TV Zone
News, scoops, reviews and more from TV land.
'Inside the Actors Studio' turns 250 (episodes) Wednesday
Photo credit: AP
After 19 years -- 19! -- "Inside the Actors Studio" and its redoubtable ringmaster James Lipton will celebrate 250 episodes Wednesday night with a two-hour special that'll feature the reclusive Dave Chappelle -- a Lipton pal -- and others not so reclusive.
"Studio," if you are not aware, but almost certainly are, is an iconic cable series that reaches back to the very earliest days of Bravo -- long before "Real Housewives" and Tabitha and so on. Lipton, a trained actor and dean emeritus of Pace's Actors Studio Drama School, got to this benchmark by running a smart show, being extremely well-informed, non-judgmental and always always curious. The result was at times more of a shrink's couch than an interview show because Lipton asked the right questions and secured responses that weren't the usual spin or balderdash.
It's been quite a run indeed, and a mere lad of 86, Lipton has had an interesting run too.
Here's a clip (below) but per Bravo, the 7 p.m. series will feature "new interviews with former guests including Actors Studio alumnus Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, Jennifer Lopez, Christopher Walken, Barbara Walters, Dave Chappelle, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Ellen Burstyn and Spike Lee..."
.
Kate McKinnon does Ellen on 'Ellen'
Kate McKinnon -- or as we fondly refer to her around these yar parts, Sea Cliff's own Kate McKinnon -- was on "Ellen" yesterday and of course, you know why: To do her Ellen impression, which is pretty much right-on-the-money. Got a lot of mileage out of it on "Saturday Night Live" and a little more Wednesday.
Anyway, if you missed:
TV reacts to the Boston marathon bombing
Photo credit: Getty Images
Entertainment television, or at least some of the live-to-tape portion that took place after 3 p.m. Monday, took a brief hiatus from entertaining, or brief enough to acknowledge what had just taken place in Boston. Jimmy Kimmel called the attacks "disgusting" (Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, and David Letterman were in repeats) while Tom Bergeron opened a live "Dancing with the Stars" with a cold open, saying: "Before we begin the show, we just want to take a moment: Our thoughts are with everyone in Boston, I have family members and many friends there. Our hearts are with you . . ." He later told "Extra" this: “It was the hardest show I have ever done,” he said of going to work on Monday. His daughter and wife were both in the city when the blasts went off near the Boston Marathon finish line. “[My wife] was the one that texted me first to let me know what was going on,” he said. “She was in lockdown in a hotel… I worked in Boston for years, I know how valuable that marathon is, that last mile was dedicated to the families if Newtown. I'm feeling a mixture of grief, relief that my family's fine.” And Craig Ferguson had this, followed by Ellen DeGeneres' brief acknowledgment: Conan O'Brien - a Boston native - of course addressed this last night: "Like eveyrbody here, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Boston...
