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Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who became America's son Theo Huxtable on 'The Cosby Show,' dies at 54
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the Emmy-nominated actor who starred as Theo Huxtable for eight seasons on "The Cosby Show," has died, The Times has confirmed. He was 54. Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department told the Associated Press on Monday that Warner drowned Sunday afternoon on a beach on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast. He was swimming at Playa Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean. Read more: Malcolm-Jamal Warner Plays Street Kid : Cosby's TV Son Breaks Out of His Clean-Cut Image First responders from Costa Rica's Red Cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue. Warner was on vacation with his family. Representatives for Warner declined to comment immediately Monday, but Warner's friends and colleagues poured out their thoughts on social media. "I love you, Malcolm," wrote Tracee Ellis Ross, who co-starred as Warner's wife on 29 episodes of "Reed Between the Lines." "First I met you as Theo with the rest of the world then you were my first TV husband. My heart is so so sad. What an actor and friend you were: warm, gentle, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, funny, elegant. You made the world a brighter place. Sending so much love to your family. I'm so sorry for this unimaginable loss." Morris Chestnut, who worked with Warner on "The Resident," was "heartbroken" to hear the news. Read more: Lynn Hamilton, veteran actor and dignified foil to Redd Foxx on 'Sanford and Son,' dies at 95 "He brought so much depth, warmth, and wisdom to every scene and every conversation," Chestnut wrote. "One of the nicest in the business. Rest easy, brother. Your legacy lives on." "The JOY in your voice as you spoke about your daughter the last time we talked is all I can think about in this moment ... Thank You for being a beautiful light. A Masterclass on the phrase 'a class act.' Well done," wrote singer-songwriter Ledisi, who worked with Warner in music and on TV. "Luke Cage" actor Mike Colter posted an all-smiles photo of himself and Warner that was taken when the two ran into each other about a year ago. They first connected during the pandemic lockdown, he said. "I was fascinated by his depth and concern for his fellow man. His compassion for his people. His musical gifts and expressions in spoken word," Colter wrote. "Yes of course I had watched him as I grew up on the Cosby Show but he had grown into so much more as an [artist] and a man. A father. Read more: Sly Stone, funk-rock progenitor and leader of the Family Stone, dies at 82 "I took this photo as his mother sat across from us. I complimented her on what a great job she had done with her son in this industry. He [turned] out so well," Colter continued. "My heart goes out to her. I never heard a harsh word [spoken] about him. His legacy will live on. I'm so sorry for this loss to his family and friends. i'm in shock to be honest." Holly Robinson Peete said she met Warner in the 1980s when her father was a writer-producer on "The Cosby Show." The two stayed friends over the years. "I'm struggling to process this," she wrote. "Malcolm was so deeply loved, respected, and a true icon of television. ... He was always gracious, kind, funny and gave the absolute best hugs. I am sending my deepest condolences to his mom, Pamela and his family… We aren't ready to say goodbye, Malcolm — but you lived with purpose, character, presence, and grace. Rest well, my friend. Your light lives on." "I actually am speechless!!!!! No words!," Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis wrote. "Theo was OUR son, OUR brother, OUR friend... He was absolutely so familiar, and we rejoiced at how TV got it right!! But... Malcolm got it right... and now... we reveled in your life and are gutted by this loss." Read more: As Theo Huxtable in 'The Cosby Show,' Malcolm-Jamal Warner was integral to 'America's family' Niecy Nash said she had just spoken to Warner. "You were giving me my flowers for my work in @grotesqueriefx and we talked about how happy we both were in our marriages," she wrote. " Damn friend ... You were cornerstone of The Cosby Show. We all loved Theo! Never to be forgotten. You will be missed. Rest Easy." Questlove said he saw himself in Theo Huxtable: being bad at football, wanting clothes he couldn't afford, hiding edgy things from the parents. "If you looked like me coming of age in the 80s, Malcom-as-Theo was a gps/lighthouse of navigating safety to adulthood. For those of us that didnt have 'examples' or 'safe environments' — I would like to think for anyone of age we used this entire show —and its offspring as life blueprints," the music producer and drummer wrote. In addition to acting on "The Cosby Show," Warner directed five episodes over the final three years of the show. He was behind the camera for a half-dozen installments of "All That" and also directed episodes of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "The Resident," "Kenan & Kel" and "Reed Between the Lines." Read more: Profile : Life After Theo : Malcolm-Jamal Warner plans to direct during and after 'Cosby's' last season 'Part of the reason I even got into directing is because I realized as an actor you really only have so much creative control over whatever project you're acting in,' Warner told The Times in 1991. 'I felt that, as a director, I would at least have more of a voice.' He continued, saying, "Directing, as is acting and writing, is an interpretation. And I feel that I have a pretty good sense of how to tell a story. And I think that my interpretation of things is pretty, pretty good." Born Aug. 18, 1970, in Jersey City, N.J., Warner was named after activist Malcolm X and jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. He caught the performing bug by the time he was 9 and wound up attending Manhattan's Professional Children's School, which counts him among its "distinguished alumni." His parents divorced when he was 3 and he was raised primarily by his mother, Pamela, who served as his manager in the early days of his career. Read more: Is it too late to reverse Hollywood's runaway production? Writers on the 'stark' reality "I think probably the biggest influence — and I talk about this all the time, and I will probably continue to talk about this until my dying day — my mother. I think she really made the most impact on me," he said. Working on "The Cosby Show" in New York instead of Hollywood was another formative experience for him when the sitcom was the most popular thing on TV. 'There weren't really many other shows shooting in New York. We all had to grow up with friends who were not in the business,' Warner told People in 2024. 'And when you grow up in New York, there's a different exposure to reality than when you grow up on television in Hollywood.' After getting an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in 1986, for his work on "Cosby," Warner went on to amass dozens of TV credits. They include four seasons as the lead actor on "Malcolm & Eddie" — he directed 17 episodes on that UPN show — and six seasons as A.J. Austin on "The Resident." Read more: LA Times Today: We need to talk about 'The Cosby Show.' Should we watch it? Other appearances included work on "Sons of Anarchy," "Major Crimes," "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce" and "Suits." Warner also won a Grammy for traditional R&B performance in 2015 for the song "Jesus Children" and was nominated for spoken word poetry album in 2023. His band Miles Long incorporated spoken word and funk. The band released "The Miles Long Mixtape" in 2004 and "Love & Other Social Issues" in 2007. "Selfless" dropped in 2015 and "Hiding in Plain View" came out in 2022. "I've been writing all my life and playing bass came later on, when I was about 26," Warner told Billboard in 2015. "What I recognized with poetry and music [is] that I had a different voice — there were things I wanted to express that I could not as an actor or even as a director. It was another avenue of expression that my soul needs." Read more: Malcolm-Jamal Warner: Cosby rape allegations are 'painful' Of course, he was asked for his thoughts on co-star Bill Cosby when Cosby was accused of rape in 2015. 'He's one of my mentors, and he's been very influential and played a big role in my life as a friend and mentor,' Warner told Billboard. 'Just as it's painful to hear any woman talk about sexual assault, whether true or not, it's just as painful to watch my friend and mentor go through this.' Warner was very happy in his own marriage, though he kept his wife and daughter's identities private. 'When people say, when you know, you know. That's what this feeling is," he said on the "Hot & Bothered" podcast in May. "We've been together almost 10 years. We've never had a fight, an argument, a raised voice or a harsh word. Not that we've always agreed. We're just at a point where we have a way of communicating.' After playing clean-cut Theodore Huxtable, Warner was looking for other paths when he talked to The Times in 1987. 'In my post-'Cosby' life, as I call it, I don't want to be known as just the kind of guy who can play a Theo Huxtable-type character,' Warner said. 'I want to be known as being able to do more things, being able to stretch. For me that was the most important thing.' The Associated Press contributed to this report. Sign up for Screen Gab, a free newsletter about the TV and movies everyone's talking about from the L.A. Times. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nobody wants to hang out on TV anymore
Back in the day, you could turn on your television, tune to any number of channels and see a group of four to six beautiful and quirky friends lounging around, talking about their lives, sharing the details of their recent bad dates, complaining about unruly bosses and bonding over the latest antics of weird neighbors. Cheers, Friends, How I Met Your Mother and New Girl all followed this model. This was called hangout TV. It still exists today, but you don't see characters just congregating at a coffee shop or meeting for nightly drinks at the same watering hole quite like they used to. In the most prestigious and talked-about shows these days, many of which were nominated for multiple Emmys on Tuesday, they're solving problems at work (Severance, The Studio), scrambling to save lives (The Pitt, Grey's Anatomy), investigating crimes (Only Murders in the Building, Slow Horses) or getting into trouble on vacation (The White Lotus). Aside from a couple of new shows driven by the TikTok-famous personalities that star in them, like Overcompensating and Adults, which are well reviewed but not broadly watched, it seems like no one wants to hang out on TV anymore. How did a trend that seemed to rule the small screen seemingly disappear entirely? 'Nostalgia is a powerful force' Between 2015 and 2023, networks and streaming platforms were churning out high volumes of critically acclaimed shows. Now that the so-called Peak TV era is over and the number of original series made for adults has declined dramatically, viewers are relying on old standbys more than ever. According to the May 2025 trend report from audience data company Digital i, viewers are still drawn to nostalgic shows they know and love, like The Big Bang Theory, Gilmore Girls and Friends. Bob Batchelor, a cultural historian and assistant communications professor at Coastal Carolina University, tells Yahoo that now 'streaming platforms prioritize proven comfort titles over investing in new, ensemble-based, lower-concept comedies that take time to build an audience." Batchelor explains that streaming platforms are risk-averse, so the fact that hangout shows take a while to find and create a bond with a loyal audience makes them a tougher sell. Even Seinfeld, the quintessential hangout series that proudly billed itself as a show about nothing, took a while to land. But once it did, it had legions of fans for life. Today it's easier for networks and streamers to just pay to license Seinfeld and let nostalgia viewers stream it endlessly than to find the Seinfeld of a new generation. "Nostalgia is a powerful force," he says. A relic of a different time We're not hanging out on TV, and we're not hanging out to watch it together either. Americans spend more time alone now compared with any other time in human history. The average time spent socializing has declined over the past decade. The quiet activity of TV-watching used to bring people together. Julie Ferris-Tillman, a communications expert, tells Yahoo that television once served as 'the family hearth.' 'We gathered as a family and watched TV by appointment viewing. Stations programmed based on family routines, [which] bore the best results for advertisers and audience targeting,' she says. 'Instead of representing our cultural prowess by talking about Thursday night's episode of Friends at the water cooler, now we share on our [social media] feeds those cultural moments that represent us … viewers don't need to watch together to hang out; they just need to prove they watch.' People aren't even hanging out in the way that used to be portrayed on TV either. Chris Hite, a filmmaker and professor at Alan Hancock College, tells Yahoo that 'shows like Friends and Cheers reflected a time of gregariousness in American society that may not return.' 'The unfortunate reality is that the No. 1 condition that made 'hanging out' possible in those shows — economy — no longer provides the proper conditions for it to occur,' Hite says. 'I still watch Friends regularly. It is and has been a tremendously funny show with great characters, but now I am more interested in noting all that was present in the show that has disappeared from the American landscape and the fabric of American society: the twin towers, the ease and affordability of travel, availability of employment options, live entertainment [and] affordable coffee.' The dominant millennial style of hanging out today looks more like a workplace comedy like The Office. The series is also a popular nostalgia-watch but is soon to have its own spin-off in September. Shows currently on the air like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Abbott Elementary, Tires and The Bear all technically fall into this category. Their characters are falling in love, getting into hijinks, navigating professional problems and finding their closest friends at work instead of home or a designated third place for hanging out. Shows — and their audiences — are multitasking There is an element of hanging out that is crucial to shows that technically fall into other genres too — especially shows that defy typical TV conventions. Rian Johnson created the mystery series Poker Face to subvert tropes left and right. Rather than a typical 'whodunnit,' it's a 'whydunnit' or 'howcatchem' that focuses on the motive behind a crime and how the suspect is caught rather than just who did it. Johnson tells Yahoo he cast Natasha Lyonne as the lead because the unconventional show needed someone 'who is not just a really good actor but is a presence on the screen that you just want to hang out with.' Each episode sees Lyonne dropped into a new setting with new costars and characters. She plays Charlie Cale, who has a knack for telling when people are lying, so each week we follow her sleuthing as we would the title character of Colombo. 'That's a really rare, unique thing, and I feel that Natasha is one of the few people on earth who has that … it's a hangout show, really,' Johnson says. 'The mystery is kind of second-tier to [audiences] wanting to hang out with Charlie Cale every week.' Poker Face might be the exception to the rule. Without lovable characters and nail-biting plot points driving each episode, would watching a true-to-its-2025-setting hangout show even be that much fun? In real life, people are on their phones and use social media too much, and that would look odd — or at least uninteresting — onscreen. Lori Bindig Yousman, a communications professor at Sacred Heart University, tells Yahoo that 'the characters of Friends or Seinfeld could sit around and have uninterrupted conversations because they didn't have distractions like their smartphones to pull them away from their conversations.' 'If those same sorts of scenes appeared in a show today, audiences wouldn't find their behavior realistic because they would expect the characters to be constantly texting, scrolling, liking or taking selfies just like we do in our real-life hangouts,' she says. We're probably on our phones while watching those shows too, Yousman says, which might also contribute to the popularity of nostalgic shows we've already seen. 'Audiences who are already familiar with these shows can easily watch them while multitasking because they already know the characters and the general storylines,' she says. It's mindless viewing, just like scrolling. Everyone's just hanging out online Though experts agree that the television landscape has shifted away from hangout shows, that doesn't mean people don't still crave the feeling of hanging out with a character. They've just taken those interactions and feelings online, instead of sitting in front of a TV screen. Roy Orecchio, a TV showrunner and associate film professor at Arizona State University, tells Yahoo there's actually 'more hangout content than has ever existed, but those hangouts are not happening on legacy broadcast or legacy cable television networks.' Since people now go online to see content tailored to them, they expect more niche content and a more interactive experience. Hangout TV still exists — it's just user-generated. Max Cutler, founder of content creation company PAVE Studios, tells Yahoo that 'hangout energy has migrated into the world of video podcasts' too. His goal is to help produce shows that feel like friend groups you can catch up with any time, tapping into the existing audiences that content creators already have. Those influencers know that YouTube, where they can upload podcasts and other kinds of video, is the best place to grow a huge audience. The platform is technically the biggest television distributor in the world, according to Nielsen data from April 2025. That means it's bigger than Disney, Netflix, Paramount and any other network or streaming service you could think of. The way people consume entertainment has clearly shifted, and so has the way people hang out — of course hangout TV is part of that. Cutler says that online creators have been able to match the production schedules of traditional TV while giving people what they truly want these days: authenticity. That allows for them to build the type of emotional connection and community that traditional television shows just can't. People are resistant to things that feel manufactured, even if that has traditionally meant that they are well-produced. Entertainment is always evolving But don't give up on the hangout show altogether. Tim Stevens, a writer for the office of marketing and communications at Connecticut College, tells Yahoo that the decline of hangout TV could just be part of the 'cycle and churn of TV.' 'For a time, serialized dramas ruled. Then, perhaps, procedurals, or supernatural shows or sitcoms. Some of this is just the natural process of peaks and valleys,' he says. 'Apps like TikTok are filled with scenes and edited pieces showcasing the best jokes or characters from hangout shows past and present. Some accounts exist purely to provide this content.' People still want to hang out with their favorite characters; they just want to do it on their own terms. It's a problem too modern to be solved on something so antiquated as a television screen. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nobody wants to hang out on TV anymore
Back in the day, you could turn on your television, tune to any number of channels and see a group of four to six beautiful and quirky friends lounging around, talking about their lives, sharing the details of their recent bad dates, complaining about unruly bosses and bonding over the latest antics of weird neighbors. Cheers, Friends, How I Met Your Mother and New Girl all followed this model. This was called hangout TV. It still exists today, but you don't see characters just congregating at a coffee shop or meeting for nightly drinks at the same watering hole quite like they used to. In the most prestigious and talked-about shows these days, many of which were nominated for multiple Emmys on Tuesday, they're solving problems at work (Severance, The Studio), scrambling to save lives (The Pitt, Grey's Anatomy), investigating crimes (Only Murders in the Building, Slow Horses) or getting into trouble on vacation (The White Lotus). Aside from a couple of new shows driven by the TikTok-famous personalities that star in them, like Overcompensating and Adults, which are well reviewed but not broadly watched, it seems like no one wants to hang out on TV anymore. How did a trend that seemed to rule the small screen seemingly disappear entirely? Between 2015 and 2023, networks and streaming platforms were churning out high volumes of critically acclaimed shows. Now that the so-called Peak TV era is over and the number of original series made for adults has declined dramatically, viewers are relying on old standbys more than ever. According to the May 2025 trend report from audience data company Digital i, viewers are still drawn to nostalgic shows they know and love, like The Big Bang Theory, Gilmore Girls and Friends. Bob Batchelor, a cultural historian and assistant communications professor at Coastal Carolina University, tells Yahoo that now 'streaming platforms prioritize proven comfort titles over investing in new, ensemble-based, lower-concept comedies that take time to build an audience." Batchelor explains that streaming platforms are risk-averse, so the fact that hangout shows take a while to find and create a bond with a loyal audience makes them a tougher sell. Even Seinfeld, the quintessential hangout series that proudly billed itself as a show about nothing, took a while to land. But once it did, it had legions of fans for life. Today it's easier for networks and streamers to just pay to license Seinfeld and let nostalgia viewers stream it endlessly than to find the Seinfeld of a new generation. "Nostalgia is a powerful force," he says. We're not hanging out on TV, and we're not hanging out to watch it together either. Americans spend more time alone now compared with any other time in human history. The average time spent socializing has declined over the past decade. The quiet activity of TV-watching used to bring people together. Julie Ferris-Tillman, a communications expert, tells Yahoo that television once served as 'the family hearth.' 'We gathered as a family and watched TV by appointment viewing. Stations programmed based on family routines, [which] bore the best results for advertisers and audience targeting,' she says. 'Instead of representing our cultural prowess by talking about Thursday night's episode of Friends at the water cooler, now we share on our [social media] feeds those cultural moments that represent us … viewers don't need to watch together to hang out; they just need to prove they watch.' People aren't even hanging out in the way that used to be portrayed on TV either. Chris Hite, a filmmaker and professor at Alan Hancock College, tells Yahoo that 'shows like Friends and Cheers reflected a time of gregariousness in American society that may not return.' 'The unfortunate reality is that the No. 1 condition that made 'hanging out' possible in those shows — economy — no longer provides the proper conditions for it to occur,' Hite says. 'I still watch Friends regularly. It is and has been a tremendously funny show with great characters, but now I am more interested in noting all that was present in the show that has disappeared from the American landscape and the fabric of American society: the twin towers, the ease and affordability of travel, availability of employment options, live entertainment [and] affordable coffee.' The dominant millennial style of hanging out today looks more like a workplace comedy like The Office. The series is also a popular nostalgia-watch but is soon to have its own spin-off in September. Shows currently on the air like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Abbott Elementary, Tires and The Bear all technically fall into this category. Their characters are falling in love, getting into hijinks, navigating professional problems and finding their closest friends at work instead of home or a designated third place for hanging out. There is an element of hanging out that is crucial to shows that technically fall into other genres too — especially shows that defy typical TV conventions. Rian Johnson created the mystery series Poker Face to subvert tropes left and right. Rather than a typical 'whodunnit,' it's a 'whydunnit' or 'howcatchem' that focuses on the motive behind a crime and how the suspect is caught rather than just who did it. Johnson tells Yahoo he cast Natasha Lyonne as the lead because the unconventional show needed someone 'who is not just a really good actor but is a presence on the screen that you just want to hang out with.' Each episode sees Lyonne dropped into a new setting with new costars and characters. She plays Charlie Cale, who has a knack for telling when people are lying, so each week we follow her sleuthing as we would the title character of Colombo. 'That's a really rare, unique thing, and I feel that Natasha is one of the few people on earth who has that … it's a hangout show, really,' Johnson says. 'The mystery is kind of second-tier to [audiences] wanting to hang out with Charlie Cale every week.' Poker Face might be the exception to the rule. Without lovable characters and nail-biting plot points driving each episode, would watching a true-to-its-2025-setting hangout show even be that much fun? In real life, people are on their phones and use social media too much, and that would look odd — or at least uninteresting — onscreen. Lori Bindig Yousman, a communications professor at Sacred Heart University, tells Yahoo that 'the characters of Friends or Seinfeld could sit around and have uninterrupted conversations because they didn't have distractions like their smartphones to pull them away from their conversations.' 'If those same sorts of scenes appeared in a show today, audiences wouldn't find their behavior realistic because they would expect the characters to be constantly texting, scrolling, liking or taking selfies just like we do in our real-life hangouts,' she says. We're probably on our phones while watching those shows too, Yousman says, which might also contribute to the popularity of nostalgic shows we've already seen. 'Audiences who are already familiar with these shows can easily watch them while multitasking because they already know the characters and the general storylines,' she says. It's mindless viewing, just like scrolling. Though experts agree that the television landscape has shifted away from hangout shows, that doesn't mean people don't still crave the feeling of hanging out with a character. They've just taken those interactions and feelings online, instead of sitting in front of a TV screen. Roy Orecchio, a TV showrunner and associate film professor at Arizona State University, tells Yahoo there's actually 'more hangout content than has ever existed, but those hangouts are not happening on legacy broadcast or legacy cable television networks.' Since people now go online to see content tailored to them, they expect more niche content and a more interactive experience. Hangout TV still exists — it's just user-generated. Max Cutler, founder of content creation company PAVE Studios, tells Yahoo that 'hangout energy has migrated into the world of video podcasts' too. His goal is to help produce shows that feel like friend groups you can catch up with any time, tapping into the existing audiences that content creators already have. Those influencers know that YouTube, where they can upload podcasts and other kinds of video, is the best place to grow a huge audience. The platform is technically the biggest television distributor in the world, according to Nielsen data from April 2025. That means it's bigger than Disney, Netflix, Paramount and any other network or streaming service you could think of. The way people consume entertainment has clearly shifted, and so has the way people hang out — of course hangout TV is part of that. Cutler says that online creators have been able to match the production schedules of traditional TV while giving people what they truly want these days: authenticity. That allows for them to build the type of emotional connection and community that traditional television shows just can't. People are resistant to things that feel manufactured, even if that has traditionally meant that they are well-produced. But don't give up on the hangout show altogether. Tim Stevens, a writer for the office of marketing and communications at Connecticut College, tells Yahoo that the decline of hangout TV could just be part of the 'cycle and churn of TV.' 'For a time, serialized dramas ruled. Then, perhaps, procedurals, or supernatural shows or sitcoms. Some of this is just the natural process of peaks and valleys,' he says. 'Apps like TikTok are filled with scenes and edited pieces showcasing the best jokes or characters from hangout shows past and present. Some accounts exist purely to provide this content.' People still want to hang out with their favorite characters; they just want to do it on their own terms. It's a problem too modern to be solved on something so antiquated as a television screen.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dave Flebotte Dies; Emmy-Nominated Writer Worked On ‘Tulsa King' & ‘Desperate Housewives'
Dave Flebotte, an Emmy-nominated TV writer who worked on dramas like Desperate Housewives and sitcoms such as The Bernie Mac Show, has died. Flebotte served as a co-executive producer on Housewives from 2008-2012. His former DH colleague Sabrina Wind wrote on Facebook Tuesday that Flebotte was 'so funny, so kind, such a great writer, such a beautiful friend. You brought joy into our lives, but were also there for me at some of my lowest moments. So grateful you were in my life.' More from Deadline Doc Talk Podcast Debates Early Oscar Contenders: Who's Leading The Best Documentary Charge And Who Belongs In Contention Johnny Depp On 'Fantastic Beasts' Recasting: "They Wanted Me To Retire" Theo Rossi Making Feature Directorial Debut With Action Heist Pic 'Shell Game' Flebotte began his TV writing career in comedy, starting on The 5 Mrs. Buchanans and Ellen, and later on Suddenly Susan, The PJs, and The Geena Davis Show. His other sitcom credits include The Bernie Mac Show, 8 Simple Rules and Will & Grace. In 2009, he created the comedy Sherri with Sherri Shepherd. After Housewives, Flebotte went on to write for Boardwalk Empire, Masters of Sex, and I'm Dying Up Here. His last gig was on Tulsa King. In 1999, he received an nomination for The PJs. He was also nominated twice for a WGA Award for his work on Boardwalk Empire. Cindy Caponera, who worked with Flebotte on I'm Dying Up Here and Sherri, wrote this tribute on Instagram: 'Never in all of my television writing days did I meet a man so funny and kind, openhearted, smaht – he was from Boston after all – and so talented. He was an incredibly loyal friend. I also never met a writer who loved writing as much as he did. And he was so incredibly good at it. And throughout his entire illness, he never stopped creating and working – never complaining- just such a great example of how to live and love. Everyone should have at least one Dave Flebotte in their life. I'll miss you, pal.' Laurie Parres (Fast Layne, Charmed) shared this on Facebook: 'You'll always be present-tense, Dave, just like Kevin Rooney. The funniest of the funniest. Unparalleled at spotting the absurd and transmuting it into comic relief, turning what stings into what saves us. The world's a lot funnier — and easier to take — through your eyes. I'd love to hear your take now that you know and see everything.' Deadline will update this post when more information becomes of Deadline The Story Behind Homer's 'The Odyssey': Illustrated Artworks Of The Legendary Tales Related To Gods, Monsters & Odysseus' Epic Return 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025 Deaths Photo Gallery: Hollywood & Media Obituaries
Irish Times
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Megan Stalter: ‘I'm a loud woman from a loud family: 20 cousins, mostly women, a few males thrown in'
When Lena Dunham messaged, Megan Stalter lost it. 'Like d'uhh,' Stalter is explaining – delighting, really. 'Who wouldn't? I was at home: this really bad apartment in Laurel Canyon [in the Hollywood Hills]. The area is haunted, and it was actually a really scary building, and nothing ever got fixed because apparently in the lease I signed they didn't have to repair anything! I don't actually live there now ...' Stalter, 34, has a tendency to wander off on tangents. So Dunham? 'Okay, yes, so we were just about to start filming Hacks again.' The wildly popular, 48-times-Emmy-nominated HBO comedy in which Stalter plays nepo baby Kayla, a chaotic and kind-hearted talent agent, her total-commitment-to-the-bit characterisation making her a breakout star. 'And there Lena was in my DMs.' Stalter opened the message, which said: 'I have a project I want to talk to you about.' 'That's when I lost my mind,' she adds. 'Panic set in. 'I'm not,' Stalter clarifies, 'a celebrity person. I don't fangirl over people – but with Lena I do. She's a creative genius; I'm such a Girls nut, and always felt so connected to her.' In its six seasons, Dunham's HBO hit transformed television through its unflinching portrayal of millennial women. Eight years since the final episode broadcast, the Dunham buzz hasn't abated. READ MORE Breathe, Stalter had to remind herself. 'Okay, calm down, diva – 'project' is vague. It might be a commercial, an event, a task, maybe.' Not that Stalter was fussy. 'Anything she wanted me to do, I would obviously say yes.' Turns out, Dunham didn't need errands running. 'And thank God, honestly.' Dunham was in the early stages of developing Too Much, her semi-autobiographical Netflix 10-parter, which is released on 10 July. Following Jessica (Stalter), an American thirtysomething workaholic who relocates from New York to England in the deepest throes of heartbreak, the show plays out as an offbeat romcom, with Will Sharpe (The White Lotus, Flowers) playing the indie-musician love interest. Stalter's attempts at regional British accents, and a cocaine-fuelled dance break from Richard E Grant, are some of the show's unexpected highlights. Loosely, it's based on Dunham's own experiences: after splitting from music producer Jack Antonoff, she met her now husband, British musician Luis Felber, in London. They wrote Too Much together. 'Jessica is going through a really horrible breakup,' Stalter says, 'and this person she was with previously made her feel she's 'too much', and not in a good way. She falls for someone new pretty quickly who does accept who she is and, when she's surrounded by people who appreciate her, realises she's yes, a little bit much, in a great way.' In the show, Dunham plays Jessica's older sister. 'When Lena and I got on Zoom we just clicked. She said right away that if Girls was about sex and discovering who you are, Too Much is a story of love and discovering acceptance. For Lena, like Jessica, finding someone who accepted her the way she is encourages her to embrace herself.' [ Lena Dunham: 'There's so much judgment around bigger bodies, like bigger women are stupider' Opens in new window ] Pre-Hacks, Dunham had been introduced to Stalter by Andrew Scott, who drops by for a cameo in this series. 'From the moment I conceived the character,' Dunham says, 'even before I began collaborating with Luis, it was always Meg. I had a feeling that she could be both intensely funny and do something darker and more vulnerable.' Pre-Hacks, Stalter built a cult social media following, regularly posting clips of kooky skits and characters (small-town butter shop during Pride month; Woman flirts at a bowling alley) that caught Dunham's eye. 'Meg is never looking down on the characters she plays,' she says, 'no matter how delusional or silly they may seem. She truly falls in love with, and goes to bat for, whoever she's playing – and it's contagious.' It's late March when I first meet Stalter, in the lobby of a central London hotel. Shooting on Too Much has wrapped, but it's early stages in the months-long slog of a press and promo schedule a Dunham x Netflix collab demands. She's late, 15 minutes maybe, although she's staying right upstairs. 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!' she gushes, all smiles, dropping her teddy bear phone case on the table. 'We were working on the ponytail for the day and got carried away! Almond latte?' Both Stalter and Dunham found bringing Jessica to life an intimate undertaking. Long before shooting started, they spoke extensively about the material and Dunham's own experiences. Script by script, they'd dissect. 'Lena had a small writers' room where they'd bounce ideas together,' says Stalter, 'then after that, it would come to me, and I would have lots of questions: her previous bad relationship; her family; how she was feeling.' Dunham remembers these well. 'Meg is a very intuitive performer,' she tells me, 'not method, but she has her method. She asks specific questions that may seem random or left-of-centre and then it always finds its way into the work.' Stalter made lists of how she and Jessica were similar, then differed. 'So, like, in common: we are both very anxious people. Not in common: she's lost her dad, I haven't. Jessica is straight and I'm a mostly lesbian bisexual. But I have dated men. And Jessica might not date women, but sexuality is a spectrum ... Me and Lena both agreed that if she'd explored a little, maaaaaybe she would have dated women.' Too Much: Megan Stalter as Jessica and Will Sharpe as Felix. Photograph: Ana Blumenkron/Netflix Too Much: Megan Stalter as Jessica and Lena Dunham as Nora. Photograph: Ana Blumenkron/Netflix On set, over four months in London, this proximity continued. 'If it felt like an emotional scene,' says Stalter, 'I'd want a moment just with her, so I felt more connected.' There's a post-coital scene where Jessica's sexual self-confidence falters. 'Lena and I talked a lot about how, after a breakup, no matter how hot or beautiful you feel and are, you can be so beaten down that insecurity hits.' The pair spoke extensively, too, about the show's title, with its heap of gendered connotations. Is 'you're too much' a phrase she's had lobbed in her direction? Stalter furrows her brow. 'Excuse me, sir, no; people see me as calm, cool and collected.' Three seconds of deadpan, before the laughter erupts. 'I am definitely seen as too much. Any loud woman will be told she's too much at some point. We are made to feel small or too big, sometimes both at the same time, unless we're neatly in a perfect box. 'A lot of women experience it: me and Lena were both told we were too much, but then decided we like that about ourselves. I think it's so sexy to be loud and funny, weird and strange, silly and goofy. It was at school that I realised those traits are often welcomed in boys, but not girls.' At the Stalter family home in Cleveland, Ohio, this just wasn't the case. 'I'm a loud woman from a loud family: 20 cousins, mostly women, a few males thrown in, I guess.' Dad's a tattoo artist, and mum a nurse. 'I have two sisters, a brother and lots of aunts. These are funny, opinionated, not-very-quiet women with big personalities – and that was totally normal. So it was, umm, interesting to then be in the real world where women are made to feel they can't be those things.' She scrunches her face, lugging her voice up an octave: 'We're told to be polite and small and dainty.' Pitch back down. 'But that's not me, girl.' She found this first at school. 'I was a cheerleader, but like, a nerdy one. Not popular. Teachers made me feel small and not smart. I found myself shrinking into myself, getting quiet and nervous, except in drama and performance. I'd never get good parts; people thought I was bad, but I could be myself at least.' Through her late teens, Stalter tried all sorts at community college. Teaching wasn't a good fit. Neither was nursing. 'Listen, nurses are incredible,' she says, 'but I'm not supposed to be a nurse. I pass out at blood. Emotionally I was into it, but practically, it was not working.' Nothing was sticking. I'm actually very nice. But I feel so confident on stage acting this crazy bitch. Something inside of me is over the top. When I'm at my most relaxed and comfortable, like on stage, it also comes out of me — Megan Stalter 'Okay, so I also love Jesus,' she continues, no change in pace. 'I'm a real God-girlie. If I wasn't going to do something I loved, I wanted to do something that helped God. I tried some mission work, and stuff with my church.' She attended a Pentecostal church from a young age, and aged 20 spent six months with a Christian youth organisation in South America. She gave Bible school a go, too. 'I tried for several years, but I really missed performing. I thought: 'If this is in me, maybe it's my service. Maybe God wants me to do what I really want to do, and share it with the world.'' Stalter joined a local improv class. 'I thought I was so good,' she says, 'but everyone there for some reason kept telling me I wasn't? Later on, a friend told me I was a bit like Michael Scott in The Office: walking on and messing things up. But I always felt deluded in my talent and how special I was, which really kept me going until I actually got good.' Aged 24, she moved to Chicago to pursue standup. 'And I performed for years there. It went okay, but not much was happening for me.' Everything changed when she started posting – an art for which Stalter has a knack – launching a spoof self-titled online talkshow. 'I was on Instagram live every night with a new theme. I'd set up weird things: 'Crazy trip to Paris night'; be a travel agent and pretend to book things. That is when it all took off.' In 2019, she moved to New York, and the gigs kept coming: Hacks, indie film Cora Bora, sell-out standup shows and now Too Much. In June, we speak again over Zoom, Stalter now back at home in Los Angeles in a thankfully ghost-free residence, with her girlfriend. 'Oh, and our two kitties, and a terrier who is really attached to me. Too attached, really. The separation anxiety is a problem.' It's intense, Los Angeles right now: anti-ICE protests and the general bad Donald Trump vibes percolating. 'It's really upsetting,' Stalter says, 'devastating and scary.' She's been to some marches. 'People have to keep coming together to protest and support one another. We're fighting for each other.' Throwing herself into Too Much has been a much-welcomed escape. [ Lena Dunham: 'I thought I could hear what a hideous cow I was and still feel I'm essentially lovely' Opens in new window ] It's no affront to Stalter's range to see a throughline from her characters: from those early viral creations all the way to Jessica. Whether self-invented for standup and socials, or brought to life from scripts on screen, they tend to be big, bold, slightly berserk. 'What,' she's grinning, 'am I not as crazy as you expected? I like to play people who are nervous-confident: women who have a level of self-love but are falling apart and pretend they're not. I do a lot of standup with a persona I've built, too, where the character – me – pretends to be really talented but the show crumbles.' Stalter sees some of herself in these characters. 'I'm wild in that way,' she says, 'although I'm not horrible, I'm actually very nice. But I feel so confident on stage acting this crazy bitch. Something inside of me is over the top. When I'm at my most relaxed and comfortable, like on stage, it also comes out of me.' Playing characters who often move through the world unconcerned by judgment has made Stalter reflect. 'There's something really freeing about playing someone like that,' she believes. 'In real life, I'm such a people pleaser. I struggle with wanting everyone to be happy all the time, for them to be happy with me, scared of upsetting someone or having someone be mad at me. It's my greatest fear: like I'm going to die if someone is mad at me. It's something I'm working on in therapy.' Might that be a tricky trait in her industry? Dunham told New York magazine in 2024 she refrained from casting herself as the lead in part because she 'was just not up for having my body dissected again'. Too Much is Stalter's first leading TV role, and it's a big-hitter: there will be reviews, comparisons to Girls, so much more exposure. Stalter feigns a look of panic at the prospect. 'Wouldn't it be so funny if I passed out?' She smacks her hand on the table, leaving her latte wobbling. Another smile. She shrugs off the pressure. 'I'm a woman comedian who puts stuff on the internet, babe,' comes her reply, 'and I'm not skinny. So I've already had the meanest stuff said about me. Any woman posting – yes, skinny women, too – will get it. So I'm not worried when someone says something unkind, or doesn't like me in a show, honestly. I literally have a viral clip that's me reading out the worst, craziest abuse: 'Fat white comedian does crazy bomb set.'' She pauses for a moment. 'It's only in my personal life that I'm a massive people pleaser. If strangers say they hate Too Much, or me, whatever: I think I'm hot, I love how I look, and I love my comedy. I am who I am, and can't be anything but my loud self.' – Guardian Too Much is on Netflix from July 20th
