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Alan Sacks, who teamed with stand-up comic and fellow Brooklynite Gabe Kaplan to create the popular 1970s ABC sitcom Welcome, Back, Kotter, has died. He was 81.

Sacks died Tuesday of complications from lymphoma in New York while on a visit there, his wife, talent agent Annette van Duren, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was first diagnosed 22 years ago but spent several years in remission before the cancer returned.

In the 1980s, after a project involving the iconic L.A. band The Runaways never got off the ground, Sacks took the footage and incorporated it into a plot about a director working on a tight deadline to finish a movie starring Runaways member Joan Jett.

The resulting film, Du-Beat-e-o (1984), which he also helmed, was set against the background of the hardcore L.A. punk scene and featured Ray Sharkey and Derf Scratch of the punk band Fear.

He also wrote and...

Film and TV writer-producer Alan Sacks, who had an eclectic career that included co-creating the popular 1970s series “Welcome Back, Kotter” and working on projects set in the 1980s L.A. punk scene, died of complications from lymphoma on Tuesday in New York. He was 81.

Sacks was born in Brooklyn and started his career in the research department of ABC Television. After moving to Los Angeles, he continued working at ABC as a program executive. Along with Gabe Kaplan and Peter Meyerson, he helped develop and co-create “Welcome Back, Kotter,” basing the sitcom on his high school friends in Brooklyn and on Kaplan’s stand-up routine.

He also worked on “Chico and the Man,” created by “Welcome Back, Kotter” executive producer James Komack.

In 1991, Sacks created and produced a Saturday morning children’s show, “Riders in the Sky,” for CBS, which replaced the “Pee-Wee Herman Show.”

During the 1970s and ’80s,...

This month’s installment of Deep Cuts Rising features a variety of horror movies. Some selections reflect a specific day or event in August, and others were chosen at random.

Regardless of how they came to be here, or what they’re about, these past movies can generally be considered overlooked, forgotten or unknown.

This month’s offerings feature folk horror, killer animals, and more.

Dark August (1976)

Directed by Martin Goldman.

With August 22 being World Folklore Day, horror fans don’t ever have to look too far to find mysticism and superstitions. Right in their backyards are plenty of homegrown horrors that showcase the extraordinary. Martin Goldman’s Vermont-shot regional horror Dark August centers on the man who accidentally runs over and kills a little girl. While J.J. Barry‘s difficult character is found innocent in court, he still suspects the victim’s grandfather has cursed him. Now the protagonist...

Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Photo: New Line Cinema [Completely obvious editor’s note, if you need it: This article contains spoilers about Twin Peaks.] A soapy, surreal, serial drama co-created by Hill Street Blues veteran Mark Frost and film director David Lynch, Twin Peaks arrived on network television like an atom bomb, debuting...

The opening act of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is easily misread as cynical. Its first shot, a metal bat shattering a television screen, violently severs the world of Twin Peaks from the medium that originally housed it—one that, by the end of an initial 30-episode run, had curbed the vision of creators David Lynch and Mark Frost considerably. And the half-hour of material that follows is, pointedly, everything Twin Peaks isn’t. We’re in the company of two unfamiliar FBI agents, Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak) and Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland), investigating the murder of an unfamiliar girl, Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley), in an unfamiliar town, Deer Meadow. The denizens of Deer Meadow are ornery and dismissive. Desmond and Stanley, though not lacking charm, are a far cry from the buoyantly charismatic Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), whose presence throughout is minimal.

Then, suddenly, she’s alive. Fire...

John Lafia, who directed the horror film Child’s Play 2 and co-wrote Child’s Play, died by suicide this week in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office. He was 63.

Lafia’s family confirmed his passing Saturday in a statement to Deadline. “It is with great sadness we announce that loving father, film and television writer, director, producer and musician John J. Lafia passed away on Wednesday, April 29,” the statement said.

More from DeadlineSam Lloyd's Family Expresses Gratitude For "Outpouring Of Love"Roger Beatty Dies: Emmy-Winning 'Carol Burnett Show' Writer Was 87John Callahan Dies: 'All My Children' Star Was 66

Born on April 2, 1957, Lafia was influential in the Los Angeles experimental music scene in the 1980’s before launching a successful film career.

He attended UCLA, and his first feature film was The Blue Iguana (1988), which he wrote and directed as well as produced the soundtrack.

Hello, dear readers! As we head into another weekend, I thought I’d put together a list of movies that are currently streaming across a variety of platforms—Shudder, Netflix, Hulu, Tubi TV, Vudu, Crackle, Pluto TV, Amazon Prime, and YouTube—that celebrate some of the most fierce and fearsome female characters of both the horror and sci-fi genres. Whether you’d consider them heroes or villains, without a doubt, this compilation of more than 80 different movies showcase decades of compelling women who have left an indelible mark on the vast landscape of genre, and genre-adjacent, storytelling.

Stay Safe and Happy Streaming!

A Simple Favor (Streaming on Amazon Prime)

A Simple Favor, directed by Paul Feig, centers around Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a mommy vlogger who seeks to uncover the truth behind her best friend Emily’s (Blake Lively) disappearance.

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (Streaming on Vudu & Pluto TV...

Actress Pamela Gidley, who starred in Twin Peaks: Fire Walks with Me, has died at the age of 52. Gildley’s death was announced in an obituary that said she “died peacefully in her home, on Monday, April 16, 2018 in Seabrook.” Her cause of death was not revealed. Gidley started her career in modeling, pursued acting […]

Source: uInterview

The post Pamela Gidley, ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walks With Me’ Star, Died At 52 appeared first on uInterview.

Pamela Gidley, known for her role in David Lynch’s film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, died earlier this month at her home in New Hampshire. She was 52.

Gidley’s death was announced by her family Sunday in an obituary. She died April 16 “peacefully in her home” in Seabrook. The cause of death was not immediately clear.

Gidley began her career as a model in New York City, later segueing to acting. Her debut role came in the 1986 film Thrashin’ alongside Josh Brolin and Sherilyn Fenn. Brolin paid tribute to Gidley in an Instagram post below.

She went on to appear in several other films in the 1980s including Dudes, Permanent Record, The Blue Iguana and the cult sci-fi classic Cherry 2000. In 1992 she landed the role of Teresa Banks in David Lynch’s psychological thriller Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which served as a prequel to the Twin Peaks TV series.

Pamela Gidley, who starred in the “Twin Peaks” prequel film “Fire Walk With Me,” died earlier this month, her family announced in an obituary on Sunday.

Gidley died on April 16 at her home in Seabrook, New Hampshire; the cause of death was not cited.

In “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” Gidley portrayed Teresa Banks, whose murder drives the plot of the film, set before the death of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). Along with “Twin Peaks,” Gidley’s acting acting career included parts in “Thrashin,” and “Cherry 2000,” with TV appearances in episodes of “MacGyver,” “The Pretender,” “Tour of Duty,” “CSI” and “The Closer.”

Also Read: Why There Won't Be Anymore 'Twin Peaks' - At Least, Not For a While

Her co-star in “Thrashin,” Josh Brolin, paid tribute to Gidley on Instagram last week. Brolin wrote “My co-star in ‘Thrashin’ and my girlfriend twice in a lifetime. Amazing and innocent memories of her: a spitfire, and a truly funny person she was. I remember is being in bed (I was 17) and hearing the radio come on saying that the Challenger had just exploded. These milestones in your life: amazing people to grace us with their spirit, their presence. She will have forever affected mine. Thank you for the gift of you, Pam. Rest In Peace beautiful girl.”

My co-star in “Thrashin” and my girlfriend twice in a lifetime. Amazing and innocent memories of her: a spitfire, and a truly funny person she was. I remember is being in bed (I was 17) and hearing the radio come on saying that the Challenger had just exploded. These milestones in your life: amazing people to grace us with their spirit, their presence. She will have forever affected mine. Thank you for the gift of you, Pam. Rest In Peace beautiful girl. ❤️???? #thrashin #dogtownbeginnings #godschildren @robertrusler #pamgidley

A post shared by Josh Brolin (@joshbrolin) on Apr 24, 2018 at 8:33pm Pdt

Read original story Pamela Gidley, ‘Twin Peaks’ Actress, Dies at 52 At TheWrap...

Pamela Gidley, the actress perhaps best known for her portrayal of Teresa Banks in the Twin Peaks prequel Fire Walk With Me, has died. She was 52.

Her family announced that Gidley died peacefully on April 16 in her home in Seabrook, New Hampshire. No cause of death was given. A spokesman for the Remick & Gendron Funeral Home in Hampton, New Hampshire, offered no details and forwarded a request for information to the family.

A former model, Gidley made her movie debut in Thrashin' (1986) opposite Josh Brolin and Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey on Twin Peaks and her...

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers from “Twin Peaks: The Return” episodes as they’re released weekly.]

“Twin Peaks” is one-third of the way through its 18-episode limited series, but it is still trotting out some familiar faces. As a reminder, here are the returning characters we’ve already reunited with in Episodes 1 and 2, Episode 3 and 4, and Episode 5. And while it’s a small town, it’s not that small, and we have yet to see some of our favorites.

Read More: ‘Twin Peaks’ Episode 6 Review: A Long-Awaited Character Finally Arrived and Was Awesome

In Sunday’s most recent episode, two people who were seen in the film follow-up “Fire Walk With Me” served to connect the original series to the Showtime revival. David Lynch has worked his magic, and this town is feeling more and more real each episode. Both of the returning characters arrived in conjunction with a key moment in the episode, when Richard Horne (Eamon Farren) kills a young boy in a hit-and-run.

The Pretender TV show premiered 20 years ago today. Starring Michael T. Weiss, as Jarod, the action-adventure drama, created by Steven Mitchell and Craig van Sickle, ran for four seasons before being cancelled in 2000, by NBC.The series also starred: Andrea Parker, Patrick Bauchau, Jon Gries, Ryan Merriman, Richard Marcus, Alex Wexo, James Denton, Sam Ayers, Harve Presnell, Paul Dillon, Willie Gault, Dennis Cruzado, Pamela Gidley, Jason Brooks, and Ashley Peldon. Read More…...

What a way to start off the week! The formidable cast list for Showtime's forthcoming Twin Peaks revival series was revealed this morning, and man, is it a doozy. In addition to boasting such key returning players as Kyle MacLachlan (Dale Cooper), Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer/Maddy Ferguson) and Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne), there are a number of surprising A-listers in the mix including Michael Cera, Trent Reznor, Amanda Seyfried and Naomi Watts. On the downside, a not-insignificant number of cast members from both the original series and the 1992 prequel film Fire Walk with Me are completely absent from the list. Where, for instance, is Lara Flynn Boyle (or Moira Kelly, for that matter)? Michael Ontkean? Piper Laurie? Joan Chen? Anyone from the mill? (Literally, there is no one from the mill.) So while I'm thankful that most of the major players are back in action, I can't help but...

February’s home entertainment releases are kicking off in a big way, as horror and sci-fi fans have an extraordinary number of brand spanking new titles to choose from this Tuesday. From indie horror to cult classics to cult classics in the making, February 2nd’s Blu-ray and DVD releases truly do offer up something for everyone.

Scream Factory is offering up two modern genre films this week, Hellions and Zombie Fight Club and Cinedigm is keeping busy too on Tuesday with their releases of Extraordinary Tales and The World of Kanako. Vin Diesel’s latest, The Last Witch Hunter, arrives on both Blu and DVD and if you call yourself a Henry Rollins fan, you will definitely want to pick up He Never Died this week as well.

Other notable titles being released on February 2nd include From Dusk Till Dawn: Season Two, Falling Skies: The Complete Fifth Season,...

30. No Country for Old Men (2007)

Scene: Coin Flip

Video: http://youtu.be/0iAezyDzj0M

There was a brief period of time from 2006-2009 when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made some more daring, but wholly deserved choices for Best Picture. It began in 2006, when Martin Scorsese finally won for The Departed which, while not his best and not nearly as dark as, say, Taxi Driver or Raging Bull, still leaned that direction. Three years later, they handed the Oscar to The Hurt Locker over the blockbuster Avatar, rewarding quality over audience love. But in between the two it was given to No Country for Old Men, an incredibly dark neo-Western based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. It’s still one of the Coen Brothers’ best films, an incredible cat-and-mouse journey through West Texas in the 1980′s. The film stars Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones,...

David Lynch unveiled nearly 90 minutes of deleted and extended scenes to his 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me at a Los Angeles theater last night. It was intense and weird. At BuzzFeed, you can read my latest feature, "Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces Makes You See Fire Walk With Me In A Different Way," in which I look at the so-called Missing Pieces from Twin Peaks — the deleted scenes from David Lynch's Fire Walk with Me — unveiled by Lynch last night at the world premiere in Los Angeles. Warning: The following contains information about the identity of Laura Palmer’s killer. If, by some chance, you are reading this and haven’t finished the more than two decades-old series, stop reading before you are spoiled. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, David Lynch’s follow-up prequel to cult classic television series Twin Peaks, has always been an odd beast.

Feature James Peaty 27 Feb 2013 - 06:35

A box-office failure, David Lynch's Fire Walk With Me divided critics in 1992. James looks back at a surreal cult film...

When Vincent Canby famously described Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) as "…not the worst movie ever made; it just seems to be," the renowned Us critic was merely reflecting the overwhelming response to David Lynch’s big-screen prequel to his recently cancelled TV show.

Audibly jeered by the notoriously fickle festival crowd at its unveiling in Cannes, even fellow filmmakers joined the chorus of disapproval against Lynch.

At the festival for the first time with his debut feature, Reservoir Dogs, director Quentin Tarantino went so far as to say: "I’m not ragging on other people, but after I saw Fwwm […] David Lynch has disappeared so far up his own ass that I have no desire to watch another […] Lynch film until I hear something different.

According to the posters and ads, it's called "Mafia!" On the actual prints, the title is "Jane Austen's Mafia!"

Whatever the name, the product's still lame.

A two-decades-too-late spoof on "The Godfather" movies (with a little "Casino" and "GoodFellas" tossed in), the tediously sophomoric picture from the people who brought you "Hot Shots!" is more of the same, only this time without the funny bits.

Director/co-writer Jim Abrahams, who pioneered the Gatling gun gag format along with the Zucker brothers to side-splitting effect with the "Airplane!" and "Naked Gun" movies, has applied the old formula here only to discover that the shtick no longer sticks.

Leaving a mess of misfired potty jokes and tired visual puns in its wake, "Mafia!" makes the Farrelly brothers look like auteurs by comparison. This is an offer audiences will likely refuse.

Sadly, the picture marks the final screen appearance of Lloyd Bridges, who, like Chris Farley ("Almost Heroes"), John Candy ("Wagons East!") and Peter Sellers ("The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu") before him does not exit on a triumphant note.

A ZAZ veteran who would serve as a major, career-reshaping influence on Leslie Nielsen, an obviously ailing Bridges plays Vincenzo Cortino, the befuddled Mob don whose hot-shot son Anthony (Jay Mohr) is being groomed to take over the family business.

The family in question also includes Olympia Dukakis as flatulent matriarch Sophia Cortino, Billy Burke as two-timing sibling Joey Cortino and Christina Applegate as Diane, more or less the Diane Keaton character from the Francis Ford Coppola pictures. Pamela Gidley pops up as Pepper, a Sharon Stone-"Casino" type, while Alex Trebek and the Jeffersons put in a couple of unbilled appearances.

While some of the early Vegas sequences are amusing, the majority of the jokes (credited to Abrahams, Greg Norberg and Michael McManus) -- including the obligatory O.J. reference and a "Lord of the Dance meets" The Full Monty" sequence -- are warmed over and flatly uninspired.

Production values, including the molto Italiano score courtesy of one Gianni Frizzelli (John Frizzell), are good enough, but one is still left wishing somebody would have taken out a hit on this movie, whatever it's called.

MAFIA!

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

Touchstone Pictures presents

a Tapestry Films production

A Jim Abrahams film

Director: Jim Abrahams

Screenwriters: Jim Abrahams & Greg Norberg

& Michael McManus

Producer: Bill Badalato

Executive producers: Peter Abrams &

Robert L. Levy

Director of photography: Pierre Letarte

Production designer: William Elliott

Editor: Terry Stokes

Costume designer: Mary Malin

Music: Gianni Frizzelli

Color/stereo

Cast:

Vincenzo Cortino: Lloyd Bridges

Anthony Cortino: Jay Mohr

Sophia Cortino: Olympia Dukakis

Diane: Christina Applegate

Joey Cortino: Billy Burke

Pepper: Pamela Gidley

Marzoni: Tony Lo Bianco

Tiny Anthony: Seth Adkins

Running time -- 86 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...

This is a warped whodunit with a serial killer whose method of dispatching victims is so nasty it shows hilariously how far one has to go to keep up with big-budget Hollywood thrillers.

"Kiss & Tell" is a winning independent film from writer-director Jordan Alan ("Terminal Bliss", "Love & Happiness") that features a large and entertaining cast, including four Arquette family members (but not Rosanna or Patricia).

A candidate for eventual cult status, the Phaedra Cinema release should generate moderate interest in limited engagements before heading to video. Hip and breezily unconcerned with making sense, the improvisational "Kiss & Tell" feels like a story written by a roomful of people, with everyone taking turns adding a new scene and then passing it on.

"Kiss & Tell" stars Justine Bateman, Heather Graham and Peter Greene, and boasts bit players Traci Lind, Lukas Haas, Assumpta Serna, Alexandra Paul, Rose McGowan, Teresa Hill, Jill Hennessey, Roxana Zal, Mickey Cottrell, Nina Siemaszko and co-producer Pamela Gidley as the dreaded Betty "Beta" Carotene. Throw in Alexis, Richmond, David and father Lewis Arquette, and you have one strange brew.

Imagine Gregg Araki making "L.A. Confidential" and you can get a sense of the atmosphere and general punchiness of "Kiss & Tell," which pits lesbians against detectives against shifty suspects against wigged-out murderers in a willy-nilly noir fable that simultaneously makes use of and mocks many Los Angeles landmarks.

The ratio of good gags to so-so jokes is about 3-to-1 in this feast of up-and-coming stars, which achieves its best results with epiphanous events in many of the comic vignettes, moments when the characters come alive and their conflicts are intriguing.

But overall the wacky plot couldn't be more lurid and loaded with sin-city cliches that have been twisted into amusing satirical elements. Here's a sampling: an armless coroner eating a restaurant meal, a group therapy session attended exclusively by murderers, a hit man from New York named Lollypop Man and a psychopath using poisoned carrots to leave a trail of corpses.

Shocks and twists are frequent, but what's surprising is how well Alan and crew keep control of the project when it easily could have become too incoherent and unfunny. There are even a few scenes that are downright spooky, not an easy thing to pull off when the movie as a whole is impossible to take seriously.

By and large, the performances are on the money. Along with some great tongue-in-cheek moments from Greene and Richmond Arquette as grumpy detectives, Graham is memorable as a witchy friend of the most prominent murder victim (Bateman).

KISS & TELL

Phaedra Cinema

A Terminal Bliss production

in association with

Ron Travisano and Pamela Gidley

Writer-director Jordan Alan

Producers Pamela Gidley,

Ron Travisano, Jordan Alan

Executive producer Adam Fast

Director of photography Ron Travisano

Music Michael Mattioli

Editors Ed Marx, Chris Keenan, Jordan Alan

Color/stereo

Cast:

Molly McMannis Justine Bateman

Suzan Pretsel Heather Graham

Detective Finnigan Peter Greene

Detective Starr Richmond Arquette

Detective Furbal Lewis Arquette

Betty "Beta" Carotene Pamela Gidley

Ivy Roberts Teresa Hill

Jasmine Rose McGowan

Running time -- 90 minutes

No MPAA rating...