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Paramount+ today announced that the critically acclaimed documentary Kiss the Future, which made its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival and opened the Tribeca Festival in 2023, will premiere exclusively on the service in the U.S. and Canada on May 7. The documentary features interviews with Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Christine Amanpour, Bill Clinton, and more.

Produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for Artists Equity and Sarah Anthony, Kiss the Future was directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and written by Bill S. Carter and Cicin-Sain. It is based on Carter’s memoir Fools Rush In.

The film tells a story of defiance amid the 1990s siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, focusing on a vibrant, underground community that used art and music to affect change; a community that garnered global attention by ultimately inspiring an American aid worker to reach out to the band U2 to help raise awareness of the devastating conflict.

When Jon Stewart reclaimed his seat behind the The Daily Show desk in February, his once-a-week return was met with widespread excitement from those eager to recapture the magic of his original tenure, from 1999 to 2015. Writing for the Guardian, Charles Bramesco praised Stewart's "honest, critical, sane" political perspective, while LateNighter editor-at-large Bill Carter proclaimed that his Monday appearances have "re-introduced appointment viewing to late night." Showtime/MTV Entertainment boss Chris McCarthy even went so far as to hail Stewart as "the voice of our generation," describing him as "the perfect person to puncture the empty rhetoric and provide much-needed clarity with his brilliant wit."...

Editor’s note: 2024 marks 30 years since the original publication of “The Late Shift,” Bill Carter’s mind-bending chronicle of the behind-the-scenes power struggle to succeed Johnny Carson at his legendary Tonight show desk. The book was an instant bestseller, spawning an HBO movie of the same name and a 2010 follow-up, “The War for Late Night.” It also solidified Carter’s own reputation as “The King of Late Night Journalism.” Now the editor-at-large for LateNighter, we prevailed upon Bill to mark the book’s 30th with a little look-back. Humble man that he is, it took some coaxing, but we’re thankful that he agreed.

In the early 1990’s, about three years into my job as media correspondent for The New York Times, I found myself writing a lot of daily newspaper stories about the craziness surrounding the departure of Johnny Carson from the Tonight show and the pseudo sibling rivalry...

Turns out LateNighter’s Bill Carter isn’t the only one who thought Jimmy Kimmel’s fourth go at The Oscars Sunday night was a success.

In an interview with Variety Monday, ABC’s executive vice president of Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment Rob Mills sang Kimmel’s praises, saying he planned to “beg” the late-night host to host again next year.

But that’s not all. “If he wants to sign a lifetime contract, I would love that, Mills added. “Jimmy has just got this down. He’s got the playbook perfected.”

Given that Kimmel says he’s considering retiring from hosting his own show when his current contract ends, he’s not likely to sign anything anytime soon.

Asked on Monday whether she thought they’d return next year, Kimmel’s wife and producing partner Molly McNearney told Variety, “I would obviously be honored to do it. But I honestly don’t know.

Following the release of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” AMC Theatres, the world’s biggest cinema chain, is releasing Nenad Cicin-Sain’s documentary “Kiss the Future” on Feb. 23.

The exclusive run of the 102-minute docu, which premiered in February 2023 at the Berlin Film Festival, is a major feat for the film, which chronicles the 1990s siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. Although the film features an awe inspiring U2 performance during a 1997 post-war concert celebrating the city’s hard-fought triumph over ethnic nationalism, “Kiss the Future” is not a shiny, shimmering, bombastic pop doc. Instead it’s a docu that chronicles the breakup of Yugoslavia and the onset of war in Bosnia. In the film citizens struggle to survive the siege of Sarajevo and ultimately turn to rock and punk music for inspiration and distraction from the daily nightmare of Serbian shells and snipers.

AMC Theatres will be the exclusive cinematic home to Kiss the Future, the award-winning documentary about the siege of Sarajevo and how its people and artistic community drew inspiration from the music of U2.

Under a deal between AMC and Fifth Season, select AMC locations will debut the film on February 23 for what is described as a full theatrical run. Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Christiane Amanpour, and former Pres. Bill Clinton are among those who appear in the film directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Sarah Anthony. Kiss the Future will become available to stream later this year exclusively on Paramount+.

“Kiss the Future, directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain, story by Bill Carter and Cicin-Sain, screenplay by Carter, based on his memoir: Fools Rush In, is the story of defiance amid the 1990s siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War,” notes a release about the documentary.

“Kiss the Future,” a documentary produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and featuring Bono and Bill Clinton, is coming to the big screen next month.

The film will receive a theatrical run exclusively at AMC Theatres, starting on Feb. 23, before it lands on Paramount+ at a later date. This marks the theater chain’s latest foray into distribution following the release of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.” However, the two concert docs played on more than just AMC screens.

Directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain, “Kiss the Future” chronicles the 1990s siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War and focuses on an underground community that used music and art to effect change. They eventually inspired an American aid worker to reach out to U2 to raise awareness of the conflict. In the documentary, the band follows through on its promise to perform at a post-war...

AMC Theatres is continuing its foray into the distribution business following Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.

The world’s largest cinema circuit revealed Wednesday it has pacted with Fifth Season to release the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck-produced documentary Kiss the Future in the U.S. The acclaimed film chronicles the vibrant underground music scene during the Siege of Sarajevo and U2’s involvement, culminating with the band’s 1997 concert there.

Unlike the Beyoncé and Swift concert films, Kiss the Future will play exclusively in select AMC locations. The film, which will receive a full theatrical run beginning Feb. 23, will stream later this year on Paramount+

Directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and also produced by Sarah Anthony, the doc is based on Bill Carter’s memoir Fools Rush In, a story of how a vibrant underground community used music and art to effect change...

Kristen Welker made her debut as moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning and kicked things off with a daring choice of interviewee: Donald Trump. The former president rattled off a list of full and partial untruths, leaving many viewers and members of the media confused and disappointed.

At various points, Trump claimed “millions of illegal immigrants coming into our country, flooding our cities, flooding the countryside,” that a “record” number of terrorists have been caught “this year” and that the U.S. “gave $85 billion worth of equipment to the Taliban” this year alone.

His statements included numerous lies and exaggerations. Also rattling many who saw the interview is what was seen as how little Welker seemed to push back against Trump’s claims. As political scientist Norm Ornstein tweeted, “Oy. Trump says the Capitol Police testified against Nancy Pelosi, and then burned all the evidence. Lie upon lie upon lie.

With the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes continuing to silence their late night shows, the five hosts — Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Seth Meyers — will test out another medium.

The quintet announced Tuesday that it would release a limited Spotify podcast, aptly titled Strike Force Five. The arrangement is said to call for at least 12 episodes, which will begin rolling out Wednesday, Aug. 30. Each episode will have all five of its hosts participating in the conversation, though who’s leading it will rotate. The hosts will then give all proceeds to the out-of-work staff from their respective shows.

The concept was born out of weekly Zooms that the late night hosts have been holding since the WGA strike began in early May. The virtual check-ins have been a way for the five men to be aligned during the strike, which saw all of their shows — Jimmy Kimmel Live,...

Bono delivered an impromptu, a cappella rendition of Bob Marley’s classic “Redemption Song” Friday at the Sarajevo Film Festival, where a documentary about U2’s long history with the Bosnian city premiered.

Both Bono and the Edge were on hand for the screening of Kiss the Future, which documents aid worker Bill Carter’s efforts to bring U2’s Zoo TV tour to then-war-torn Sarajevo. Following the debut of the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck-produced film, the U2 duo took the stage with the documentary’s crew, and...

U2 frontman Bono made a surprise appearance Friday night at the opening ceremony of the Sarajevo Film Festival, with the Irish pop star leading a rapturous crowd in an a cappella rendition of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.”

The legendary vocalist took the stage after an emotional screening of “Kiss the Future,” director Nenad Cicin-Sain’s documentary, produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, about U2’s relationship with war-torn Sarajevo in the 1990s. He was accompanied by bandmate the Edge and their wives, Ali Hewson and Morleigh Steinberg, along with model and activist Christy Turlington and veteran CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour.

Bono (c.) with CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour (r.) and others on the red carpet in Sarajevo.

Based on American-born aid worker Bill Carter’s “Fools Rush in: A Memoir,” “Kiss the Future” chronicles the band’s efforts to publicize the plight of the city’s besieged civilians during the Bosnian War.

Bono made a surprise appearance at the Sarajevo Film Festival this evening, where he accompanied the crew behind the U2-inspired Bosnian war documentary Kiss The Future, which opened the festival.

Bono was joined by his U2 band member The Edge on the red carpet at Bosnia’s National Theatre alongside CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour, who also features in the doc, during which she recounts her time as a young reporter covering the Bosnian conflict.

Directed by filmmaker Nenad Cicin-Sain, Kiss the Future tells the story of the underground community that continued to work and live throughout the 1990s siege of Sarajevo. Amid the breakup of Yugoslavia, the citizens of Sarajevo woke up to find their city under siege and wider Bosnia at war.

Bono and Christiane Amanpour.

In a far-fetched scheme inspired by local resistance, Bill Carter, an American aid worker living in Sarajevo, reached out to the world...

When the Sarajevo Film Festival returned to full strength last year after successive, slimmed-down pandemic editions, a robust turn-out was to be expected. For nearly three decades, the audience-facing event has been the cultural lifeblood of the lively, cosmopolitan city it calls home.

The 2022 edition broke attendance records set in 2019, and just days after its online ticketing system launched this month, the fest appears on pace to surpass that mark again. It is a testament to the enduring love affair between a city and a festival that was founded in impossible circumstances in 1995, at the tail end of a brutal, four-year siege — proof that even in times of war and scarcity, cinema could endure.

The festival returns Aug. 11 – 18, with organizers insisting the event’s 29th edition will stay true to its roots. “We wanted to keep the festival focused on its main goals: presenting the best of cinema today to...

The Sarajevo Film Festival has long been the biggest showcase of Southeast European cinema and this year’s edition, which unspools on August 11, is on course to be its most reflective and regionally focused edition yet.

“Our manifesto has always been to support young filmmakers and productions from the region while rebuilding an international film industry around it and this year our aim is to strengthen that even further,” says festival director Jovan Marjanović, who is currently in his second year in the role after taking over from festival founder Mirsad Purivatra, who started the event in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War.

This year’s official selection will see 49 films compete for Heart of Sarajevo awards across its four competition sections – feature, documentary, short and student film – and included in this are 22 world, two international, 22 regional and three national premieres. Films in the official line-up include...

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck produced the film.

The 29th Sarajevo Film Festival is to open with Kiss The Future, a documentary that recounts how rock band U2 came to play a concert in Sarajevo in the wake of the Bosnian War.

The feature, directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain, will screen as part of the festival’s Open Air programme on August 11. It previously received its world premiere at the Berlinale in February.

The documentary explores how a US aid worker in war-torn Sarajevo enlisted the help of U2 to shine a light on the Bosnian War.

Produced by Matt Damon...

Tribeca Film Festival Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer on Pierfrancesco Favino, star of Andrea Di Stefano’s The Last Night with Amore: “He’s an extraordinary actor.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Opening Night Gala selection of the 22nd edition of the Tribeca Film Festival is Nenad Cicin-Sain’s terrific documentary Kiss the Future, which includes on-camera interviews with U2 members Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton, plus Bill Clinton, Christiane Amanpour, Enes Zlatar (Sikter), Srdan Gino Jevdev (Kulture Shock), Vesna Andree Zaimović (journalist), and Senad Zaimović (editor-in-chief of the Rat Art).

Frédéric Boyer with Anne-Katrin Titze on Pier-Philippe Chevigny’s Richelieu: “This is about workers, the actors are extraordinary in the film.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In the second instalment with Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer on the 2023 selections we discuss Robert De Niro’s A Bronx Tale (Closing Night Gala selection) Andrea Di Stefano’s (the priest in Ang Lee’s Life Of Pi...

CNN and CEO Chris Licht came in for ferocious criticism over the chaotic town hall the cable news network held with former president Donald Trump on Wednesday.

Amid his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump sat down with CNN This Morning anchor Kaitlan Collins at the event held in New Hampshire. The 70-minute town hall was populated by mostly Trump supporters and likely Republican voters, and the former president was able to dominate proceedings, overwhelming Collins who tried in vain to correct Trump’s statements and falsehoods about issues including the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a federal abortion ban, immigration and the war in Ukraine.

A particularly shocking exchange occurred over E. Jean Carroll, who had this week been awarded $5 million in damages after a New York jury held Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against the writer. Among other things, Trump once again claimed he did not know who Carroll...

Audiences are one step closer to the 2023 Tribeca Festival.

This year’s Tribeca Gala events, including the Opening, Closing, and Centerpiece film selections were unveiled Thursday. The 2023 Tribeca Festival will kick off June 7 with the North American premiere of “Kiss the Future,” a documentary following the story of a community of underground musicians and creatives throughout the nearly four-year-long siege of Sarajevo, as well as the 1997 U2 concert celebrating the liberation of the Bosnian capital.

The film serves as a testament to art’s enduring ability to cast light even in the darkest of circumstances and reflects Tribeca’s founding mission of utilizing the power of storytelling to heal communities. “Kiss the Future” is produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Sarah Anthony, and features U2’s Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton.

“Ben and I are proud of this film and are honored that it has been selected to open the Tribeca Festival,...

Exclusive, Updated with video: The days of war between late-night hosts like David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien are long gone.

It’s a full détente, it seems, as a skit on the final episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden will highlight.

Deadline understands that Corden got together the likes of The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s Jimmy Kimmel and Late Night’s Seth Meyers for a sketch. The group apparently filmed it together, though we hear that Kimmel filmed his bit remotely.

While Letterman and Leno fought it out in the ratings and before that a chance to host The Tonight Show and O’Brien had his own battle with Leno at NBC, this generation of hosts have been brought together during the past eight years by such things as the pandemic and the Donald Trump presidency.

Watching “Kiss the Future,” a documentary about the band U2’s relationship with wartorn Sarajevo in the 1990s, it’s hard not to think: “We’ve seen this movie before.” That’s not to do with the doc itself so much as how aspects of the 30-year-old footage from Bosnia’s brutal civil war parallel what we’ve seen in the news coverage coming out of Ukraine for the past year. Both involve stranger-than-fiction (or stranger-than-fascism) scenarios of cosmopolitan cities suddenly subject to state terrorism, which makes the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck-produced film coincidentally timely, for all its belatedness.

In a sense, “Kiss the Future” is the story of a long-distance romance, between a superstar rock quartet reaching its peak and a once-grand metropolis that’s bottoming out. In the early ’90s, genocidally minded Serbian president Slobodan Milošević tried to subject the happily mixed population of Sarajevo to...

The Irish director and musician John Carney once made a movie under the working title “Can a Song Save Your Life?,” though the name was changed before it was released. And another batch of Dublin musicians of note ask a similar question in the documentary “Kiss the Future,” which premiered on Sunday at the Berlin International Film Festival and finds U2 using music to aid the occupants of a city under siege, Sarajevo.

Directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain, produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Sarah Anthony and written by Bill S. Carter, who is also a major player in the events depicted, “Kiss the Future” is a portrait of a city and a people who used culture to fight back; it’s also the story of a rock ‘n’ roll band exploring the limits of how its music can impact the real world. Above all else, though, it’s a...

Nenad Cicin-Sain’s documentary tells the story of a maverick film-maker who, with extraordinary persistence, induced the Irish rockers to keep the spotlight firmly on the Bosnian war

Thirty years on, the Bosnian war still has the power to horrify, with its genocidal massacres and concentration camps in the heart of Europe even as international leaders solemnly avowed their determination never to repeat the nightmare of the second world war. Even now, cultural commentators call the 1990s the “Seinfeld decade” where nothing happened, disregarding the carnage in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

Nenad Cicin-Sain’s music documentary gives us an unofficial, unlicensed look at the nightmare of Sarajevo and the way that rock music kept humanity and hope alive: the rough-and-ready gigs and discos happening in Sarajevo’s battered garages and bomb shelters, while war raged above. It also tells the story of a maverick American journalist and film-maker called Bill Carter,...

Matt Damon revealed he was in the “early stages” on a project about Ukraine during the press conference for “Kiss the Future” at the Berlin Film Festival. Damon is a producer on the documentary which chronicles the struggle of Sarajevo citizens during the Bosnian War.

World premiering in the Berlinale Special section, the politically minded documentary is directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and based on “Fools Rush in: A Memoir” the memoir of Bill Carter, an aid worker. It shows how his determination resulted in the enlistment of the world’s largest rock band, U2, to help shine a light. Fifth Season and WME handling worldwide sales.

Asked if he was considering following the footsteps of Sean Penn with “Superpower” with a film on the war in Ukraine, he said he’s “watched as everyone has with horror that unfolded there in the last year,” and although they “don’t have...

There’s no shortage of movies that gauzily peddle the notion of art as a balm. Few, however, are as invested in the charged immediacy of art’s relationship to real-life pain as “Kiss the Future,” a documentary enjoying its world premiere Feb. 19 in the Berlinale Special slot, with Fifth Season and WME handling worldwide sales.

Directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain, and based on American-born aid worker Bill Carter’s “Fools Rush in: A Memoir” (the pair share a screen story credit), the film is a savvy mélange of history and cultural portraiture that affectingly chronicles the struggle of Sarajevo’s besieged civilians during the Bosnian War of the 1990s.

Produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, the movie shows the young Carter bluffing his way into an interview with the frontman of the biggest band in the world at the time: U2, a group never afraid of sociopolitical statements or...

U2 documentary ‘Kiss The Future’ added to Berlinale Special; further Generation titles revealed.

The Berlinale has completed the Panorama section for its 2023 edition with a raft of world premieres including UK thriller Femme, starring George MacKay and Candyman star Nathan Stewart-Jarrett.

The festival, which is set to run from February 16-26, has also revealed fresh titles selected for its Generation competition and the addition of U2 documentary Kiss The Future as a Berlinale Special screening.

The Panorama strand will comprise 35 films from 30 countries, including 28 world premieres and 11 debuts. Having previously announced several titles, the festival revealed that animated feature The...

The Berlin Film Festival’s youth-focused sidebar Generation 14plus is set to open with “When Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before,” the anticipated next film of Sonja Heiss and und Zeevonk von Domien Huyghe.

Based on Joachim Meyerhoff’s eponymous novel, “When Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before” tells the comedic and moving story of a childhood and youth spent on the grounds of a psychiatric clinic.

Meanwhile, Domien Huyghe’s moving film “Sea Sparkle” will kick off the Generation Kplus competition. The film follows 12-year-old Lena who relentlessly battles with the tides of her grief after the death of her father, which she blames on a sea monster.

The Generation selection pans 25 feature-length and 31 short films, including 40 world premieres. The Berlinale team said this year’s lineup will invite audiences on an “exploration of young perceptions of the world.”

“The films in this...

London-set revenge thriller Femme, starring George MacKay and Candyman actor Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, has been selected for the Berlinale’s Panorama strand.

It was among a raft of fresh additions to the festival’s Panorama, Generation and Berlinale Special strands announced on Wednesday.

The picture is co-directed by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping and is based on their 2021 BAFTA-nominated short film of the same name.

Stewart-Jarrett plays a drag queen whose life is destroyed by a homophobic attack and then plots revenge on one of the perpetrators (MacKay) when he spots him in a gay sauna.

The 21 new Panorama titles also include France-based Austrian director Patric Chiha’s The Beast In The Jungle.

A contemporary adaptation of Henry James’s 1903 novella of the same name, the drama follows a man and woman who frequent a huge nightclub for 25 years in anticipation of a mysterious event.

The cast features Anaïs Demoustier,...

Perhaps one of the most notorious talk shows in network history, "The Chevy Chase Show" ran on Fox from September 7 to October 11, 1993. It lasted only 29 episodes and was widely panned by critics and audiences alike. Hosted by an openly uncommitted Chase, the talk show featured unfunny monologues, long awkward pauses, and desperate grabs for audience enthusiasm. This author managed to see only one episode organically and spent a great deal of the time wincing.

"The Chevy Chase Show" came during a tenuous time in late-night television history. Johnny Carson had left "The Tonight Show" in 1992 after hosting it for 30 years, and there had been an enormous kerfuffle as to who would replace him — David Letterman or Jay Leno — or whether the show should continue at all. The entire drama was recorded in Bill Carter's 1994 book "The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, & the Network Battle for the Night."

During the tempest,...

Antonio Margheriti made several space epics about ‘errant planets’ posing dangers to Earth; this one gets all the attention via star casting. Claude Rains’ bombastic but brilliant scientist advises space command to blow up the planetoid, and then chooses attack day to go see its interior for himself. Toy rockets, overripe dialogue and thunderous acting from Rains ensue, leading to a finale in an ‘alien brain cave’ made of colored plastic tubes. This critical ‘triumph of the imagination’ indeed makes something entertaining out of very, very little. The presentation includes a half-hour docu hosted by Tim Lucas, a graduate class listed as ‘Italo Space Intro 101.’

Battle of the Worlds

Blu-ray

The Film Detective

1962 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 84 min. / Street Date August 9, 2022 / Il pianeta degli uomini spenti / Available from The Film Detective

Starring: Claude Rains, Bill Carter, Umberto Orsini, Maya Brent, Jacqueline Derval, Renzo Palmer, Carlo d’Angelo, Carol Danell, Jim Dolen, Joe Pollini,...

Stanley Tucci’s next trip to Italy will face a slight delay.

CNN will bump the debuts of a handful of looming original documentary projects due to its ongoing coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The second season of “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” will premiere on CNN later in the spring, as will the new series “Nomad with Carlton McCoy.” Meanwhile, the WarnerMedia network will push back the debut of “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” to Sunday March 13 at 9 p.m., a week later than its previously scheduled March 6 launch.

The network has built a new business out of documentaries and docuseries, but it must balance those projects with the demands of the news cycle.

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, CNN found itself delaying a new season of W. Kamau Bell’s “United Shades of America” at least twice. And the network pushed back the...

The producers behind CNN’s new eight-part docuseries “History of the Sitcom” knew that trying to tell the complete 70-year history of the TV genre would be an impossible task. So they divided some of the biggest comedies of all time into specific categories — and set out to illustrate how the evolution of the sitcom mirrored real-life advancements in society.

“It was pretty apparent that given the number of sitcoms that have been out there in history that you couldn’t do some sort of comprehensive, start-to-finish history, as though you were in a college course studying it from beginning to end,” says executive producer Bill Carter. “There had to be a way to categorize them and follow them according to some grouping. We have eight episodes; we could have done at least 80.”

“History of the Sitcom,” which premieres Sunday, July 11, with two back-to-back episodes, is the follow-up to CNN...

Steve Allen, the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show, largely was responsible for late-night television as we know it.

Remember Johnny Carson’s Carnac the Magnificent? Well, take a look at Allen’s The Question Man (below).

“Steve Allen was the generator of a lot of ideas that were ahead of its time,” says Billy Crystal in CNN’s documentary series The Story of Late Night.

The six-part series is a historical deep dive into the origins of the genre that still resonates today as well as a love letter to the medium. It has been overseen by Bill Carter, a man who knows a thing or two about late-night, as the former New York Times media correspondent and author of The War for Late Night and The Late Shift.

Carter is currently a CNN contributor and his involvement helped Cream Productions, the Toronto-based production company behind CNN...

The Story of Late Night, a six-part docuseries, is coming to CNN, and the network is launching a companion podcast alongside it. The show will premiere Sunday, May 2 at 9 pm, followed by the return of United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell at 10 p.m.

The Story of Late Night, which comes from Cream Productions, looks at late-night television’s most memorable moments over the past 60 years. It explores how the genre engaged with, adapted to and influenced society.

It features archival footage of late-night legends Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and David Letterman, alongside interviews with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Chelsea Handler, Trevor Noah, Conan O’Brien, Seth Meyers, James Corden, Amber Ruffin, Desus & Mero, Whoopi Goldberg and W. Kamau Bell, as well as behind-the-scenes decision-makers including Lorne Michaels and Jeff Zucker.

The first episode will cover Steve Allen’s Tonight turn and look at how Carson transformed late-night television.

It’s hard to believe now, but it took until 1996 for the broadcast networks to finally hire their first-ever female entertainment president, when ABC recruited Jamie Tarses away from NBC to take the job. There had been a handful of other women in powerful slots, including Lucie Salhany, who was briefly chair of the Fox Broadcasting Co. before launching Upn. But until streaming upended the business, “entertainment president” was the most visible, and arguably the most important, leadership job at a network. And until Tarses, it had been all men.

Tarses’ rise at ABC coincided with the start of my career as a cub reporter, covering the network TV business in Los Angeles, and one of my first duties was to chronicle the tenure of the young trailblazer. But from the start, Tarses was faced with many in Hollywood looking to tear her down — be it rivals jealous of her age,...

Joan Rivers was widely considered the first female late-night host when she began hosting Fox’s The Late Show in October 1986.

However, nearly forty years before Rivers took that job, there was another woman who had, in fact, pioneered the genre and become the first late-night host: Faye Emerson.

Emerson, who was born in Louisiana in 1917, came before Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Dick Cavett or Johnny Carson and was really the figure who created an entire genre of television that thrives today with the likes of Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon.

Deadline explores her story, how CBS’ Kelly Kahl was instrumental in preserving her legacy, how she paved the road for the likes of Chelsea Handler, Samantha Bee and Lilly Singh and how a scripted series about her life is now in development.

The Faye Emerson Show began airing on CBS on October 24 1949 in local East Coast markets...

In times of national crisis, many Americans turn to late-night television to help understand and process what’s going on.

Late-night has a history of summing up the mood of the nation, from Harry Belafonte interviewing Martin Luther King during the riots of 1968 when he guest-hosted The Tonight Show, through to Arsenio Hall’s interview with La Mayor Tom Bradley after the La Riots in 1992 and David Letterman’s emotional monologue after 9/11.

That has never been clearer than this week as this generation of late-night talent including Stephen Colbert, James Corden, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah, Conan O’Brien and Amber Ruffin stepped up and delivered emotional words, empathy and illuminating guests amid nationwide protests against police brutality following George Floyd’s death as the worst global pandemic in over 100 years raged on.

CNN media analyst Bill Carter, who has written books including The Late Shift and The War For Late Night,...

Exclusive: Late-night television is the subject of an original documentary series for CNN.

Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers and Lorne Michaels are among the contributors to The Story of Late Night, from Canadian producer Cream Productions (The Dictator’s Playbook).

The series will track the history of late-night TV from its inception, featuring stories about hosts such as Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman, O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Kimmel, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. It will lift the curtain on some of late-night’s most memorable moments as these legendary hosts tackled politics, pop culture and entertainment.

Other interview subjects include James Corden, Chelsea Handler, Hasan Minhaj, Andy Richter, Ray Romano, Busy Philipps and Andy Cohen as well as executives including Paul Telegdy, George Cheeks, Jeff Zucker, Warren Littlefield, Rick Ludwin, Debbie Vickers, Lloyd Braun, Nina Tassler, Jeff Ross, Dick Cavett and Merrill Markoe.

Alec Bojalad Jul 21, 2019

Need a laugh? Got 90 - 120 minutes to kill? Let us help with our list of the best comedy movies on Amazon Prime

Editor's Note: This post is updated monthly. Bookmark this page and come back to see what other excellent movie comedies get added to Amazon Prime.

Updated for August 2019.

You can see a complete list of Amazon new releases here.

Here's a fun fact about laughter for you. Some anthropologists believe laughter is an excellent way for primal man to express relief and signal that danger has passed once the saber-toothed tiger ambles away. Thankfully we don't have to deal with many saber-toothed tigers but that doesn't mean it doesn't feel great to laugh.

In that spirit, we've compiled a list of the best comedy movies on Amazon Prime for your viewing and laughing pleasure. This is an evergreen article, not tied to any specific time...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 26, 2014

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

William Carter falls for Catherine McLeod in I've Always Loved You.

A beautiful young concert pianist is torn between her attraction to her arrogant but brilliant maestro and her love for a farm boy she left back home in Frank Borzage’s 1946 drama romance I’ve Always Loved You.

Set in the world of classical music, a domineering maestro (Philip Dorn) exerts a Svengali-like control over Myra, a talented young pianist (Catherine McLeod). Frustrated by Leopold’s domineering nature, the girl abandons her professional career and marries a humble farmer (William Carter). Years later, haunted by regret, Myra returns to face her former mentor, to prove that she was, and continues to be, a better musician than he ever credited her with being.

Legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein performs the pieces heard in the film (by Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Wagner,...

Alluring actor in a string of glossy Hollywood movies in the 1950s

The seductive brunette Elaine Stewart, who has died aged 81, may have lacked that ineffable essence that makes up star quality, but she had enough allure to attract attention in several glossy Hollywood movies in the 1950s, both in leading parts and noteworthy supporting roles. Among the best of the latter were her brief though memorable appearances in two films directed by Vincente Minnelli.

She was both bad and beautiful in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) as Lila, a wannabe film star, hoping to make it by sleeping with Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas), the studio head. When told that Shields is a great man, Lila responds, "There are no great men, buster. There's only men." The scene which lingers most in the mind is when Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner), who has just triumphed in a Shields movie, leaves a...