Category Archives: Photography

The Entertainment Forecast

Oct. 13 – Oct. 19

Brie Larson cooks up science, a new ‘Goosebumps,,’ Disney turns 100, Frasier returns and ‘Barbie’ on DVD!

FRIDAY, Oct. 13
Lessons in Chemistry
Brie Larson stars in this new series (above) as a young woman in the 1950s who becomes the host of a cooking show, where she puts her dream of becoming a scientist to work in the kitchen (Apple TV+).

Raid the Cage
Damon Wayans Jr. hosts this new game show in which players compete to correctly answer questions and grab prizes from “the Cage” before time runs out and the doors close. (9 p.m., CBS)

Goosebumps
Inspired by R.L. Stein’s best-selling Scholastic books, this new series (above) follows a group of high schoolers investigating the death of a teenager and unearthing scary secrets along the way. With Justin Long, Zack Morris, Isa Briones and Will Price (Disney+).

SATURDAY, Oct. 14
The Murdaugh Murders
Bill Pullman stars in this two-part network movie (below) based on the highly publicized real-life details of the prominent South Carolina family at the center of a sordid murder mystery (Netflix).

Pets & Pickers
Catch up in season two with the workers at the Regional Animal Protection Society, motivated by their extraordinary compassion and their feeling that all animals deserve treatment (9 p.m., Animal Planet).

SUNDAY, Oct. 15
100 Years of Disney
Kelly Ripa hosts this blowout two-and-a-half-hour event celebrating the House of Mouse milestone, with previews of upcoming projects, the world premiere of a new short film and a full screening of the award-winning animated feature film Encanto (8 p.m., ABC).

Hotel Portofino
Season two of the glamorous period drama, about an English hotel in Italy in the 1920s—set against the rise of Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime—stars Natascha McElone, Oliver Dench and Louise Binder (8 p.m., PBS).

Billy the Kid
Season two (above) continues the tale of America’s most infamous outlaw as William “Billy” Bounty (Tom Blyth) and his allies square off against the corrupt oil barons of the Sante Fe Ring, which erupts into the bloody Lincoln County War (MGM+).

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MONDAY, Oct. 16
The Chase
This new dramatic series centers on a British veterinary practice where dogs bark, sparks fly and dark secrets come to light (Acorn TV).

The American Buffalo
Master filmmaker Ken Burns presents his latest project, a four-hour, two-part series, taking viewers on a 10,000-year trek across North America and tracing the history and heritage of the iconic Great Plains (8 p.m., PBS).

TUESDAY, Oct. 17
Frasier
Yes, Frasier. Kelsey Grammer reprises his role as psychiatrist Frasier Crane in this new—yes, new—comedy series (below) that picks up where the old one left off, some two decades ago. Watch the first two episodes back to back tonight (9:15 p.m., CBS).

The Devil on Trial
With firsthand accounts and a shocking crime, this new doc explores the first (and only) time a defense of “demonic possession” has be used in a U.S. murder trial (Netflix)

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 18
Living for the Dead
New series from the producers of Queer Eye and narrated by Kristen Stewart follows five fab queer ghost hunters helping the living by calming the dead in places of paranormal activity (Hulu).

Nature
The iconic everything-outdoors series opens its 42nd season opens with the true story of a Tasmanian man who makes friends with a platypus, tapping experts to learn all he can about the unusual egg-laying mammal’s secret world and protect it from urban encroachment (8 p.m., PBS). 

BRING IT HOME

Maybe you heard about this little movie called Barbie, which became the world’s highest grossing film of the summer. Now you can own it on DVD, Blu-Ray and 4k (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment), starring Margo Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and her guy friend Ken as two of the most iconic toys ever, who leave Barbieland and find a life-changing existential crisis in the “real world.” Includes five bonus featurettes!

THURSDAY, Oct. 19
Wolf Like Me
Season two kicks off tonight as Mary (Isla Fisher) and Gary (Josh Gadd) contemplate her pregnancy—will their offspring be a human, or a wolf? And will what happened in the outback come back to haunt them? (Peacock).

The Entertainment Forecast

Oct. 6 – Oct. 12

‘The Caine Mutiny’ goes to court, ‘The Price is Right’ Meets ‘Amazing Race’ & Edgar Allen Poe gets a modern spin

Keifer Sutherland digs into the case at the heart of ‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.’

FRIDAY, Oct. 6
VHS/85
New fright flick from the director of Hellraiser about a “found footage” videotape that takes a group of viewers back to terrifying horrors of a former era (Shudder).

Shark Tank
The investment “sharks” hear pitches about reusable sandbags, leggings for men and a new twist on Latin American food (8 p.m., ABC).

SATURDAY, Oct. 7
Buying Back My Daughter
Vanderkpump Rules star Adriana Maddox plays a cop trying to track down a trafficked teen in this ripped-from-the-headlines movie also featuring Meagan Good (Lifetime)

Svengoolie’s Halloween BOOnanza
Kick off a month-long celebration of all things ghoul-y with TV’s iconic host, who ushers in a marathon of retro TV chills and thrills (above) beginning with a Bugs Bunny Halloween special, then galloping through episodes of classic TV westerns haunted by all sort of stranger things (9 p.m., MeTV).

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SUNDAY, Oct. 8
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
William (The Exorcist) Friedkin directs this riveting courtroom drama based on the Pulitizer Prize-winning novel by Howard Wouk, with an all-star cast (Jason Clarke, Jake Lacy, Keifer Sullivan, Monica Raymund) in a tense tale of naval officer standing trail for orchestrating a mutiny (9 p.m., Showtime).

The Circus
Political junkies, here’s the next dose of your fix. The award-winning, dirt-digging news series returns for season eight, with hosts John Heilemann, Mark McKinnon and Jennifer Palmeri (below) pulling back the curtain on the high-stakes drama of the emerging race for the White House (7 p.m., Showtime). 

MONDAY, Oct. 9
The Matthew Shepard Story
Subtitled “An American Hate Crime,” this two-hour documentary special examines the legacy of the torture and murder of a gay graduate student 25 years ago that continues to resonate today as a horrific example of the discrimination, danger and violence faced by many in the LGBTQ+ community (9 p.m., ID).

Harry Wild
The Irish mystery thriller series returns tonight for season two, with Jane Seymour as a retiree sleuth with a young PI partner (Rohan Nedd) as they pursue a deepening puzzle involving a long-missing mom who suddenly turns up (Acorn TV).

The Price is Right
On tonight’s new primetime edition of the iconic daytime game show, Phil Keoghan (host of TV’s The Amazing Race and Tough as Nails) invites fans of The Amazing Race to “come on down” and compete for prizes and trips (8 p.m., CBS).

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WEDNESDAY, Oct. 11
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Jim Carrey is so Jim-Carrey-ish as an over-the-top sleuth specializing in missing animals in this 1994 comedy costarring Sean Young, Courtney Cox and rapper Tone Loc (10 p.m., TruTV).

The Simpsons
TV’s longest running primetime scripted series returns to the streaming service for season 34 and more shenanigans, with all-star guest voices this time around by Fred Armisen, Anna Faris, Rob Lowe, Melissa McCarthy, Aubrey Plaza and more (Disney+)

The Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Jule
Documentary about how the vaping company, at one time the fastest growing enterprise in the world, went down in flames as a cautionary tale (Netflix).

Awareness
Mind-tripping movie from Spain about a teen who uses his special ability—making people “see” things that aren’t really there—to con them…but then one of his scams hits a snag, and he becomes the target of people who want to exploit him (Amazon Prime).

THURSDAY, Oct. 12
Little Bird
Celebrated Canadian drama (below) is a six-part dramatic series featuring a cast of indigenous actors is set on a reserve in Saskatchewan and follows a young woman, Bezhig Little Bird (Darla Contois) on a search to find the truth about her birth parents, her adoption and her slblings (10 p.m., PBS).

Keke Wyatt’s World
She’s been in the music game for more than three decades, and now she’s ready to take her career to another level. Learn all about the R&B artist and how she juggles her career, home life and 11 kids! (WEtv).

BRING IT HOME

The Fall of the House of Usher
Bruce Greenwood, Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell and Mark Hamill star in this new horror anthology series (below), which puts a contemporary spin on the Edgar Allen Poe classic about wealth, power and privilege—and dangerous family secrets (Netflix).

The Fall of the House of Usher. (L to R) Sauriyan Sapkota as Prospero Usher, Kate Siegel as Camille L’Espanaye, Rahul Kohli as Napoleon Usher, Matt Biedel as Bill-T Wilson, Samantha Sloyan as Tamerlane Usher, Mark Hamill as Arthur Pym in episode 101 of The Fall of the House of Usher. Cr. Eike Schroter/Netflix © 2023

The Entertainment Forecast

Friday, Sept. 15 – Thursday, Sept. 21

Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Jenna Coleman in ‘Wilderness’

FRIDAY, Sept. 15
El Conde
Well, here’s something you don’t see every day: A dark comedy set in Chile about a fascist ruler who happens to be vampire and decides the undead life isn’t for him. Think What We Do in the Shadows with a South American twist (Netflix).

Wilderness
A cross-country dream trip turns into a domestic dilemma in this British TV-series thriller as a young wife (Jenna Coleman) stews over the infidelity of her unfaithful husband (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) as marital bliss turns into fury and revenge, with an opening song by Taylor Swift (Prime).

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Lovers of language (and how it sometimes gets mauled) will love Damp Squids and Card Sharks (Hardie Grant) by Robert Anwood. This lively little volume is a treat for anyone who appreciates mangled phrases, mixed metaphors, mispelling mishaps and other interesting mis-uses and outright abuses of English. 

SATURDAY, Sept. 16
WOW-Women of Wresting
Pull up your ringside seat for season two of this series about the fabulous female grapplers who it duke it out on the mat…if that’s your jam (syndicated).

Batman
Take wing with the Cape Crusader (above) and a full day of movies, include director Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed trilogy with Christian Bale (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises), plus Justice League and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (begins 10 a.m., TNT).

SUNDAY, Sept. 17
Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein
True-crime fans will flip over this new docuseries, about the serial killer and grave robber whose twisted mind and heinous acts of real-life horror inspired the movies Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (MGM+).

The Gold
Hugh Bonneville and Dominic Cooper lead the cast of this new drama (below), based on a true 1983 story about how a group of men inadvertently stumbled across some $34 million in gold bullion during a London robbery (Paramount+).

MONDAY, Sept. 18
Neighbors
New season of the Australian drama series begins tonight, following the lives, loves and challenges of residents on the fictional Ramsay Street in a suburb of Melbourne (Freevee).

The Academy of Country Music Honors
This annual all-star fete, which was held in August at Nashville’s historic auditorium, will salute country hitmakers including Chris Stapleton, Clint Black, K.T. Oslin, Tim McGraw and Mary Chapin Carpenter (8 p.m., Fox).

Superpowers
Sean Penn directed this documentary about Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky and the country’s ongoing fight for its freedom against Russia (Paramount+).

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TUESDAY, Sept. 19
Celebrity Name That Tune
How well do the stars know music? Find out as more famous folks come aboard for season three and try to win big bugs for their charities. Randy Fox and Jane Krakowski return as hosts (8 p.m., Fox).

The Mask
See the 1994 superhero comedy which began Jim Carrey’s trajectory as a gonzo breakout star, established Cameron Diaz as a leading lady, and made swing music hip again. And oh, yeah, it made more moolah (at the time) than any other film ever based on a comic book (10 p.m., TruTV).

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 20

American Horror Story: Delicate
Kim Kardashian, Emma Roberts and Cara Delevingne are among the cast for the latest installment of the award-winning anthology horror series, which will feature episodes about witches, a traveling freak show, a haunted hotel and the apocalypse itself. It’s scary good! (10 p.m., FX).

The Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal
On March 2, 2023, Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of the murder of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul. The world watched with bated breath as a verdict was announced. The people of South Carolina’s Lowcountry had been waiting the better part of two years to understand what happened the night of June 7, 2021. Now you can find out more in season two of the documentary delving into that fateful night (Netflix).  

THURSDAY, Sept. 21
Bill Murray Moviefest
He’s done some semi-serious stuff, but Murray will always be known for making us laugh. Settle in tonight for a back-to-back mini-fest of his funniest films, including Caddyshack, Scrooged, Meatballs and Stripes (5 p.m., Pluto).

The Prank Panel In the season finale, the practical-joker pranksters (Johnny Knoxville, Eric Andre and Gabourey Sidibe) help pull off an elaborate practical joke involving a new bride and an allergic reaction (9 p.m., ABC).

The Entertainment Forecast

Feb. 17 – Feb. 23

‘Idol’ returns, Billy Crudup sells timeshares on the moon & Monopoly’s twisted roots

Who’ll hit the jackpot on the new season of “American Idol”?

FRIDAY, Feb. 17
Hello Tomorrow
Ten-episode dramady stars Billy Crudup (from The Morning Show) as a traveling salesman in a future world offering timeshares on the moon. Far out! (Apple TV+).

Carnival Row
Second half of the final season of the fantasy drama, set in a world where humans and creatures clash and starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne, starts tonight (Prime Video).

The 12th Victim
True-crime four-part docuseries sheds startling new light on an infamous 1958 case of Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, a teenage couple charged and convicted of brutally killing 11 victims at random (8 p.m., Showtime).

SATURDAY, FEB. 18
A Rose for Her Grave: The Randy Roth Story
Christell Stause, Colin Egglefield and Laura Ramsey star in this TV adaptation of a best-selling novel by true-crime author Ann Rule, about a notorious serial wife-killer and the fearless woman who final brings him to justice (8 p.m., Lifetime).

Two contestants survey their surroundings in new episodes of “Naked and Afraid.”

SUNDAY, Feb. 19
Naked and Afraid
Cue the naked bums and the pixels—it’s a new season of the ultimate survival series, which puts contestants in all kinds of inhospitable places wearing nothing but their birthday suits. Who’ll endure, and who’ll “tap out,” in Mexico’s notorious Devil’s Canyon, or the brutal jungles of Guyana? (8 p.m., Discovery Channel).

Magnum: P.I.
Re-filling the sand-filled shoes originally worn by Tom Selleck, Jay Hernandez returns for a new season of this reboot to the role of the Oahu private eye now solving crimes in the same TV universe as Hawaii Five-0 (9 p.m., NBC).

American Idol
The show that pioneered TV’s musical competition genre returns for season 21 with judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie leading the search for America’s next singing sensation (8 p.m., ABC).

Biography: WWE Legends
In this corner… Explore the careers and private lives of wrestling superstars in this new docuseries (8 p.m., A&E).

Tournament of Champions IV
Who’s tough enough to chew their way to the top? You’ll find out in this new season of Guy Fieri’s food-competition series, in which chefs from across America clash in a series of high-stakes challenges (8 p.m., Food Network and Discovery).

MONDAY, Feb. 20
American Experience: Ruthless—Monopoly’s Secret History
And you thought the popular, iconic board game was just about moving little tokens around a square, gobbling up property deeds, buying houses and hotels and collecting rent. But the story of how it came to be, as told in this insightful documentary, is one of theft, deception and corporate double-dealing. Should we be surprised? (9 p.m., PBS).

Secrets of Spain
Where are the best stops to pause for a nosh in a trek across Spain. Siblings Giaconda and George Scott, who grew up there, take viewers on a guided tour of great places to dig into the cuisine (and the culture) of the region off the beaten tourist track (10 p.m., Cooking Channel).

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Just ahead of this year’s 95th annual Academy Awards, Red Carpet Oscars (Thames & Hudson) is a lavish, photo-packed coffee-table treasury of some nine decades of fashions at the entertainment world’s biggest, most culturally impactive annual event. Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett wrote the foreword.

“Get Back” to the heyday of mop-top mania in this lavish, luminous re-release of Harry Benson’s The Beatles (Taschen), a coffee-table compendium of images (some classics, others rarely seen) by the esteemed Scotland-born photog who chronicled most of the Fab Four’s tours, TV appearances, press conferences, play times and movie productions.

TUESDAY, Feb. 21
Bodycam: On the Scene
Tonight’s episode, “Miracle Escapes,” follows officers as a suspect suddenly pulls off, with a policeman wedged half-inside, half-outside of the car, and then other officers rescue a man perilously stuck on a train track (10 p.m., Investigation Discovery).

Snowfall
Tune in for the beginning of the sixth and final season of the gritty drama series about the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic in California, and various lives it directly affected (FX and Hulu).

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 22
Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal
True-story documentary series about a prominent South Carolina family whose lives start to unravel after the death of a teenager in a boating accident (Netflix).

Breaking Ground
Documentary about a Kansas neighborhood working to restore their community—and trying to “break ground” by rebuilding other Black and brown communities across the country (streaming on PBS Voices on YouTube).

THURSDAY, Feb. 23
Outer Banks
The adventure continues in tonight’s kickoff of season three of the teen mystery drama, set on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, as the scrappy group known as the Pogues—washed ashore on an idyllic island—face more obstacles in tracking down the legendary treasure (Netflix).

Jabari Banks as Will as Olly Sholotan as Carlton in “Bel-Aire”

Bel-Aire
Season two of the Fresh Prince “reimagined” spinoff series begins tonight, with Jabari Banks as young Will Smith, who journeys from the mean streets of Philadelphia to the gilded, gated mansions of Hollywood (Peacock).

Moving Pictures

A spectrum of boundary-crossing music photography

 Danny Clinch_Still Moving

Danny Clinch:

Still Moving

By Danny Clinch

Hardcover, 296 pages, $50 (Abrams)

 

Clinch, a preeminent music photographer and Grammy Award-nominated documentary film director, has used his camera to chronicle a spectrum of popular performers in both explosive performances and during reflective private moments for Rolling Stone, SPIN, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ and other publications. This handsome collection of his work—with a title taken from a Willie Nelson song and featuring powerful portraits as well as more photojournalistic, fly-on-the-wall shots of a Who’s Who of boundary-crossing rock, country, blues, hip-hop and soul performers—is a visual feast for music lovers of all kinds.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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Not-So-Simpler Times

Re-examining the era of James Dean, ‘Ozzie & Harriet,’ & ‘I Love Lucy’

The Forgotten Fifties_cover

The Forgotten Fifties

By James Conaway

Hardcover, 224 pages, $45 (Skira Rizzoli)

From the pages and archives of LOOK magazine, a publication that defined the Fifties in images and words, comes this handsome photographic celebration of the complicated, often contradictory era that transformed America’s identity through an unprecedented confluence of socio-economics, culture and politics at the end of World War II. With 200 color and black and white photos, it’s a chronological museum of memories charting the ups and downs of a nation as it finds its way through the often mixed signals of Ozzie and Harriet and I Love Lucy, John F. Kennedy, James Dean, Disneyland, suburban prosperity, urban slums and other touchstones from an era that wasn’t quite as simple as it might seem.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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Go, Dog, Go

Examining the long tale of the hot dog wiener

Man Bites Dog

Man Bites Dog

By Bruce Kraig & Patty Carroll

Softcover, 200 pages, $19.95 (Rowman Publishing)

Summer is the season for hot dogs, and so it’s perfect time to check out this book going deep into the world of the wiener, exploring just how those humble little links grew up to become such powerful icons of all-American culture. The author, a respected “hot dog scholar,” examines franks from one end to the other, looking at their history and lore, the places where they’re sold, the people who market them from stands and pushcarts, and the simple, mouth-stretching pleasures they’ve always promised. Rich with information as well as color photos, it also includes 25 pages of recipes and suggested toppings.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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WWI in Photos

The many ways photography became a factor in first “great war”

The Great War

The Great War—The Persuasive Power of Photography

Edited By Ann Thomas / Text by Ann Thomas & Anthony Petiteau

Hardcover, 142 pages $45 (Abrams)

 

The first “great war” was a turning point for many things, and one of them was the use of photography, as both and Allied forces and their enemies employed the technology to spy, strategize, communicate, commemorate, manipulate, stir up public support for the cause, and record events for posterity. This collection of images, along with a well-researched historical narrative about the many ways photography factored into both sides of the conflict, both on the battlefields and at home, is a fascinating look at how “media” shaped the world’s perception of events long before 24-hour news came along.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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Baseball Fan-Tography

Amateur pix taken by fans shows baseball behind the scenes

Fantography_San Diego Baseball

Fantography: San Diego Baseball

By Andy Strasberg

Softcover, 128 pages, $24.99 (Arcadia Publishing)

 

The author, a lifelong baseball lover and 20-year Padres employee, presents this collection of amateur photos taken by fans (including plenty from his own collection) for a decade-by-decade snapshot of goings-on in and around the San Diego fields that were home to Hall of Famers Dave Winfield, Goose Gossage, Rickey Henderson, Ozzie Smith and Roberto Alomar. The only “fantography” rule: No photos of game action. So, instead, it’s page after page of one-of-a-kind, behind-the-scene, sideline and in-the-stands shots, showing the intense connection of fans to their hometown team, year after year, win or lose. For baseball fans of any stripe, everywhere, it’s a hit.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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Now That’s Cool

Exploring the elusive concept through attitude, style and pop culture

American Cool

American Cool

By Joel Dinerstein & Frank H. Goodyear III

Hardcover, 196 pages (Prestel Publishing, $49.95)

 

Who’s cool? What’s cool? We’re not talking air temperature, but the concept, the iconic designation of attitude, style and pop-cultural transcendence. This collection of 100 chronically displayed images of “cool,” (now all on display in a special exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.), plus insightful essays, examines the ever-morphing concept of cool through a prism of personalities from early movie actors and actresses Veronica Lake, Humphrey Bogart and Greta Garbo, to contemporary stars including Johnny Depp, director Quentin Tarantino and late-night host Jon Stewart. Needless to say, it’s cool!

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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