In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are government agents dressed in black suits, who question, interrogate, harass, threaten, allegedly memory-wipe and sometimes assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses to keep them silent about what they have seen. The term is also frequently used to describe mysterious men working for unknown organizations, as well as various branches of government allegedly tasked with protecting secrets or performing other strange activities.
The 22nd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 27, 1980, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1979. This year was notable for being the first year to have a designated category for Rock music.
Jackanory is a BBC children's television series which was originally broadcast between 1965 and 1996. It was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The programme was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, and the first story was the fairy-tale "Cap-o'-Rushes" read by Lee Montague. Jackanory was broadcast until 1996, with around 3,500 episodes in its 30-year run.
Over the Edge is a sound collage radio program hosted and produced in the United States by Jon Leidecker ("Wobbly") and Robert Cole ("KrOB"), who took over in 2015 after the death of longtime host Don Joyce.
Pat O'Neill Riley is an androgynous fictional character created and performed by Julia Sweeney for the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1990 to 1994. The character was later featured in the film It's Pat. The central humorous aspect of sketches featuring Pat is the inability of others to determine the character's gender.
Music on hold (MOH) is the business practice of playing recorded music to fill the silence that would be heard by telephone callers who have been placed on hold. It is especially common in situations involving customer service.
David Alan Basche is an American actor. He is best known for playing Todd Beamer in the film United 93. He has been a series regular on many TV comedies and dramas, and has also appeared in films directed by Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Paul Greengrass, Shawn Levy, Robert Zemeckis, and Michael Patrick King.
Reign Over Me is a 2007 American buddy drama film written and directed by Mike Binder, produced by his brother Jack Binder, and starring Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland, Saffron Burrows, and Mike Binder himself. The film follows the story of former college roommates and old friends Alan and Charlie, the latter of whom is struggling with depression after the death of his wife and daughters in the September 11 attacks. This was also Melinda Dillon's final film acting role before retiring from acting later that same year and her death in 2023.
The Spoonman was an Australian late night talk back show hosted by radio personality Brian Carlton. Carlton is known professionally as "Spoonman". The show ran from 1998 to 2008, and was rebooted in 2019.
"The Face Painter" is the 109th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 23rd episode of the series's sixth season. It aired on May 11, 1995. The table reading for "The Face Painter" was held on March 26, 1995. In this episode, Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, and David Puddy go to two Stanley Cup playoff games, where Puddy dismays Elaine and an El Salvadoran priest with his rowdy displays of New Jersey Devils fandom. Meanwhile, Kramer holds a grudge against a chimpanzee who hit him with a banana peel, and George resolves to take the dramatic step of telling his girlfriend he loves her.
In the fictional universe of the television series The X-Files, an "X-File" is a case that has been deemed unsolvable or given minimal-priority status by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These files are transferred to the X-Files unit. The files constitute an unassigned project that is more or less concerned with unexplained phenomena, fringe pseudo-scientific theories, and non-credible evidence of paranormal activity.
Edward "Ted" Sullivan is an American television writer.
A prank call is a telephone call intended by the caller as a practical joke played on the person answering. It is often a type of nuisance call. It can be illegal under certain circumstances.
The Secret Friend is a 2010 comedy-drama film based on the 1997 short story of the same name by Brazilian writer João Silvério Trevisan. The film, directed by Flavio Alves, features Viola Harris and Siobhan Fallon in the major roles. The film differs substantially from the original short story, which initially created some tension between the writer and the director. Filming took place in early 2009, mainly in Brooklyn, New York, and debuted at the 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival, where it was chosen as Best of the Fest. The film centers around the character and life of Anna Marshall, a lonely, elderly widow living in a suburb of New York City, who develops a mysterious friendship with a silent caller. Although a screenplay for a feature version of the short film was written, as of 2011, it has not been officially greenlit.
The Secret History of Twin Peaks is an epistolary (dossier-style) novel by Mark Frost, which provides background information on the history of the fictional town and characters from the television series Twin Peaks. The book was published in October 2016, several months before the debut of a new season of the series in May 2017. A follow-up book, Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier, also written by Frost, was released after the new season aired. The audiobook release features four original cast members from the original and sequel television series, Kyle MacLachlan, Russ Tamblyn, Michael Horse, and David Patrick Kelly, joined by original cast member Chris Mulkey and cocreator Mark Frost, and introduces 2017 season actors Amy Shiels, Robert Knepper, and James Morrison.
Red Nose Day Actually is a 2017 British romantic comedy television short promotional film, following a dozen of the characters from Richard Curtis' Christmas film Love Actually, as part of the fundraising event Red Nose Day 2017. Curtis returns with many of the film's cast members including Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Andrew Lincoln, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Keira Knightley, Martine McCutcheon, Bill Nighy, Thomas Sangster, Lúcia Moniz, Olivia Olson, Marcus Brigstocke, and Rowan Atkinson.
The first season of Dynasty, an American television series based on the 1980s prime time soap opera of the same name, originally aired in the United States on The CW from October 11, 2017 through May 11, 2018. The season was produced by CBS Television Studios, with Sallie Patrick as showrunner and executive producer alongside executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. The pilot, which was announced in September 2016, was ordered to series in May 2017. On November 8, 2017, The CW picked up Dynasty for a full season of 22 episodes. On April 2, 2018, The CW renewed the series for a second season.
The Michigan "swamp gas" UFO reports were two mass sightings of unidentified flying objects during the nights of March 20 and 21, 1966, in Michigan, United States. The first occurred around marshland near Dexter, while the second mass-sighting took place near the campus arboretum of Hillsdale College, about 50 miles away. The sightings took place amid a wave of UFO reports throughout southern Michigan. After the reports were attributed to swamp gas by Air Force civilian investigator J. Allen Hynek, the explanation was widely derided. US congressman Gerald Ford called for a formal Congressional investigation into the sightings.
