Portal:Television

The Television Portal

Flat-screen television receivers on display for sale at a consumer electronics store in 2008

Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set, rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, entertainment, news, and sports. The medium is capable of more than "radio broadcasting", which refers to an audio signal sent to radio receivers.

Television became available in crude experimental forms in the 1920s, but only after several years of further development was the new technology marketed to consumers. After World War II, an improved form of black-and-white television broadcasting became popular in the United Kingdom and the United States, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the U.S. and most other developed countries.

In 2013, 79% of the world's households owned a television set. The replacement of earlier cathode-ray tube (CRT) screen displays with compact, energy-efficient, flat-panel alternative technologies such as LCDs (both fluorescent-backlit and LED), OLED displays, and plasma displays was a hardware revolution that began with computer monitors in the late 1990s. Most television sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs. Major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, Digital Light Processing (DLP), plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. LEDs are being gradually replaced by OLEDs. Also, major manufacturers have started increasingly producing smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s. (Full article...)

Selected article -

"No Such Thing as Vampires" is the pilot episode of the American paranormal romance television drama Moonlight, which premiered on CBS on September 28, 2007. It was written by series creators/executive producers Trevor Munson and Ron Koslow, and directed by executive producer Rod Holcomb. The pilot introduces Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin), a private investigator who has been a vampire for over 50 years; Beth Turner (Sophia Myles), St. John's love interest; Josef Kostan (Jason Dohring), St. John's mentor and friend; and Coraline Duvall (Shannyn Sossamon), St. John's ex-wife and sire.

Selected image -

Telefunken television, 1936

Early television model, from 1936, produced by Telefunken, Germany

Did you know (auto-generated) -

• ... that Svalbard Minute by Minute, a 221-hour-long television broadcast, is credited with increasing tourism in Svalbard by 25 percent?
• ... that DTK Computer was one of the first companies to have its computers sold via satellite television?
• ... that Laura Robinson invented Canada's best-selling board game before becoming a successful actress and television producer?
• ... that John Seigenthaler hosted a literary interview program which ran for 42 years on Nashville Public Television?
• ... that television production companies working in Bhadun, Bangladesh, can hire a local woman as an extra for ৳500 (US$5.30) per day?
• ... that Montana television station KOPR-TV brought forward its start date by several months, only to last just one year?

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More did you know

• ...that copies of the 1982 biopic Will: G. Gordon Liddy, about a Watergate co-conspirator, are stored in the Nixon Presidential Materials collection at the U.S. National Archives?

• ...that the 1994 Guinness television advertisement Anticipation used jump cutting techniques to make an actor appear to be performing a physically impossible dance?

• ...that the participants of the Channel 4 programme Dumped were not told that they would be living on a landfill site for three weeks?

• ...that Melbourne rock band The Strangers appeared on weekly television for nine years straight?

• ...that British television programmes including Cluedo and The Forsythe Saga were partly filmed at Arley Hall in Cheshire?

Selected biography -

Jennings in 2002

Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings CM (July 29, 1938 – August 7, 2005) was a Canadian-American television journalist, best known for serving as the sole anchor of ABC World News Tonight from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005. Despite dropping out of high school, Jennings transformed himself into one of American television's most prominent journalists.

Jennings started his career early, hosting a Canadian radio show at age 9. He began his professional career with CJOH-TV in Ottawa during its early years, anchoring the local newscasts and hosting the teen dance show Saturday Date on Saturdays. In 1965, ABC News tapped him to anchor its flagship evening news program. Critics and others in the television news business attacked his inexperience, making his job difficult. He became a foreign correspondent in 1968, reporting from the Middle East. (Full article...)

General images

The following are images from various television-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
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  Hovannes Adamian c. 1900s (from Color television)
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  Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
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  LG Smart TV using the Web browser (from Smart TV)
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  First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
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  This live image of actress Paddy Naismith was used to demonstrate Telechrome, John Logie Baird's first all-electronic color television system, which used two projection CRTs. The two-color image would be similar to the basic Telechrome system. (from Color television)
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  Samsung's discontinued Orsay platform (from Smart TV)
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  Comparison of image quality between ISDB-T (1080i broadcast, top) and NTSC (480i transmission, bottom) (from Digital television)
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  Public television in France uses 819 line b&w high definition, from 1959 until 1983 (TF1). (from History of television)
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  Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
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  A map depicting digital terrestrial television standards (from Digital television)
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  An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
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  A color television test at the Mount Kaukau transmitter site, New Zealand in 1970.
  A test pattern with color bars is used to calibrate the signal. (from Color television)
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  The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
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  The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
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  RCA CT-100 at the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention playing Superman. The RCA CT-100 was the first mass-produced color TV set. (from Color television)
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  LG Electronics smart TV from 2011 (from Smart TV)
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  Smart TVs on display (from Smart TV)
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  Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television)
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  Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
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  Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
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  Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
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  DBS satellite dishes (from History of television)
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  Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available (from History of television)
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  The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)

  Featured lists -

Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

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  Season	Episodes		Originally aired		Rank	Average viewers (in millions)
  			First aired	Last aired
  1	22		September 27, 2015 (2015-09-27)	May 15, 2016 (2016-05-15)	55	8.05
  2	22		September 25, 2016 (2016-09-25)	May 15, 2017 (2017-05-15)	99	4.53
  3	13		April 26, 2018 (2018-04-26)	August 3, 2018 (2018-08-03)	—	—

  (Full article...)
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  The episodes of the Vampire Knight anime adaptation is based on the manga series of the same name written by Matsuri Hino. They are directed by Kiyoko Sayama, and produced by Studio Deen and Nihon Ad Systems. The plot of the episodes follows Yuki Cross, a student at the Cross Academy, where she acts as a guardian of the "Day Class" along with vampire hunter Zero Kiryu from the secret vampires of the "Night Class" led by Kaname Kuran.
  
  The first season premiered on TV Tokyo in Japan on April 7, 2008, and ran for thirteen episodes until the season's conclusion on June 30, 2008. The episodes were aired at later dates on TV Aichi, TV Hokkaido, TV Osaka, TV Setōchi, and TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting Co. The second season, named Vampire Knight Guilty, premiered on the same station on October 6, 2008 and ran until its conclusion on December 29, 2008. As of December 2008, five DVD compilations of the first season have been released by Aniplex and Sony Pictures between July 23, 2008 and November 26, 2008. The first DVD compilation for the second season was released by Aniplex on January 28, 2009, and the second compilation was released on February 25, 2009. (Full article...)
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  Holby City is a British medical drama television series that was broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 12 January 1999 and 29 March 2022. The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the BBC medical drama Casualty, which is set in the emergency department of the fictional Holby City Hospital, based in the equally fictitious town of Holby. Young wanted to explore what happened to patients treated in Casualty once they were taken away to the hospital's surgical wards. He opined that Casualty limited itself to "accident of the week" storylines, while Holby City allowed the possibility of storylines about long-term care, rather than immediate life-and-death decisions.
  
  Holby City has earned various awards and nominations, with the nominations in categories ranging from Best Drama to its writing and editing work to the cast's acting performance. It received nominations for eight awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTAs), winning the Best Continuing Drama in the 2008 British Academy Television Awards — an award for which it was unsuccessfully nominated in for three years prior to winning and five years after winning. Despite being the most shortlisted Holby City actress, Amanda Mealing (who portrayed Connie Beauchamp) did not win any awards for her role. Jimmy Akingbola was the most acclaimed actor from the series, winning two awards for his role as Antoine Malick. Rebecca Wojciechowski and Peter Mattessi are the only members of the show's production team to win an accolade; they have each won a Writers' Guild of Great Britain award. The serial has also been nominated for 32 awards at the National Television Awards, although it never won. (Full article...)
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  Hitohira (ひとひら, lit. Petal) is a Japanese animated television series. The episodes are directed by Akira Nishimori and produced by the Japanese animation studio XEBEC M2 and Genco. They are based on the Hitohira manga by Izumi Kirihara, and adapt the source material over twelve episodes. The episodes aired from March 28, 2007 to June 13, 2007 on AT-X, Chiba TV, Sun TV, TV Aichi, TV Kanagawa and TV Saitama.
  
  Two pieces of theme music are used for the episodes: one opening theme and one ending theme. The opening theme is "Yume, Hitohira" (夢、ひとひら, lit. Dream, Petal) by Yūko Asami, and the ending theme is "Smile" (スマイル, Sumairu) by Mai Mizuhashi. (Full article...)
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  Season	Episodes		Originally aired
  			First aired	Last aired
  Precursors	2		2005 (2005)	2006 (2006)
  Pilot			August 14, 2009 (2009-08-14)
  1	12		September 6, 2010 (2010-09-06)	November 22, 2010 (2010-11-22)
  2	28		November 29, 2010 (2010-11-29)	August 1, 2011 (2011-08-01)
  3	39		September 19, 2011 (2011-09-19)	September 3, 2012 (2012-09-03)
  4	37		October 1, 2012 (2012-10-01)	August 12, 2013 (2013-08-12)
  5	37		September 2, 2013 (2013-09-02)	August 14, 2014 (2014-08-14)
  6	28		October 9, 2014 (2014-10-09)	June 25, 2015 (2015-06-25)
  7	36		June 26, 2015 (2015-06-26)	June 30, 2016 (2016-06-30)
  Film			November 25, 2015 (2015-11-25)
  8	28		September 26, 2016 (2016-09-26)	January 16, 2017 (2017-01-16)

  (Full article...)
• 
  The episodes of the Tokyo Mew Mew anime series are based on the manga series of the same name written by Reiko Yoshida and illustrated by Mia Ikumi. Directed by Noriyuki Abe and produced by Studio Pierrot, the episodes focus on five girls infused with the DNA of rare animals that gives them special powers and allows them to transform into "Mew Mews". Led by Ichigo Momomiya, the girls protect the earth from aliens who wish to "reclaim" it.
  
  Broadcast on both TV Aichi and other TXN affiliates, the series premiered on April 6, 2002 and aired weekly until its conclusion on March 29, 2003. 4Kids Entertainment licensed the first 26 episodes of the series for the English-dubbed release in North America in 2004. Their release, initially titled Hollywood Mew Mew, would be heavily edited and localized to the point that viewers would not recognize its Japanese origins. The series was later referred to as The Mew Mews and Tokyo Mew Mew in subsequent 4Kids press releases. (Full article...)
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  The Flash is an American superhero television series developed for The CW by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Geoff Johns, based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash. It is set in the Arrowverse, sharing continuity with the other television series of the franchise, and is a spin-off of Arrow. The series premiered on October 7, 2014, and has been renewed through its seventh season. Grant Gustin stars as Barry, a crime scene investigator who gains superhuman speed, which he uses to fight criminals, including others who have also gained superhuman abilities.
  
  The series has been a candidate for television awards in a variety of categories recognizing its writing, acting, directing, production, score, and visual effects. The Flash has been nominated for many awards, including six BMI Film, TV & Visual Media Awards (won all), two Hollywood Post Alliance Awards, one Hugo Award, seventeen IGN Awards (winning four), eleven Kids' Choice Awards, eighteen Leo Awards (winning seven), two MTV Movie & TV Awards, five People's Choice Awards (winning one), one Primetime Emmy Award, twenty-three Saturn Awards (winning seven), one TCA Award, twenty-seven Teen Choice Awards (winning six), one TV Guide Award (won), and one Visual Effects Society Award. Gustin is the most decorated of the show's cast, with thirty nominations and seven wins. The show also holds the world records for "Most in-demand superhero TV show" and "Most in-demand action and adventure TV show" from the Guinness World Records. (Full article...)
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  Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. The series is based on George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire. The series takes place on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, and chronicles the power struggles among noble families as they fight for control of the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms. The series starts when House Stark, led by Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark (Sean Bean), is drawn into schemes surrounding King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy).
  
  The series premiered on April 17, 2011, on HBO. David Benioff and D. B. Weiss both serve as executive producers, along with Carolyn Strauss, Frank Doelger, Bernadette Caulfield, and George R. R. Martin. Filming for the series took place in a number of locations, including Croatia, Northern Ireland, Iceland, and Spain. Episodes were broadcast on Sunday at 9:00 pm Eastern Time, and the episodes are between 50 and 82 minutes in length. All eight seasons are available on DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray. (Full article...)
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  The Carry On series is a long-running British sequence of comedy films, stage shows and television programmes produced between 1958 and 1992. Distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated from 1958 to 1966, and the Rank Organisation from 1967 to 1978, the films were all made at Pinewood Studios. The series' humour relied largely on innuendo and double entendre. There were thirty-one films, four TV Christmas specials, one television series of thirteen episodes, and three West End and provincial stage plays, all made on time and to a strict budget.
  
  Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas were the series' sole producer and director respectively. They mostly employed the same crew and a regular group of actors. The main cast predominantly featured Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth, Hattie Jacques, Terry Scott, Bernard Bresslaw, Barbara Windsor, Jack Douglas and Jim Dale. The Carry Ons comprise the largest number of films of any British series and, next to the James Bond films, are the second-longest continually-running UK film series (with a fourteen-year hiatus between 1978 and 1992). Between 1958 and 1992, there were seven writers, principally Norman Hudis (1958–62) and Talbot Rothwell (1963–74). The films were scored by three different composers: Bruce Montgomery from 1958–62; Eric Rogers (1963–75, 1977–78) and Max Harris who scored the 1976 film Carry On England. (Full article...)
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  From left to right: ALMA Award-winning actor Jorge Garcia, Daniel Dae Kim, and Primetime Emmy Award-winning executive producers Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and Bryan Burk

  
  Lost is an American drama series that aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 until May 23, 2010. It was nominated for numerous awards, including 54 Primetime Emmy Awards (11 wins), 54 Saturn Awards (13 wins), 33 Teen Choice Awards, 17 TCA Awards (4 wins), 13 Golden Reel Awards (5 wins), 8 Satellite Awards (1 win), 7 Golden Globe Awards (1 win), 7 Writers Guild of America Awards (1 win), 6 Directors Guild of America Awards, 6 Producers Guild of America Awards (1 win), 4 People's Choice Awards, 2 BAFTA TV Awards, 2 NAACP Image Awards (1 win), and 2 Screen Actors Guild Awards (1 win). Amongst the wins for the series are the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series (1 win), Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama (1 win), Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (1 win), Saturn Award for Best Network Television Series (5 wins), TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama (3 wins), and Peabody Award (1 win).
  
  The series has an ensemble cast and several different Lost actors have received acting award nominations. Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn are the only actors to win Primetime Emmy Awards. Matthew Fox has been nominated for 19 individual awards (winning three), the most of any cast member; Evangeline Lilly is second with 16 and Emerson is third with 13 (winning two). "Pilot" is the most nominated episode of the series, receiving nominations from fifteen different associations; the episode won eight awards, including four Primetime Emmy Awards. The third season finale, "Through the Looking Glass", is the second most nominated episode with nine while "The End" received the most Primetime Emmy Award nominations with eight, winning one. (Full article...)
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No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	1	"Death Has a Shadow"	Peter Shin	Seth MacFarlane	January 31, 1999 (1999-01-31)	1ACX01	22.00
2	2	"I Never Met the Dead Man"	Michael Dante DiMartino	Chris Sheridan	April 11, 1999 (1999-04-11)	1ACX02	14.50
3	3	"Chitty Chitty Death Bang"	Dominic Polcino	Danny Smith	April 18, 1999 (1999-04-18)	1ACX04	13.78
4	4	"Mind Over Murder"	Roy Allen Smith	Neil Goldman & Garrett Donovan	April 25, 1999 (1999-04-25)	1ACX03	11.69
5	5	"A Hero Sits Next Door"	Monte Young	Mike Barker & Matt Weitzman	May 2, 1999 (1999-05-02)	1ACX05	12.61
6	6	"The Son Also Draws"	Neil Affleck	Ricky Blitt	May 9, 1999 (1999-05-09)	1ACX06	11.20
7	7	"Brian: Portrait of a Dog"	Michael Dante DiMartino	Gary Janetti	May 16, 1999 (1999-05-16)	1ACX07	13.10

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired	Network
1	8		April 8, 1990 (1990-04-08)	May 23, 1990 (1990-05-23)	ABC
2	22		September 30, 1990 (1990-09-30)	June 10, 1991 (1991-06-10)
Fire Walk with Me			August 28, 1992 (1992-08-28)		N/A
3	18		May 21, 2017 (2017-05-21)	September 3, 2017 (2017-09-03)	Showtime

(Full article...)

Johansson at an event for Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 2014

Scarlett Johansson is an American actress who has appeared in films, television series, video games and stage plays. Johansson made her debut in the 1994 comedy-drama North. Her first lead role was as the 11-year-old sister of a pregnant teenager in Manny & Lo (1996), for which she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. Johansson starred in Robert Redford's drama The Horse Whisperer (1998), and appeared with Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi in the black comedy Ghost World (2001). Two years later, Johansson played a woman in her 20s stuck in a listless marriage who befriends an aging American actor (Bill Murray) in Japan in the Sofia Coppola-directed Lost in Translation, and also played a servant in Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's household in Girl with a Pearl Earring with Colin Firth. She was nominated at the 61st Golden Globe Awards for both films, and received the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the former.

Two years later, Johansson starred in Woody Allen's psychological thriller Match Point, for which she garnered a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture. In 2006, she appeared in Christopher Nolan's psychological thriller The Prestige, and played a journalism student in Allen's Scoop. In the same year, Johansson made her first appearance as host of the television variety show Saturday Night Live, which she has since hosted a further five times as of 2019. Two years later, Johansson starred in Allen's romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona with Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, and portrayed Queen of England Anne Boleyn's sister Mary in the historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) with Natalie Portman and Eric Bana. She received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her Broadway debut performance in the 2010 revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. (Full article...)

The Mandalorian is an American space Western television series created by Jon Favreau for the streaming service Disney+. It is the first live-action series in the Star Wars franchise, beginning five years after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983). Pedro Pascal stars as the title character, a lone bounty hunter who goes on the run after being hired to retrieve "The Child". The first season premiered on Disney+ on its United States launch day, November 12, 2019, and the second season premiered on October 30, 2020.

The series received numerous awards and nominations for its acting, directing, writing, visual effects, and production values. Among these recognitions, it has been nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards and forty-two Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards (winning fourteen Creative Arts Emmys). The series' first two seasons were nominated for Outstanding Drama Series. At the 2021 ceremony, it tied for most nominations with twenty-four, and it tied for most awards at the Creative Arts ceremony in 2020 with seven wins. Giancarlo Esposito, Timothy Olyphant, Taika Waititi, and Carl Weathers have received Emmy nominations for their performances. Episodes "Chapter 1: The Mandalorian", "Chapter 2: The Child", and "Chapter 16: The Rescue" each won two Emmy awards for their technical achievements. (Full article...)

Weaver at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con.

Sigourney Weaver is an American actress who began her career in the early 1970s by appearing in plays. Throughout her career, she has acted in nearly 40 stage productions. She made her film debut with a minor role in Woody Allen's comedy-drama Annie Hall (1977), but her breakthrough came when she portrayed Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott's science fiction film Alien (1979). She reprised the role in Aliens (1986), this time helmed by director James Cameron. Her performance netted her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She returned to the role in two more sequels: Alien 3 (1992) and Alien Resurrection (1997), neither of which were as well received. Although originally written as a male role, Ripley is now regarded as one of the most significant female protagonists in cinema history, and consequently, Weaver is considered to be a pioneer of action heroines in science fiction films.

Although best known for her role in the Alien franchise, Weaver has fostered a prolific filmography, appearing in more than 60 films. In 1981, she starred alongside William Hurt in the neo-noir Eyewitness. Her next role was opposite Mel Gibson in the Peter Weir–directed The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). She played Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters (1984), later returning to the franchise in Ghostbusters II (1989), Ghostbusters (2016), and Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021). In 1986, Weaver starred opposite Michael Caine in the erotic thriller Half Moon Street. Her next role was primatologist Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist (1988), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. That same year, she also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her performance alongside Harrison Ford in Working Girl. Weaver was the first actor to have two acting wins at the Golden Globes in the same year. She also received an Academy Award nomination for both films. (Full article...)

News

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• December 28: US professional wrestler Jon Huber dies aged 41
• September 2: Tributes paid to recently deceased US actor Chadwick Boseman
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