Robert Jacquemin, a pioneering TV syndication executive who led Buena Vista Television for a decade before leaving to build DreamWorks’ TV business, died Sunday in Montecito, CA. He was 80.
Jacquemin began his career in the TV business in the 1960s, first with Gardner Advertising and then Peters, Griffin & Woodward. He later was hired by Al Masini to join TeleRep as a regional sales representative in the early- to mid-’70s. He went on to join Paramount Television, where he became the head of the sales division and brought to market such shows as Cheers, Family Ties and Entertainment Tonight, among others.
In late 1984, he was hired at the Walt Disney Company and would become president of Buena Vista Television for a decade-long run. Career highlights at Disney included Siskel & Ebert, Live with Regis & Kathie Lee, The Golden Girls and, in one of the largest off-network syndication sales to date,...
Jacquemin began his career in the TV business in the 1960s, first with Gardner Advertising and then Peters, Griffin & Woodward. He later was hired by Al Masini to join TeleRep as a regional sales representative in the early- to mid-’70s. He went on to join Paramount Television, where he became the head of the sales division and brought to market such shows as Cheers, Family Ties and Entertainment Tonight, among others.
In late 1984, he was hired at the Walt Disney Company and would become president of Buena Vista Television for a decade-long run. Career highlights at Disney included Siskel & Ebert, Live with Regis & Kathie Lee, The Golden Girls and, in one of the largest off-network syndication sales to date,...
- 7/13/2021
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Judd Apatow has shown a skill for crafting vehicles for offbeat comic personalities that channel elements of their lives and the things that make them so appealing. After doing this with Steve Carell, Seth Rogen, Lena Dunham and Amy Schumer, Apatow channeled the slacker charm and energy of Pete Davidson, the Saturday Night Live cast member who as a child lost his firefighter father in 9/11.
Davidson’s character in Universal’s The King of Staten Island, Scott Carlin, can’t seem to get launched. He is frozen in his ambition and unable to connect to his girlfriend played by Bel Powley, or anyone else for that matter. He’s faced with a catalyst for change when his mother kicks him out of his house, a move that leads him to bunking in a local firehouse where Scott’s father, who was killed in a fire, was a local legend. After...
Davidson’s character in Universal’s The King of Staten Island, Scott Carlin, can’t seem to get launched. He is frozen in his ambition and unable to connect to his girlfriend played by Bel Powley, or anyone else for that matter. He’s faced with a catalyst for change when his mother kicks him out of his house, a move that leads him to bunking in a local firehouse where Scott’s father, who was killed in a fire, was a local legend. After...
- 1/23/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
I’d never laid eyes on Pete Davidson before, nor have I ever set foot on Staten Island in all the time I’ve spent in New York City; nobody has ever remotely recommended it, although I must say that one scene in The King of Staten Island shot at the local minor league baseball park affords so spectacular a view of Manhattan across the water beyond centerfield that I may have to take in a game there next time I’m in town.
Happily, the distant scenery is not all Judd Apatow’s new film has going for it, far from it. The director’s first film since Trainwreck five years ago, written by him along with Davidson and Dave Sirus, has the solid lived-in feel of a working class community in which everyone not only knows each other but pokes their noses into other people’s business and has to tolerate,...
Happily, the distant scenery is not all Judd Apatow’s new film has going for it, far from it. The director’s first film since Trainwreck five years ago, written by him along with Davidson and Dave Sirus, has the solid lived-in feel of a working class community in which everyone not only knows each other but pokes their noses into other people’s business and has to tolerate,...
- 6/13/2020
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
This is the biggest weekend yet for new movies. Not only are more cinemas re-opening nationwide, but three relatively huge titles from big-name directors — Judd Apatow, Spike Lee and Kenneth Branagh — find their way straight to streaming as well, offering movie buffs myriad options to feed their appetite.
The largest of these new releases is “The King of Staten Island,” which was supposed to open the SXSW Film Festival back in March, until that event was canceled by the coronavirus outbreak. Universal has since decided to go the same “home premiere” route that it did with “Trolls World Tour,” pricing digital rentals at $19.99.
But the movie of the moment is Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” which coincides with nationwide demonstrations over the death of George Floyd. The drama interweaves the largely untold story of Black servicemen in the Vietnam War with a modern-day adventure plot, as four veterans return...
The largest of these new releases is “The King of Staten Island,” which was supposed to open the SXSW Film Festival back in March, until that event was canceled by the coronavirus outbreak. Universal has since decided to go the same “home premiere” route that it did with “Trolls World Tour,” pricing digital rentals at $19.99.
But the movie of the moment is Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” which coincides with nationwide demonstrations over the death of George Floyd. The drama interweaves the largely untold story of Black servicemen in the Vietnam War with a modern-day adventure plot, as four veterans return...
- 6/12/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
(from left) Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson) and Papa (Steve Buscemi) in The King of Staten Island, directed by Judd Apatow. Courtesy of Universal
At 24, Scott (Pete Davidson) is stuck in perpetual adolescence, living with his mother Margie (Marisa Tomei) in the Staten Island home where he grew up. Traumatized when his firefighter father was killed trying to rescue someone when Scott was seven, he has never recovered despite years of therapy and in fact, has built his persona around the trauma. His well-meaning, kind-hearted mother, an overworked ER nurse, has built her life around her son’s care, treating him as if he were a fragile patient. If fact, everyone seems to tip-toe around Scott as if he might break from his childhood trauma.
Scott himself embraces this view, dodging jobs and hanging out with high school pals Oscar (Ricky Velez), Igor (Moises Arias) and Richie (Lou Wilson), playing video games and smoking pot.
At 24, Scott (Pete Davidson) is stuck in perpetual adolescence, living with his mother Margie (Marisa Tomei) in the Staten Island home where he grew up. Traumatized when his firefighter father was killed trying to rescue someone when Scott was seven, he has never recovered despite years of therapy and in fact, has built his persona around the trauma. His well-meaning, kind-hearted mother, an overworked ER nurse, has built her life around her son’s care, treating him as if he were a fragile patient. If fact, everyone seems to tip-toe around Scott as if he might break from his childhood trauma.
Scott himself embraces this view, dodging jobs and hanging out with high school pals Oscar (Ricky Velez), Igor (Moises Arias) and Richie (Lou Wilson), playing video games and smoking pot.
- 6/12/2020
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Pete Davidson's was the first millennial cast member hired by Saturday Night Live. He delivered one of my all-time favorite SNL moments when he welcomed Congressman and former Navy Seal Dan Crenshaw on the show for a comedic reconciliation.
The on-air meeting occurred one week after Davidson mocked Crenshaw's eye patch the week prior (a moment that simultaneously had boasted the Congressman's sense of humor).
Faulty first impressions, it seems, lead to hasty errs in judgment.
And that is the message taken from Davidson's starring debut, The King of Staten Island, to be released digitally on June 12 by Universal.
Davidson is known for a lot of things, but mostly for famous girlfriends like Cazzie David, Kaia Gerber, Kate Beckinsale, Carly Aquilino (who happens to cameo in King), and, of course, Ariana Grande.
Other than his relationships, his public suffering of Crohn's disease, borderline personality disorder, and substance abuse have...
The on-air meeting occurred one week after Davidson mocked Crenshaw's eye patch the week prior (a moment that simultaneously had boasted the Congressman's sense of humor).
Faulty first impressions, it seems, lead to hasty errs in judgment.
And that is the message taken from Davidson's starring debut, The King of Staten Island, to be released digitally on June 12 by Universal.
Davidson is known for a lot of things, but mostly for famous girlfriends like Cazzie David, Kaia Gerber, Kate Beckinsale, Carly Aquilino (who happens to cameo in King), and, of course, Ariana Grande.
Other than his relationships, his public suffering of Crohn's disease, borderline personality disorder, and substance abuse have...
- 6/9/2020
- by Kerr Lordygan
- TVfanatic
There is something instantly familiar about The King of Staten Island, the new film from director Judd Apatow. Like earlier Apatow efforts such as Knocked Up, This is 40, and Funny People, it’s about a stunted man-child’s journey through several life situations and the emotional growth (or lack thereof) that results. But in this case, the movie is based on the life of its star, Saturday Night Live cast member Pete Davidson, who wrote the script with his longtime friend Dave Sirus. It’s also far removed from the typical Los Angeles environs of many of his movies and is set (and filmed) on Staten Island, the “forgotten borough” of New York City where Davidson grew up.
As a result, The King of Staten Island feels more intimate and personal than the typical Apatow dude-bro comedy, its unvarnished Si locations giving the movie a lived-in, blue collar feel befitting the story and characters.
As a result, The King of Staten Island feels more intimate and personal than the typical Apatow dude-bro comedy, its unvarnished Si locations giving the movie a lived-in, blue collar feel befitting the story and characters.
- 6/8/2020
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson), the loser hero of “The King of Staten Island,” is a 24-year-old trash-talking punk stoner who lives with his mother in Staten Island and has no plans whatsoever — for a career, a life, or the next five minutes. He’s a slacker, a lout, and a self-pitying anger-management case who has never gotten over the death of his firefighter father 17 years ago. Was his dad a good guy? Not really. But the feeling that life cheated Scott out of growing up with a father is his big excuse for everything, and it has left him stewing in a toxic juice of resentment and depression, which he covers up by getting high and doing as little as possible. When he’s sitting around with his buddies, sunk into the pleather couch chairs in his mom’s basement, passing a blunt around as they play video games and...
- 6/8/2020
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Judd Apatow’s work bears any number of personal signatures, but it boils down to the two things he loves most of all: Overlong movies about overgrown man-children, and helping commercially unproven comedians become huge stars by making films and HBO shows in which they embody lightly fictionalized versions of themselves.
So while an 140-minute dramedy in which “SNL” breakout Pete Davidson essentially plays Dete Pavidson might sound like a risky gamble for a major studio to release at the height of the summer movie season (such as it is this year), Apatow would sooner cast Ivanka Trump as Paul Rudd’s next wife than miss out on the chance to work on a semi-autobiographical origin story with a tabloid-famous 25-year-old stoner who once bragged on national television about how he still lives with his mom. It would be like the Safdie brothers passing up an offer to direct the Pizza Rat biopic,...
So while an 140-minute dramedy in which “SNL” breakout Pete Davidson essentially plays Dete Pavidson might sound like a risky gamble for a major studio to release at the height of the summer movie season (such as it is this year), Apatow would sooner cast Ivanka Trump as Paul Rudd’s next wife than miss out on the chance to work on a semi-autobiographical origin story with a tabloid-famous 25-year-old stoner who once bragged on national television about how he still lives with his mom. It would be like the Safdie brothers passing up an offer to direct the Pizza Rat biopic,...
- 6/8/2020
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Judd Apatow’s latest film is something of a new departure for a filmmaker whose body of work is peppered with assorted low-brow stoner comedies and other self-reflexive multigenerational narratives. Co-written by Apatow, Dave Sirus and Saturday Night Live regular cast member Pete Davidson, The King Of Staten Island is a beautifully understated, funny and all together more mature offering from the filmmaker whose more recent work has failed to replicate the success of some of his earlier work.
(from left) Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson) and Ray Bishop (Bill Burr) in The King of Staten Island, directed by Judd Apatow.
Starring Davidson, Bill Burr and Marisa Tomei, the film is semi-autobiographical story based on the young comedian’s life. It reimagines how things would have been for the famously self-deprecating comic if he had stayed put in his native Staten Island instead of taking up comedy at an early age.
(from left) Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson) and Ray Bishop (Bill Burr) in The King of Staten Island, directed by Judd Apatow.
Starring Davidson, Bill Burr and Marisa Tomei, the film is semi-autobiographical story based on the young comedian’s life. It reimagines how things would have been for the famously self-deprecating comic if he had stayed put in his native Staten Island instead of taking up comedy at an early age.
- 6/8/2020
- by Linda Marric
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Judd Apatow knows talent when he sees it. For years, he has made a career out of giving cinematic showcases to comedians. Whether it was Steve Carell in The 40 Year Old Virgin, Seth Rogen in Knocked Up, or Amy Schumer in Trainwreck, he’s shined the spotlight on them, launching the talented actors and actresses to A-list careers. He’s done it as a director, as well as a producer, making his stable of talent truly enviable. Now, he returns to directing with another effort that does just that. The King of Staten Island, like Trainwreck with Schumer, has a script written by its star (co-written here), based on real life. Here, it’s Pete Davidson, and his tragic childhood loss is the basis for a stunningly terrific work. Capturing the pain and the pathos, as well as the humor, that define Davidson, this is not just one of Apatow’s top tier efforts,...
- 6/8/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Under the right circumstances, NBC might want to consider changing the name of its morning franchise from “Today” to “Nearly All Day.”
NBC News has considered the prospect of creating a fifth hour of “Today” on weekdays, according to two people familiar with the matter, the latest nod to the growing spotlight many broadcast networks are giving to news programming across their schedules as more consumers watch scripted programs at times of their own choosing.
“We like serving our audience on any given day of the week. There’s enough going on to fill 24 hours of television,” said Noah Oppenheim, president of NBC News, in an interview. When asked what slot a new hour of “Today,” might fill, he only suggested that “I don’t think it would be earlier” than the 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. block that currently supports NBC’s daytime schedule. But he cautioned: “There are no imminent plans for it,...
NBC News has considered the prospect of creating a fifth hour of “Today” on weekdays, according to two people familiar with the matter, the latest nod to the growing spotlight many broadcast networks are giving to news programming across their schedules as more consumers watch scripted programs at times of their own choosing.
“We like serving our audience on any given day of the week. There’s enough going on to fill 24 hours of television,” said Noah Oppenheim, president of NBC News, in an interview. When asked what slot a new hour of “Today,” might fill, he only suggested that “I don’t think it would be earlier” than the 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. block that currently supports NBC’s daytime schedule. But he cautioned: “There are no imminent plans for it,...
- 1/28/2020
- by Brian Steinberg
- Variety Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.