Long before John Candy became a household name outside of Canada, the comedian would occasionally adopt a persona that his friends and colleagues dubbed “Johnny Toronto.” Unlike the often shy, overly genial guy who used to disappear into the background of Second City ensemble scenes, Johnny was brash, bold, a …
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An archival recording of the original Blues Brothers — John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd — performing live, The Lost Recordings, will arrive this October. The release coincides with a new graphic novel, The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake, written by Aykroyd’s daughter Stella, Luke Pisano (son of Belushi’s …
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In the history of Saturday Night Live, was anything as secretive and anticipated as the moment this season right before Timothée Chalamet appeared onstage to sing the first of three Bob Dylan numbers? Which songs would they be? How would he sound? For me, it was all strangely familiar — …
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Before he arrived at the Old Joliet Prison south of Chicago, now the Joliet Area Historical Museum, Erik Devereux made sure his ensemble was in appropriate Blues Brothers order. The basics weren’t a stretch: The 61-year-old teacher at the University of Illinois-Chicago already owns a black jacket and pants, a …
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It was never going to work. They couldn’t give enough tickets away to fill the seats. There were sound issues, lighting issues, drug issues, ego issues. Some of the crew walked out. A key cast member wouldn’t sign his contract, then went missing right before the show was supposed to …
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Jason Reitman‘s forthcoming film about the inaugural broadcast of Saturday Night Live, titled Saturday Night, will be released in theaters Oct. 11 — the same date the late-night sketch show debuted in 1975. The movie, distributed by Sony, was directed by Reitman and co-written by Reitman and his Ghostbusters: Frozen …
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As Dan Aykroyd reminds us in his enjoyable new Audible Original, Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude, there was a moment in 1978 when his friend and collaborator John Belushi was at the center of a smash-hit album, movie, and TV show, all at once. The album in question was …
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Bill Murray gets in uniform and returns to the Ghostbusters franchise as Peter Venkman. In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, premiering March 22, new and old ghost hunters join forces tosave the world from a second Ice Age. Piecing together flashbacks from the original 1984 film and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the trailer …
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