American Idol Is Back!

Written by Jon Williams

On Monday of this week, the popular reality singing show American Idol capped off its sixteenth season by crowning Maddie Poppe as its new champion. This season was the show’s first on ABC following fifteen on Fox followed by a two-year hiatus. Ryan Seacrest returned as the show’s host, where he was joined by new judges Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan. Along with Poppe, some other names to watch for from this season as their musical careers unfold include Caleb Lee Hutchinson, Gabby Barrett, Cade Foeher, Michael J. Woodard, Catie Turner, and Ada Vox.

Once one of the most popular shows on television, if not the most popular, ratings had declined for Idol’s last few seasons on Fox. Nevertheless, it still managed to produce some phenomenal musical talent. The most recent winner, Trent Harmon, released his debut album You Got ‘Em All last week, while that season’s runner-up, La’Porsha Renae, released hers last year. Other winners from this stretch include Nick Fradiani, Caleb Johnson (whose debut album is currently out of print), and Candice Glover.

Prior to that, Seasons 1 through 11 were the show’s heyday, shining a spotlight on a number of young singers that would emerge as musical superstars. The audience was hooked from the start, when Kelly Clarkson took the first season crown over runner-up Justin Guarini. She is now one of the biggest names in music. The same can be said for Carrie Underwood, the winner of Season 4, who served as a mentor this season and whose new album Cry Pretty is coming in September. She’s carved out an enormous career in country music, as has Season 10 winner Scotty McCreery, who dropped his most recent album, Seasons Change, in March. Other winners from these seasons are Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, David Cook, Kris Allen, Lee DeWyze, and Phillip Phillips.

Of course, sometimes contestants that don’t win end up doing pretty well for themselves in the music world as well. One of the biggest names to come out of American Idol has been Jennifer Hudson, who actually placed seventh in the show’s third season, and who has won an Academy Award for her acting skills in addition to two Grammy Awards for her music. The Season 8 runner-up was Adam Lambert, who has had an impressive solo career, toured as the frontman for Queen, and starred as Eddie in the 2016 version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Other notables include Katharine McPhee, Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler, Danny Gokey, Crystal Bowersox, and Colton Dixon, while a number of alumni, including Season 10’s Haley Reinhart and Casey Abrams, have performed as part of musical sensation Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox.

So make sure you have music from all these winners and contestants on your shelves and be on the lookout for upcoming albums from this season’s performers as well, because Idol is back. The show has already been renewed for a second season on ABC and seventeenth overall, with Ryan Seacrest and all of this season’s judges returning. With the show back in the spotlight, your patrons will be looking for music from all these incredible performers.

Ron Howard Brings a Steady Hand to Solo

Written by Jon Williams

We’re now just a week away from the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story into theatres. This will be the second non-trilogy, standalone film in the Star Wars saga, following the huge success of Rogue One in 2016. Like that film, Solo will also dive into the period of time leading up to the events that take place in the original 1977 Star Wars. It will detail the early life of Han Solo, the smuggler turned rebel originally played with such swagger by Harrison Ford, as he meets Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian and embarks on his life on the fringes of society. An impressive lineup fills the cast, and bringing it all together from the director’s chair is Hollywood veteran Ron Howard.

Although he’s just 64 years old, Howard’s career spans nearly six decades itself. It began in front of the camera, of course, including two very high-profile television roles. He began playing Opie Taylor, son of the title character on The Andy Griffith Show, in 1960, when he was just six years old. That ran for eight seasons, and he also played the character in single episodes of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and Mayberry R.F.D., as well as a 1986 reunion movie that was his last significant acting role. In 1974, he began playing Richie Cunningham on Happy Days and served as the main character of that series for most of its run. As with Opie Taylor, he also crossed the role of Richie Cunningham over to Laverne & Shirley.

Those are his long-running and best-known roles, but as a young actor he also made appearances in a number of other popular shows, including The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Dennis the Menace, The Fugitive, M*A*S*H, and The Waltons, among many others. And those are just his television roles. He also appeared in a number of films, such as The Music Man, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and The Shootist, John Wayne’s final film. In 1973, a starring role in the teenage comedy-drama American Graffiti was Howard’s first encounter with George Lucas’s then-burgeoning Lucasfilm company. He also starred in the 1979 follow-up More American Graffiti, but by then his acting career was winding down.

In 1977, Howard got his first chance to direct a feature film with Grand Theft Auto, a rollicking car chase adventure that he also wrote (with his father Rance) and starred in. His big break in directing was 1982’s Night Shift, a buddy comedy starring Michael Keaton in his first major role and Howard’s Happy Days co-star Henry Winkler. He then went on to bring Tom Hanks to the big screen for the first time in the 1984 romcom Splash, and later directed Steve Martin in Parenthood. While his first few films were comedic in nature, in 1988 he returned to the Lucasfilm fold by directing George Lucas’s fantastical Willow (currently unavailable).

Howard’s career has only continued to grow from there. The 1990s saw him direct such box office hits as Backdraft, Far and Away, Apollo 13, and Ransom. In 2000 he brought the Dr. Seuss classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas to the big screen, and then followed that up in 2001 with A Beautiful Mind, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Director. He was nominated again for 2008’s Frost/Nixon but lost out to Slumdog Millionaire’s Danny Boyle. Other notable directorial outings include the boxing drama Cinderella Man, the Jay-Z music festival documentary Made in America, and the trilogy of Robert Langdon films based on Dan Brown’s bestselling novels: The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, and Inferno.

Many fans still recognize Ron Howard from his earliest roles as Opie Taylor and Richie Cunningham; more currently he may be known as the narrator for the comedy series Arrested Development, which he also produces. But whether it’s in front of or behind the camera, his vast Hollywood experience made Howard the perfect choice to take over the reins of Solo when the film’s original directors departed, bringing his practiced eye to bear on the latest movie from a galaxy far, far away. His most high-profile project to date will have patrons excited to check out more from his filmography, which is well worth exploring in its own right. Click any of the links above to add these movies to your collection, or SmartBrowse his name on our website for a more complete collection of his acting and directing roles.

MCU Going Strong with Infinity War

Written by Jon Williams

Last week, Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War thundered into theatres across North America to the tune of a nearly $258 million opening. That total pushed it past 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the highest grossing opening weekend of all time. Going into its second weekend, it looks likely to dominate the box office once again, and in fact may continue to do so until the next Marvel movie, the much-anticipated Deadpool sequel, opens on May 18.

We last checked in on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) nearly two years ago, with the release of Captain America: Civil War. That movie kicked off Phase 3 of Marvel’s ongoing interconnected movie universe, and the post detailed the films that made up the first two phases. Phase 3 continued in 2016 with Doctor Strange, which brought Benedict Cumberbatch’s reality-bending sorcerer into the mix. The following year saw three MCU blockbusters, starting with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in May. The action returned to Earth with Spider-Man: Homecoming in July, the webslinger’s first solo outing since Civil War introduced him to the Avengers team. Then, in November, Thor: Ragnarok showed the exploits of the two Avengers (Hulk being the second) who weren’t around for the events of Civil War. And 2018 has really brought the power: before Infinity War’s incredible opening weekend, Black Panther, which opened in February, became the third highest-grossing film of all time in North America. That movie, which is still showing in many theatres nearly three months later, comes to video on May 15.

So where do the Avengers go from here? For those that have seen the movie (no spoilers!), that is a very pressing questions. The immediate answer is Ant-Man and the Wasp, which comes to theatres on July 6. It’s a sequel to 2015’s Ant-Man (Phase 2), which saw Paul Rudd’s character Scott Lang get the suit that allows him to shrink or grow at will. However, the film is set in the time period between Civil War and Infinity War, so don’t expect too many answers as to what happens next. From there, fans will have to wait until next March, when Captain Marvel is set to be released, with Brie Larson in the title role. Likewise, though, there isn’t likely to be any closure here, either, as it’s set in the 1990s. No, for that, everyone is just going to have to wait for the as-yet-untitled fourth Avengers movie, currently slated for release on May 3, 2019. That will bring the curtain down on Phase 3 and lead into Phase 4, about which little is known at this point.

A year is a long time to wait for the next Avengers, but on the bright side, it’s also plenty of time for patrons to relive or get caught up on all the incredible movies that have brought us to this point—starting, of course, with Iron Man, which kicked off the MCU when it was released almost exactly ten years ago, on May 2, 2008. And for those who want to dig a little deeper, we have curated a collection of Infinity War-related comics on hoopla, as well as a wealth of other Marvel titles.

Remembering Those We’ve Lost

Written by Jon Williams

The past several weeks have seen a number of notable figures pass away. As April draws to a close, we want to pause to remember their lives and careers.

Most prominent, of course, was former First Lady Barbara Bush, who passed on April 17 at age 92. She served as Second Lady in the United States from 1981 through 1989 as her husband George Bush was vice president to Ronald Reagan, and then became first lady from 1989 through 1993 as Mr. Bush served one term as president. Their son George W. Bush also served as president from 2001 through 2009, while another son, Jeb Bush, served as governor of the state of Florida. As part of this lengthy political career, she was a fierce advocate for the ability to read, starting the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and stressing the importance of reading to children as an essential part of their development. Her foundation has raised millions of dollars toward this goal since its inception in 1989, and libraries were particularly near and dear to her heart.

Last weekend the entertainment world lost a very recognizable figure in Verne Troyer, who passed away on April 21. Born with cartilage-hair hypoplasia, Troyer grew to a height of less than three feet. After a number of minor film roles throughout the mid to late 1990s, he finally found fame as the character of Mini-Me in 1999’s Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, a role he would return to in 2002 with Austin Powers in Goldmember. His stature lent itself to roles in fantasy films like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and his most recent role was in the 2015 horror film Gnome Alone.

Also last weekend, on April 20, we lost Avicii, the stage name of Tim Bergling, a Swedish DJ and producer of electronic dance music. He was just 28 years old. Getting into the music scene as a teenager, Avicii released his breakout single “Levels” in 2011, leading up to his debut album True in 2013. He followed that up with Stories in 2015. His single “Sunshine” with David Guetta was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2012, and over the course of his career he also collaborated with such artists as Coldplay, Lenny Kravitz, and Madonna, among many others.

Harry Anderson was immediately recognizable from his iconic portrayal of Judge Harry Stone on the sitcom Night Court, which ran for nine seasons from 1984 through 1992. He followed that up with four seasons of Dave’s World, based on the writings of Dave Barry. Prior to both of those shows, he had a recurring role on Cheers, one of the most popular sitcoms of all time, which helped propel him to fame. He also starred as part of the ensemble cast of the 1990 miniseries It, based on the novel by Stephen King, which has seen a resurgence of popularity lately due to the highly successful new big-screen adaptation. He passed away on April 16 at the age of 65.

The day before, on April 15, beloved actor R. Lee Ermey passed away at 74. His voice and bearing led to him being cast often in roles of authority, which followed from his first career as a drill instructor and staff sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. It’s appropriate, then, that his most famous role was as a drill instructor in Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 Vietman War film Full Metal Jacket. He played the ghost of a drill instructor in The Frighteners, and voiced the leader of the army men in Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story trilogy. Over the course of a career that spanned four decades, he also appeared in such films as Seven, Dead Man Walking, Mississippi Burning, and two Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies of the 2000s.

Despite the fact that filmmaker Milos Forman worked primarily in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, he made a number of acclaimed American films. Starting out by acting and then writing and directing Czech films in the 1950s and 1960s, he made a splash not long after beginning to work in the U.S. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which also won Best Picture. He won the award again in 1985 for Amadeus, and was nominated in 1997 for The People vs. Larry Flint. He passed away on April 13 at age 86.

Finally, and most recently, musician Bob Dorough passed away earlier this week, on April 23, at 94. His name may not ring a bell, but chances are decent that you’ve heard some of his work. His most famous creation is the music of Schoolhouse Rock!, a, educational Saturday morning cartoon series that helped a generation of children learn about a wide variety of topics. The show and its music are still beloved by those who grew up with it.

These influential people have created and advocated for a wealth of incredible work that will be enjoyed for years to come, and their losses are keenly felt. Click the links above order titles to share with patrons, or SmartBrowse their names on our website for more.

TV Revivals Are All the Rage

Written by Jon Williams

Next week, on Tuesday, March 27, Roseanne will return to television screens. The beloved sitcom originally ran for nine seasons from 1988 through 1997. Now it’s coming back with a nine-episode season that will feature the show’s original cast—which creates some interesting dilemmas, since two actresses played the character of Becky (the second, Sarah Chalke, will appear as a different character) and Dan, played by John Goodman, died in the original final season of the show (he’s back). Other familiar faces returning to the show include Laurie Metcalf, fresh off her Academy Award nomination for Lady Bird, Sandra Bernhard, Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki, and, of course, Roseanne Barr herself.

Television is widely considered to be in a new golden age, with an incredible amount of high-quality content being created. With the rise of streaming services producing shows of their own in addition to more traditional cable and broadcast channels, competition for viewers is at an all-time high, and the television industry is frequently looking to the past to fill its slate. Everything old is new again as reboots and revivals, like Roseanne, are popping up everywhere. Another popular sitcom that has returned is Will & Grace, which originally aired from 1998 through 2006. After a ten-minute one-off proved to be wildly popular in 2016, the show was brought back to series in the fall of 2017. The first revival season will come to a close next week, and the show has already been renewed for a second and third season. Likewise, Full House, which ran from 1987 through 1995, has been brought back as Fuller House, following the adult lives of the characters who were children in the original show. The new show is three seasons in and going strong.

The phenomenon isn’t limited to sitcoms. Earlier this week, the second revival season of The X-Files came to a close. Originally running from 1993 to 2002, the sci-fi series about a pair of FBI agents tracking down leads on alien visitation was brought back for a six-episode limited event series in 2016 before this year’s ten-episode set. With Gillian Anderson bowing out and David Duchovny open to returning, it’s unclear if the show will continue further. In the drama category, Twin Peaks was also revived for a limited event series in 2017 following two seasons in 1990-91 and the movie Fire Walk with Me in 1992. And the dramedy series Gilmore Girls was brought back for the four-episode miniseries A Year in the Life in 2016 following its original seven-season run from 2000 through 2007.

And there are more revivals in the works. It was recently announced that Murphy Brown will be back on television later this year, with Candice Bergen and the show’s original cast returning to explore the state of television journalism in the current climate. Although nothing has been finalized, Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt are in talks to team back up for new episodes of Mad About You, nineteen years after that show’s seeming end. And don’t forget about reboots, in which series concepts are reused in different, usually updated circumstances, starting with a new cast. Some of those we can look forward to include Cagney & Lacey, Magnum P.I., Charmed, The Greatest American Hero, and Lost in Space, not to mention recent rumours about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

With all of these classic shows returning to small screens in one form or another, and more sure to follow, patrons will be looking for the original shows to catch up or just to relive old favourites. You can find them on our website, and count on us to bring you the revivals and reboots as they become available. Are there any other series no longer on the air that you’d like to see brought back? If so, keep the faith—it just might happen!

Joan Baez Takes a Bow

Written by Jon Williams

Iconic folk singer Joan Baez has had a long and illustrious career, commemorated with her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. Now she’s ready for her swan song. The legendary artist has a new album out today, Whistle Down the Wind, her first in ten years. To go along with it, she has embarked on an extensive world tour, starting today in Stockholm and running through November in California. Aptly named the Fare Thee Well tour, it will be her final time going out on the road.

Baez was interested in music from an early age, and was set on her path young when she attended a Pete Seeger concert in 1954. She gave her own first performance in 1958, and a pair of duets with Bob Gibson at the Newport Music Festival in 1959 led to a record deal. Her self-titled debut album was released the following year. She followed it up with Joan Baez, Vol. 2 in 1961. Those albums both attained gold status, as did her 1962 live album, Joan Baez in Concert. Other albums to reach this sales mark are Any Day Now (1968), Blessed Are… (1971), and Diamonds and Rust (1975).

Throughout her career, Baez was influenced by such artists as Pete Seeger and Odetta, and she passed that influence on to a number of other musicians. Her performances with and recording of songs by Bob Dylan were a major factor in his career taking off, and she has been cited as an influence by such artists as Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, and Emmylou Harris. Although Baez is a songwriter, she is quite well known for songs written by others, including the Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and Phil Ochs’s “There but for Fortune.”

She experienced her peak popularity during the tumultuous 1960s, when her music was associated with the civil rights movement and protest of the Vietnam War. Although she slowed down some as the years went on, Baez has continued to record and perform in the intervening years, releasing a total of 25 studio albums, as well as a number of live albums, compilations, and soundtracks. Her previous most recent, Day After Tomorrow, came out in 2008. What has not slowed down is her involvement with a number of causes and issues, including LGBT rights, the environment, and opposition to the death penalty. In 2011, she was honoured by Amnesty International with the naming of the annual Joan Baez Award, recognizing artists in any media who “contribute to the advancement of human rights.”

With her work being so closely associated with protest, it is certainly fitting for her to be in the limelight one final time in our current environment. Make sure you have Whistle Down the Wind on your shelves for longtime Joan Baez fans to check out and enjoy, and shed light on her illustrious career with copies of her previous albums as well. SmartBrowse her name on our website to find more, and make sure your patrons know that her new album and her extensive discography are available 24/7 with no waiting on hoopla!

Black Panther Lives Up to the Hype

Written by Jon Williams

The superhero character Black Panther first appeared in Marvel comics in 1966, gracing the pages of a Fantastic Four adventure. He later appeared in comics featuring Captain America, the Avengers, and Daredevil, before finally scoring a comic of his own in 1973. Likewise, in the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther first came to the screen as part of the massive ensemble in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. The electrifying performance by Chadwick Boseman made audiences very excited for the character’s first standalone adventure, which finally made its way into theatres last week—with a bang. Along with rave reviews from critics and fans, it owned the box office in its first weekend with over $200 million in North America, and it looks to stay on top in its second week.

That huge opening weekend put Black Panther in some heady company, as it became just the fifth film to crack the $200M mark. The first was another Marvel movie, The Avengers, in 2012. It was done twice in 2015, first in the summer by Jurassic World. Then, toward the end of the year, The Force Awakens brought the Star Wars saga back into theatres for the first time since 2005 to the tune of nearly $250 million, the biggest opening of all time to date. Then, just a couple of short months ago, that film’s follow-up, The Last Jedi, joined this blockbuster list as well. Black Panther is certain to dominate the box office again; the only question is whether it can become just the fourth film to follow a $200+M opening with a $100+M weekend (FWIW, our crystal ball says it will—easily).

So what’s behind the film’s runaway success? First off, you can’t overstate how the thrill of finally seeing a black superhero has resonated with fans, both longtime Black Panther fans and just moviegoers in general. And while that is a critical factor, it wouldn’t matter nearly as much if the movie weren’t outstanding in its own right. It begins with 31-year-old wunderkind director and co-writer Ryan Coogler. He has just two previous films to his name, but they’re good ones: the 2013 Sundance darling Fruitvale Station and the 2015 Rocky reboot Creed. Both of those films starred Michael B. Jordan, and he features in Black Panther as Killmonger, the primary foil to Boseman’s hero. Those two are part of an incredible cast that includes Academy Award winners Forest Whitaker and Lupita Nyong’o, as well as Angela Bassett, Daniel Kaluuya from Get Out, and Danai Gurira from The Walking Dead, to name just a few. Add in a killer soundtrack curated by hip-hop superstar Kendrick Lamar and you can see the primary elements that have come together to create the phenomenon this movie has become.

With Black Panther just going into its second week in theatres and expected to continue raking in the cash, it will be a while before it becomes available on DVD and Blu-ray. In the meantime, though, there’s plenty of material to satisfy those who just can’t get enough. In addition to everything listed above, you can SmartBrowse on our website to find all the Marvel movies and plenty of other superhero content. And if your library is signed up with hoopla, there are a number of Black Panther comics available for patrons to explore, all with no waiting!