Alanis Morissette is featured in tonight's "Mortified Sessions" on Sundance, don't miss this great show. --- Here's to hoping that "Chelsea Lately"'s move to new production studios mean we get more "After Lately." --- All this and the TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan. more ›

Actor Tracy Morgan was rushed to a hospital in Park City, Utah on Sunday after collapsing at a Sundance Film Festival awards ceremony. The funnyman's spokesperson released a statement identifying the causes of his condition as "a combination of exhaustion and altitude." more ›

"Robert Redford, the non-profit Sundance Institute and AEG Europe today announced Sundance London, a four-day multi-disciplinary arts festival that will include film screenings, live music performances, discussions, panels and other public cultural programming to be held 26th - 29th April, 2012 at the world’s most popular music and entertainment venue, The O2," notes an official press release. more ›

Lou Reed had more to do than simply warm the lives of the few hundred people who nearly froze to death waiting to get inside of his small venue, special performance at Sundance last week. He also had a film there. more ›

In less than 90 minutes, LAist went from sea level to altitude sickness for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah! Long Beach does it right when it come to air travel. Let's begin there, because that's where the party started. more ›

Night two of Sundance was all about 2011 Grammy Award double nominee/performer, Janelle Monae at the Bing Bar Music Series. The R&B songstress held court during an exclusive set that included hits "Tightrope" and "Many Moons" at one of the oldest buildings in Park City. more ›

Sundance premiere's "Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys" tonight at 10pm and the promos lead us to believe that this is in the old territory of exploitive reality shows - prove us wrong Sundance! --- Viewership numbers for last night's premiere of "Men of a Certain Age" are discouraging. Please don't let this be another "Terriers". --- Our friend Greg Proops will be doing another free podcast night tomorrow at Bar Lubitsch in WeHo at 8pm and we will begin doing a weekly podcast starting next week. --- See our "Must-Watch" programs for tonight and the listings of worthy alternatives in the full post. more ›

Get ready for the pep rally, root for your team to beat Valley and prepare to pull those pranks on the rival’s because it is homecoming time at the Sundance Film Festival. Not really but with several big name filmmakers making their return to Sundance, it is hard not to get excited to see what many of the festival’s notable alums, now later in their careers, have to say about the world of Independent Cinema. Sidenote: a football team at a school of all filmmakers would most likely be one of the worst teams in history....just sayin’. more ›

The Sundance Institute made the first of three festival announcements today for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Included in the announcement were the Institute’s selections for US Dramatic Competition, US Documentary Comp., World Cinema Dramatic Comp. and World Cinema Documentary Comp. In all, 10,279 films were submitted for consideration marking the first time in the festival’s history that submissions have hit above 10,000. Of the 3,812 feature submissions received, 115 were accepted to screen at the Festival. more ›

Tonight marks the premiere of some stellar original programming on the Sundance Channel, "Carlos" (9pm), a miniseries that explores the life of 1970s terrorist "Carlos the Jackal", portrayed by Edgar Ramirez (The Bourne Ultimatum, Che) who humanizes the playboy/revolutionary/terrorist/assassin. The miniseries airs over the next 3 nights at 9pm and is a strong foray into the world of original scripted programming by Sundance - we hope to see more of it from them. more ›

For a war that is nearing the decade mark, Afghanistan sure does fly under the radar. Lindsay Lohan’s SCRAM or the follies of modern athletes are likely to receive as much or more air time than armed conflicts involving our own neighbors, friends, and family members taking place in some hard-to-fathom hovel. In fact, compiled television news data from 2008 shows us that the Afghanistan campaign netted just over 1% of total airtime. Not exactly in-your-face journalism. more ›

The TV schedule is starting to fill up (check out tonight's 10pm slot, it's out of control!) but there doesn't seem to be a lot there though. Last night's "Better Off Ted" was excellent (ABC, why are you killing this show? Are you really going through with it?) and USA's season premiere of "White Collar" started out very strong - we continue to be impressed by this show's fan base. Give us your highlights from last night's TV. more ›

Here are our to-do picks for a post-Fourth Monday in LA: DIY DRUMMING* Tonight the On Ensemble, a contemporary taiko quartet, brings D.I.Y. Drumming to the Ford Amphitheater at 7 pm. Bring your drums, percussion instruments or even paint buckets to play along as the Ensemble coaxes Japanese taiko rhythms out of everyday household items. The J.A.M. session is free, so reserve your spot by calling the Ford Box Office: 323.461.3673. Don’t forget to bring a picnic for dinner. more ›

For the most part, eco-documentaries follow a pretty narrow pattern; either they’re well funded and a little boring or guerrilla style and probably a bit nauseating, but either way you’re supposed to be so outraged you get out of your seat and punch the richest asshole you can find. That’s the gist. But there’s often a disconnect between the images of the film and the actions of the audience because, ecologically, problems tend to be so big any given person feels powerless. more ›

The city is experiencing a golden age of naughty puppet films. Hot on the trail of Black Devil Doll is Let My Puppets Come, a fuzzy-felt skeleton pulled from the closet of the late Gerard Damiano (Deep Throat, The Devil In Miss Jones) for The Not-So-Silent Theatre's "Mondo Sexo" this Saturday. If the thought of puppets feels a bit too soft, the very fleshy, very foxy Louise Brooks (Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl) appears alongside curmudgeonly comedian W.C. Fields (The Bank Dick, You Can't Cheat An Honest Man) next Wednesday at the same locale. And while you're in the neighborhood, swing by the New Beverly for a brand-spankin' new print of The Day The Earth Stood Still (the one with the robot, not Keanu; wait, that doesn't narrow it down!). Given the Bev's massive trailer collection, their accompanying "Sci-Fi and More Trailer Show" should be great fun too. You'll be frozen with terror by this 1950's extravaganz-o-rama, in earth-shattering black & white! more ›

First Isabella did the sex life of insects, now she's back online at Sundance with her second "Green Porno" series, this time focusing on sea creatures. These are hilarious and educational - and what a good sport she is. more ›

The Sundance Film Festival starts today which not only means cool movies being screened and attended by celebrities in their hippest Dumb & Dumber apres-skiwear but it means a lot more content for the Sundance Channel for the year. There will be live blogging of the festival's events at the Sundance Channel's (really cool!) website and head on over to iTunes to pick up a free short film from Sundance every day from now to January 25th. more ›

RIght NOW on CNN (11a PST), you can check out a condensed version of the hit documentary I.O.U.S.A., about the growing national debt crisis that we all face. In these tough economic times, one way to stay on top is to stay informed, and I.O.U.S.A. is a great way to do just that. more ›

Dear CW fans, apparently none of you are watching the network on Sundays so management is yanking all of it's original content from that night ("In Harm's Way", "Valentine", "Easy Money", etc. - you know, the shows you've never heard of) and replacing them with repeats of "Jericho" and "The Drew Carey Show" which will somehow result in higher ratings(?) because as we all know, we don't get enough rerun content today, especially of shows that ended years ago. more ›

When it was found that the CEO of Cinemark Theatres donated $9,999 to support Prop 8, talks of boycotting Sundance came up because the only movie theatre used in Park City, Utah is one owned by the company. But Sundance isn't budging and many opponents of Prop 8 agree. "As a nonprofit organization devoted to supporting artists, we very much appreciate and are sensitive to the larger issue at hand and respect the rights of individuals to express themselves," Sundance said in a statement via Variety. "It is our hope that people will embrace the festival for its commitment to diversity, not avoid it." more ›

The CEO of Cinemark, the company that operates 2700 screens internationally including the only movie theatre used at the Sundance Festival in Park City, Utah, has reportedly donated a large sum of money to support Prop 8, the ballot initiative that eliminated gay marriage in California. Alan Stock donated $9,999 in late October to proponents of the measure. more ›

The rumor of our favorite serial killer series, "Dexter", getting picked up for more seasons turns out to be true. Showtime bought two more seasons of the Peabody Award winning show (take that Colber(t)). Shooting of season four begins in the spring of '09 in Los Angeles. [Hey Showtime, where's the love? You sent me no screeners this season.] more ›

Gob from "Arrested Development", aka Will Arnett, has struck a deal with Fox to create his own show. His absence from the small screen will finally come to an end and here's to hoping that the show won't turn into some kind of generic garbage. Hubby Amy Poehler is also slated to get her own show on NBC sometime after their first child is born. I dunno, both parents are actors with starring roles on shows on different networks, that's a tall order to fill - wish them luck. more ›

As the SAG/AFTRA/AMPTP drama continues, advertisers are still ponying up the big bucks for TV advertising: $9.2 billion in pre-booked ads for the 2008-2009 season. This broad sale of advertising combined with targeted ad sales technology now offered by Canoe Ventures (you got a dog? say "hello" to even more Purina commercials) makes it seem like things are hunky-dory in TV land but they might not be. Some folks are perceiving these as just defensive measures: the networks had to sell much more inventory than usual to achieve that $9.2 billion mark and Canoe's technology is seen as a way to staunch the flow of ad dollars going to the Web. more ›

It's Earth Day on (some of) TV. Below are some marked programming that is Earth Day-related and of course there's plenty online, including web "TV" properties like Joost who have launched an Earth Day Channel. more ›