READ MORE: The 20 Best TV Comedies of the 21st Century, Ranked. 25. “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” (2004) How far would you go for some sliders? It won’t spoil “Snatched” to reveal the premise of the movie, which is that Emily and Linda get kidnappedby scary racist-lite cliché Ecuadorian kidnappers! An engaging biography of Dolores Huerta, a key figure in labor organizing whose story has been neglected. Ring name(s) John Cena Juan Cena The Prototype: Billed height: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Billed weight: 251 lb (114 kg) Billed from "Classified" (UPW) West Newbury.

As I say in my video review above, this movie sadly is not any sort of comic masterpiece — far from it. In fact at times it is incredibly dumb. But I have to say.

The gruff, adamantium- clawed Marvel superhero Wolverine strikes out on his own in this X- Men spin- off starring series regular Hugh Jackman. The story gets under way as the boy who will become Wolverine makes a shocking discovery about his family bloodline, and gains a brother in the process. Flash forward to find the mutant siblings battling side by side through two world wars and Vietnam - - where they are sentenced to death for killing a commanding officer - - and Logan (Hugh Jackman) and his brother, Victor Creed (aka Sabretooth, played by Liev Schreiber), have joined a top- secret government task force. When their targets begin to include innocent civilians, conscientious Logan escapes to the Canadian Rockies, where he builds a home with pretty schoolteacher Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). Informed by his old commanding officer William Stryker (Danny Huston) that the members of his old team are being targeted for death, Logan is heartbroken when Victor finds and kills Kayla. Vowing revenge, Logan agrees to take part in a dangerous experiment that will fuse his bones with a powerful metal alloy called adamantium, which makes him virtually indestructible and gives him the strength needed to defeat his powerful brother.

Subsequently betrayed by Stryker, Logan (now Wolverine) sets out to find his blood- lusting brother and stop the cycle of violence once and for all. Along the way, the temperamental hero is joined by fellow mutants John Wraith (Will.

Am) and Remy Le. Beau (aka Gambit, played by Taylor Kitsch). But before Wolverine can seek vengeance against Striker and his brother, he'll have to do battle with Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) a formidable mutant instilled with many powers. Jason Buchanan, Rovi.

How "Smash" Became TV's Biggest Train Wreck. A year ago, Smash began its first season on NBC, critically praised and exceedingly hyped, with the well- funded backing of the network and its chairman, Robert Greenblatt, who considered the musical drama his pet project. Steven Spielberg had dreamed up the concept, and his Dream.

Works TV was behind it. But by the time the show had its finale in May, it had become an object of ritualistic ridicule: appointment television for hate- watchers, that new American sport created by social media.

Some actors regret not taking a chance on that big role; others wish they'd never picked up the phone. These stars came to hate their best-known work. Some actors made their careers with just one role. While they may take on other projects, they will forever be known for that one portrayal.

Smash's unsympathetic lead characters, oddly placed musical sequences, schizophrenic tonal shifts, cartoon- like villains who literally say, "You haven't heard the last of this," and strangely accessorized actors all became fodder for Twitter jokes. Comedian Julie Klausner even devoted a podcast to Smash, which she called "the best television of all time."Along the way, Smash's creator/showrunner, Theresa Rebeck, was fired.

Rebeck had made it clear that Smash was her vision, and when that vision turned out to be laughable, she was shown the door. Despite all of Smash's problems, it did well enough in the ratings to be renewed for a second season — it aired after hit The Voice, and benefited from that lead- in. Now, new executive producer Joshua Safran, late of Gossip Girl, will attempt to turn Smash around in Season 2. It has a two- hour premiere on Tuesday. How does a lovingly looked- after show with such high stakes for all involved become a joke? Smash is a case study: in how megalomania and television can clash unproductively; in how high expectations can crash immediately; and in how intense network and studio oversight can result in a paranoid show creator who causes workplace misery and, most importantly, a bad TV show.

NBC would not participate in this story. Instead, I spoke with more than a half- dozen people who worked on the first season — all of whom would talk to me only under the condition of anonymity out of fear of angering NBC, Dream. Works, and a number of other people — to try to figure out what went so horribly wrong with Smash. Debra Messing. All images courtesy of NBC unless specified otherwise. Greenblatt began as the entertainment chairman at NBC in early 2.

NBC Universal, was taken over by Comcast. The network had been down so long, it had become a punch line.

One bad season had followed another. After the Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien disaster, which played out in an ugly, public, embarrassing way the previous year, it seemed like the once- No.

Then the well- respected Greenblatt arrived. As an executive at Fox in the '9. Party of Five and The X- Files; later, as an independent producer, HBO's Six Feet Under was one of his shows. Then, as the entertainment president at Showtime for six years, he turned the identity- less HBO imitator into a prestigious, growing pay- cable channel. NBC was lucky to get him. In addition to his talents as a television executive, Greenblatt is a devoted theater geek.

While at Showtime, he also produced a theatrical adaptation of 9 to 5 with Dolly Parton, which had a short Broadway run in 2. Greenblatt originally bought Smash for Showtime in November 2. It had been Spielberg's idea; the star director wanted to create a scripted series about a musical, and if all went well, the fictional musical would actually be developed as a real one on Broadway. It was an ambitious project.

When Greenblatt went to NBC, he brought Smash with him. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the producing team who specialize in musical theater adaptations for film and television, were already in place as executive producers; Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Tony winners for Hairspray, were also on board to write Smash's original music.

With Glee having so much success at Fox, the timing seemed perfect for a show for adults about the behind- the- scenes drama of making a Broadway musical. Watch It Follows Online Gorillavid. Rebeck had been involved since Smash's inception as well. Though mainly known as an accomplished playwright, she had spent time in television too, writing for NYPD Blue, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and other shows. For years, Rebeck had wanted to create a TV series about a Broadway production, and no one had ever bitten. Then she was hired to do exactly that on Smash.

According to a story in Variety by Cynthia Littleton, it was Rebeck's off- Broadway play The Understudy, a backstage satire about how theater has been ruined by stunt- casting and celebrity, that sold Spielberg on her."It was pretty exciting when they came looking for me," Rebeck told Littleton. Once Greenblatt got to NBC, Smash became a reality. The cast included a television star (Debra Messing), notable theater actors like Christian Borle and Megan Hilty (who had been in Greenblatt's 9 to 5), American Idol finalist Katharine Mc. Phee for novelty, and an Oscar- winning movie star, Anjelica Huston.

The pilot was filmed a few months after Greenblatt started his new job, for a reported $7. It was directed by Michael Mayer, who had won the Tony for Spring Awakening, but had never directed television before. At Greenblatt's first upfront presentation in May 2.

Smash would premiere in midseason and be paired with the second season of the surprise hit The Voice. No work of popular fiction receives unanimous acclaim. But the pilot for Smash, sent out to journalists shortly after the up- fronts, got a ton of early love from critics, and deservedly so. It set up a world full of compelling characters. Messing and Borle played Julia and Tom, a successful team of songwriters who are also best friends; they begin to write a musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, providing the plot's engine. Hilty and Mc. Phee were two very different ingénue characters — Hilty's Ivy was the seasoned actress/singer who had been in a thousand choruses and needs her big break, while Mc.

Phee's Karen was the naïve Iowa transplant just starting out. Eileen Rand (Huston) was a big- shot producer who has to show she can have a hit without her ex- husband/ex- business partner, and Jack Davenport played Derek, the star director who is also a sexual predator when it comes to casting. The music was a combination of pop covers (Mc.

Phee sang Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" during an audition scene) and original songs, topped off by the catchy "Let Me Be Your Star," a duet and duel between Ivy and Karen as they both audition for the part of Marilyn in Tom and Julia's nascent musical. Let Me Be Your Star" literally stops the show — as the song crescendos, the pilot ends on a cliff- hanger: Which actress will be Marilyn? Watch Ghost Squad Online here. It was exciting. A show as complicated as Smash — with multiple musical numbers every week that needed to look and sound professional, in addition to the requirements of any television drama (an engaging plot and characters) — had to be run meticulously.

Any television series can go off the rails if the showrunner loses control, or, conversely, controls too much — if his or her ideas turn out to be bad ones. A creator with aggressive convictions about what the show is or should be is not rare in television, nor is it necessarily a bad thing for a show that has so many non- writers in producing roles. The issues occur when that person creates a show with obvious, worsening problems and won't listen to anyone else — and that is what happened with Rebeck. A source who worked on Season 1 of Smash said, "Very quickly it just turned into kind of like — a kingdom or something. A dictatorship."Emory Cohen, left, played Leo.

And so, as Smash got going, it began to fall apart. Rebeck had a full writing staff, some of whom she hired and some of whom were hired for her. One person who had happily taken a job behind- the- scenes based on the pilot and the premise said: "She was this kick- ass woman showrunner who wasn't taking shit from the network. Someone who had a very clear vision who was going to stand up to the network. They were all good things in the beginning.