The Frame

Bob Thiele leads The Forest Rangers, a band that was spawned by the "Sons of Anarchy" TV series; comedian Andy Kindler takes no prisoners when he gives his annual State of the Industry speech; a filmmaker is challenging the copyright claim to "Happy Birthday to You," which keeps the song out of many TV shows and movies.

When Marlon Brando died, he left hundreds of hours of himself on tape, which were culled for the documentary, "Listen to Me Marlon"; a 1965 gospel concert at L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium was special not only for its stars, but also because it was recorded — a rarity for its day; NBC Universal will reportedly invest $250 million in BuzzFeed's growing digital empire.

Five finalists were chosen to develop pilot scripts for a TV series that calls for a female engineer protagonist; Summer can be a great time to watch TV, if you know where to look; the singer Little Boots was once signed to Atlantic Records, but she decided having her own label is a better fit.

A comedy writer has sued Conan O'Brien, claiming his show stole jokes that were first posted on Twitter; on "Song Exploder," Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie dissects "El Dorado"; director James Ponsoldt was initially skeptical that a book about being on tour with writer David Foster Wallace could be a movie.

The Beijing-based Wanda Group financed "Southpaw," just the latest example of Chinese investments in Hollywood; The Next MacGyver contest hopes to encourage women engineers with the promise of a TV pilot; Juilliard-trained Brad Segal has become the go-to composer for reality shows.

The British actor reunites with director Bill Condon to play a 93-year-old version of Sherlock Holmes in "Mr. Holmes" (pictured); Chinese authorities have returned the passport of dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who had been unable to leave the country since 2011; the makers of the documentary about crowd-funding, "Capital C," financed their film through a crowd-funding campaign.

Noted muralist Kent Twitchell (pictured) has created a new work for the Special Olympics; playwright Todd Almond was inspired by Matthew Sweet's 1991 album, "Girlfriend," for his musical about growing up gay; the Teragram Ballroom tries to carve out a niche on the local live music landscape.

Kurt Sutter has been writing film scripts while working on demanding TV shows, and now his first feature, "Southpaw" (pictured), is being released; the singer Miguel talks about growing up mixed-race in his beloved L.A.; the box office for "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" and "Dope" hasn't measured up to their indie darling hype.

A landmark album from 1966 (pictured) pairing the singer and bandleader is revisited as part of a Sinatra tribute at the Hollywood Bowl; YouTube is betting that audiences will pay for a commercial-free service; Camp Reel Stories is a summer camp designed to introduce teenaged girls to filmmaking.

Lisa Hanawalt's lifelong equine obsession pays off in her role as production designer for the animated series, "BoJack Horseman" (pictured); with embassies re-opening in Washington and Havana, cultural exchange could be on the upswing; costume designers for superhero movies take comic book drawings and turn them into flashy but practical outfits.

Diane Warren's latest success is “Til It Happens to You,” which Lady Gaga performed for the documentary, “The Hunting Ground”; Coachella's headliners include Guns N' Roses and LCD Soundsystem; The Discovery Channel is scaling back on reality shows to get back to its original mission.

HBO chief Michael Lombardo joins us for an intimate chat about what he learned from "True Detective" and more; Then, 2015 was a record year at the box office, but most of the ticket sales came from just a handful of movies. Ben Fritz of the Wall Street Journal helps shed light on this trend.

We put together a special episode of The Frame, featuring interviews with George Clooney, "Empire" creator Lee Daniels, musician Jenny Lewis, actress Julianne Moore, "Transparent" creator Jill Soloway and the R&B singer Miguel.

Don Randi's memoir, "You've Heard These Hands," details his years with the L.A. studio band that played on hundreds of hits in the 1960s and '70s; Kelly Sue DeConnick revamped the "Captain Marvel" series, but her "Bitch Planet" titles are with a smaller publisher that allows her to control her work.

Comic strip artist Lalo Alcaráz draws on his own border upbringing as a writer/producer on Fox's typically irreverent animated comedy, "Bordertown"; writer/director László Nemes breaks away from the usual Hollywood treatment of Holocaust movies with his debut, "Son of Saul"

The screenwriter Charlie Kaufman wrote a play that ended up being turned into the stop-motion animated film, "Anomalisa"; filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky relied heavily on footage shot by Ukrainian protestors for the documentary, "Winter on Fire"

Carter Burwell had a busy 2015, scoring five films including Todd Haynes' "Carol" and Charlie Kaufman's "Anomalisa"; Haskell Wexler had a long and illustrious career as a cinematographer and documentary filmmaker; musician Blair Tindall's memoir is the basis for the Amazon series, "Mozart In the Jungle."

We put together a show with some of our favorite conversations of 2015. Hear interviews with Meryl Streep, composer Philip Glass, "Orange is the New Black" actors Uzo Aduba and Lea DeLaria, "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner.

After more than 40 years as a recording artist, James Taylor had an album debut atop the Billboard charts for the first time this year; Tom Hooper is getting praise for directing “The Danish Girl," the true story of one of the first gender confirmation surgeries in the world, which took place in the 1920s.

Stacey Sher worked with Quentin Tarantino on “Pulp Fiction” and “Django Unchained,” so she's familiar with his methods and madness; "The Hateful Eight" was mostly filmed on a scenic ranch in Telluride, Colorado; holiday music to enjoy and avoid.

The director of the Oscar-winning "Birdman" is likely to get another nomination for "The Revenant"; Björk deconstructs the song "Stonemilker" from her latest album; the California Film Commission awards tax credits to 11 TV shows in the latest round of production incentives.

The actress and her co-star, Tom Courtenay, talk about playing a long-married couple in "45 Years"; Disney intends to put out a new “Star Wars” movie every year for as long as people will buy tickets; Cirque du Soleil's new show,"Kurios," will appeal to fans of the steampunk aesthetic.