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Harry Waksberg

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  1. on the scene
    ‘He’s My Hero’: The 2019 Daytime Emmys Were a Nonstop Celebration of Alex Trebek“You guys like me … you value my work,” the Jeopardy! host said. “If that’s the case, I can live with that.”
  2. overnights
    Kidding Finale Recap: I Am ListeningAs Kidding wraps its first season, Mr. Pickles’ Puppet Time is done for the foreseeable future, but most of the series’ tumult is still in play.
  3. overnights
    Kidding Recap: The Straightest Dude I Ever MetJeff Pickles has come unstuck in time.
  4. overnights
    Kidding Recap: It’s Teaching Me How to SpreadsheetJeff visits death row in an episode dominated by a curious and seemingly ill-considered flashback.
  5. overnights
    Kidding Recap: Veiled Marxism And Songs About GenocideJeff travels to LA for Vivian’s sake, then discovers their relationship has reached a crossroads.
  6. overnights
    Kidding Recap: A Former Lovetenant in the Pickles PlatoonMr. Pickles’s time with Tara Lipinski takes an unpleasant turn.
  7. overnights
    Kidding Recap: I’m a Man of God, But I’m Also FunnyA strange flashback sequence highlights an episode in which Jeff meets Tara Lipinski.
  8. overnights
    Kidding Recap: Welcome to the World of Exciting Internal ConflictJeff doesn’t understand why he’s not getting a text he expected in an episode that also introduces a horrifying puppet.
  9. overnights
    Kidding Recap: You’re My Crack Problem, and I Love YouMr. Pickles goes on a date, but his on-set troubles remain — as does his fixation on his ex-wife.
  10. overnights
    Kidding Recap: A Season About Things That Are MissingMr. Pickles continues to unravel both on the job and away from it.
  11. overnights
    Kidding Premiere Recap: Don’t Say Friends When You Mean ViewersIn a new series, Jim Carrey plays a children’s show struggling with a loss that might be driving him insane.
  12. tv history
    Remembering TV’s Day of Compassion, 25 Years LaterIn June 1993, AIDS and HIV-related story lines took over daytime TV. Here’s how it happened.
  13. Remembering Nanette FabrayIn the early 1940s, when Nanette Fabray was in her early 20s, she was touring with a musical revue called Meet the People. By chance one night, […]
  14. Reviewing the Third and Final Season of Netflix’s ‘Love’It was perhaps overambitious to call a TV show Love. Like a show co-creator Lesley Arfin’s prior gig, Girls, the title suggests a universality […]
  15. ‘Living Biblically’: Biblically BadLiving Biblically, which premiered Monday night, is the newest multi-cam CBS sitcom that reinforces all of the worst stereotypes about CBS […]
  16. ‘In Living Color’ Gets Its Own History Book with ‘Homey Don’t Play That’When In Living Color premiered on Fox in 1990, the sketch series represented the beginning of a wave of Black network programming unlike any […]
  17. Not My ‘Cartoon President’The first satirical portrayal of Hitler on film was in 1940, when Moe Howard lampooned Hitler in the Three Stooges short You Nazty Spy! Later […]
  18. Andy Kaufman Gets Illustrated in ‘Is This Guy for Real?’Around 2010, I worked at a coffee shop for a man who believed Andy Kaufman was still alive. It had been a generation since Kaufman’s apparent […]
  19. NBC’s ‘A.P. Bio’ Falls Short of Its PotentialMike O’Brien’s new show A.P. Bio, whose pilot previewed on NBC last night in advance of the official series premiere on March 1st, is Glenn […]
  20. ‘A Futile and Stupid Gesture’ Takes an Honest Look at ’70s Comedy HistoryDoug Kenney flamed out early. A child of the 1950s, he produced comedy in print, radio, and film from the late ‘60s through his death in 1980 […]
  21. ‘Another Period’s Third Season Dives into the Origins of Celebrity FeminismIt’s been a year and a half since the second season of Another Period ended, so there’s a great deal to catch up on. Set in the first decade of […]
  22. Paranoia in ‘High Maintenance’s Second SeasonThe new season of High Maintenance starts in the same spot HBO’s first season started: with the semi-protagonist weed dealer, The Guy, getting […]
  23. ‘Portlandia’ Says Goodbye at Just the Right TimeSeason 1 of Portlandia opened with a song that promised a Pacific Northwest heaven: it was like the 1990s forever, “when people were content to […]
  24. Why It Matters That Roseanne and Dan Voted for TrumpAt this year’s TCA, Roseanne Barr announced that on the forthcoming revival of her sitcom Roseanne, her character Roseanne Conner will have, […]
  25. Brief Eulogies for the Sitcoms We Lost in 2017As 2017 draws to a close, we take a closer look at a few of the notable sitcoms that aired their final episodes in 2017. To some we say a […]
  26. ‘Mrs. Maisel’ Is MarvelousThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is an incredibly joyful show. Given, of course, that it takes place in 1958 and the protagonist’s husband leaves her […]
  27. Fall Comedy Reads: A Look Back at the Firesign TheatreWelcome to our Fall Comedy Reads series, where we take a closer look at some of the newly released comedy-related books worth checking out this […]
  28. ‘There’s…Johnny!’ Picks the Worst Time for Nostalgia When Johnny Carson took over as host of The Tonight Show in 1962, there was no sense that he would last 30 years in the job. Television […]
  29. Season 2 of ‘Search Party’ Is for the Complicated LiarsNote: Spoilers for the first season follow. Search Party’s first season began over brunch, in Brooklyn. Its core cast, four friends in their […]
  30. Fall Comedy Reads: ‘The Daily Show (The Book)’Welcome to our Fall Comedy Reads series, where we take a closer look at some of the newly released comedy-related books worth checking out this […]
  31. Fall Comedy Reads: Budd Friedman’s ‘The Improv’Welcome to our Fall Comedy Reads series, where we take a closer look at some of the newly released comedy-related books worth checking out this […]
  32. Fall Comedy Reads: ‘Thank You for Being a Friend: Life According to The […]Welcome to our Fall Comedy Reads series, where we take a closer look at some of the newly released comedy-related books worth checking out this […]
  33. Mitchell and Webb Level Up in Their Sitcom Reunion ‘Back’Back is the latest show to star David Mitchell and Robert Webb, the stars of Peep Show. In many ways, Back is a reprisal of their odd couple […]
  34. Fall Comedy Reads: Carol Burnett’s ‘In Such Good Company’Welcome to our Fall Comedy Reads series, where we take a closer look at some of the newly released comedy-related books worth checking out this […]
  35. Fall Comedy Reads: ‘Jack Benny and the Golden Age of American Radio Comedy’ Welcome to our Fall Comedy Reads series, where we take a closer look at some of the newly released comedy-related books worth checking out […]
  36. The Ghosts of ‘Fuller House’Critics were understandably put off by Fuller House’s first season, which was packed full of in-jokes and meta gags for fans of Full House who […]
  37. ‘Transparent’ Goes on Tour in Season 4Writer’s note: While it seems inevitable that Ali Pfefferman (Gaby Hoffmann) will soon begin identifying as nonbinary (as creator Jill Soloway […]
  38. Netflix’s ‘American Vandal’ Is More Than a One-Note Dick JokeAmerican Vandal promises satire that will puncture the self-importance of Netflix’s own entries in the true crime genre, like Making a Murderer […]
  39. ‘One Mississippi’ Dives Deeper into Heartbreak and Humor in Season 2While One Mississippi’s first season dealt with a number of huge transitions, like the death of protagonist Tig’s mother and Tig’s moving back […]
  40. Netflix’s Pot Comedy ‘Disjointed’ Opts for Easy Stoner HumorThe new Netflix series Disjointed, which premiered its first ten episodes (of 20 ordered so far) this past Friday, is an appropriately titled […]
  41. Season 1 of ‘I’m Dying Up Here’ Favors Fiction Over HistoryShowtime’s I’m Dying Up Here, which ended its first season last night, is the newest unfunny drama about the world of comedy. Based in part on […]
  42. How Spalding Gray Moved Standup Comedy Beyond JokesThis past August, a number of Spalding Gray monologues and more became available on Howl Premium. They are joined with a number of familiar […]
  43. sitcoms
    Can Brooklyn Nine-Nine Ever Accurately Portray the NYPD?What should a sitcom about police officers in New York City be, when the world outside of that sitcom is one of fear and violence?
  44. Being a ‘Difficult’ Woman on TV and the Refreshing Brilliance of ‘The […]When the history of ‘90s sitcoms is told through televised romans à clef, it is, of course, the writers who get the last word. Tension between […]
  45. The Long-Running Sitcoms We Lost in 2014Today, a sitcom making it to a second season is as notable as another return to Gilligan’s Island. Here, we pay tribute to some sitcoms we lost […]
  46. Ken Finkleman and the Art of Being DerivativeLike many series of the mid-90s, 1996’s The Newsroom began as an imitator of The Larry Sanders Show. The latter show opened the door for the […]