The Frame

Rankine, whose poetry has examined everyday racism in America, and Wolfe, whose music addresses issues of the American worker, were both named MacArthur Foundation fellows; as the Fall TV season launches, we visit with producer Betsy Beers at Shondaland, one of the most successful companies in the industry.

Diavolo Dance Theatre is reinventing modern dance by combing architecture and wildly physical choreography; media critics have been piling on NBC for going soft on the GOP nominee, and now late night host Samantha Bee has joined the fray; Richard Nelson keeps his election-themed plays current by writing until the last minute.

The new documentary, “The Lovers and the Despot,” tells the true story of what happened in 1978 when Kim Jong-il ordered the kidnapping of a filmmaking couple from South Korea to jumpstart North Korea's movie industry; William Bell has revived the classic Stax sound; a new report shows that the music business is actually making money in the streaming age.

Playwright and performer Lucy Alibar draws on her Southern childhood for “Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up"; Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, who won a writing Emmy for "Master of None," talk about their approach to diversity; the Toronto International Film Festival kicked off a lot of Academy Award talk.

Kent McCord of the 1960-70s TV cop show, "Adam-12," which was produced in partnership with the LAPD. McCord says a show about cops who aren't "edgy" wouldn't sell in today's TV business; In advance of TV's big awards night, we discuss what goes into an Emmy campaign, and how valuable is a nomination or a win in this era of "too much TV"?

Cheo Hodari Coker, creator and showrunner of the Netflix series "Luke Cage," unpacks the idea of building a show around a superhero who also happens to be a "bullet-proof black man" in a hoodie; Can Pandora and Amazon be the next disruptors in the streaming music space? They hope so.

The documentary "Audrie & Daisy" examines the sexual assault and cyber-shaming of two teen girls; with its third album, the band Local Natives remains entrenched in Silver Lake's indie rock scene; a group of songwriters is challenging the Dept. of Justice's control over royalty rates.

How do unconscious biases affect hiring practices in Hollywood? To dig deeper into this issue, Cathy Schulman (Oscar-winning producer/Women In Film) and Judith Williams (Global Head of Diversity at Dropbox) put Frame host John Horn to the test as if he's a studio executive; In 2005 Jackie Lopez co-founded the hip hop troupe "Versa Style" to teach kids not only how to dance but the cultural history behind hip hop.

"Kicks" filmmakers discuss how being outsiders who didn't fit society's views of manhood fueled the making of their lyrical coming-of-age drama; A new documentary explores why Brad Bird's 1999 animated film "The Iron Giant" was a critical darling, but a box office bomb; Inside Nate Parker's "The Birth of a Nation" press conference at TIFF; Can you scream like Nicholas Cage?

Every August, cultural festivals take over the Scottish city of Edinburgh with thousands of performances taking place day and night. This year The Frame host John Horn immersed himself in shows and brings an audio postcard of his creative excursion; TV reporter Whitney Friedlander joins us to preview some new and returning television shows that are worthy of our time and DVR space this fall.

Movie ticket sales dropped five percent in 2014, worrying studios and theater owners; filmmaker Lee Daniels talks about his foray into TV production with his new Fox series, "Empire" (pictured); Shamir is one musician to watch in 2015.

Ranking various versions of the New Year's Eve tune, from Rod Stewart to Mariah Carey to ... cats!; Christmas came early for music lovers when an L.A. record store let customers cart off 25 albums for free; the City of L.A.'s former arts czar assesses the city's place in the cultural world.

The iconoclastic theater/opera director Peter Sellars (pictured) uses Los Angeles as his base while he travels the world to mount work with themes of social justice; a new investigation concludes North Korea wasn't behind the Sony hack; and a look at the top films of 2014.

We break down the Christmas weekend box office and video-on-demand numbers for the controversial film, "The Interview"; writer/director J.C. Chandor talks about his latest film, "A Most Violent Year," starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain (pictured); David Lynch's artwork is featured in a major museum exhibition.

Alamo Drafthouse cinema on convincing Sony to release "The Interview"; The screenwriter of ‘The Imitation Game’ always wanted to tell the true story of Alan Turing; Celebrating 10 years of The Black List, the place where Oscar winners “Argo,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The King’s Speech” debuted; What television to binge-watch over the holidays.

Sony will allow "The Interview" to be seen after all! We talk to the founder of the Downtown Independent about his quest to get the film at his theater; The screenwriters of “Big Eyes” spent a decade trying to get their movie about kitschy art made —and it cost them dearly; Song Exploder dissects a tune from the rock band, The National; Meet the L.A. rabbi with a side job in television.

Playwright James Lapine compares the Hollywood and Broadway versions of "Into The Woods"; "Nightcrawler" writer/director Dan Gilroy weighs in on the Sony hack and "The Interview" scandal; and a Festivus for the rest of us.

Director Angelina Jolie talks about her personal commitment to bring Lou Zamperini’s story to the screen in the movie “Unbroken.” Seth Rogen and James Franco, the stars of “The Interview,” got a special shout-out from President Obama at a White House news conference.

Since you won't see "The Interview," we have a recap of the film, and two critics weigh in on whether the movie is worth all the drama; The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach has the first solo U.S. museum exhibition of contemporary Cuban artist Esterio Segura; and we end our Colbert Countdown.

Sony won't release "The Interview" amid threats and the largest theater chains declining to screen the film; writer/director Judd Apatow weighs in on potential harm to the industry; Day 3 of our countdown to the end of 'The Colbert Report'; Rafe Fiennes on working with Wes Anderson.

The Japanese rock star Miyavi was picked by Angelina Jolie to play a WWII prison commandant for his first acting role; what makes Stephen Colbert geek-out, and what did an appearance on "The Colbert Report" do for author Gregory Rodriguez?; artist Ben Noam looks for inspiration in a park.

Dan Sterling talks about the genesis of "The Interview" (starring James Franco, left, and Seth Rogen, right) and how North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un made his way into the script; we launch our week-long farewell tribute to "The Colbert Report."