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Fashion

Dear Costume Department: ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’

By Of a Kind on

Editor’s note: Welcome to Dear Costume Department, a bi-weekly feature brought to you by our fashion-minded friends from Of a Kind, a curated shopping site of limited-edition goods by emerging designers. With each installment, they’ll bring you a head-to-toe look inspired by a buzzed-about pop culture personality — complete with info on where to grab the pieces for your own closet. Enjoy!

Though the news that Harry Potter was coming back to Broadway — this time with his pants on! — for a show that won seven Tonys back in 1961 was big, somehow it’s just as thrilling that he’s been replaced by Darren Criss, the guy who keeps us tuning into Glee even though the show has most definitely jumped the shark. Hopefully with the impossibly charismatic actor comes a spiffed-up look — god knows dude can do flamboyant without losing an ounce of that slicked-hair appeal of his. … Read More

Television

10 Essential ‘Community’ Episodes to Watch Over Holiday Break

By Jason Bailey on

Well, it’s Thursday, but there won’t be a new episode of Community tonight. Apparently, there won’t be a new episode of Community for many more Thursday nights… excuse me…

Okay, I’m back. Nothing wrong with a good morning cry. As I was saying, last week’s Christmas episode marked the final new episode until the series’ undetermined spring return to the NBC schedule, as room is cleared in the Thursday night line-up for 30 Rock’s return and various other shufflings. NBC promises (promises!) that the innovative ensemble comedy isn’t cancelled, it’s just going on a little break, but their assurances have the subtle air of a parent’s earnest insistence that no, Sir Barksalot just went to a farm in the country where he can run and play, not that he was… put to… sorry, be right back…

Right-o. Our worries about Community’s future aside, its distressing exile—along with the rerun cycle that has already taken over prime-time — and the recent addition of the entire three-season run to Hulu Plus means that the holidays are a fine time for you Greendale novices out there to catch up on what is, I believe, the finest comedy program on network television. After the jump, we’ll give you the ten episodes most worth your time. … Read More

News

The Morning's Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Chewbacca is making a non-singing guest appearance on the Christmas episode of Glee. Why? According to Matthew Morrison, there’s “a special within the episode that’s a throwback to the Star Wars holiday special and the Judy Garland Christmas special.” [via THR]

2. Martin Scorsese has revealed that his next film project will… Read More

Television

When TV Appropriates Cult and Indie Culture: A Retrospective

By Judy Berman on

When word spread that Gossip Girl was going to set an episode at New York’s cultish “immersive theatre” production Sleep No More, fans of the show — who have been known to develop wallet-crippling addictions to it — were not happy. Would their favorite secret spot soon be overrun by teenyboppers keen on re-enacting Serena and Blair’s melodramatic intrigue? Would Gossip Girl give away any of the Macbeth-inspired experience’s secrets? Well, the episode aired last night, and we learned far more about Chuck Bass’s libido (or newfound lack thereof) and Ivy’s ex-boyfriend than Sleep No More. To commemorate this supremely odd moment of convergence, we’ve rounded up some of the best and strangest moments that have found TV shows appropriating cult, underground, and indie culture, from Saved by the Bell‘s rave to Roseanne‘s riot grrrls, after the jump. … Read More

Television

The 10 Best Kid Characters on TV Right Now

By Judy Berman on

From children who are basically props to 25-year-old high schoolers with wardrobes by Marc Jacobs, there’s a noticeable lack of realistic kid characters on TV these days. But, in the past few seasons, we’ve noticed that the vogue for Gossip Girl-style perfection has begun to give way to an influx of young people who actually seem real (and, um, young). In celebration of this development, we’ve collected 10 of the most distinctive and best-developed characters from the 18-and-under set that are on TV right now. Meet a sweet, precocious tween, a high-school girl struggling with her father’s suicide, and more, after the jump. … Read More

Celebrity

15 Hilarious Celebrity Audition Tapes

By Jennifer Lewis on

Quick, think of your favorite character from film or TV. Got it? Now imagine someone else wearing that character’s clothes and saying that character’s words. Unless you’re thinking of James Bond, Doctor Who, or another notoriously replaceable face, it’s probably hard to picture a different actor playing the part. Alas, before there were “lights, camera, action” on all our favorite productions, there were auditions, and that role was up for grabs. Check out some silly successful, failed, and even fake audition tapes, featuring some very familiar faces, after the jump. … Read More

Television

The 10 Characters You Meet on Primetime TV

By Emily Temple on

Everyone knows that primetime TV is a stronghold of stock characters, gender stereotypes, and cheap jokes. All of which is, ahem, half the reason we love it so much. No matter how far our society seems to advance, stereotypes sell, so they keep popping up on the small screen — even, we’ve noticed, pushing the boundaries of how offensive they can get. Just for analyzation purposes, we’ve picked out ten of the character tropes on modern television, from the epic nerd to the hot girl, that we seem to keep seeing over and over again, for better or for worse. Click through to see our list, and if we’ve missed any of your favorite stock characters, be sure to let us know in the comments! … Read More

Television

The 10 Most Annoying Characters on TV Right Now

By Judy Berman on

With every new TV season, we welcome a fresh crop of characters into our lives — heroes, villains, antiheroes, mouthy city girls, eccentric co-workers, werepanthers. This fall is no different, although in our rush to watch the flood of new programming, we’ve begun to notice how many of these fictional folks actually annoy the crap out of us. So, after the jump, we’re telling freshman sitcoms and beloved dramas alike how we really feel about their overbearing friends and desperate housewives. Let us know which TV characters you find irritating in the comments. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Do Silicon Valley tech geeks have as much reality TV potential as the gorilla juice heads who inhabit the Jersey Shore? A casting call for a new show — which is rumored to be for MTV as well — suggests that someone out there thinks so. [via

Television

Watch Sesame Street’s Hilarious ‘Glee’ Parody

By Emily Temple on

Get ready to learn all about the letter ‘G’ with Sue, Rachel, Finn, and er, Mr. Guester. Sesame Street‘s 42nd season premiere airs Monday, and it features a killer parody of Glee that is sure to delight children and parents alike (the episode also includes a significantly more manly parody of The Deadliest Catch, if you balk at musical television but dig puppets). Though Sesame Street has aired parodies of several popular TV shows, including True Blood, Mad Men, and even Law and Order: SVU, we have to admit this one is our favorite, if only for its casual deconstruction of about fifty percent of Glee‘s plotline in the first five seconds, as puppet Rachel blabbers at puppet Finn, “I like you Finn. I’m looking at you longingly!” In addition, Bert and Ernie drama aside, is it possible that this is the first stereotypically represented homosexual puppet to appear on Sesame Street? If so, we can’t think of a better pioneering gay puppet than Kurt Hummel. Click through to watch the video, and let us know what you think in the comments! … Read More