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Fox's Hit New Show 'Sleepy Hollow' Gets a Golem
Add one more to the ever-growing list of golems co-opted by American pop culture creatures. TV’s biggest new hit is an insane mash-up of colonial history, otherworldly monsters and romance-novel...
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Friday Review of Books: 'Sitcom: A History in 24 Episodes from I Love Lucy to...
One of the central tragedies of our lives is that there are more books out there than we’d ever have time to read. But we’re not going gently into that good night: Each Friday, Liel Leibovitz will be...
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The Deep Jewish Roots of Television’s Sid Caesar
There was nothing conspicuously Jewish about Your Show of Shows. There were no Jewish jokes or Jewish characters, as there were, say, on The Goldbergs (at least the original Goldbergs). Only...
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Sherwood Schwartz: The Med-School Reject Who Created ‘Gilligan’s Island’
Sherwood Schwartz, a well-regarded young television writer in the early 1960s, had pitched a show about seven desert-island castaways trapped together to his longtime agent in Hollywood and got an...
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Anti-Semitic Elmo Inspires 'The Good Wife' Cameo
Last night was Bill de Blasio’s much-awaited cameo on The Good Wife last night, which came in the form of a Taxi TV PSA that Nathan Lane can’t figure out how to mute. But viewers of the political...
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Simon Schama's ‘The Story of the Jews’ Is the Most Important TV Documentary...
On March 25, PBS will begin showing the most important TV documentary about Jewish history since Abba Eban’s famous Heritage series aired in 1984. The Story of the Jews, created and hosted by historian...
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The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Face Off Over Jewish Stars
Gwyneth Paltrow is getting divorced. This is obviously an enormous piece of information to process, and I haven’t figured out exactly how I feel about it yet. So, I’m going to focus instead on some...
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Feminist Jewish Novel 'The Red Tent' To Become a Lifetime Miniseries
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant’s New York Times bestselling novel which tells the story of Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, is headed for television. Deadline reports that the novel, a fictionalized...
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Showtime Nabs TV Series About Ultra-Orthodox Comedian
Showtime has nabbed a new comedy series about a Jewish comedian. But not just any Seinfeld or Samberg—this time it’s an ultra-Orthodox aspiring stand-up who steps outside his close-knit Williamsburg...
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Subtitle Writers Strike Creates Mixed Messages on Israeli TV
In season five of The Wire, Baltimore cop-turned high school teacher Roland Pryzbylewski stares at his class and asks a bizarre question. “Which ass should I stick a rat into?”Continue reading...
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Welcoming 'Mulaney' to Television's Promised Land
The critics dislike Mulaney. The new sitcom’s humor, sniped one typical detractor, felt “forced and artificial.” Others were less reserved in their lashings. They’re all missing the point: the show is...
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'The Simpsons' Says Goodbye to a Rabbi
Fans of The Simpsons may have recited the mourners kaddish during the season premiere two weeks ago in memory of Rabbi Hyman Krustofski, the father of Herschel Krustofski, better known to viewers as...
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Steve Coogan Cast in Shalom Auslander's New Showtime Series 'Happyish'
Happyish, the forthcoming Showtime comedy created, written, and executive produced by novelist Shalom Auslander, has found a new male lead. The series’ future had been up in the air since February,...
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Why 'Black-ish' Is the Best Jewish Sitcom That Was Never Made
If you want to understand why we have a black president while a Jewish commander in chief is still very much a distant dream, watch Black-ish. I know: It’s a heavy weight to put on any show, especially...
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Norman Lear Talks Archie Bunker, Mary Hartman, and More
Archie Bunker, George Jefferson, Mary Hartman, Maude Findlay are just a handful of the iconic characters Norman Lear created for television. In his storied career, Lear tackled abortion, cancer,...
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Bravo's First Scripted Series Swaps Housewives for Primary Breadwinners
Whatever you may say about Bravo, you can’t say they don’t have a brand. The merest whisper of the name of a network that once showed broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic now conjures up a...
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We Need a Dose of Jewish Fatherhood
For TV dads, 2014 was a grim year: From the accusations against Bill Cosby to the child molestation confessions of 7th Heaven’s Stephen Collins, the besweatered benevolences of our childhood are...
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Golden Globes Glimmer Despite General Gloom
Is it just me or did the Golden Globes feel like a little bit of an afterthought this year? Coming so quickly after the holidays, as most of America is still spending its evenings waddling around the...
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Shalom Auslander's TV Series 'Happyish' Will Air on Showtime in April
Happyish, the TV show from writer Shalom Auslander, is settling in after a turbulent ride. Picked up by Showtime, the series filmed a pilot starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Auslander-esque main...
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Mrs. Wolowitz on ‘Big Bang Theory’ Was the Last Jewish Mother on Television
We have seen the last old-school, Jewishly observant, housecoat-wearing, perpetually bellowing, all-devouring, ultra-controlling, super-insular, Yiddishly inflected, son-emasculating Jewish Mother on...
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