|
Improv Institute
The Improv Institute was an improvisational comedy company in Chicago from 1984 until 1994. The mainstage show was improvised following audience suggestions. The troupe had two storefront-theaters, both on West Belmont Avenue on Chicago's North side, first at 2939 W. Belmont (1984–1990), and later at 2319 W. Belmont (1991–1994). Many theatrical productions had their debuts at the Improv Institute, including '' Flanagan's Wake'' on March 19, 1994. The Second City producer Kelly Leonard has stated that the Improv Institute was "my favorite place to see improv, other than The Second City." - ''Chicago Tribune'', January 15, 2004 History The Improv Institute was founded at the end of 1983 by the late John Michael Michalski, who would go on to direct at The Second City in Chicago. The original cast included Michalski, Rick Hall (''Seinfeld'', ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', ''Arrested Development'', ''Factory''), Kate Kirkpatrick, Patricia Musker ( Roxy Bellows, also a co-writer of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Improvisational Comedy
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script. Improvisational theatre exists in performance as a range of styles of improvisational comedy as well as some non-comedic theatrical performances. It is sometimes used in film and television, both to develop characters and scripts and occasionally as part of the final product. Improvisational techniques are often used extensively in drama programs to train actors for stage, film, and television and can be an important part of the rehearsal process. However, the skills and processes of improvisation are also used outside the context of performing arts. This practice, known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frasier
''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey (screenwriter), Peter Casey, and David Lee (screenwriter), David Lee (as Grub Street Productions), in association with Grammnet Productions, Grammnet (2004) and Paramount Television (original), Paramount Network Television. The series was created as a Spin-off (media), spin-off of the sitcom ''Cheers''. It continues the story of psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), who returns to his hometown, Seattle, as a radio show host. He reconnects with his father, Martin Crane, Martin (John Mahoney), a retired police officer, and his younger brother, Niles Crane, Niles (David Hyde Pierce), a fellow psychiatrist. Included in the series cast were Peri Gilpin as Frasier's producer Roz Doyle, and Jane Leeves as Daphne Moon, Martin's live-in caregiver. Dan Butler's role a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strangers With Candy
''Strangers with Candy'' is an American comedy television series produced by Comedy Central. It first aired on April 7, 1999, and concluded its third and final season on October 2, 2000. Its timeslot was Sundays at 10:00 p.m. ( ET). A prequel film of the same name was released in 2005. As of 2022, it is available to watch on Paramount+. Plot The series' main character, Geraldine Antonia "Jerri" Blank (played by Amy Sedaris), was a "junkie whore"/runaway returning to high school as a freshman at age 46 at the fictional Flatpoint High School (home of the Concrete Donkeys) in the town of Flatpoint. Jerri ran away from home and became "a boozer, a user, and a loser" after dropping out of high school as a teenager, supporting her drug habits through prostitution, stripping, and larceny. She has been to prison several times, the last time because she "stole the TV." Every episode features a warped theme or moral lesson and ends with the cast and other featured actors from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Dinello
Paul E. Dinello (born November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, actor, and writer, best known for his collaborations with Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris. He portrayed Geoffrey Jellineck on Comedy Central's ''Strangers with Candy'', and later became a writer and supervising producer for ''The Colbert Report'' and then ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.'' Early life Dinello was born in Oak Park, Illinois to Frank Anthony Dinello, the head of DePaul University's Mental Health Clinic, and Ann Lee Dinello (née Zeiler). He's the fourth of five siblings: Donna, Lori, Linda and David. His uncle Dan Dinello, who piqued his interest in directing, is an independent filmmaker and professor emeritus at Columbia College Chicago. Dinello graduated from Oak Park River Forest High School and later attended DePaul University where he graduated from its College of Communications in 1985. He is also an alumnus of Chicago-based The Second City, Improv Institute, and Annoyance Theatre. Career ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Without A Trace
''Without a Trace'' is an American police procedural drama television series created by Hank Steinberg that aired on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009 with the total of seven seasons and 160 episodes. The series focuses the cases of a Missing Persons Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in New York City. On May 19, 2009, CBS cancelled the series after seven seasons. Premise Each episode followed the search for one individual under tight time constraints. The stories also focused on the personal lives of the team members and illustrated how their experiences gave them insight into cases. The team consisted of Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia), Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery), Vivian Johnson (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), Danny Taylor (Enrique Murciano), Martin Fitzgerald (Eric Close), and Elena Delgado (Roselyn Sánchez), the last of whom joined the cast in the fourth season. The real FBI does investigate missing persons; specifically, they have the auth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crime Scene Investigation
Crime scene investigation may refer to: * Forensic inspection of a crime scene * ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' (2000-2015), a US television series * ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' (video game), a 2003 videogame based on the TV show * ''CSI'' (franchise), aka ''Crime Scene Investigation''; a US TV franchise, including CSI (2000-2015) See also * Crime scene investigator Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ... * CSI (other) {{Disambig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ER (TV Series)
''ER'' is an American medical drama television series created by novelist and physician Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994, to April 2, 2009, with a total of 331 episodes spanning 15 seasons. It was produced by Constant C Productions and Amblin Television, in association with Warner Bros. Television. ''ER'' follows the inner life of the emergency room (ER) of Cook County General Hospital (a fictionalized version of the real Cook County Hospital) in Chicago, Illinois, and various critical issues faced by the department's physicians and staff. The show is the second longest-running primetime medical drama in American television history behind ''Grey's Anatomy'', and the sixth longest medical drama across the globe (behind the United Kingdom's ''Casualty'' and '' Holby City,'' ''Grey's Anatomy'', Germany's ''In aller Freundschaft'', and Poland's ''Na dobre i na złe''). It won 23 Primetime Emmy Awards, including the 1996 Outstanding Drama Series award ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wild Chicago
''Wild Chicago'' is a television series that aired on Chicago's WTTW (a local PBS affiliate) from 1989 to 2003. The show took viewers on a trip through Chicago's "urban jungle", highlighting hundreds of offbeat and unusual people, places, and events in the metropolitan area. Subjects included the Chicago Herpetological Society; singing taxicab drivers; flotation tanks; an Ancient Astronaut society; the Inkin' Lincoln Tattoo and Piercing Jamboree; an interstate pierogi festival; a squirrel lovers' club; the ''Playboy'' Advisor; a cookie jar museum; and the Polka Music Hall of Fame. ''Wild Chicago'' was created by Ben Hollis and John Davies. The series won numerous local Emmy Awards over the course of its run, as did several of the show's hosts. Emmy Award winners for their individual work include Hollis, the show's original host, and his replacements upon taking an extended hiatus in 1992, Laura Meagher and Will Clinger. After two years, Meagher left the show to work for Fox ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
According To Jim
''According to Jim'' is an American sitcom television series starring Jim Belushi in the title role as a suburban father of three children (and then five children, starting with the seventh season finale). It originally ran on ABC from October 3, 2001 to June 2, 2009. Synopsis Jim is a happy-go-lucky suburban father. Much like his real-life counterpart, Jim's character is a fan of blues music, as well as the Chicago Bears, Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks. Together with his wife Cheryl, they have three children, daughters Ruby and Gracie and son Kyle. In the seventh season they become parents of twin boys Gordon and Jonathan. Jim often finds himself in difficult situations, because his slacker sensibilities cause him to search for alternative ways to get things done with less effort. While Cheryl's brother Andy is Jim's best friend/brother-in-law, her sister Dana frequently teams up with Cheryl against Jim. He also prefers to lie to Cheryl and Dana to do h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thirtysomething (TV Series)
''Thirtysomething'' is an American drama television series created by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz for United Artists Television (under MGM/UA Television) and aired on ABC from September 29, 1987, to May 28, 1991."The 'don't trust anyone over thirty' slogan of the Sixties gave way to a show called ''Thirtysomething'' in the Eighties, showing boomers grappling with having children or having left it too late." In It focuses on a group of baby boomers in their thirties who live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and how they handle the lifestyle that dominated American culture during the 1980s given their involvement in the early 1970s counterculture as young adults. It premiered in the United States on September 29, 1987, and lasted four seasons. It was canceled in May 1991 because the ratings had dropped. Zwick and Herskovitz moved on to other projects. The series won 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, out of 41 nominations, and two Golden Globe Awards. On January 8, 2020, ABC conf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Socket (film)
''Socket'' is an independent sci-fi erotic thriller directed by Sean Abley, produced by John Carrozza, Sean Abley, Matt Mishkoff and Doug Prinzivalli, and starring Derek Long as Dr. Bill and Matthew Montgomery as Dr. Craig Murphy. It was released in 2007. Plot ''Socket'' is a dark sexual tale of a gay man being drawn into a cult of electricity addicts after being struck by lightning. Bill (Derek Long), a surgeon, is struck by lightning and winds up recovering in his own hospital. There he meets an intern named Craig (Matthew Montgomery), who suffered the same natural accident and has developed an appetite - a capacitance - for electrical voltage. After meeting him, Bill realizes he has the same craving. Craig introduces him to an underground group of people who all share this addiction. Bill then uses his surgical knowledge to come up with a method of inserting electric sockets and prongs into the members' wrists so they can "juice up". But after Bill accidentally discovers th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilmore Girls
''Gilmore Girls'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and starring Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore) and Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore). The show debuted on October 5, 2000, on The WB and became a flagship series for the network. ''Gilmore Girls'' ran for seven seasons, the final season moving to The CW and ending its run on May 15, 2007. ''Gilmore Girls'' received critical acclaim for its witty dialogue, cross-generational appeal, and effective mix of humor and drama. It was a success for The WB, peaking during season five as the network's second-most-popular show. The series has been in daily syndication since 2004, while a growing following has led to its status as a 2000s American cult classic. Since going off the air in 2007, ''Gilmore Girls'' has been cited in '' TV (The Book)'' and ''Time'' magazine as one of the 100 greatest television shows of all time. In 2016, the main cast and Sherman-Palladino returned for the four-part minise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
