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'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' is Tina Fey's Modern-Day Yentl Story
What is that strange tingling I feel all the way from the top of my head to the tips of my toes? Could it be the unfamiliar effervescence of unbridled excitement, or is it just heartburn? Well, for...
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Remembering Peggy Charren, the Woman Who Changed Children's Television
Sad news for anyone who was taught to count, read, or to say anything in Spanish from a puppet on TV: Peggy Charren, the crusading children’s television pioneer, died last week at the age of 86....
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Atticus Aldridge, Downton Abbey's Nice Jewish Boy
OK. I take it all back. Every snarky word I’ve ever written (and believe me, there have been a considerable number) about Downton Abbey and its creator Julian Fellowes’ staunch refusal to ever let...
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Transparent's Jill Soloway Creating New Show for MTV
Jill Soloway fans rejoice, for the genius behind Transparent has a new project in the works. According to Variety, the as-yet-untitled show follows two women who bond “over their enthusiasm for...
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Ben Stiller Producing TV Adaptation of Gary Shteyngart's 'Super Sad True Love...
Gary Shteyngart is headed for the small screen, and Ben Stiller is leading the charge. Stiller is producing a television adaptation of Shteyngart’s 2010 novel, Super Sad True Love Story, according to...
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A Jewish Wedding on Downton Abbey
It happened! Last night on Downton Abbey, Lady Rose MacClare, the glamorous carefree cousin to the Crawley clan (some might think of her as the adorable romper-clad Olivia to Lady Edith’s dolorous...
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The Original 'Catfish' Victim Now a Messiah to a Generation?
The documentary Catfish, released in 2010, followed Nev Schulman along the journey of finding out that his new love and her entire network of extended family and friends were not who they claimed to...
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'Fresh Off the Boat' Episode About Jews and Asians Plays to Stereotypes
Left to my own devices I would only watch TV shows about smoldering Scotsmen in kilts. My husband would only watch things explode. But we have children, so our TV world involves a lot of cooking shows...
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Soon You'll Be Able to Stream 'Seinfeld' Episodes Online
Seinfeld is already on the medical school curriculum, so it’s about time it made its way to the realm of online streaming. The Wall Street Journal reports that Sony Pictures Television is close to a...
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Alice Hoffman's Masada-Based Novel 'The Dovekeepers' Now a CBS Miniseries
Despite the “hot mess” that was Lifetime’s The Red Tent adaptation (newly out on DVD!), a major network is turning another feminist Jewish narrative into a TV miniseries. The Dovekeepers, based on...
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Shimon Peres on the Iron Throne
Shimon Peres is not often at a loss for words: even at 91, after seven years as President, his ability to conjure up platitudes on a moment’s notice is unmatched. But yesterday morning, eight months...
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'Mad Men' Sits Shiva
The ghosts of Rachel Menken, Don Draper’s season one paramour/breathtakingly classy department store heiress (not to mention the only woman, apart from his wives, who has ever actually broken up with...
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Beloved Spanish-language Show 'Sábado Gigante' Canceled After 53-year Run,...
Sábado Gigante, the longest-running variety show in television history, is shuttering production. Hosted by the 74-year-old Don Francisco, the Chilean son of Holocaust survivors, the Spanish-language...
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Why 'Game of Thrones' Is The Ultimate Diaspora Narrative
Look, I love Game of Thrones, you love Game of Thrones, everyone in America loves Game of Thrones, at least judging from the amount of ink, real and virtual, spilled over HBO’s sprawling and ambitious...
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10 Memorable Appearances by Jews on 'Letterman'
As you’ve likely heard, tonight is David Letterman’s last night as host of CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman, a job he’s held since 1993. Prior to that, the 68-year-old entertainer hosted Late Night...
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TV's 'Botched' Takes On The Art of Fixing the Failures of Plastic Surgery
I’ve tried to stay away from plastic surgery reality shows over the years. I’m not squeamish about the bloody stuff, or the inevitable moment when the surgeon either shoves in or pulls out a quivering,...
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Watch Jon Stewart Interview David Letterman as His Final Guest in 1995
Before Jon Stewart became the liberal lion of late-night satirical news who tore through bow-tie clad CNN hosts with rhetorical ease, he cut his teeth as host of MTV’s The Jon Stewart Show, which ran...
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Jewish Mysticism Steals the Show on Showtime's 'Penny Dreadful'
Look, it’s entirely possible that I am the only person in America who is watching Penny Dreadful. The ratings for Showtime’s witch-vampire-werewolf-Frankenstein extravaganza apparently aren’t too hot,...
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Television's Most Alluring Antihero is a Fictional Jewish Woman
It’s an image you’ve seen a hundred times before: A score of gorgeous, perfectly-groomed young women in evening gowns standing nervously by the edge of an underwater-lit, electric blue swimming pool....
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Egyptian TV Show Depicting Cairo's Jewish Quarter in 1948 Is a Hit in the...
A breakthrough seems to have occurred in the eternally stonewalled Israeli/Arab conflict, and yet not a shot was fired, a curfew lifted, or an olive branch extended—and neither Barack nor Bibi made the...
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