How did Festus leave Gunsmoke? Ken Curtis played him for close to 300 episodes — and then never once appeared in the TV movies
Ken Curtis played Festus Haggen for 11 years and 304 episodes of Gunsmoke, then sat out every one of the five reunion films CBS made between 1987 and 1994. Here's how the series actually ended for him, and what kept him out of the movies.
September 18, 2026 6:11 pm
Bill Skarsgård, Pennywise himself, will lead Kojima's new spy game — the one PlayStation walked away from this month
You’ll want to know who Kojima’s tapped: the actor behind Pennywise is leading action-espionage game Physint, announced during the Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2026 broadcast.
September 18, 2026 2:36 pm
Charlize Theron is turning a hit mafia webcomic into a series — a nanny who babysits for the mob and fights like a spy
Hulu is adapting The Mafia Nanny, the Webtoon about a nanny-academy graduate hired to look after a mafia underboss’s son. Theron is on board as a producer.
September 18, 2026 1:05 pm
How did Ginny die in Dead City? Negan raided Bellevue Hospital trying to stop it — the finale shows the rest
Dead City season 2 sends Negan alone into a walker-infested Bellevue Hospital, and the finale settles what that trip was worth. Here's the full chain of events behind the storyline, plus what Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Mahina Napoleon have said about filming it.
September 17, 2026 9:04 pm
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: what the title means — Kesey wrote the novel on night shifts at a psychiatric ward
The title of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest comes from a nursery rhyme, but the novel came from a night job at a Californian veterans' hospital and a CIA drug programme. Here's where Ken Kesey got both.
September 17, 2026 3:17 pm
What does Jack Ryan say to the cook in Russian?
Alec Baldwin's Jack Ryan speaks exactly one line of Russian in The Hunt for Red October. Here's the phrase, what it literally translates to, and why a CIA analyst is shouting it at a man from the galley.
September 16, 2026 6:03 pm
What is the Big Red Machine in Reacher? Where the name comes from, and who is really after him in season 4
Reacher season 4 keeps naming a set of enemies the Big Red Machine, and the phrase isn't the show's invention. Here's where it comes from on screen, what it's borrowed from, and how it fits into a season with an unusual number of people chasing the same USB drive.
September 15, 2026 8:36 pm
What happens at the end of I Will Find You? Harlan Coben rewrote his own book's reveal for the series
Netflix's I Will Find You rewrites two of the novel's biggest reveals before it gets anywhere near the finale. Here's how the eight-episode series ends, and what Harlan Coben changed on purpose.
September 15, 2026 2:37 pm
How many Taskmaster series are there? The running count, plus the deal that books Greg and Alex through 2029
How many series of Taskmaster are there? The current UK total, the Dave years, the move to Channel 4, every special, and the new deal that keeps Greg Davies and Alex Horne setting tasks until 2029.
September 13, 2026 8:16 pm
Why does Star City use British accents? The showrunners' explanation, and the For All Mankind precedent it broke
Star City, the For All Mankind spinoff on Apple TV+, has its Soviet characters speaking English in British accents. The showrunners' full explanation, the Chernobyl connection, and the franchise precedent it overturned.
September 12, 2026 7:07 pm