With Robin Williams returning to TV on CBS this fall, it looks like his old comedy buddy Billy Crystal may be coming back to television too after nearly three decades away. Crystal has signed on as a star and producer for the new FX pilot The Comedians, based on the Swedish show of the same name. Writing and producing the show alongside Crystal are frequent Larry David/Sacha Baron Cohen cohort Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Borat, Curb), Burn Notice creator Matt Nix, and sitcom veteran Ben Wexler (Community). The pilot will star Crystal as a famous veteran comedian who's paired up with an edgy young comic to work on a late [...]
The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)
As you may already know, this week marks David Letterman’s 30th anniversary. In this series of articles, we’ve already looked at a classic example [...]
It only happens every few years, but whenever a late night talk show host leaves his or her post, it's a crucial decision by the network to choose the right replacement and has a ripple effect on the rest of the late night landscape. Since David Letterman is considering retiring next year and Jay Leno will have to leave The Tonight Show eventually (either by choice or in a bodybag), it's an appropriate time to examine the process of hunting for a replacement talk show host. Late night talk show history is prone to repeat itself, as proven by 2010’s Tonight Show dust-up between Leno and Conan O’Brien, which [...]
According to statements he made to a crowd last Friday, Billy Crystal wants to host the Oscars for the ninth time next year, a desire that may or may not be connected to seeing James Franco lumber on stage as a sad, beefy Marilyn Monroe. “They had called and said would you do this thing and honor Bob Hope and that was a kind of cool thing to do,” Crystal said about his cameo at this year's show. “I said okay. I did it, and people wanted to see me, they stood up, and I couldn’t talk for about a minute [while waiting for the ovation to subside]. And, um, I [...]
In The Finally Screenings, Alden Ford is watching comedy classics that, because he grew up in a cave in Alaska, he’s never seen before. These are his takes on movies everyone else has seen before.
I’m taking a cue from the 1990-93 Academy Awards this week and doing back-to-back Billy Crystal movies. This week, 1991’s City Slickers.
You know how in LOST, we learn that (omg spoilarz) Jacob (good) and the Smoke Monster (evil) are actually brothers, born of one loving mother but twisted into polar opposites by time and a morally dubious influence (their adoptive mother, who murdered their biological one)? For those of you who aren’t [...]
Super special guests Billy Crystal and Jerry Seinfeld helped Jimmy Fallon to do an updated version of Abbott and Costello's classic "Who's on First?" bit last night on Late Night, with a couple of awesome performances from less-famous people Steve Higgins and A.D. Miles. Sorry, Steve Higgins and A.D. Miles for not including your names in the headline of this post! You don't quite have the name recognition of Jerry Seinfeld or Billy Crystal and you appearing on Late Night is far less of a big deal.
"Guys, would you mind taking a listen to some of my new Oscar material? Feeling a little nervous about it. I mean, I know I've done this more times than anyone but Bob Hope, but you never can be too prepared, right? Okay, how about, uh: I've been getting ready for the Oscars and my White Swan is ready, but my Black Swan's another story! Uh, I'm so nervous I feel like I'm about to give The King's Speech! …Was that not this year? I really haven't been to the movies in a while." – Billy Crystal
Things are happening! Billy Crystal Tweeted that he's going to host the Oscars this year, replacing Eddie Murphy after his resignation, and the Academy has confirmed the news. The Billy Crystal Oscars probably won't be as new and exciting as Eddie Murphy's might have been (it will be Crystal's ninth time hosting, after all) but at least he's not James Franco and Anne Hathaway. And if you squint you can pretend you're watching When Harry Met Sally. So that's something.
A couple of nights ago on The Daily Show, Billy Crystal came on to promote not a movie, but an upcoming Funny or Die video. It was a little strange! But the video has now arrived, and it's pretty loaded up with great people. It focuses on Crystal and Helen Mirren in a sequel to When Harry Met Sally that's forced to become a vampire movie by studio exec Adam Scott. While the whole "Hollywood loves vampires!!!" thing isn't exactly a novel premise, it's a fun treatment of the idea. And it's hard to argue with the cast, which, in addition to Crystal, Mirren and Scott, includes Rob [...]
In The Finally Screenings, Alden Ford is watching comedy classics that, because he grew up in a cave in Alaska, he’s never seen before. These are his takes on movies everyone else has seen before.
A good barometer for whether or not a comedy makes it onto this list is the volume at which the word “NEVER” is shouted in the sentence, “You’ve NEVER seen that?” The higher the volume, the more likely it makes the list. By this point, it’s harder to tell – not because the volume is lower after a few months, but because the damage done to my ears prior to watching Ghostbusters and [...]
Saturday Night Live has been home to over a hundred cast members throughout the past 36 years. In our column Saturday Night’s Children, we present the history, talent, and best sketches of one SNL cast member each week for your viewing, learning, and laughing pleasure.
A king in the realm of legitimizing the concept of 'schtick', Billy Crystal's seventeen-episode SNL run pales in comparison to his iconic film work and reputation as the most reliable award ceremony emcee since Bob Hope. Whether it was his yen for bigger feature film roles, his desire to be center stage rather than part of an ensemble, his tainted memories of being dropped [...]
Oscar frenzy has begun with the first official Academy Awards trailer from Funny or Die, starring Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel, with appearances by Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, and Robin Williams' Fu Manchu moustache. It's a departure from the usual clip-based trailer and looks like an effort to get people excited for a fresh, new, relevant Oscars. (By showing us that the host has been living in a stone-walled cave growing his hair out since 2003.)
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player Try and watch this video reunion of the cast of The Princess Bride reunion without smiling. I dare you. You might make it through the part where Robin Wright fondly recalls Andre the Giant's putting his gigantic hand on her head to warm her up between takes. But you will absolutely not get through the ending where Billy Crystal and Carol Kane recreate their famous storming-the-castle sendoff. Oh, also, how different would this movie have been if Vizzini had been played by Danny DeVito?! It's not even possible to conceive of it. You might say it's…well, you know.
Last night on The Daily Show, Billy Crystal showed up to promote…a Funny or Die video? That his daughters and two son-in-laws produced? And also the fact that he was going to tweet for the first time that night? It was all very strange! Since when do you go on TV to promote a web video? The way he talked about it, it made it seem like some sort of big familial favor from Billy Crystal. It's like when you ask your father-and-law for help getting a job at the plant where he is the manager, except instead of it being a plant it is the entertainment industry and [...]
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