budget pictures he either produced or directed himself. Tons of notable names went through the so-called "Corman school," including James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, and Joe Dante, just to name a few.

Three-time Oscar-winning actor Jack Nicholson is another significant alumnus of the Corman school of filmmaking — in fact, his very first movie, "The Cry Baby Killer," was a Corman production, and it provided Nicholson the first of many starring roles across his incredible career. The film follows a young man who thinks he's committed murder outside of a local hang-out restaurant,...

Susan Buckner, renowned for her portrayal of cheerleader Patty Simcox in the iconic movie Grease, has died at the age of 72.

Melissa Berthier, a spokesperson for the family, confirmed that Buckner passed away peacefully on May 2, surrounded by loved ones.

The cause of her death has not been disclosed.

Buckner’s daughter, Samantha Mansfield, shared with People magazine, “The light she brought into every room will be missed forever. She was magic, and I was very lucky to call her my best friend.”

Born in Seattle, Washington, in 1952, Buckner initially gained attention as a beauty pageant queen, winning the title of Miss Washington in 1971 and placing in the top ten at the Miss America pageant in 1972.

Her journey into entertainment commenced with appearances on popular variety shows like The Dean Martin Show and The Mac Davis Show.

Susan Buckner starred alongside John Travolta in Grease

In 1977, Buckner landed the role of Patty Simcox in Grease,...

Susan Buckner, an American actor best known for her role as Patty Simcox in the 1978 musical “Grease,” died May 2. She was 72. Her death was confirmed by her publicist.

At the age of 25, Buckner was cast in the role of the Rydell High cheerleader, joining a cast that included John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. As Simcox, Buckner played a solider of school spirit, with an iconic cheer cemented into fans’ minds: “Do the splits, give a yell! Show a little spirit for old Rydell! Way to go, red and white! Go Rydell, fight, fight, fight!”

Buckner continued working as an actor with guest credits across several television shows, including “The Love Boat,” “B.J and the Bear” and “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries.” She co-starred in the ABC series “When the Whistle Blows.” Among other notable feature credits, Buckner appeared in Wes Craven’s 1981 horror film “Deadly Blessing” opposite Sharon Stone, as...

Susan Buckner, best known to moviegoers as Grease‘s bubbly cheerleader Patty Simcox, died peacefully surrounded by loved ones in Miami on May 2.

Her death was announced by family.

Buckner’s Grease character was the Rydell High cheerleading pal of Olivia Newton-John’s Sandy. The 1978 film also starred John Travolta and Stockard Channing.

Born on January 28, 1952, in Seattle, Washington, Buckner was crowned Miss Washington in 1971 and represented the state in the Miss America pageant the following year. Soon after, she became one of The Dean Martin Show’s Golddiggers dancers, and that led her to become part of the all-girl group Fantasy and the musical duo Buckner and Pratt.

She also appeared on such variety shows as The Mac Davis Show, Sonny and Cher and, as a dancer and synchronized swimmer, The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.

In 1977, she landed her signature role of perky Patty Simcox, Grease‘s embodiment of pep and school spirit.

Following his 2015 Emmy win for the final season of “Mad Men,” Jon Hamm took a large step back from TV stardom in order to beef up his film resume with titles such as “Baby Driver,” “Richard Jewell,” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” Now that he has made a splashy return to the small screen by playing new roles on “Fargo” and “The Morning Show” and reprising one on “Good Omens,” his Emmy nominations total could instantly rise from 16 to 19. If all of his possible 2024 bids come to fruition, he will be only the fourth person and second man to ever compete for three acting Emmys at once.

Hamm’s string of recent TV acting gigs began last July when he returned for season two Prime Video’s “Good Omens” as supporting character Gabriel – a humanoid version of the biblical archangel. He then fulfilled the new role of ambitious tech billionaire Paul Marks...

The Young and the Restless family is mourning the loss of Marla Adams, who died at 85.

Marla played Dina Abbott Mergeron on and off on Y&r for over 37 years.

Josh Griffith, Y&r’s executive producer, shared a statement with People magazine to honor Marla after news of her death broke.

“On behalf of the entire company of The Young and the Restless, we send our deepest sympathies to Marla’s family. We’re so grateful and in awe of Marla’s incredible performance as Dina Mergeron as both Marla and Dina made an unforgettable mark on Y&r,” read the statement.

The actress had an incredible career before she joined the soap opera world, though.

Today, those who knew and loved Marla are mourning the loss – as are the fans who adored her.

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Marla Adams, who played Dina Abbott Mergeron on CBS’ “The Young and the Restless” for 37 years, died Thursday in Los Angeles, Matt Kane, director of media and talent for “The Young and the Restless” announced. She was 85.

Adams began her career in the daytime drama genre in 1968 on “The Secret Storm.” She played Belle Clemens on the show until 1974, and would go on to join “The Young and the Restless” in 1982. She would be cast as the Abbott family matriarch Dina Abbott Mergeron, who came to Genoa City to reconnect with her estranged family. She was the onscreen mother to the Abbott siblings, Ashley Abbott (Eileen Davidson), Traci Abbott (Beth Maitland) and Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman).

She would appear in “Y&r” on and off throughout the following years, returning full time in 2017. It would be revealed that her character was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and in 2021, Adams won a...

Emmy-winning actress Marla Adams, who played Dina on The Young and the Restless for more than three decades, has died at the age of 85, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Beginning her career on Broadway and in films like Splendor in the Grass, Adams played villain Belle Clemens on the CBS daytime soap The Secret Storm before joining the cast of The Young and the Restless in 1983. She originated the role of Dina Abbott Mergeron, a cosmetics mogul whose arrival in Genoa City upended the lives of her ex-husband John Abbott and their children.

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