Let’s face it: We all tuned in to tonight’s Golden Globe Awards to watch Ricky Gervais rip into celebrities. Unfortunately for those of us hoping to indulge in some Hollywood schadenfreude, aside from a few delicious digs in his opening monologue, Gervais didn’t really have his spear sharpened. But that doesn’t mean the entire evening was without its memorable, unexpected moments. Although you never can tell exactly what comes from the script and what’s spontaneous on an awards show, we’ve pointed out a few highlights we’re pretty sure weren’t planned, from Tina Fey photobombing Amy Poehler to Michelle Williams’ touching acceptance speech.
1. After moving more than 5 million copies, Adele’s 21 is not only the top-selling album of the year — it’s the best-selling album since Usher’s Confessions, which was released back in 2004. Also worth noting: Music sales were up 3 percent overall this year. [via Reuters]
2. Thanks to some serious preparations for a “high-profile” client happening at New York’s St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, rumor is that Beyoncé will be having her baby girl any moment now… that is, if you believe that she’s really pregnant. [via Jezebel]
3. Can you picture Lady Gaga living in this $1.7M manor-style house in Amish Country? Admittedly, the move makes a lot more sense once you discover that the pop star’s current boyfriend’s parents live right next door.
4. Anne Hathaway serenaded Meryl Streep with “She’s Me Pal” at last night’s 34th Annual Kennedy Center Honors in a routine that also included a split. Watch her performance here.
5. Bambi, Silence of the Lambs, Faces, and Forrest Gump, are among the 25 movies that the Library of Congress selected from 2,228 nominees elected by the public for its 2011 additions to the National Film Registry for preservation. [via EW]
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.
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!
TV sitcoms are all about family. Even if the characters aren’t related by blood, friends and enemies alike still form bonds on the small screen for our viewing pleasure. They’re a tribe. Network shows provide someone for families to identify with, gawk at, and be envious of — all in the comfort of their own home. While technology has certainly made it possible to watch your favorite TV shows from just about anywhere, most families who loaf together with a little boob tube do so in their living room (or as it is sometimes aptly dubbed, the family room). Over the years there have been many famous TV living rooms where we watched our favorite characters grow up, share valuable life lessons, make us laugh, and more. Click through to revisit some of television’s most iconic living rooms, and recall what made them special. Who would you add to the list?
The results of this year’s “Where We Are On TV” report — GLAAD’s 16th annual review of scripted LGBT primetime characters in the 2011-2012 season — are in, and we think that you might be surprised by some of the findings; namely, the fact that Fox is “the most inclusive” of the broadcast television networks, a title that had gone to ABC for six years running. Just four years ago, there were absolutely no gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender series regulars on Fox, but as of this year, the number has risen to 6.8 percent. That’s compared to a 2.9 percent average across all TV networks– an unfortunate decrease from last year’s average of 3.9 percent.
“While the number of LGBT characters is down, some of the most popular shows with critics and viewers, such as Glee, True Blood and The Good Wife, weave storylines about gay and lesbian characters into the fabric of the show,” GLAAD Acting President Mike Thompson said in a statement. “Whether it’s the growing household of Mitchell and Cameron on Modern Family or the recent wedding of Callie and Arizona on Grey’s Anatomy, Americans expect to see the diversity of our country represented in their favorite programs and that includes gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.” Do you agree with Thompson’s glass half-full outlook, or do you think we should be worried by this recent dip? [via Deadline]
Hot off an insane haul at Sunday night’s Emmy Awards, Modern Family kicks off its third season tonight with a special one-hour premiere — a family vacation episode filmed at a dude ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In honor of everyone’s favorite comedy trading the soundstage for the real world, here are ten other TV vacation episodes that were shot on location. Did we miss your favorite? Leave it in the comments.
We didn’t even realize there was such a thing, but according to Deadline, Downton Abbey — the incredible miniseries that we’ve been obsessing over since its stateside debut on PBS earlier this year — has set the Guinness World Record for “Highest Critical Review Ratings For A TV Show,” an honor that has previously gone to such favorites as Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, and Modern Family. The British costume dramas is also up for 11 Emmys. The second installment the show premieres in the UK this Sunday night, and will air in the US beginning this winter; if you haven’t checked it out already, we’ve got the exciting (but spoiler-heavy) trailer for the first episode of season two after the jump.
The summer’s long break from network TV has given us plenty of time to over-analyze our favorite shows. One thing we’ve noticed while longing for new episodes of everything from Parks and Recreation to Mad Men is that the characters we miss most — and the ones we find most fascinating — aren’t always the show’s principals. With this in mind, we realized that there are plenty of minor players on TV who merit their own spin-off. We suggest ten after the jump. Let us know who you would add in the comments.
