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Paul Dooley
Paul Dooley (born Paul Brown; February 22, 1928) is an American character actor. He is known for his roles in '' Breaking Away'', ''Popeye'', '' Strange Brew'', '' Sixteen Candles'' and various Christopher Guest mockumentaries. He co-created the PBS children's show ''The Electric Company''. Early life Dooley was born Paul Brown on February 22, 1928, in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene (née Barringer), a homemaker, and Pete James Brown, a factory worker. He said that Parkersburg had few attractions that interested him, as there were not many cultural opportunities. He enjoyed listening to comedians on the radio, especially Jimmy Durante. In high school, he often performed at fairs as a clown named Dooley. In the mid-1950s, he legally changed his surname to match his clown persona, as there was already a Broadway actor named Paul Brown. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. In 1946, he joined the United States N ...
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Parkersburg, West Virginia
Parkersburg is a city in Wood County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. Located at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Little Kanawha River, Little Kanawha rivers, it is the state's List of municipalities in West Virginia, fourth-most populous city and the center of the Parkersburg–Vienna metropolitan area. The city's population was 29,749 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, and its metro population was 89,490. The city is about south of Marietta, Ohio. History Settlers at first named the city Newport when they settled it in the late 18th century following the American Revolutionary War. A town section was laid out on land granted to Alexander Parker for his Revolutionary War service. Virginia made grants of land to veterans for their war service. The title conflicts between Parker and the city planners of Newport were settled in 1809 in favor of his heirs. The town was renamed Parkersburg in 1810. It was chartered by the Virginia General Ass ...
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The Odd Couple (play)
''The Odd Couple'' is a play by Neil Simon. Following its premiere on Broadway in 1965, the characters were revived in a successful 1968 film and 1970s television series, as well as several other derivative works and spin-offs. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates: the neat, uptight Felix Ungar and the slovenly, easygoing Oscar Madison. Simon adapted the play in 1985 to feature a pair of female roommates (Florence Ungar and Olive Madison) in ''The Female Odd Couple''. An updated version of the 1965 show appeared in 2002 with the title ''Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple''. History Sources vary as to the origins of the play. In ''The Washington Post''s obituary of Simon's brother Danny, a television writer, Adam Bernstein wrote that the idea for the play came from his divorce. "Mr. Simon had moved in with a newly single theatrical agent named Roy Gerber in Hollywood, and they invited friends over one night. Mr. Simon botched the pot roast. The next day, Ge ...
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Skip Hinnant
Joseph Howard "Skip" Hinnant (born March 12, 1940) is an American actor, comedian, and singer, best known for his work in children’s television and musical theater. Hinnant’s career spans voice acting, stage performances, and singing, beginning in the 1960s. He has also appeared in films and various theater productions, contributing to both entertainment and children’s educational programming. Career Hinnant's first major role was as Cathy's boyfriend, Ted, on '' The Patty Duke Show'' from 1963 to 1965. In 1967, he played Schroeder in the original off-Broadway cast of Clark Gesner's '' You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown,'' where his older brother, Bill Hinnant, played Snoopy. Hinnant is best known as a featured performer on the children's show '' The Electric Company'', which aired on the American educational television network PBS from 1971 to 1977. He was best known at that time as word decoder Fargo North, Decoder (a play on "Fargo, North Dakota") and as "The Boy" i ...
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Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, producer, and narrator. In a career spanning six decades, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Tony Award. He was honored with the Kennedy Center Honor in 2008, an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2011, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2012, and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2018. In a 2022 readers' poll by ''Empire'', he was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Freeman was raised in Mississippi, where he began acting in school plays. He studied theater arts in Los Angeles and appeared in stage productions in his early career. He rose to fame in the 1970s for his role in the children's television series '' The Electric Company.'' Freeman then appeared in the Shakespearean plays '' Coriolanus'' and ''Julius Caesar'', the former of which earned him an Obie Award. In 1978, he was nomina ...
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Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, author, comedian, director and screenwriter whose career spanned seven decades. He was the List of awards and nominations received by Carl Reiner, recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. During the early years of television comedy from 1950 to 1957, he acted on and contributed sketch material for ''Your Show of Shows'' and ''Caesar's Hour'', starring Sid Caesar, writing alongside Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Woody Allen. Reiner teamed up with Brooks and together they released several iconic comedy albums beginning with ''2000 Year Old Man, 2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks'' (1960). Reiner was also the creator of ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'', which ran from 1961 to 1966 and which Reiner also produced, frequently scripted, and acted in.Van Dy ...
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Children's Television Workshop
Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization and television company that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-known, ''Sesame Street''—that have been televised internationally. Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett developed the idea to form an organization to produce the ''Sesame Street'' television series. They spent two years, from 1966 to 1968, researching, developing, and raising money for the new series. Cooney was named as the Workshop's first executive director, which was termed "one of the most important television developments of the decade." ''Sesame Street'' premiered on National Educational Television (NET) as a series run in the United States on November 10, 1969, and moved to NET's successor, the Public Broadcasting Service, in late 1970. The Workshop was formally incorporated in 1970. Gerald S. Lesser and ...
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The Electric Company (1971 TV Series)
''The Electric Company'' is an American educational children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now known as Sesame Workshop). It was co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. The series aired on PBS for 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971, to April 15, 1977. The program continued in reruns until October 4, 1985. ''The Electric Company'' later reran on Noggin, a channel co-founded by the CTW, from 1999 to 2003. Noggin also produced a compilation special for the show. The Workshop produced the show at Reeves Teletape Studios in Manhattan. ''The Electric Company'' employed sketch comedy and various other devices to provide an entertaining program to help elementary school children develop their grammar and reading skills. Since it was intended for children who had graduated from CTW's flagship program, ''Sesame Street'', the humor was more mature than what was seen there. The s ...
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Alan Alda
Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner and a three-time Tony Award nominee, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the CBS wartime sitcom '' M*A*S*H'' (1972–1983). He also wrote and directed numerous episodes of the series. After starring in the films '' Same Time, Next Year'' (1978), '' California Suite'' (1978), and '' The Seduction of Joe Tynan'' (1979), he made his directorial film debut '' The Four Seasons'' (1981). Alda was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Owen Brewster in Martin Scorsese's '' The Aviator'' (2004). Other notable film roles include '' Crimes and Misdemeanors'' (1989), '' Manhattan Murder Mystery'' (1993), '' Everyone Says I Love You'' (1996), '' Flirting with Disaster'' (1996), '' Tower Heist'' (2011), '' Bridge of Spies'' (2015), and '' Marriage Story'' (2019). Alda won the ...
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Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin (March 26, 1934 – June 29, 2023) was an American actor, filmmaker and musician. In a career spanning seven decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for six Emmy Awards. Arkin performed in the sketch comedy group The Second City before acting on the Broadway stage, starring as David Kolowitz in the Joseph Stein play '' Enter Laughing'' in 1963, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He returned to Broadway acting in the comedic play '' Luv'' (1964), and directed Neil Simon's '' The Sunshine Boys'' (1971), for which he received a Tony Award nomination. Arkin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a foul-mouthed grandfather in ''Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006). He was Oscar-nominated for his roles in '' The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming'' (1966), ''The Heart is a Lonely Hunter'' (1968), and ' ...
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Compass Players
The Compass Players (or Compass Theater) was an improvisational theatre revue active from 1955 to 1958 in Chicago and St. Louis. Founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, it is considered to be the first improvisational theater in the United States. History Shepherd and Sills The Compass Players, founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, was the first Improvisational Theatre in America. It began July 8, 1955 as a storefront theater at 1152 E. 55th near the University of Chicago campus. They presented improvised plays. Shepherd, in Mark Siska's documentary ''Compass Cabaret ’55'', about the birth of modern improvisation, stated his reasons for founding the Compass Players, “Theater in New York was very effete and based on three-act plays and based on verbiage and there was not much action,” he said. “I wanted to create a theater that would drag people off the street and seat them not in rows but at tables and give them something to drink, which was unheard of in merica ...
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The Tonight Show
''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has been broadcast on NBC since 1954. The program has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 2010–2014), Conan O'Brien (2009–2010), and Jimmy Fallon (2014–present). Besides the main hosts, a number of regular "guest hosts" have been used, notably Ernie Kovacs, who hosted two nights per week during 1956–1957, and a number of guests used by Carson, who curtailed his own hosting duties back to three nights per week by the 1980s. Among Carson's regular guest hosts were Joey Bishop, McLean Stevenson, David Letterman, David Brenner and Joan Rivers, with his final regular guest host being his eventual successor Jay Leno. The practice of hiring guest hosts has been mostly discontinued by Leno and his successors, who prefer airing reruns to showcasing potential rivals. ''The Tonight Show'' is the List of longest-running t ...
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Stand-up Comedy
Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These performances are typically composed of Rehearsal, rehearsed screenplay, scripts but often include varying degrees of interactive theatre, live crowd interaction (crowdwork). Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke, one-liners, stories, observations, or shticks that can employ Theatrical property, props, comedy music, music, impressions, Magic (illusion), magic tricks, or ventriloquism. Performances can take place in various venues, including comedy clubs, comedy festivals, bars, nightclubs, colleges, or theaters. History Stand-up comedy originated in various traditions of popular entertainment in the late 19th century. These include vaudeville, the Stump speech (minstrelsy), stump-speech monologues of minstrel shows, dime museums, co ...
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