Word: nbc
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...media shake-up, cable operator Comcast agreed to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal from General Electric. The deal would create a giant firm whose assets pulled in $51 billion in revenue last year. Thriving NBC Universal cable channels such as USA and MSNBC were especially attractive to Comcast, though the flagship NBC broadcast network remains mired in fourth place. Regulatory approval of the deal could take more than a year...
...NBC UNIVERSAL...
...Alexander, a Canadian entrepreneur who had briefly worked at a Chicago theater, to run it. The new venue "struggled for a while" as he remembers, but soon the outlook for Second City - and its brand of satiric comedy - changed forever. On Oct. 11, 1975, Lorne Michaels, along with fellow NBC employee Dick Ebersol and president of the network Herb Schlosser, launched Saturday Night Live, a genre-defining mix of music and sketch comedy whose cast was stocked with Second City alums like Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner. In large part thanks to SNL, Alexander says, "comedy became the rock...
...SCTV, says Alexander, began as a defensive response to SNL, under the assumption that other networks would follow NBC's lead, launching sketch-comedy shows of their own and draining Second City's talent. But by 1983, SCTV had won two Emmy Awards for outstanding writing (1982 and 1983) and was being broadcast in the U.S. on NBC; it was canceled in 1984, after eight seasons...
...further showcased the improv art form on the show Whose Line Is It Anyway? Amy Poehler formed the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy group, starred on SNL and got her own sitcom, Parks and Recreation. And four Second City alumni either write for or act in the multi-award-winning NBC comedy 30 Rock. These successes, as Alexander puts it, are "our legacy...