Category: Television

March 4, 2024 / Television

Made as part of “All the Boys and Girls of Their Age”—a critically acclaimed anthology series conceived around decade-specific rock-and-roll soundtracks that marked a moment of renewal in French cinema and helped launch a new generation of directors including Olivier Assayas and Claire Denis—Mazuy’s television film centers on Christine, a high schooler in late 1970s France who is enamored of John Travolta. When Christine is randomly picked up and seduced by Nicolas, a brooding teenager fascinated by Friedrich Nietzsche, they immediately face obstacles to their relationship, but nevertheless develop an awkward yet intense romance.

February 11, 2024 / Documentary

This television essay from 1985 was written by Leonard Bernstein to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s birth. Recorded in Israel, Vienna and later in London, it is punctuated by biographical interludes and illustrated by musical examples drawn from the cycle of Mahler’s works recorded by Bernstein. Bernstein talks, plays and conducts various orchestras (Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker) and soloists (Janet Baker, Christa Ludwig, Edith Mathis, Lucia Popp, Walton Groenroos) in performances spanning 17 years.

February 11, 2024 / Television

The Fabulous Fifties from CBS, combines style, humor, and imagination. It was rich in touches of quality showmanship and equally rich in the memories of a decade which it revived. In recognition, the Peabody Television Award for entertainment is presented to The Fabulous Fifties, with a special word of praise for producer Leland Hayward and the top talent which appeared in this memorable entertainment special. The two-hour special featured comic takes and commentary about the previous decade by, among others, Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Dick Van Dyke, Shelley Berman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Jackie Gleason, Eric Sevareid and Henry Fonda.

February 11, 2024 / Musical

A musical special celebrating the fruitful collaboration of Broadway lyricist/librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe. Stars from the current Broadway hit “Camelot” and from past triumphs such as “My Fair Lady,” and the film “Gigi” perform the romantic, sophisticated songs of Lerner and Loewe.

December 25, 2023 / Mini-Series

Between 1798 and 1812, the wild, romantic country of the English Lake District saw an intense concentrated flowering of literary genius. At its centre was the poet William Wordsworth, born in the region, who lived there almost all his life with his beloved sister Dorothy. Around him, as the genius of the age, gathered other poets and writers – Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas de Quincey. This idiosyncratic two-part mini-series, conceived by acclaimed director Ken Russell, concentrates on the relationship between William and Dorothy, and the battle with laudanum faced by Coleridge.

December 25, 2023 / Documentary

DON’T SHOOT THE COMPOSER is far from an ordinary profile of Georges Delerue. It also serves as a calling card for Ken Russell, whose work would define the 1970s as Delerue’s did in the 1960s. It begins with a sly work of pastiche, parodying the conventions of French noir. It goes onto encompass slapstick, verité scenes of the Delerue family and a harrowing montage of the Vietnam War. This eclectic approach gives us a sense of the different facets of Delerue’s life- his love of cinema, his home life, his work ethic. It also prefigures Russell’s feature length biopics of Mahler and Liszt, though in a more modest- and lucid- fashion.

December 25, 2023 / Adventure
December 24, 2023 / Television

Waylon Flowers and his infamous Madame, who describes herself as an “alcoholic sex fiend,” are our escorts on an unforgettable, often risque tour of the Big Apple. Madame, dressed in a lavishly decadent gown and sequined headdress, sings, cackles and hoots her way through and is surpirsed by a number of guest stars, including the master of one liners, Henny Youngman. A talented puppeteer and comedian from Georgia, Waylon Flowers and his Madame have won an Emmy Award, a Jimmy Award (the best of Las Vegas) and a Georgia Award for Best Specialty Act from Acva.