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It’s a bit of an irony that just as NBC’s “Must-See TV” juggernaut took off in 1994, execs there found themselves right in the middle of a completely different kind of televised spectacle: The O.J. Simpson arrest, trial and eventual acquittal.

Not only was then-nbc West Coast president Don Ohlmeyer one of Simpson’s best friends, but just a month before the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman — followed by Simpson’s white Ford Bronco flight from justice and arrest — NBC had passed on a pilot starring the ex-football-star.

“It was just a strange time to be there because of Don’s loyalty to O.J.,” recalled Preston Beckman, who was NBC’s head of scheduling at the time, and one of Ohlmeyer’s and NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield’s key lieutenants. Ohlmeyer would occasionally bring up Simpson during the network’s afternoon meetings in their Burbank offices,...

Exactly half a century ago this week, Sen. Robert Kennedy, the man who would be president, roared frantically across California from Chinatown in San Francisco down to San Diego, delivering fiery speeches until his voice ran out, and hugging supporters and shaking hands until his fingers were bruised and bleeding.

In June 1968, I witnessed all of this firsthand as a foreign correspondent for the London Daily Express when I traveled with Bobby throughout California. He had become the Democratic presidential front runner and hot favorite to win the presidency. President Lyndon Baines Johnson had become something of a pariah as a result of his gross mishandling of the escalating Vietnam War.

For America, 1968 was to be a memorable year — but for all the horribly wrong reasons: An unwinnable war, that had divided the nation and gun violence that destroyed the lives of two of the country’s most famous men,...

In “The Assignment,” director and co-writer Walter Hill handles the medical and psychological complexities of transgender surgery with all the subtlety and anatomical understanding of Ray Milland’s head being sewn onto Rosey Grier’s body in “The Thing with Two Heads.” Never mind that the transgender community in this country (and in much of the world) has become a target for hate, with trans individuals more likely to face discrimination, violence and homicide than almost any other segment of the population because of the fear and ignorance promulgated by conservative pundits and politicians: For Hill and co-writer Denis Hamill...

Good neighbor policy? Wartime exigencies inspired an intra-hemisphere cultural exchange, with the movies seizing on the new popularity of Latin music. Republic’s contribution gives us the great songs of Ady Barroso and a full soundtrack of his compositions — in a featherweight musical romance, of course.

Brazil

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1944 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 91 min. / Street Date December 6, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring Tito Guízar, Virginia Bruce, Edward Everett Horton, Robert Livingston, Veloz and Yolanda, Fortunio Bonanova, Richard Lane, Frank Puglia, Aurora Miranda, Billy Daniel, Dan Seymour, Roy Rogers.

Cinematography Jack A. Marta

Film Editor Fred Allen

Songs Ary Barroso, Hoagy Carmichael

Written by Frank Gill Jr., Laura Kerr, Richard English

Produced by Robert North

Directed by Joseph Santley

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The wartime ‘Good Neighbor Policy’ was a P.R. blitz intended to steer South America toward the U.S. and away from the Axis.

Christopher Darden, the prosecutor assigned to the O.J. Simpson murder case in 1994, revealed his team heard O.J. confess to murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and waiter Ron Goldman. “We heard he confessed in the trial,” Darden, who the authored the recently re-released book “In Contempt,” said on “The View” Thursday. “We heard he confessed to Rosey Grier during the trial.” Rosey Grier was the former NFL player and pastor who visited Simpson in jail. Also Read: Oj Simpson Juror: Not-Guilty Verdict Was 'Payback' for Rodney King Darden also said he believed Simpson had confessed to the murders a second time.

[As you probably already know, starting on Thursday, August 21, Fxx is running the Every Simpsons Ever Marathon, running through all 552 episodes of "The Simpsons," plus "The Simpsons Movie." To aid in your viewing process, Team HitFix is selecting our favorite episodes from each day, plus an episode or two that you can skip and use as a bathroom or nap break.] When folks complain that "The Simpsons" hasn't been good for 15 years, we normally mock them, but as we hit Day 5 of FX's Every Simpsons Marathon, even we have to admit that there is a small shift in quality. There are still great episodes in this period, which goes from "The Canine Mutiny" through "Maximum Homerdrive," but a couple of our intrepid recommenders only took one episode apiece for this period. And we have a trio of "skippable" episodes at the end of the article. Expect the ratio of classic-to-skippable episodes to even out in the last week of the Marathon. And some of the episodes in this period are kinda polarizing. Dave Lewis made "Homer's Enemy" one of this recommendations (and I'd be inclined to agree), but Frank Grimes hater Alan Sepinwall would have written a counterpoint had he had the time. Check out our recommendations for Day...

Lee Zeidman has been promoted to president of Staples Center, Nokia Theatre and L.A. Live, the 4 million-square-foot sports and entertainment downtown district in which the venues are located, it was announced Wednesday. Photos Hometown Heroes: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rosey Grier, Vin Scully and 8 More Sports Legends Who Played and Stayed in L.A. One of the facility industry’s most respected leaders, Zeidman, 59, spends about 220 nights a year at Staples, the home of four pro sports franchises — the Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings, Lakers, Clippers and Sparks — and the host of dozens

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NFL legend Rosey Grier is being sued for allegedly sexually assaulting his female neighbor -- who claims the 81-year-old shoved his hands down her pants and groped her genitals ... this according to legal docs obtained by TMZ Sports.  Read more...

Jeanne Crain: Lighthearted movies vs. real life tragedies (photo: Madeleine Carroll and Jeanne Crain in ‘The Fan’) (See also: "Jeanne Crain: From ‘Pinky’ Inanity to ‘Margie’ Magic.") Unlike her characters in Margie, Home in Indiana, State Fair, Centennial Summer, The Fan, and Cheaper by the Dozen (and its sequel, Belles on Their Toes), or even in the more complex A Letter to Three Wives and People Will Talk, Jeanne Crain didn’t find a romantic Happy Ending in real life. In the mid-’50s, Crain accused her husband, former minor actor Paul Brooks aka Paul Brinkman, of infidelity, of living off her earnings, and of brutally beating her. The couple reportedly were never divorced because of their Catholic faith. (And at least in the ’60s, unlike the humanistic, progressive-thinking Margie, Crain was a “conservative” Republican who supported Richard Nixon.) In the early ’90s, she lost two of her...

Zombies, vampires and werewolves, oh my! Classic monsters are always a good way for horror filmmakers to go, but sometimes we see more... unique... beasties on the screen. And when they go well (and even when they don't), they're some of the most memorable characters in the genre.

In celebration of the Irish sci-fi comedy film Grabbers, which hit VOD and other digital outlets on July 19 and contains some pretty wild monsters of its own, we've compiled a list of Horror's Top 13 Craziest Monsters!

As always, we'd like to start out with some honorable mentions. Slither and its old school relative Night of the Creeps both gave us a swarm of memorable leech-like monsters. The Host dropped us into an unexpected nightmare on a typical South Korean afternoon with a very unique movie monster. And even though he ended up going mainstream and had his own Saturday morning cartoon, The...

On Mondays and Wednesdays starting today (July 22) through August 5, Austin Public Library's Carver Branch invites you to watch some wonderfully terrible movies. The library is calling it the Return of the Revenge of the Son of the Bad Film Festival. These screenings are free and open to the public, showing in the Carver library's meeting rooms [map] at 6:30 pm. Do you dare to partake?

Here's the lineup:

Monday, July 22, Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) -- Directed by Roger Corman, this film has folks stuck on an island under the control of giant crabs who happen to eat brains.Wednesday, July 24, The Thing with Two Heads (1972) -- Ray Milland plays a bigot who has to share a body with convict Rosie Grier.  Here's the trailer:

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One of the greatest football players of all time has sadly passed away.

Deacon Jones, once called the greatest defensive end of modern football, died of natural causes on June 3 in his south Californian home. He was 74-years-old. He played for the National Football League for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, and the most recently Washington Redskins.

Deacon Jones’ Legacy

Deacon leaves behind his wife Elizabeth in his death. They had no children.

Deacon is one of the most famous footballers of all time, and he was considered by many to revolutionize the position of defensive end, while coining the term “sack.”

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980, and leaves behind a very impressive legacy.

Deacon Jones’ Fearsome Foursome

Just like The Beatles, Deacon was one member of a very important foursome: the La Rams Fearsome Foursome.

Along with Merlin Olsen, Rosey Grier and Lamar Lundy,...

David "Deacon" Jones, the Hall of Fame defensive end credited with terming the word sack for how he knocked down quarterbacks, has died at 74. The Washington Redskins said that Jones died of natural causes at his home in Southern California on Monday night. "Deacon Jones was one of the greatest players in NFL history. Off the field, he was a true giant," said Redskins general manager Bruce Allen, whose father, George, coached Jones with the Los Angeles Rams. "His passion and spirit will continue to inspire those who knew him. He was a cherished member of the Allen family and...

“We transplanted my head onto your body……now shut up!”

The Twilight Zone Movie, Head, Gator Bait, and Tarantula are a few of the movies they’ve screened in the past at Webster University’s Strange Brew film series. Always the first Wednesday evening of every month, the fun happens at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, Mo 63143). This week, on Wednesday January 2nd at 8pm, they’re venturing it’s sheer ’70s madness with the amazing The Thing With Two Heads. Admission is only $4!

If you thought The Defiant Ones was the last word in forced race relations, check out the 1972 classic The Thing With Two Heads. Ray Milland stars as transplant surgeon Max Kirshner, a mean old bigot suffering from terminal cancer, masterminding an experimental technique for transplanting heads, the goal being to save his own life. His assistant, Dr. Philip...

Released in November 1972, Free To Be...You and Me was a kids' album and TV special that encouraged individuality and looser definitions of gender norms. The project was spearheaded by Marlo Thomas and featured stars like Alan Alda, Cicely Tyson, Carol Channing, football great Rosey Grier and Diana Ross performing songs and sketches with touchy-feely titles like "It's All Right to Cry," "When We Grow Up," and the memorable "William's Doll," a tale sung by Alda and Thomas about a boy who likes playing with a doll. Photos: Showbiz Kids: 17 of Hollywood's Most Famous Offspring

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Once again, Harvey Levin is desperate for a win ... because he wants everyone in the office to stop making fun of him for his crappy record (3-4) ... and he'll get his chance for redemption in our Week 8 matchup ... Patriots vs. Rams. For the record, the game is taking place in London this weekend ... which clearly had an impact on Harvey's pick. "Weather will be a factor ... and New England is closer to London than St.

Ben Affleck’s Argo tells the true-life tale of a CIA agent who posed as the producer of a science fiction epic to rescue six Americans trapped in Iran in 1979. Now, another filmmaker wants to tell you a different part the story — but he needs your help to finish it.

For six years, Judd Ehrlich has been working on a documentary called Science Fiction Land, and the Emmy-nominated filmmaker just launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 to complete the project. The non-fiction flick takes its title from a proposed theme park to be built on the success of a sci-fi blockbuster,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

I hadn't seen the 1972 thriller Skyjacked since its initial release in 1972. In viewing Warner Brothers' DVD edition, I was totally prepared for another cheesy Seventies disaster film - an Airport Lite, if you will. Initially, my premonitions were shaping up to come true. The script follows the tradition of presenting the quasi-all-star cast by rote, with each actor given a few precious seconds to establish their personality quirks and telegraph what their dilemma will be once the inevitable crisis unfolds. In this case, the plot is simple enough to make The Poseidon Adventure look like The Big Sleep. Rock-jawed Charlton Heston is the pilot of a commercial airliner on which the head flight attendant (or "stewardess" in the vernacular of the day) is former lover Yvette Yvette Mimieux . Shortly after the flight takes off, a message is discovered written in lipstick on the bathroom mirror. There is...

9 Great Posters for 9 Not-So-Great Movies (that I Haven't Seen) If you missed it, yesterday I explored 11 great posters from 11 not-so-great movies, and I promised today I would take a slightly different angle at the same idea. Yesterday's 11 posters were for films I had seen, today's collection come from nine films I have never seen and I can't take full credit for this list. After I had compiled a list of my own I reached out to a few friends and one of them provided me a Ton of suggestions, several of which I had never seen. David Frank, who used to provide content on a regular basis for me, is a big poster buff and of the nine posters here, he suggested seven of them. As for the other two, well, I'll explain below and perhaps in too much detail on one of them. This list also differs from my...

Suddenly, there's a chance that Ben Affleck might follow George Clooney into the world of the 'too weird to be true' political thriller. Mr. Affleck has been looking at options for his third directorial project, following The Town and Gone Baby Gone, but none have been locked down yet. Now it looks like he might work with producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov (The Men Who Stare at Goats) to adapt a Wired article [1] called “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran.” THR [2] has the news, saying that Ben Affleck is in active negotiations to direct Argo based on the script by Chris Terrio, adapting the original 2007 article by Joshuah Bearman. What's the story about? Here's what the author told BoingBoing [3] when the original piece was published: The story is a CIA rescue mission during the Iran Hostage Crisis, when six American embassy staff...

Espn Radio and Fox Sports were broadcasting and cheerleaders were cheering. There were big-name football players and a blimp overhead with a camera fixed on the action below.

All that was missing from the gigantic pep rally in Los Angeles was an NFL team and a stadium where they could play, shortcomings that organizers of Tuesday's event intend on rectifying in time for the city to host Super Bowl L in five years.

"Ladies and gentleman, we hosted the first one, we should host the 50th one," said Tim Leiweke, the CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group, which has teamed with entertainment and sports executive Casey Wasserman to convince the powers that be that they should be allowed to build a 1.7 million square-foot football stadium in downtown L.A.

As of Tuesday, the unbuilt structure even has a name -- Farmers Field -- courtesy of a deal with Farmers Insurance worth...

Everyone knows that Miley Cyrus will be starring in Lol: Laughing Out Loud (2011) with Demi Moore, Ashley Greene, and Thomas Jane. But here's today's breaking news about the movie. Marlo Thomas has just been cast as her grandma. Now, we think this is perfect casting. Why? Well, it'll be a big deal to a lot of parents (and grandparents) who may wind up seeing Lol with the young Cyrus fans in their families. Once upon a time, Thomas was a Hollywood "it girl" herself, the star (and producer) of the hit series That Girl! (TV) and the host (and producer) of the groundbreaking ABC After School Special, Free to Be You & Me, which featured the talents of Thomas, Rosey Grier, Alan Alda, Roberta Flack, Mel Brooks, Tom Smothers, Shel Silverstein, Dionne Warwick, and a teenaged Michael Jackson, among many others. More recently, she played the recurring role of Jennifer Aniston's mother,...

Merlin Olsen, the Hall of Fame football star-turned-actor and commentator, has died. He was 69.

Olsen died Thursday of mesothelioma at City of Hope hospital outside of Los Angeles, Utah State University, his alma mater, said.

A three-time academic All-American at Utah State, Olsen signed with the Los Angeles Rams after college in 1962, where he became a star defensive tackle. In 1963, he was joined on the line by Deacon Jones, Rosey Grier and Lamar Lundy to form ...

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Merlin Olsen, a bearded, gentle-giant Pro Football Hall of Famer who went on to a successful TV career as an actor, announcer, host and pitchman, died Thursday of cancer near Los Angeles. He was 69.

He was diagnosed last year with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung lining.

Olsen played his entire 15-year career with the Los Angeles Rams, who drafted the All-American defensive lineman from Utah State with the third overall pick in 1962. A member of the defensive line known as the Fearsome Foursome -- with Rosey Grier, Deacon Jones and Lamar Lundy -- that helped glamorize defensive players, he was named rookie of the year, went to 14 consecutive Pro Bowls, was voted NFL Mvp in 1974 and remains the franchise leader in tackles with 915.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday lauded Olsen as an "extraordinary person, friend and football player."

"He cared deeply about people, especially those that shared the game of football with him,...

The big-screen terrors just keep comin’ for Halloween and beyond as more revivals and special screenings have been announced. You can track back through our previous coverage starting here, and mark your calendars for the following recent announcements:

• New York City’s Maysles Institute (343 Malcolm X Boulevard/Lenox Avenue between 127th and 128th Streets) is in the midst of a series simply called The Horror!, focusing on documentaries pertaining to fright filmmaking, with all shows starting at 7:30 p.m. Tonight, Roy Frumkes will present Document Of The Dead, his chronicle of the making of George A. Romero’s classic Dawn Of The Dead (which will be shown after Frumkes’ post-document Q&A). Tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 28, there’ll be a rare chance to catch Joel DeMott’s Demon Lover Diary, the saga of the highly contentious production of the Michigan-lensed ’70s cheapie Demon Lover, starring Gunnar Hansen. Chris Smith’s American Movie,...

Filed under: Paparazzi Video, Wacky & Weird, Wrasslin!

Mickey Rooney, a Bond Girl (Maud Adams), "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and former football pro Rosey Grier all got together this weekend and for some reason -- broke out the Hokey Pokey at Spago in Beverly Hills.If a more random sentence has ever been ...

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