The Essentials | |
---|---|
Presented by | See Hosts |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 17 |
Original release | |
Network | Turner Classic Movies |
Release | 2001 – 2020 |
The Essentials is an American weekly film-focused television program broadcast on Turner Classic Movies, with TCM hosts and special guests introducing and discussing some of the best movies ever made.
For a sixteen-year period from 2001 to 2017 excepting 2016, the program aired each Saturday night at 8:00 PM Eastern Time from March to January of the following year. For the first five seasons, a single individual hosted the program; for the remaining seasons, a main host would be paired with a guest.
For the balance of the program's broadcast, a full decade from 2006 to 2015, a guest host was paired with the principal host of TCM, Robert Osborne. The program was suspended in 2016 due to the poor health of Osborne, and continued following the death of Osborne in 2017, having Alec Baldwin paired with a sequence of guests.
The program was not programmed by the network after the sixteenth season ended in January 2018. It was revived in May 2019 with new host Ben Mankiewicz.
For the program's first five seasons, a single individual hosted the program. From 2006 to 2015, a guest host was paired with the principal host of TCM, Robert Osborne.
A spin-off showcase, Essentials, Jr., aired in the summer months of 2007 through 2014, on Sunday nights at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. The featured films were chosen for their appeal to families with young children. The original host was Tom Kenny; he was replaced for the second season by co-hosts Abigail Breslin and Chris O'Donnell. John Lithgow hosted the 2009 and 2010 seasons. The program was hosted from 2011 through 2014 by Bill Hader of Saturday Night Live fame. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Alexander Rae Baldwin III is an American actor. He is known for his leading and supporting roles in a variety of genres, from comedy to drama, and has received numerous accolades including three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and eight Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and Tony Award.
Buck Henry was an American actor, screenwriter, and director. Henry's contributions to film included his work as a co-writer for Mike Nichols's The Graduate (1967) for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He also appeared in Nichols' Catch-22 (1970), Herbert Ross' The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), and Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? (1972). In 1978, he co-directed Heaven Can Wait (1978) with Warren Beatty receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. He later appeared in Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life (1991), and the Robert Altman films The Player (1992) and Short Cuts (1993).
Saturday Night Live (SNL) is an American late-night live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The show's premiere was hosted by George Carlin on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. The show's comedy sketches, which often parody contemporary American culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers the opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast, with featured performances by a musical guest. An episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that is usually based on political events and ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", properly beginning the show.
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atlanta, Georgia.
William Thomas Hader Jr. is an American actor and comedian. He gained widespread attention for his eight-year stint as a cast member on the long-running NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2013, for which he received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Peabody Award. He became known for his impressions and especially for his work on the Weekend Update segments, where he played Stefon Meyers, a flamboyant New York City nightclub tour guide.
Robert Jolin Osborne was an American film historian, author, actor and the primary television host for the premium cable channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM) for over twenty years. Prior to hosting at TCM, Osborne had been a host on The Movie Channel and American Movie Classics (AMC). He had also worked as a news columnist for The Hollywood Reporter. Osborne wrote the official history of the Academy Awards, with the first edition published in 1988.
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The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 13, 2008, and May 16, 2009, the thirty-fourth season of the show.
"Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special" is a three-and-a-half-hour prime-time special that aired on February 15, 2015, on NBC, celebrating Saturday Night Live's 40th year on the air, having premiered on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. It is produced by Broadway Video. This special generated 23.1 million viewers, becoming NBC's most-watched prime-time, non-sports, entertainment telecast since the Friends series finale in 2004. It is the third such anniversary special to be broadcast, with celebratory episodes also held during the 15th and 25th seasons.
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The sketch comedy television series Saturday Night Live (SNL) has parodied Donald Trump since 1988, covering his time as a real estate broker to his popular run as host of The Apprentice, and during as well as after his presidency.
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