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Schitt’s Creek was a good show that employed many members of the Levy family. Three, to be exact, between creator/star Dan and his Hollywood veteran father Eugene and his sister Sarah, who played Twyla on the show. Television was flush with Levys. But then the show ended in 2020, and the television landscape was suddenly Levy-less. It had remained that way, mostly, save a talk show guest spot or a quick swing through the Emmys to collect a slew of trophies, from last April until this afternoon

This afternoon, the Levys returned. First, at 12:02 PM ET, an email from Apple TV hit entertainment-type inboxes around the world. The email was titled “Apple orders Eugene Levy docuseries The Reluctant Traveler” and contained this paragraph by way of explanation:

The Reluctant Traveler will see Eugene Levy visit some of the world’s most remarkable hotels, as well as explore the people, places and cultures that surround them. Self confessedly not your average travel show host – he’s not usually adventurous or well versed in globe-trotting – he’s agreed the time is right for him to broaden his horizons. Levy will be packing his suitcase with some trepidation but hoping his experiences might lead to a whole new chapter in his life – that’s as long as he doesn’t have to battle his motion sickness, and still gets dinner at 7.

This sounds… kind of delightful? Eugene Levy is awesome and has been for decades now. And there should be more travel shows about people who don’t like to travel, because traveling can be a real pain in the neck. Being other places is cool, I guess, but getting there? And not having all your stuff while you there? Blech. So I support everything going on here. Looks good. And we’re getting one Levy back on television, which is nice. A solid Monday.

Then, just over an hour later, at 1:11 PM ET, an email from HBO hit entertainment-type inboxes. It was titled “HBO Max Orders Unscripted Cooking Competition Series THE BIG BRUNCH From Dan Levy And Boardwalk Pictures” and featured this paragraph by way of explanation:

Created by Levy and centering around one of the most versatile and underestimated dining experiences, The Big Brunch is a cooking competition series that celebrates the most inspiring undiscovered culinary voices from every corner of the country. Chefs will be offered the opportunity to share their stories and their business dreams, while also competing for a life-altering prize. All while finding innovative and personal ways to redefine what it means to dine between 11am and 3pm.

Which is also great. I love brunch. It’s a good meal, especially if you, like me, do not like waking up early on the weekends but still want to eat an omelette and/or a waffle. I also like “life-altering prizes,” generally, as long as they mean life-altering in a good way and not, like, someone whacking you real good in the kneecap with a crowbar and giving you a limp for the next decade. But they probably don’t mean that. Worth keeping an eye on, though.

Anyway, this means we now have two more shows starring members of the Levy family than we did yesterday. That’s fine and cool. Unless it’s the start of a trend. If they keep up this pace every day this week, that’ll be 10 shows. If they keep it up for all of November, that’s 60 shows. Even if they take a long weekend off for Thanksgiving, it would be, like, 52 shows. That’s too many shows! The Levys are taking over television! Someone needs to stop them before we run out of room and have to start canceling other shows to make space. We’re so close to getting The Righteous Gemstones back. We need to be careful here. We can’t run around taking risks.

So, in summary, congratulations to the Levy family on their two new shows, both of which sound fun. But also, I’m watching you, Levy family. Two shows is enough. For now. We can reassess later. But we’re atop a very slippery slope here.

There is nothing more pure in this world than the love between a child and a caring parent. But even in the world of healthy attachments and strong family bonds, this viral video takes the cake.

Twitter user @TeesePeese shared a compilation of highlights showing her son’s reaction at daycare pickup, and it’s seriously the most precious thing ever.

“I really do love this video,” she wrote. “I recorded my son’s pick up almost every day and this is his reaction every single time. For his 5th bday (yesterday) I took my favorites and made a lil compilation, from infancy to just last week.”

The squeals. The smiles. The skipping for joy. Gracious, it doesn’t get any sweeter.

i really do love this video. i recorded my son’s pick up almost every day and this is his reaction every single tim… https://t.co/19YGEPWED8

— Teese (@TeesePeese)
1635624659.0

Clearly that’s a boy who adores his mama—and also has an adorable sense of enthusiasm.

Some new parents may worry that sending their child to daycare will negatively affect their child’s attachment to them, but according to psychologist Noam Shpancer Ph.D, that worry is unfounded as long as the family environment is healthy at home.

“Available data indicate that, for most children, parental attachment processes are not disrupted by daycare participation,” writes Shpancer. “Home variables, such as maternal sensitivity, are the strongest predictors of parent-child attachment, even for daycare children.”

Clearly this kiddo’s parent-child attachment hasn’t suffered from being in daycare. Research also shows what common sense should also tell us—the quality of daycare matters.

Unfortunately, quality daycare can be prohibitively expensive, which is why the proposed affordable childcare provisions in the Build Back Better plan are a huge deal. Millions of parents have to work to support their families and middle-class American families spend an average of 14% of their income on childcare—double what the limit would be under the Build Back Better framework. And the U.S. is an outlier in this area. According to The New York Times, other wealthy nations contribute an average of $14,000 per year for a toddler’s child care costs, while the U.S. contributes merely $500.

The virtues of stay-at-home motherhood versus working motherhood have been debated for decades, but no one can deny that childcare should be high quality and affordable whether a parent chooses to work or has to work. I was able to and chose to stay home during my kids’ early childhoods, but I would be thrilled for my tax dollars to go toward helping all families get the support and childcare they need to make their individual situations work. That feels like much more useful and important spending than building bigger and better bombs we’ll likely never use, but maybe that’s just me.

At any rate, love seeing kiddos loving on their mamas, especially ones with infectious grins and delight-filled squeals. Thanks for capturing your sweet boy’s joy and sharing it with the rest of us @TeesePeese. You brought a smile to so many faces that needed it.

Nearly a year after The Mandalorian’ s season two finale broke the news that a spinoff series following beloved bounty hunter Boba Fett was in the works over a Disney+, we now have our first look at it. However, while finally seeing lead star Temuera Morrison suit up as Boba Fett in the trailer was already exciting in itself, it’s a surprise casting revealed about half-way through the trailer that has fans buzzing with excitement and has one iconic actress “jumping up and down.”

After making her appearance in the first trailer for The Book of Boba Fett, Jennifer Beals (Flashdance, The L Word, Devil in a Blue Dress) has confirmed she will be starring in the Star Wars spinoff series, taking to Twitter to announce she is “so honored to be a part of the #StarWars family.” Based on her brief appearance in the trailer, it appears the actress will be playing a Twi’lek working at a cantina on Tatooine, though both her name and how her story ties into Boba Fett’s and Fennec Shands’ (Ming-Na Wen) has yet to be disclosed.

Premiering on December 29, The Book of Boba Fett follows legendary Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand as they return to the Skywalker family’s home planet of Tatooine to try to take over the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate. Robert Rodriguez will be working the series as its executive producer, alongside The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni of Star Wars: The Clone Wars fame.

Dexter Morgan, that inexplicably lovable serial killer, is on his way to a TV (or streaming device) near you. As such, Showtime’s Dexter: New Blood turns out to be a bloody good time while working hard to erase the sins of the lumberjack past. However, both Michael C. Hall and current/O.G. showrunner Clyde Phillips know that they need to stick the landing this time. No one wants any hurricanes in upstate New York, after all, and the scrutiny for this new season will be about as high as the anticipation factor.

Phillips sat down with Variety to discuss the much maligned ending, which he appears to see as the outcome of a show that “lost its way” seasons before the series finale. As the returning showrunner phrases things, he believes that Dexter went wrong when the title character neglected to follow part of his own code. That is, he failed to be a mere vigilante who picked up slack for police and, rather, he desired “to slow down his police force and get the bad guy himself.” Phillips believes this did the show’s audience dirty by breaking a mutual covenant:

“I think the show in the last couple of years of its original incarnation lost its way. It was only seeing as far into the future as the headlights on a car and had broken the covenant with the audience about everything that Dexter does has to be code-worthy.”

There’s plenty more tidbits worth soaking up in the Variety piece, including the revelation that what got the revival ball rolling is this: Michael C. Hall came to Showtime Networks president of entertainment Gary Levine. This went down two years ago, with Phillips revealing that he got Levine’s call — “Michael’s ready to do ‘Dexter’ again and wants to know what you think” — and one meeting later, the official ball was in motion. Phillips also adds that Dexter has “taken responsibility for all of that wreckage” when we meet him again, meaning that he’s fully cognizant of “the fallout of those choices,” and he spent some time “reeling.” All of this happened, Phillips says, because Dexter erroneously believed that he “could have a real life,” and then collateral damage began.

All of this is to say that the collateral damage ain’t over yet, not by a long shot.

Dexter: New Blood premieres on November 7.

(Via Variety)

Cat Power’s new album of cover songs (aptly-titled, Covers) has already yielded dashing renditions of Frank Ocean’s “Bad Religion” and “A Pair Of Brown Eyes” by The Pogues. Today, she dropped the video for the likewise gorgeous cover of “Pa Pa Power” by Dead Man’s Bones, the band fronted by big screen heartthrob Ryan Gosling.

In the clip, Cat Power’s Chan Marshall sings on a double microphone for a crowd at jubilant nightclub. Marshall flexes her incomparable vocals over a trance-inducing guitar and drums on the enveloping track. She explained how when she performed the song on tour in 2012, that it took a deep sociopolitical meaning to her.

“I started playing this solo in 2012 (originally more dissonant and trance-y), when the Occupy Wall Street protests were going on. Occupy was bunkering down and saying, ‘This shit’s f****** f***** up.’ And helping citizens be a voice in their local government. They got a lot of good things done, but the American media killed the movement. I felt like this song was relative to that. The American media has always penalized any sort of social progressiveness and is always the first to express conservative rhetoric against something that is beneficial to the nation. I’d open with this song on the 2013 China tour. ‘Burn the streets, burn the cars.’”

Watch the video for “Pa Pa Power” above. Check out Cat Power’s extensive tour dates here, along with the Covers tracklist below.

1. “Bad Religion” (Frank Ocean)
2. “Unhate” (Cat Power)
3. “Pa Pa Power” (Dead Man’s Bones)
4. “White Mustang” (Lana Del Rey)
5. “A Pair Of Brown Eyes” (The Pogues)
6. “Against The Wind” (Bob Seger)
7. “Endless Sea” (Iggy Pop)
8. “These Days” (Jackson Browne)
9. “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” (Kitty Wells)
10. “I Had A Dream Joe” (Nick Cave)
11. “Here Comes A Regular” (The Replacements)
12. “I’ll Be Seeing You” (Billie Holiday)

Covers is out 1/14/2022 via Domino. Pre-order it here.

Judy Justice (IMDb TV) — You know all about Judge Judy Sheindlin, and here’s her brand new show, in which she returns to the bench for the reality-court drill. She’s got plenty of support (and more wit) coming from retired LA probation officer and bailiff Kevin Rasco, along with stenographer Whitney Kumar and Sarah Rose, who’s not only a law clerk but Judy’s granddaughter. Together, they’ll tell it like it is.

The Informant: Fear and Faith in the Heartland (Hulu film) — GMA anchor George Stephanopoulos tells the story of a real-life would-be homegrown terror attack and the journey (by FBI agents and other players) to take the plot down. Expect plenty of undercover videos and audio recordings along the way.

The Claus Family (Netflix film) — Yep, Halloween is over, so that means one thing: it’s time for Christmas movies to begin. Young Jules Claus feels like he’s done with holiday cheer, and so he hangs in grandpa’s toy shop simply for the toys. However, he realizes that grandpa is the true Santa Claus, which means that it’s time for magic and reindeer and all that jazz.

Ordinary Joe (NBC, 10:00pm) — It’s like Sliding Doors but with TV Prince James Wolk (Watchmen, Mad Men, Political Animals, Zoo) and no Gwyneth Paltrow. If that’s not enough to make you climb aboard, consider that Wolk not only plays a rock star (!) but two other Joes in parallel timelines. This week, it’s time for an origin story on how the Joes’ paths diverged in the first place.

We’re Here (HBO, 9:00pm) — Nope, you’re not looking at a photo of Beyoncé. This ^^ would be the fabulous Shangela (of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame), who’s back with the rest of the Queens (including Bob and Eureka) in Spartanburg, South Carolina and Temecula, California after COVID interrupted the first round. In Season 2, the trio will continue to recruit small-town residents (in this case, that would be Noah, Faith, and Olin) and train them for onstage moments that they never dreamed possible. This week, the Queens head to Selma, Alabama.

All-American (CW, 8:00pm) — Olivia and Spencer grow closer, although the rift with Billy hampers too much progress, all while a birthday celebration goes down.

4400 (CW, 9:00pm) — The entire group isn’t pleased with their accommodations and all of the rules that they must follow. Meanwhile, Claudette’s newfound ability tests its limits.

Wakefield (Showtime, 9:00pm) — This miniseries follows a beloved and brilliant psychiatric nurse who’s caring for patients int he Blue Mountains of Australia. Her array of patients will also entertain as well as endear.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — Kumail Nanjiani, Liza Koshy, Blxst Ft. Ty Dolla $Ign

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Tracy Morgan, Colin Quinn, Roy Mayorg

In case you missed these weekend picks:

Swagger: Season 1 (Apple TV+ series) — Get ready, sports-drama fans. This show’s inspired by Kevin Durant’s pre-NBA experiences, and more specifically, it examines early ambition and dreams and the fine line between those two things, along with the comparable delineation between opportunism and corruption on the grown-up side. The cast includes Isaiah Hill, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis, all of whom are bringing some truths on the experience of coming in age in America.

Love Life: Season 2 (HBO Max series) — Love Life ended up being the HBO Max original show to launch the service, and Season 2 is upon us with Anna Kendrick’s Darby passing the baton to a new unlucky-in-love protagonist, Marcus, who will be portrayed by William Jackson Harper. He did the whole sunk-cost investment thing, apparently, and now, he’s finding himself in the hell hole known as the dating world. Godspeed, Marcus.

America has a serious opioid problem so one would think that news of the seizure of massive amounts of Fentanyl at the border would be welcome. And, it probably is, by everyone except Senator Chuck Grassley apparently.

The 88-year-old Iowa statesman tweeted some truly bizarre thoughts on the recent revelation that, under the Biden administration, 10,000 pounds of Fentanyl has been seized at the border this fiscal year. That feels like a bit of a victory in terms of curbing an opioid crisis that continues to wreak havoc on younger generations of Americans. Like, all of the words put together in that specific order sound like Border Patrol agents are actually doing their jobs (instead of rounding up kids and putting them into cages).

But, the way Grassley tweeted it, we can’t help but wonder: does the GOP senator want drugs crossing our borders? Here’s the original tweet for reference:

Again, seizing means to confiscate so we’d assume that confiscating enough drugs capable of killing 2 billion people would be a big win for any government figure. That means those drugs aren’t crossing state lines into Iowa and hurting your constituents, your economy, etc. So why does it sound like Grassley is angry that we caught the drug smugglers before they could smuggle the drugs?

We really don’t know, but Twitter was happy to drag Grassley for his confused posting anyway:

It really is so uncomfortable watching some people log onto Twitter.

As far as Henry Winkler knows, there are only seven of Fonzie’s jackets from Happy Days left in the world. One is in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History; one was stolen; one was destroyed to perform the “jump the shark” scene; two were in the possession of late Happy Days creator Garry Marshall; and he owns the other two.

Soon, he’ll only own one, as the other is being auctioned off.

Winkler is selling items from his personal memorabilia collection as part of the “26-lot Henry Winkler Collection” on December 8 at Bonhams Los Angeles. “During the pandemic, I had the urge for spring cleaning except that it lasted for a year and a half. I found 27 boxes and those boxes were filled with memorabilia from Happy Days to The Waterboy to Scream,” the Barry actor told the Hollywood Reporter.

Those boxes contained everything from T-shirt and hat collections to “the book that I held on the sidelines in The Waterboy for making plays,” he says, plus “two masks from Scream that I cut onscreen and the prop people gave me them because they weren’t going to be used again.” Winkler, who appeared as Principal Himbry in the 1996 film, is selling one of the Scream Ghostface masks; it has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000.

The auction (part of the proceeds go towards This Is About Humanity) is heavy on Happy Days items and you can also buy his boots from 1974’s The Lords of Flatbush, but if I could own any piece of Winkler merch, I would want the photo of balls.

Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl scandal has become the subject of a new documentary coming soon to Hulu and FX, according to Deadline. After the success of the New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears, the streamer is taking on the backlash against Jackson in Malfunction: The Dressing Down Of Janet Jackson, launching on November 19 (incidentally, both docs prominently feature Justin Timberlake for his role in both women’s respective downfalls. I don’t know what it says about JT that he was so closely involved in both but it feels a little like he’s gone through his own version of what they went through over the last few years, falling out of public favor as social media became more prevalent.).

For those who don’t remember, during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, Janet Jackson joined Justin Timberlake on stage during a performance of his song “Rock Your Body,” ending with Timberlake pulling part of Jackson’s costume off, baring her breast and touching off a national controversy that led to Janet essentially being blackballed by the entertainment industry. The incident coined the infamous term “wardrobe malfunction” and a content crackdown by government and network regulators.

According to Deadline, the film will “examine the racial and cultural currents that collided on the Super Bowl stage, and explores how the incident impacted one of the most successful pop musicians in history.” It will include interviews with some of the producers of the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, as well as “music industry insiders,” cultural critics, and members of Janet’s famous family.

Josh Hawley is wading into the culture wars, once again, and this time he’s calling out feminism for allegedly pushing men towards a life of porn and video games. According to The Guardian, the Missouri Senator recently spoke at the National Conservatism Conference where he echoed right-wing talking points often used by groups like the Proud Boys, who bemoan a lack of masculinity in modern society, or whatever.

“Can we be surprised that after years of being told that they are the problem, that their manhood is the problem, more and more men are withdrawing into the enclave of idleness and pornography and video games?” Hawley said.

“While the left may celebrate this decline of men, I for one cannot join them. No one should.”

Naturally, Hawley provided zero sources or references for his claim, which is dubious considering porn has been around for centuries and people have been enjoying video games for over four decades now. But, obviously, Hawley’s speech wasn’t so much about an academic study as it was about pandering to the right-wing crowd who hate hearing that “toxic masculinity” is a problem that needs to be addressed.

“They want to define the traditional masculine virtues – things like courage, and independence, and assertiveness – as a danger to society,” Hawley told the crowd.

After Hawley’s comments started making the round, the GOP senator was roundly mocked on social media like a common Ted Cruz:

(Via The Guardian)