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Tag: Ben Kingsley

  • Wonder Man Review: New Marvel Disney+ TV Show Is Forgettable

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    Wonder Man is one of Marvel Studios’ most low-key and peculiar television experiments to date. Created by Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest, the Disney+ miniseries follows Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), an up-and-coming actor in Los Angeles whose biggest dream is not to save the world, but to book the lead role in a remake of his favorite childhood movie, Wonder Man. It’s a concept that immediately separates the show from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and yet, by the end of its run, it also feels emblematic of Marvel’s current creative malaise.

    The opening episode sets the tone well. Simon lands a small role on American Horror Story, but loses the part after overanalyzing his character to the point that production is delayed. It’s a painfully relatable moment for anyone who has spent time in the entertainment industry, and the show smartly leans into that specificity. Dejected, Simon attends a screening of Midnight Cowboy, where he runs into Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), the once-infamous actor behind the fake Mandarin persona in Iron Man 3. Trevor reveals that he’s auditioning for the Wonder Man remake — a revelation that sends Simon into a spiral, as Wonder Man is a film he watched with his father growing up. The role represents not just career success, but emotional closure and validation.

    The central hook of the series is genuinely interesting: Simon is secretly superpowered, but enhanced individuals are banned from acting due to skyrocketing insurance costs. His goal, therefore, is to land the role of a lifetime without anyone discovering what he can do. It’s a clever inversion of the traditional superhero premise. Simon has no interest in vigilantism, crime-fighting, or public heroics. He simply wants to act. In a genre oversaturated with masked crusaders and multiversal stakes, Wonder Man earns points for attempting something smaller, quieter, and more human.

    That relatability is clearly intentional. The series is designed to resonate with struggling actors — the constant self-tapes, the anxiety of distractions during auditions, the feeling that one missed opportunity could change everything. In that sense, Wonder Man often feels more like an industry satire or a backstage comedy-drama than a superhero show. It’s also notably light on action, which will either feel refreshing or disappointing depending on your expectations.

    One of the undeniable highlights is Ben Kingsley’s return as Trevor Slattery. While Iron Man 3 was initially divisive, particularly due to its Mandarin twist, time has been kind to the film (I watch it every Christmas), and Kingsley’s performance has only grown in stature. Marvel clearly knows it struck gold with the character, bringing him back in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and now positioning him as the emotional counterweight to Simon. Trevor is once again chasing relevance, still clinging to his love of acting while carrying the baggage of his past mistakes. The dynamic between Kingsley and Abdul-Mateen is the heart of the show, and their evolving friendship gives Wonder Man its most effective moments.

    There is some added tension courtesy of the Department of Damage Control, which pressures Trevor to spy on Simon without Simon’s knowledge. While this subplot adds a layer of intrigue, it never quite escalates into anything particularly gripping. That’s emblematic of the show as a whole: the ideas are solid, but rarely pushed far enough.

    Tonally, Wonder Man aims for a low-stakes, ground-level superhero comedy, though it never commits fully to being laugh-out-loud funny. It isn’t trying as aggressively to be comedic as She-Hulk, and that restraint ultimately works in its favor. While the humor doesn’t always land, the show avoids the tonal whiplash and overindulgence that plagued some of Marvel’s recent TV efforts. There are flashes of screwball comedy and moments of genuine absurdity, but overall, the series elicits more mild smiles than big laughs.

    Yahya Abdul-Mateen II carries the show with ease. He brings warmth, insecurity, and quiet desperation to Simon Williams, making him an instantly sympathetic protagonist. You believe in his dream, even when the show itself struggles to elevate that dream into something dramatically compelling. Supporting characters, particularly Simon’s skeptical older brother, hint at deeper emotional conflict, but those threads are never explored with enough depth to truly resonate. The drama is present, but always feels slightly undercooked.

    That sense of incompleteness defines Wonder Man. It’s not bad — far from it — but it’s also not exceptional. Everything is “fine.” The writing is competent. The performances are solid. The themes are clear. And yet, there’s always the feeling that the show is missing that one defining element that would justify its existence.

    Compared to Marvel Television’s earlier highs like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, Wonder Man feels slight. It also suffers from arriving at a time when Marvel’s output no longer feels essential. Once, every MCU project was framed as a must-see chapter in a larger narrative. Now, as the franchise slowly builds toward Avengers: Doomsday — with teases of Steve Rogers, Thor, the X-Men, Black Panther, and the Fantastic Four — Wonder Man feels almost completely disconnected. It has no meaningful ties to the looming threat of Doctor Doom, and no impact on the broader MCU story. The main hook isn’t, “Will Simon Williams become the superhero he was meant to be?” It’s “Will Simon Williams become the Hollywood star he’s dreamed of?”

    As a result, the series comes across as disposable streaming content designed to pass the time rather than move the franchise forward. Diehard Marvel fans will watch it out of obligation. Casual viewers can easily skip it without missing anything important. Ultimately, Wonder Man is a show that actors might deeply relate to, but one that general audiences will likely forget. In a crowded landscape of superhero content and prestige television, “decent” simply isn’t enough anymore, but it’s undeniably easy to watch, and occasionally charming.

    SCORE: 6/10

    As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 6 equates to “Decent.” It fails to reach its full potential and is a run-of-the-mill experience.

    Disclosure: ComingSoon received screeners for our Wonder Man review.

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    Jonathan Sim

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  • A New ‘Wonder Man’ Trailer Rings In Marvel’s 2026

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    The New Year is here, and in a few weeks, so will Wonder Man. Marvel’s next TV series left its December 2025 for later this month, and a new trailer reminds you it’s not that far off, and finally establishes some big stakes.

    Plot-wise, we’ve known Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is looking to book the title role in a superhero reboot of the old pulp movie Wonder Man. As the trailer says, he’s got a problem: he’s got superpowers, and he’s trying to hide them so they don’t hurt his chances of becoming a big-shot actor. His efforts to hide his secret leads him to former Mandarin Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), and it seems like things go well!…Right up until the point we see Damage Control out in LA and agent Cleary (Arian Moayed) calling Simon an “extraordinary threat.”

    Previous trailers have played coy about what Simon can do, and this new one gives a deeper look at his power set, namely his super strength and a tease of his ionic powers. (How much of a handle he’s got on them, and how he got them, remains to be seen.) It also wants you to watch the show because of its big award-winning cast: along with namechecking Mateen II’s Emmy win and Kingsley’s Academy award, the trailer highlights Guldbagge Award winner Zlatko Burić, previously seen in Superman and here playing Von Kovak, director of the in-universe Wonder Man remake.

    All episodes of Wonder Man will drop January 27 on Disney+.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Justin Carter

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  • The Thursday Murder Club Adaptation is An Insult to the Intelligence of the Audience Its Geared Toward

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    There is an ever-burgeoning genre in the world of film and TV: that which can be ascribed to something like a “rest home caper.” From Book Club to Poms to Queen Bees to A Man on the Inside, the growing genre isn’t without its merit. However, apart from A Man on the Inside, there has yet to be a truly standout offering within this category in recent years. The Thursday Murder Club proves no exception to the rule. And, like most movies (whether Netflix or otherwise), it is adapted from a novel of the same name. Though one imagines the book’s author, Richard Osman, didn’t quite have this in mind when envisioning the translation of his work from the page to the screen (but then, he likely never suspected that Netflix and co. would come knocking on his door at all, so why not just take it as a blessing, no matter how the final product turned out?).

    Of course, to cushion the blow of the, shall we say, “wonky” execution, there is the cast: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie. A veritable who’s who of British heavy hitters of “a certain generation.” But it’s Imrie who has the most experience with this genre, having previously appeared in Calendar Girls and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (along with its sequel). Alas, her “experience” with this kind of material does little to spare it from being a hatchet job. Regardless of Steven Spielberg being a producer on the project via Amblin Entertainment. And yes, one imagines that it was Spielberg’s long-standing relationship with writer-director Chris Columbus that landed him the gig, replacing Ol Parker as director. Yet it is Parker who has more adjacent experience with the “rest home caper” genre, with The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again all under his belt. No matter, apparently. The production went on with Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote taking over the screenwriting process and, in so doing, trimming away here and there at the book’s original structure, which often features diary entries from Joyce (Imrie), the retired nurse that Elizabeth (Mirren), Ron (Brosnan) and Ibrahim (Kingsley) invite into their club to help them with a particular “humdinger” of a case involving a woman named Angela Hughes, whose murder ultimately went unsolved in 1973—indeed, the Thursday Murder Club specializes only in cold cases.

    Cold cases that require a sharp mind to solve. So it is that, by bringing Joyce into their group, she quickly learns two things: 1) part of the reason she’s been enlisted is to replace Penny Gray, a former detective inspector recently transferred to hospice care and 2) because of Penny’s former profession, they have access to these types of files that would otherwise be confidential. In the book, Joyce acknowledges these two points as follows: “I suppose there had been a vacancy, and I was the new Penny… Penny had been an inspector in the Kent Police for many years, and she would bring along the files of unsolved murder cases. She wasn’t really supposed to have the files, but who was to know? After a certain age, you can pretty much do whatever takes your fancy.”

    To that point, when you get right down to it, that is what this genre is all about—reminding people that the elderly aren’t to be underestimated or written off. For to do so is often at one’s own peril. And yes, it’s also a “gentle” nudge for those audiences outside the demographic it’s aimed for to remember that they, too, will “be there” someday. Albeit probably not in a place as tony as Coopers Chase, which also happens to be one of the linchpins to solving this seemingly quagmiric mystery. One that all goes back to the murder of Hughes.

    However, it isn’t Penny who brought this cold case to the TMC’s attention, which should be the first red flag to viewers. Instead, it’s Elizabeth who fished it from the proverbial wreckage, curious at how a woman could have died from a stab wound in that particular part of her body so quickly—this stabbing done before being thrown out of a window. And thrown out of it just as Hughes’ boyfriend, Peter Mercer (Will Stevens), happened to be walking home from the pub, seeing a masked man run away from the scene of the crime. It is from this very moment, the outset of the movie, that the believability factor, combined with the acting delivery, is made apparent in its badness by how “la-di-da” this Peter character is about chasing after his girlfriend’s presumed aggressor, barely bothering to walk after him, let alone run as he shouts, just once, “Stop!” But, of course, after about another two hours of circuitous attempts at offering “red herrings” (in the spirit of Agatha Christie, which the book version of The Thursday Murder Club had intended), the viewer is at last shown, in an extremely dry iteration of how Mystery Incorporated (a.k.a. Scooby and the gang) unveils their findings, who the true killer is. And, in truth, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! actually does offer more sense (and entertainment) in terms of the final results of their cases.

    With The Thursday Murder Club, it’s obvious that the tone and wit of the book dissipated in the translation, making the way in which the case unfolds less of a “joy” and more of a grin-and-bear-it fest. And no, even the presence of some younger British heavy hitters, like David Tennant and, increasingly, Naomi Ackie, can’t do much to alleviate the core problem of the movie: it insults the intelligence of its intended audience with its hyper-saccharine nature. To be sure, Chris Columbus does tend to be responsible for making these types of movies (e.g., Gremlins and The Goonies). However, in the past, the final result has been far more, let’s say, “aware of itself” (see also: Mrs. Doubtfire, the obviously far better collaboration between Columbus and Brosnan).

    Whereas, with The Thursday Murder Club, it’s clear that Columbus feels there is an “elevated” aura to it…and surely, in part, because of the “Spielberg cachet.” What’s more, Spielberg, too, is well-known for being a champion of the saccharine. But, like Columbus, he has had much better luck in the past with carrying it off than he does here, where the mantra of everyone involved seems to be, “Just an entire vat of sugar makes the medicine go down” (even if you might almost immediately yak it up right after).

    That medicine, in this scenario, being the notion that—gasp!—the elderly can have a life after “a certain age.” Can still use their bodies and, even more importantly, their minds to great effect. Often to greater effect than those younger than they are. Just not when it comes to this particular adaptation of a book.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Sexy Beast: An Allegory For How No One Wants You to “Soft Live”

    Sexy Beast: An Allegory For How No One Wants You to “Soft Live”

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    From the moment viewers first encounter Gary “Gal” Dove (Ray Winstone) in Jonathan Glazer’s directorial debut, Sexy Beast, it’s clear that you can’t find a “fatter and happier” man. Lying out in the sun in a state of overly oiled, overly tanned bliss, his voiceover begins, “Oh, yeah. Bloody hell. I’m sweatin’ here. Roastin’. Boilin’. Bakin’. Swelterin’. It’s like a sauna. A furnace. You could fry an egg on my stomach. Ohh… Ooh, now that is hot. It’s ridiculous. Tremendous. Fantastic. Fan-dabby-dozy-tastic.” We soon see that he’s next to his own private pool, living in a house that appears quite remote. (Though it’s never stated, Gal is supposed to be somewhere along the Costa Del Sol of Andalusia.) Obviously, he’s on what can be called a “permanent vacation.” Granted, in his former line of work, that term doesn’t have the most positive of connotations. Indeed, it likely means you’ve been “put out to pasture” in a decidedly more murderous way. But for a rare few criminals and assassins, like Gal, there is a way through to the other side…or so one would like to believe. 

    Gal certainly did—before his retired bliss spent living with his wife/love of his life, DeeDee (Amanda Redman), was so rudely interrupted by none other than his former employer (a head hunter, if you will): Don Logan (Ben Kingsley). Well-known and feared among London’s criminal underworld, Logan’s role as a “recruiter” kicks into overdrive when crime boss Teddy Bass (Ian McShane) hatches a plan to rob an elite, supposedly “impregnable” bank after getting a tip about it from the chairman, Harry (James Fox), at an orgy. Though Gal’s never heard of the bank in question, Imperial Emblatt, Don claims it’s because “they’re one of those sniffy lot, don’t need publicity.” Gal himself wishes he didn’t have any “publicity” right now, with Don so far up his ass about partaking of this robbery (an eight-man job) that he finds it all but impossible to shit him back out. Even though he assures DeeDee before Don’s arrival that he’s going to tell him no to the job and that’ll be that. Ah, so sweet for Gal to think he ever had a choice in the matter. Alas, there’s a reason one of the taglines for the movie is: “Yes or Yes?” The word “no,” to Don, won’t be tolerated. 

    What’s more, it becomes slowly revealed to Gal that Don’s motives for turning up in the south of Spain and homing in on him as the guy for the job might not be entirely without its own ulterior motive. Specifically, wanting to see Jackie (Julianne White), the girlfriend of Gal’s best mate, Aitch (Cavan Kendall). The two apparently had a little something going on before Jackie was with Aitch, and Don never got it out of his head that he loved her (even though sociopaths can’t love). 

    As Don becomes more and more aggressive throughout his extended visit (he claims he missed his flight and needs to stay the night now), Gal is running out of ways he can say no to the stubborn fucker. At first, he tells him quite simply, “I’m…retired.” Don balks, “Are ya?” Gal assures, “‘Fraid so. I haven’t…not got lots of money. I got enough.” And it’s that statement right there that proves to be the most terrifying to someone like Don, who wields money (as much as emotional manipulation) like a weapon to get people to do what he wants. Because without that ultimate motivator—capitalism’s greatest tool—the world just doesn’t make sense to an exploiter and opportunist like Don. So it is that he “has to” start getting rougher with Gal, reminding him that “retired” or not, he can’t bite the hand that fed him enough to think he was retired in the first place. Prompting him to mock (in a manner that would also work on John Wick for thinking he could escape the High Table), “You think this is the Wheel of Fortune? You make your dough and fuck off? ‘Thanks, Don. See you, Don.’ ‘Off to Spain, Don.’ ‘Fuck off, Don.’ Lie in your pool laughing at me, d’you think I’ll have that?” What he’s really asking, though, is: do you honestly think I, the aggressor, the alpha, the person with more power than you, will allow you to enjoy yourself when I support a system that traffics only in misery?

    But Gal never appeared to be a willing participant in that system for the long haul. And his departure from the proverbial rat race (illegal or not) in England is enough to spook other people by making them question their own lives. Like, what the fuck are they doing? Does Gal know something about “better living” that they don’t? Hence, Gal’s voiceover, “People say, ‘Don’t you miss it, Gal?’ I say, ‘What? England? Nah, fuckin’ place. It’s a dump. Don’t make me laugh. Gray, grimy, sooty. What a shithole. What a toilet. Every cunt with a long face, shufflin’ about, moanin’ or worried. No thanks, not for me.’” And this was back in 2000 (though the movie’s wide release was in 2001) when Gal was saying it, so one can only imagine how vindicated he must feel about that statement now, when Britain has only sunk further into a state of misery and disrepair. But, on a larger, more metaphorical scale, what people are asking Gal when they ask him if he misses “it,” is if he misses making money, ergo being “relevant.” Being in the world and of the world. Gal, however, knew that soft living is where it’s at. 

    To be sure, long before it became both chic and nameable, Gal was living the “soft life.” A way of being that provides “more time and energy for what makes you happy and as little time as possible focusing on what doesn’t.” Unfortunately, now just as then, there are any number of Don-like forces in this world that don’t want people to live the soft life. Not just because a considerable part of them is jealous about it (/they don’t know how to switch off and achieve that life themselves), but because the more people become wise to soft living, the more the system of capitalism gets debunked/generally crumbles. And that’s the last thing that both people in positions of power and people who have invested their entire being into the system want to happen. 

    This form of jealousy and fear tends to manifest as anger and rage on the part of the anti-soft-lifer. An anger that works toward making the person living the soft life feel both guilty and worthless for the choice they’ve made to effectively “opt out” of something like “having ambition.” Which, by capitalistic standards, frankly means selling your soul to do something you hate for a living (and, these days, still barely scraping by despite this sacrifice—at least back in the day, the promise of owning a home generally came with such professional dissatisfaction). Thus, Don not only outright calls Gal “lazy” at one point after punching him in the face just as he’s waking up in his bedroom, but he also goads, “Do it.” Gal replies, “This is madness. I’ve had enough Crime and Punishment bollocks. I’m happy here.” Don snaps back, “I won’t let you be happy! Why should I?!” Because the unhappy people committed to the non-soft life simply won’t compute that there can be happiness without suffering needlessly for it. Without the forfeiture of countless hours that could have been spent actually relaxing or otherwise enjoying oneself. But no, “enjoyment” is not the name of the game in any capitalistic enterprise. 

    After a series of unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on how you look at it) events leads Gal to do the job he was so vehemently opposed to doing back in London, when it’s all over, he finally has to say outright to Teddy Bass, “I’m not into this anymore.” The “this” he refers to isn’t just the life of crime he was once supposedly “at home” in, but a life so entrenched in angst and anxiety due to being ruled solely by the pressures of so-called success. Albeit capitalistic success, which dictates constantly amassing more, more, more. Filling the void within via the promise of more money, but, alas, never more fulfillment. Those, like Gal, who become wise to the soft life will always be deemed a threat to the Dons and Teddys of this world, who can’t fathom an existence not rooted in torment and wasted time. Though, of course, realizing that what they’re doing is a waste of time never quite sets in either.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Stonehearst Asylum Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Peacock

    Stonehearst Asylum Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Peacock

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    Are you intrigued by gothic films that explore the human psyche as well as the supernatural occurring around very old buildings? Then Stonehearst Asylum, based loosely on one of the stories by Edgar Allen Poe is something you need to get your hands on. It revolves around an Oxford graduate who comes across bone-chilling experiences while at Stonehearst Asylum. The movie includes everything from sudden shock factors to betrayals, all while the protagonist has to investigate the truth out of a very messy situation. Although he gets help in many forms, he has to keep his act on to save his life as well as the lives of the ones present in the asylum.

    Here’s how you can watch and stream Stonehearst Asylum via streaming services such as Peacock.

    Is Stonehearst Asylum available to watch via streaming?

    Yes, Stonehearst Asylum is available to watch via streaming on Peacock.

    During his class, a professor demonstrates Eliza as a patient of female hysteria who claims to be sane but isn’t, and is from Stonehearst Asylum. Dr. Edward Newgate plans to take up residency at the same asylum. After arriving at his new workplace, he gets closer to Dr. Lamb, who has his unique ways of treating patients with mental health crises and often discusses his lack of trust in drugs for treating patients. Dr. Lamb also states that supporting the delusions of mentally unstable people helps them find happiness. Edward is both astonished and mesmerized by this doctor. However, his companionship with Dr. Lamb doesn’t last for long when he starts making discoveries about everything he has done and is capable of doing.

    The cast ensemble includes Kate Beckinsale as Lady Eliza Graves, Ben Kingsley as Dr. Silas Lamb, David Thewlis as Mickey Finn, and Jim Sturgess as Dr. Edward Newgate. They are joined by Michael Caine, Brendan Gleeson, Sinéad Cusack, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Christopher Fulford, Jason Flemyng, Edmund Kingsley, and Guillaume Delaunay.

    Watch Stonehearst Asylum streaming via Peacock

    Stonehearst Asylum is available to watch on Peacock. The streaming platform has one of the most extensive collections of movies and TV shows belonging to every single genre. It also includes Live TV and sports for its viewers to be able to enjoy everything with their subscription.

    You can watch via Peacock by following these steps:

    1. Go to PeacockTV.com
    2. Click ‘Get Started’
    3. Choose your payment plan
      • $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year (premium)
      • $11.99 per month or $119.99 per year (premium plus
    4. Create your account
    5. Enter your payment details

    Peacock’s Premium account provides access to over 80,000+ hours of TV, movies, and sports, including current NBC and Bravo Shows, along with 50 always-on channels. Premium Plus is the same plan but with no ads (save for limited exclusions), along with allowing users to download select titles and watch them offline and providing access to your local NBC channel live 24/7.

    The Stonehearst Asylum synopsis is as follows:

    “A Harvard Medical School graduate takes a position at a mental institution and soon becomes obsessed with a female mental patient, but he has no idea of a recent and horrifying staffing change.”

    NOTE: The streaming services listed above are subject to change. The information provided was correct at the time of writing.

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    Sounak Sengupta

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  • Today in History: November 30, birth of Winston Churchill

    Today in History: November 30, birth of Winston Churchill

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    Today in History

    Today is Wednesday, Nov. 30, the 334th day of 2022. There are 31 days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Nov. 30, 1782, the United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris for ending the Revolutionary War; the Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783.

    On this date:

    In 1803, Spain completed the process of ceding Louisiana to France, which had sold it to the United States.

    In 1874, British statesman Sir Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace.

    In 1981, the United States and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe.

    In 1982, the motion picture “Gandhi,” starring Ben Kingsley as the Indian nationalist leader, had its world premiere in New Delhi.

    In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Bill, which required a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.

    In 2000, Al Gore’s lawyers battled for his political survival in the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts; meanwhile, GOP lawmakers in Tallahassee moved to award the presidency to George W. Bush in case the courts did not by appointing their own slate of electors.

    In 2004, “Jeopardy!” fans saw Ken Jennings end his 74-game winning streak as he lost to real estate agent Nancy Zerg.

    In 2010, the Obama administration announced that all 197 airlines that flew to the U.S. had begun collecting names, genders and birth dates of passengers so the government could check them against terror watch lists before they boarded flights.

    In 2011, an Arizona jury sentenced convicted “Baseline Killer” Mark Goudeau (goo-DOH’) to death for killing nine people in the Phoenix area. (He remains on death row.)

    In 2013, Paul Walker, 40, the star of the “Fast & Furious” movie series, died with his friend, Roger W. Rodas, who was at the wheel of a Porsche sports car that crashed and burned north of Los Angeles.

    In 2018, former President George H.W. Bush, a World War II hero who rose through the political ranks to the nation’s highest office, died at his Houston home at the age of 94; his wife of more than 70 years, Barbara Bush, had died in April.

    In 2020, two battleground states, Wisconsin and Arizona, certified their presidential election tallies in favor of Joe Biden, even as President Donald Trump’s legal team continued to dispute the results; Biden’s victory in Wisconsin was certified following a partial recount that only added to his 20,600-vote margin over Trump.

    Ten years ago: Israel approved the construction of 3,000 homes in Jewish settlements on occupied lands, drawing swift condemnation from the Palestinians a day after their successful bid for recognition by the United Nations. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Egypt, denouncing President Mohammed Morsi and a draft constitution that was approved earlier in the day by his Islamist allies.

    Five years ago: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on veteran Democratic congressman John Conyers to resign in the face of multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. (Conyers resigned five days later.) A jury found a Mexican man not guilty in the killing of a woman on a San Francisco pier, a shooting that touched off a fierce national immigration debate. (Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, who had been deported five times, did not deny shooting Kate Steinle but said it was an accident. He was found guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm.) Rapper DMX pleaded guilty to tax fraud, admitting he concealed millions of dollars in revenue to dodge $1.7 million in taxes. (The rapper was sentenced to a year in prison.) Actor Jim Nabors, best known as TV’s “Gomer Pyle,” died at the age of 87.

    One year ago: Ethan Crumbley, a 15-year-old sophomore, opened fire at a Michigan high school, killing four students and wounding seven other people; school staff had discovered his violent drawings but his parents wouldn’t remove him from school. (The parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are accused of making the gun accessible and ignoring their son’s mental health needs; they face charges including involuntary manslaughter.) The Biden administration moved to toughen testing requirements for international travelers to the U.S., including both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, amid the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. CNN took Chris Cuomo off the air indefinitely, saying information released by New York’s attorney general showed that he had played a greater role than he had previously acknowledged in defense of his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as he fought sexual harassment charges. (Cuomo would be fired days later.)

    Today’s Birthdays: Country singer-recording executive Jimmy Bowen is 85. Movie director Ridley Scott is 85. Screenwriter Geoffrey C. Ward is 82. Movie writer-director Terrence Malick is 79. Rock musician Roger Glover (Deep Purple) is 77. Playwright David Mamet (MA’-meht) is 75. Actor Mandy Patinkin is 70. Musician Shuggie Otis is 69. Country singer Jeannie Kendall is 68. Singer Billy Idol is 67. Historian Michael Beschloss is 67. Rock musician John Ashton (The Psychedelic Furs) is 65. Comedian Colin Mochrie is 65. Former football and baseball player Bo Jackson is 60. Rapper Jalil (Whodini) is 59. Actor-director Ben Stiller is 57. Rock musician Mike Stone is 53. Music producer Steve Aoki is 45. Singer Clay Aiken is 44. Actor Billy Lush is 41. Actor Elisha Cuthbert is 40. Actor Kaley Cuoco (KWOH’-koh) is 37. Model Chrissy Teigen (TY’-gihn) is 37. Actor Christel Khalil is 35. Actor Rebecca Rittenhouse is 34. Actor Adelaide Clemens is 33. World chess champion Magnus Carlsen is 32. Actor Tyla Harris is 22.

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  • ‘My Favorite Year,’ comic salute to TV’s golden age, hits 40

    ‘My Favorite Year,’ comic salute to TV’s golden age, hits 40

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    LOS ANGELES — Peter O’Toole was famed for his commanding, Oscar-nominated turns. Mark Linn-Baker was a fledgling stage actor. Richard Benjamin, who’d made a leading-man splash in “Portnoy’s Complaint” and “Westworld,” had a few TV directing credits.

    The sum of these unlikely parts was the zesty 1982 movie comedy “My Favorite Year,” starring O’Toole and Linn-Baker, directed by Benjamin and produced by Mel Brooks. It paid loving tribute to the original golden age of TV in the mid-20th century and the variety shows that were the “Saturday Night Live” hits of their day.

    When Benjamin read the script by Norman Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo, he immediately turned to his wife, actor Paula Prentiss.

    “I hope they want me for this, because it’s just great,” Benjamin recalled saying.

    The film, marking its 40th anniversary, is set in 1954 and topped by O’Toole as faded but still-glam movie idol Alan Swann, who’s appearing on “Comedy Cavalcade” only to pay off his IRS debt. Linn-Baker plays Benjy Stone, an energetic young writer tasked with keeping Swann out of trouble (read: sober) until the broadcast.

    The inspirations for “My Favorite Year” included Sid Caesar, the decade’s reigning TV comedy star, and “Your Show of Shows,” the hit he topped from 1950-54 and was followed by “Caesar’s Hour.” The movie also is infused with the spirit of Errol Flynn’s swashbuckling films such as “Captain Blood,” with Swann’s “Captain from Tortuga” seen in a faux clip.

    Brooks, who wrote for “Your Show of Shows” alongside another future giant of stage and screen, Neil Simon, said in his 2021 memoir “All About Me!” that the movie represented “my love letter to Sid Caesar and the early days of television, and it was also a damn good story.”

    “It’s one of the three best productions about live TV that I’ve ever seen,” said David Bianculli, a TV critic for NPR’s “Fresh Air” and author of “Dictionary of Teleliteracy.” His other top picks: “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and Simon’s play “Laughter on the 23rd Floor.”

    “My Favorite Year,” which is available on streaming services, had a respectable box office opening in October 1982, coming in third behind “An Officer and a Gentlemen” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”

    Joseph Bologna plays the talented, manic (and sexist) King Kaiser. Others in the impeccable cast include Lainie Kazan ( “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and sequels ), Jessica Harper (“See”), Bill Macy (“Maude”) and Selma Diamond. A character actor on sitcoms, among them the 1980s “Night Court,” Diamond’s TV roots were in writing and included “Your Show of Shows.”

    Benjamin was a teenage fan of Caesar’s program and recalled how he and his equally devoted friends would get on the phone after it aired Saturday nights to recap and reenact the highlights.

    “The show changed everything. Comedians used to stand up and tell jokes, but here was comedy that was behavior” and unfolded in extended sketches, Benjamin said. “It seemed like a miracle that this (film) would come to me.”

    His agent had talked him up for the job, and a meeting with Brooks and producer Michael Gruskoff convinced them that Benjamin could handle it.

    The role of Swann had yet to be cast, and it was a quirk of Hollywood fortune that it went to O’Toole, yielding his seventh of eight leading-actor Oscar nods (he lost to Ben Kingsley in “Gandhi”). O’Toole received an honorary Academy Award in 2003.

    Albert Finney had been offered the part but was dragging his feet. Benjamin was dispatched to the San Francisco area, where Finney was working on another film, to talk him into it — or risk seeing the project fall apart.

    Finney said he liked the script for “My Favorite Year.” But after making several movies in the United States, he longed to get back to the London stage despite the fact he’d earn only “£125 pounds a week,” as he put it.

    “Why don’t you get O’Toole?” Finney helpfully suggested. “We do this all the time. I turn something down, he turns something down” and the other one takes the role.

    Prentiss, who’d starred opposite O’Toole in the 1965 film “What’s New Pussycat,” seconded the idea. So did the producers, who again tasked Benjamin with getting an actor to say yes. O’Toole deemed the script excellent but was curious about a scene that included Swann’s tombstone, with the birthdate of Aug. 2.

    O’Toole asked if the date been tailored to each actor who’d been pitched the project. When told it wasn’t, he replied, “That’s my birthday, and that’s how old I am. Therefore, I must do the film.”

    (The cemetery scene was filmed but cut when it proved too downbeat for test audiences, Benjamin said.)

    O’Toole proved a breeze during filming. Benjamin recalled expressing concern to him about a scene in which the actor’s head would hit an unpadded tile wall. “I was trained in music hall, ” the English-born O’Toole said, referring to his country’s version of vaudeville. “I can do this all day.”

    Linn-Baker (TV’s “Ghosts,” “Perfect Strangers”) found O’Toole a kind and generous mentor and remains awed by his body of work, which includes “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Becket” and “The Lion in Winter.” O’Toole died in 2013 at age 81.

    “The relationship that Benjy and Swann had on film is pretty much the relationship that we had off screen,” said Linn-Baker, currently on Broadway in “The Music Man” with Hugh Jackman. “He took me under his wing. The little I know about film acting, I know from watching him and listening to him.”

    Kazan, who played Belle Steinberg Carroca, Benjy’s widowed and remarried mom, recalls meeting O’Toole for the first time when she and Brooks knocked on the actor’s dressing room door, heard a muffled “come in” and found an underwear-clad O’Toole seated at the sink and washing his hair.

    “He stands up and says, ‘Miss Kazan, my extreme pleasure,’” the actor and singer recounted with delight. “I fell in love with him. He was so wonderful to me.”

    Kazan, who earned a Tony nomination for reprising the role of Belle in the 1992-93 musical adaptation of “My Favorite Year,” said she based the outspoken Jewish mother on her relatives, including an aunt who was “a real dominant figure” and Kazan’s mother, a beautiful woman who wore “all these fantastic clothes.”

    A Brooklyn dinner invitation from Belle to Swann results in a culture clash of epic comedy proportions. At one point, Benjy’s middle-aged aunt Sadie enters wearing an elaborate wedding gown, prompting a dubious compliment from sister Belle.

    “You like it? I only wore it once,” replies a beaming Sadie, while Swann, amused, looks on.

    For all its entertaining punchlines and slapstick, “My Favorite Year” is a deserved Valentine to the groundbreaking creativity of early TV makers. The templates they created remain copied and popular, even amid the medium’s drastic 21st-century changes.

    The movie’s plot is fanciful, but “the world in which it is set is the zany reality, and it’s just so good,” Bianculli said. “I show ‘Your Show of Shows’ in my class (at Rowan University), and it still works.”

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