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Warner Bros.' David Zaslav Tried to Rebrand HBO. It Didn't Work.

Warner Bros.' David Zaslav Tried to Rebrand HBO. It Didn't Work.

Bloomberg18-05-2025
Good afternoon from Los Angeles. It's good to be home. I've just returned from New York, where I visited Saturday Night Live, saw Succession star Sarah Snook on Broadway and attended a Lady Gaga concert (aka YouTube's upfront presentation to advertisers).
I am going to break down the biggest news from the upfronts in a moment, but first…
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Hitting on Mary Tyler Moore Launched Charlie Day's Career
Hitting on Mary Tyler Moore Launched Charlie Day's Career

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Hitting on Mary Tyler Moore Launched Charlie Day's Career

Charlie Day is obviously best known for playing beloved degenerate Charlie Kelly on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But the actor has appeared in a number of other notable movies and TV shows, including Horrible Bosses, Fool's Paradise and one episode of Law & Order — although he only had a very small part as a helpful witness, unlike Mac, who somehow landed a juicy teen murderer role. But Day's first ever on-screen acting job was in Mary & Rhoda. The 2000 TV movie began as a pilot for a planned reboot of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but CBS ultimately passed on the 'updated' version. 'If you loved The Mary Tyler Moore Show, stay away from Mary & Rhoda,' one review read. During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Day recalled that the role was limited to just one line. His character, named 'Mailroom Kid,' simply had to tell Moore's Mary Richards that she's 'looking fine.' But Day clearly misunderstood the assignment. 'I thought it was supposed to be done sort of sarcastically, cause I'm 20 years old,' Day explained. 'Something like, 'Eh, looking fine, lady.'' When asked how old Moore was at the time, Day replied, 'Seventy… thousand. I don't know.' 'I get down to set, and the director's like, 'So you're really kind of hitting on her,'' Day continued. 'And so I had to do it completely differently.' Clearly pretending to come onto a TV legend in a failed pilot no one remembers worked out great. 'It launched my whole career. I took off!' Day proudly declared. While Day has since become a famous, tuxedo-owning actor, he did entertain taking a similarly minuscule role after being asked to audition for an acclaimed filmmaker. 'It was for something David Fincher was making,' Day told Kimmel. 'But the part was one line. And I was thinking, 'I'm past this.'' But he decided to read for the part anyway, even though the whole job was just to say, 'Heads. No tails!' while someone else flipped a coin. According to Day, the casting director was surprised to see a familiar face trying out for a job that ranked only slightly above 'background extra.' Based on Day's description, the project was likely Mank, Fincher's 2020 biopic about Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz. And the character was probably legendary Hollywood comedian and singer Eddie Cantor. So, even though the part was small, casting a well-known comic actor would have actually made sense. Unfortunately, Day didn't get the gig that he thought was beneath him. Maybe he can return the favor and invite Fincher to apply to guest-direct an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Get more Cracked directly to your inbox. Sign up for Cracked newsletters at Cracked News Letters Signup.

Kaitlin Olson Explains Why, Even on ‘High Potential,' Her Characters Always Find Humor in the Darkness
Kaitlin Olson Explains Why, Even on ‘High Potential,' Her Characters Always Find Humor in the Darkness

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Kaitlin Olson Explains Why, Even on ‘High Potential,' Her Characters Always Find Humor in the Darkness

Kaitlin Olson believes that being able to create genuine moments of levity in depressing situations is the secret to compelling television. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fans know that dark humor has been one of Olson's specialties since the Lethal Weapon sequels. On her smash hit ABC crime drama High Potential, Olson has had the opportunity to deviate from her typical TV type and play an intelligent, emotionally stable and productive member of society, as opposed to the mercurial addict roles she's used to knocking out of the park. Olson's High Potential character, Morgan Gillory, is a genius-level cleaning-lady-turned-crime-solver who helps the LAPD investigate some of the most grisly murders in Southern California while navigating her complicated personal life and raising her three kids on her own. Compared to Olson's other most famous characters on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Hacks, Morgan is a much more grounded and sympathetic figure to the massive High Potential audience, but Olson insists that, even on a broadcast TV police procedural, there's always room for a good laugh at a gory crime scene. In a recent talk with Deadline, Olson discussed her shift in focus from comedy to drama for High Potential, explaining that she still felt it was important for her to incorporate comedic elements into her performance, even if the show wasn't as joke-y as her usual projects. 'I wanted to create a character that was very well-rounded, and there's a lot going on in her life, she's always overwhelmed," Olson said. 'There's always a lot going on in her brain, and sometimes she's able to laugh at herself.' 'She definitely feels fine making fun of people, especially when they're underestimating her, so there's comedy in that,' Olson continued. 'That's just human nature.' And, even if Morgan's version of making fun of people is a calm, concise quip that deconstructs their facade, that doesn't make her casual destructions any less entertaining than when Sweet Dee drunkenly screams swears into a stranger's face. 'I think that the best character-driven dramatic pieces of material, whether it's TV or movies, have comedy sprinkled in, because that's life,' Olson posited. 'There are funny moments and there are snarky things to be said that can be funny, and you have to be able to laugh in dark times. That's just the way the world works, it's also just more fun to watch.' But, to be clear, Olson's dramatic chops are in no way overshadowed by her preternatural comedic timing in High Potential. Said Olson on her recent switch from comedy to drama, 'I grew up doing theater, so I've done all kinds of things and you get to see little glimpses of it in Hacks and the film Champions.' We also got to see her thespian side in a little regional theater production called The Nightman Cometh: Get more Cracked directly to your inbox. Sign up for Cracked newsletters at Cracked News Letters Signup.

"We're Done With The 90s": LeBron James Takes A Shot At Old School NBA Players While Discussing Basketball's Evolution
"We're Done With The 90s": LeBron James Takes A Shot At Old School NBA Players While Discussing Basketball's Evolution

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"We're Done With The 90s": LeBron James Takes A Shot At Old School NBA Players While Discussing Basketball's Evolution

"We're Done With The 90s": LeBron James Takes A Shot At Old School NBA Players While Discussing Basketball's Evolution originally appeared on Fadeaway World. LeBron James recently invited Kevin Durant on his "Mind The Game" podcast with Steve Nash. They discussed several aspects of NBA basketball, from trends to opinions and even the history of the game. While discussing the evolution of basketball from the 1990s to the modern-day game, James seemed to unintentionally take a shot at the 1990s players, seemingly in support of the 'We're done with the 90s' trend on TikTok. Advertisement He spoke with Durant and Nash on whether defense has gotten more creative or has the offensive game opened up further in the modern game. While James argued that the modern-day defense has boiled down to switching and talking trash, Nash argued that offensive avenues have opened up further in the modern game. 'I would almost flip it. It's not the defense, maybe defense has evolved now, but the offenses have challenged them more these days. New solutions, playing fast, shooting the ball from farther out, like you know, you watch clips from 15-20 years ago, like almost everybody's inside the three-point line,' said Nash. '15-20 years ago, sh** I was in the league. I thought you were about to say some sh** about the 90s man… We're done with the 90s!' exclaimed a 40-year-old James, realizing how long he had been in the league. Kevin Durant agreed and further claimed that the 1990s style of basketball "bled into" the 2000s so much that every team essentially had only one three-point shooter and the rest were players who only shot mid-range or closer. How Has Basketball Evolved Over The Years? Seeing the evolution of basketball into what it is today, from what it was just a few decades ago, is quite astonishing. Earlier, the average total scores for each team were much lower than what it is today. Some attribute this to better defense in the earlier days, and some attribute it to the efficient modern-day offense. Advertisement The average points per game for NBA teams in the 1990s was 101.3 points per game (ppg). This is lower than the 1980s (around 109 ppg) and significantly lower than the 1960s (115 ppg). But after the 1990s, the 2000s had an even lower team average of total points scored by each team (96.9 ppg). One could interpret the eras as follows: in the early 1960s and 1970s, the defensive game hadn't evolved as much as it did in terms of parity across all teams having strong defenders. Therefore, drive-in layups and mid-range shots were used sufficiently to generate points. In the 1980s and 1990s, defensive teams like the Bad Boy Pistons and prolific individual defenders like Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo, Michael Jordan, and David Robinson came to the spotlight. Hence, when defence became the blueprint to win, teams across the league saw a fall in their offensive efficiency even in the early 2000s. The 2010s (102.2 ppg) and 2020s (112.7 ppg) saw a rise in the offensive output due to the rise of the three-point shot in these generations. Players like Stephen Curry, Ray Allen, Kyle Korver, and Kevin Durant himself, pioneered the era that saw moving further away from the basket to score is also a viable solution. Related: LeBron James Reportedly "Wants Out Of LA" And Lakers "Want Him Gone" This story was originally reported by Fadeaway World on Jul 3, 2025, where it first appeared.

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