Countryfile’s Adam Henson has opened up on the ‘difficult times’ he has faced away from the BBC show
Countryfile’s Adam Henson has candidly shared his struggles with “difficult times” and family woes.
Behind the scenes, Adam tends to a Cotswolds farm founded by his father Joe in 1971, where he’s faced hard choices and significant losses.
Adam, despite a robust circle of support, stresses the need to highlight mental health concerns within the farming community.
In an exclusive chat with Reach PLC, Adam confessed: “My characteristics are that I am an upbeat person, and I have got an incredibly supportive family, wife and children and people around me.”
On the professional front, he divulged: “And within the business, I have got a business partner who I was at Agricultural College with, and he is one of my closest friends, and what we do is surround ourselves with people that are excellent within their own role in the business”, reports Wales Online.
Adam Henson’s wife Charlie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer(Image: (Image: Getty))
He added about his team dynamics: “Whether that is a manager or a farm manager, we work really closely with the team, and we are all very honest and open with one another.”
Reflecting on some particularly tough periods, Adam revealed: “I have had some very difficult times in my life, both in business and personally. My wife was very ill a few years ago, my parents dying, and I lost a nephew.
“We have gone through foot and mouth challenges, Covid, and we have had some tough times, but I’ve never had poor mental health because I’ve had that fantastic support system around me.”
Adam Henson suffered an unfortunate bee blunder at his farm on Sunday’s episode of Countryfile(Image: BBC)
Adam is well-known for sharing the ups and downs of his farming life in Gloucestershire with his social media audience.
In one of his latest online updates, Adam shared a touching moment from the farm. In the post, he jubilantly declares, “We’ve just had another new arrival on the farm. One of our Gloucester cows has given birth.”
The footage then reveals the heartwarming scene of the cow alongside her newborn calf as Adam appreciatively says, “There she is. That’s Holly and her beautiful little calf.”
Concluding his heartfelt post, Adam praises the efforts of the cow with an affectionate: “What a clever girl.”
Adam says he’s never had bad mental health thanks to his support system(Image: BBC)
Admirers flocked to the comments section, with one person expressing their awe by stating “Just beautiful,” while another kept it brief with the word, “Lovely.”
The charming newborn also attracted warm sentiments, with someone calling it a “Sweet baby”.
Countryfile airs Sundays at 7pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who is feeling better about their perpetual identity crisis after watching streamer Max flip-flop its name back to HBO Max.
This week delivered some fun roasting after Warner Bros. Discovery announced the company’s streaming platform Max was undergoing yet another rebranding and reverting to one of its previous names to restore the HBO television branding to its name. The internet — including the company itself — quickly mocked the backpedaling with memes expressing relief of order being restored. What’s old is new again, right? There’s another classic media entity making headlines this week: “Saturday Night Live” will close out its 50th season. TV editor Maira Garcia reflects on the milestone season of the iconic sketch comedy show in this week’s Break Down.
Also in Screen Gab No. 181, our experts recommend a celebrity podcast worth watching on YouTube — hold the eye-roll, this one will make you feel like your hanging with friends — and a documentary that looks back on the campaign to appoint the first deaf president at Gallaudet University, which is specifically geared to deaf and hard-of-hearing students. And for viewers who like to plan ahead, our guides on the 15 TV shows and 18 films to watch this summer are linked and ready to be added to your bookmarks. Plus, Melissa Fumero stops by Guest Spot to discuss the Season 1 finale of “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” and her hopes for a second season.
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Jenna Ortega in “Wednesday” Season 2; Dominique Thorne in “Ironheart”; Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman; Michael C. Hall in “Dexter: Resurrection”; Jason Momoa in “Chief of War.”
(Illustration by Stephanie Jones / Los Angeles Times; photos Netflix; Marvel; Getty Images; Showtime; Apple TV+)
15 TV shows we’re looking forward to watching this summer: There’s a lot of great television coming this summer, including the return of favorites like “The Bear” and “Wednesday,” and new series like “Ironheart,” “Too Much” and “Alien: Earth.”
The 18 summer movies we’re most excited about: The season looks strong, loaded with the kind of big Hollywood swings, smart indie alternatives and a fair amount of delicious-looking dumb, necessary in every summer diet.
Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times
Jerry Covell in AppleTV+’s “Deaf President Now!”
(Apple TV+)
“Deaf President Now!” (Apple TV+)
This newly released documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year follows a history-making protest led by students at Gallaudet University in 1988, when the school’s board of trustees voted to install a hearing president over two deaf candidates. The university, located in the nation’s capital, has the distinction of being the first school of higher learning designed for deaf students. And after decades of hearing leadership, the students had had enough. The documentary features footage of the protests and interviews with the student leaders, who passionately explain why it was important to have a president that understood what it was like to exist in a world that regularly discriminated against them. Their protest would go on to help pave the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act, a pivotal civil rights law. — Maira Garcia
Amy Poehler’s weekly video podcast series, “Good Hang With Amy Poehler,” features conversations with celebrity guests.
(Spotify)
“Good Hang With Amy Poehler” (YouTube and various audio platforms)
In this land of a thousand podcasts, where every other celebrity is a host, you choose your shows like you choose your friends. The wonderful Amy Poehler debuted hers this March (“I like to be five or six years late to any trend,” as she puts it). And its title, “Good Hang With Amy Poehler,” is nothing but accurate; it has the air not of an interview show but of a conversation between pals you’ve been privileged to join — silently, of course, because what could you add to Poehler’s talks with Paul Rudd, Martin Short, Jack Black, Kathryn Hahn, Michelle Obama, Ike Barinholtz or Rashida Jones? At the beginning of each episode, the host quizzes the guest’s friends on what questions she should ask, so, if you tune into her episode with Tina Fey — unmissable, obviously — you get a bonus of Seth Meyers, Zarna Garg, Rachel Dratch and Fred Armisen making each other laugh. “I’m not here to change your life,” said Poehler, kicking off her series. “I don’t care if you get any better. I don’t have any advice for you. I just want us to have fun.” Includes many ’90s cultural references. Watch the video version of the podcast for the visual sunshine, but it’s great either way. — Robert Lloyd
Guest spot
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching
Melissa Fumero as Birdie in NBC’s “Grosse Point Garden Society.”
( Matt Miller / NBC)
In “Grosse Pointe Garden Society,” the soapy drama that follows four members of a gardening club in a wealthy Detroit suburb who are scrambling to cover up a shocking murder, Melissa Fumero is able to mine humor in the dark corners of the stressful situation her character is navigating. The “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” alum plays Birdie, a loud and brash socialite and romance novelist who is carrying her own secrets in the middle of this murder mystery. The dark comedy reaches its Season 1 conclusion Friday on NBC and it’s poised to bring a new set of twists and cliffhangers as the group tries to evade law enforcement and a private eye plotting blackmail. But the series faces its own uncertain future. It’s the last of NBC’s scripted programs without a renewal or cancellation; there are reports that a potential second season could land on Peacock. Fumero stopped by Guest Spot to discuss her hopes for a second season and the classic rom-com she hopes never gets Hollywood remake treatment. — Yvonne Villarreal
Ahead of the Season 1 finale, what can you tease about where things end with Birdie that makes you eager to continue her story?
The stakes are really high for Birdie when Season 1 ends. She has everything she’s ever wanted, but the really dark cloud of her choices and circumstances hangs over her. I think she’s probably terrified of losing it all, which maybe makes her make more bad choices? I hope we get renewed because I really want to know what happens next!
What have you found intriguing about exploring a character like Birdie, who has such a layered backstory, against the backdrop of friends unexpectedly committing a crime?
What intrigued me the most about Birdie was definitely the “what you see is not what you get” aspect of her character. On the surface, she’s powerful, self-assured, glamorous, wild and free-spirited; and while most of that is true, she is also really lost, vulnerable, and maybe having a bit of an identity crisis. Then she’s plopped into this garden club with three people who become friends — maybe the first real friends she’s ever had — and they all get roped into this crazy, mostly accidental murder. That’s A LOT of fun stuff to explore and play, and a dream for any actor, honestly.
What have you watched recently that you’re recommending to everyone you know?
I am VERY into “The Last of Us” [HBO Max] right now. This season is insane, and I look forward to it every week. It’s such an exciting and heart-wrenching show. Isabela Merced (who I am a fan of and love seeing a Latina play a leading role on such an epic show) and Bella Ramsey are doing such extraordinary work. It’s also very dark, but I find myself drawn to darker things these days — there’s something cathartic about it.
I think that’s why even “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” is such a fun watch.We don’t go too dark. But there are days where the world really feels like it’s on fire and I find myself wanting to watch people survive things, big or small. It’s weirdly comforting.
What’s your go-to comfort watch, the film or TV show you return to again and again?
“When Harry Met Sally” [VOD]. It’s a perfect movie. A perfect rom-com. If it’s on a streamer or playing live, I will watch. It’s on a lot of airlines, and I’d say my last five viewings were on flights. I should just buy it, but I’m afraid I’ll put it on every night and never watch anything else ever again. It’s so good. I hope they never, ever try to remake it. Don’t touch it. It’s too perfect.
Break down
Times staffers chew on the pop culture of the moment — love it, hate it or somewhere in between
Musical guest Bad Bunny, host Scarlett Johansson and Kenan Thompson during promos for “Saturday Night Live’s” season finale.
(Rosalind O’Connor / NBC)
“Saturday Night Live’s” historic Season 50 is coming to a close this weekend, with Scarlett Johansson as host, and it’s been nothing short of memorable. There were many cameos, whether political figures (Kamala Harris, Tim Kaine) or celebrities in the zeitgeist (Julia Fox, Sam Rockwell), multihyphenate hosts (Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande) and regular appearances from former cast members, including Maya Rudolph, Mike Myers, Andy Samberg and Dana Carvey. But what also made this season special was the programming that happened outside of it: “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert,” which featured a phenomenal lineup of musicians and comedy skits; a live prime-time special; and a pair of docuseries that shed light on the show’s history, “Beyond Saturday Night” and “Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music.”
The series’ effect on television and comedy over the decades cannot be overstated, having churned out dozens of film and TV stars, now mainstays and creators in their own right (Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy, to name a few); memorable sketches that have become a part of pop culture lingo and a visual language through costumes that have elevated jokes into comedic art. As television critic Robert Lloyd wrote in an essay reflecting on the show’s 50th, the show survives through constant churn, whether through hosts, cast members or the comedy it produces. And even as culture and technology evolves, it remains a stalwart of television: “Counted out more than once, it has risen from the mat to fight again, new wins erasing old losses — a once and future champ.” — Maira Garcia
Love Island will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a one-off special episode called Love Island: A Decade of Love, which will look back on the show’s most iconic moments
02:52, 18 May 2025Updated 02:52, 18 May 2025
ITV2 will celebrate 10 years of Love Island with a one-off anniversary special
ITV2 is set to commemorate a decade of Love Island with a special anniversary episode, celebrating the cultural phenomenon that’s dominated reality TV over the last decade.
The one-off special, ‘Love Island: A Decade of Love’, will air on ITV2 and ITVX, revisiting some of Love Island’s most seminal moments and catching up with unforgettable Islanders who’ve become household names.
The show promises to take fans down memory lane, reliving heart-stopping recouplings, shocking bombshells, and romance for the ages which have gripped viewers nationwide. It promises exclusive interviews and a peek behind the Love Island curtain to look at how it’s shaped television and impacted its alumni.
But, the question on everyone’s lips is which show legends will return for one-off 10th anniversary special? ITV has revealed exactly which Islanders will be back on screens with Dani Dyer, Curtis Pritchard and lovebirds Liam Reardon and Millie Court all set to return.
Georgia Steel will no doubt revisit her iconic ‘I’m loyal’ catchphrase as she will make a comeback alongside series two winners Cara De La Hoyde-Massey and Nathan Massey. The show’s other successful couples Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan and Indiyah Polack and Dami Hope will also be back to give fans an update on their love stories.
Returning favourites include Gabby Allen, who recently split from her All Stars boyfriend Casey O’Gorman, and other iconic Islanders such as Hannah Elizabeth, Anton Danyluk, Whitney Adebayo and Catherine Agbaje. Montana Brown – who welcomed her second child with fiancé Mark O’Connor at the start of the year – will also be gracing screens again, reports the Daily Record.
Cara De La Hoyde-Massey and Nathan Massey(Image: Getty Images for Asda)
Mike Spencer, Creative Director, expressed excitement about the upcoming special: “We’ve had an incredible 10 years of love, drama and unforgettable moments in the villa – now it’s time to look back and celebrate the icons who made it all happen.” He added, promising a nostalgic trip full of emotions, “Expect big laughs and plenty of heart as we revisit a decade of Love Island magic.”
Paul Mortimer, Head of Reality, has shared his enthusiasm about the show’s impact: “Love Island has become a true phenomenon over the past decade, delivering must-see TV moments every summer.” He also highlighted what fans can look forward to: “This special offers viewers a chance to relive some of the show’s most iconic moments with the Islanders who made them so memorable.”
The highly anticipated special is set to air on ITV2 and ITVX, acting as a precursor to the fresh summer series returning to Majorca this June. What do you think of the cast? let us know in the comment section below.
Eurovision kicked off it’s 69th annual contest tonight – and fans think they already know who’s going to be taking home the title just moments after the performances kicked off
21:11, 17 May 2025Updated 21:12, 17 May 2025
The Eurovision Song Contest kicked off it’s 69th annual contest tonight after a dramatic build up with two semi-finals earlier in the week. However, fans think they’ve already ‘worked out’ who will win less than a hour into the four hour live show.
The show kicked off with a high-energy performance from Norway as Kyle Alessandro – Lighter, as Luxembourg’sLaura Thorn kicked off with her ‘trippy’ visuals with her song La Poupée Monte Le Son. Things went up a notch when Estonia’s Tommy Cash performed his fan favourite song – Espresso Macchiato.
Tommy earned his place during the first semi-final, and now fans think he’s going to take it all the way. The rapper and singer had the whole crowd on their feet with his epic dance moves, but some had a moment to pause and take to X, formerly known as Twitter, to hail him the winner already.
Tommy Cash had the crowd on their feet with Espresso Macchiato (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“Espresso Macchiato is the clear winner #eurovision,” said one, while a second agreed: “That’s the winner. #Eurovision”.
A third was also in agreement, commenting: “Espresso macchiato….. There’s your winner!”
Fans will have to wait until the end of the night to see if Tommy really does take home the crowd. However, they won’t have to wait until then to vote, with the lines already open.
Voting opened before anyone kicked off their performance, with fans being able to vote via phone up to 20 times. However, it does cost 15p a vote but fans can save a few pennies by voting online through the app and via www.esc.vote.
Will Tommy take home the crown?(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
After Tommy, Israel’s Yuval Raphael took to the stage, performing her power ballad New Day Will Rise.
“Not sure what you’re hearing at home, slightly mixed response here in the hall,” the Irish host commented as Yuval wrapped things up – a nod to the reports Eurovision bosses are meddling with what makes it to TV screens across Europe.
Elsewhere, fans are hopeful for a performance from Celine Dion after her video message during the first semi-final.
Adding fuel to the fire, Graham mentioned the fact the My Heart Will Go On singer is watching backstage but didn’t rule out a little performance from the Eurovision legend.
I wasn’t expecting a painting of a naked clown to greet me when I FaceTimed Demetri Martin on a Monday afternoon in May. After the longest two seconds of my life, the comedian appeared in front of the camera with an unassuming smile.
For the past few months, Martin has been toiling away in the studio shed designed by his wife, interior designer Rachael Beame Martin, in the backyard of their Beverly Glen home. Lush greenery peeks through the windows above a lattice he constructed to mount canvases of various sizes. His first solo exhibition of paintings and drawings is just days away and he has some finishing touches to make.
Visual art is not new to Martin, a wiz at one-liners who incorporates drawings in his stand-up.
“The cool thing about a drawing is I can share something personal and I can use a graphic to illustrate it more specifically,” he says in “Demetri Deconstructed,” his 2024 Netflix special. In one graph from the special, he plots the inverse relationship between the amount of “past” and “future” time across an individual’s lifespan. The point where “past” and “future” meet is the mid-life existential crisis.
There is a synergy between Martin’s jokes and his sketches, which are more akin to doodles than drawings. Their humor lies in their pared-down specificity. They “make you ponder something on the absurdity-of-life level, which I guess is comedy,” says Martin’s close friend and musician Jack Johnson.
“I brought visual art into my stand-up comedy,” says Demetri Martin. “Can I bring comedy into the visual art world?”
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
With his love of joke crafting, Martin says he represents the comedy old guard as stand-up has become heavily autobiographical in today’s internet age.
“Specifically, it’s jokes that have always attracted me when we’re talking about the comedy world,” Martin says of his aversion to storytelling. “Can you do a joke in 12 words? Can you get an idea across? How much can you take away and it still lands with people?”
“Acute Angles,” Martin’s solo exhibition running Sunday to May 31, takes his obsession with constraint a step further. The experiment: Can you communicate jokes visually without any words?
“I brought visual art into my stand-up comedy,” says Martin, who worked on paintings for two-plus years before he figured he had enough material to fill a gallery. “Can I bring comedy into the visual art world?”
“Acute Angles” — he says the title references the shape of his nose — features large-scale paintings with a unifying color palette of bright red, sky blue and medium gray, in addition to 30 smaller drawings. The paintings depict implausible scenarios: What if the grim reaper slipped on a banana on his way to kill you? What if Superman ripped his underpants on his quest to save you?
The show is a collaboration with his wife, whom he adoringly describes as the muscles of the operation. The two secured a month-long lease of an abandoned yoga studio tucked behind a California Pizza Kitchen in Brentwood. Using her design skills — they met in New York City when she was attending Parsons School of Design and he was pursing comedy — Beame Martin led a rebuild of the studio-turned-gallery.
When Martin’s publicist called to ask if the gallery had a name, the couple turned to Google. They eventually came up with “Laconic Gallery,” for Laconia, Greece, where Martin traces his roots, and because the word laconic perfectly describes Martin’s ethos: marked by the use of few words.
Demetri Martin describes his wife, Rachael Beame Martin, as the muscles of the operation.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
On the day of our interview, Martin is completing the last of 12 paintings for the show and is puzzled why the paint appears differently on the canvas than in the can. He’s trying hard to ensure the color of the naked clown’s pubic hair matches his hair.
The relationship between the viewer and the art is both exciting and scary to Martin. When taking a comedy show on the road, you more or less know your jokes will land, he says. With an art show, there’s more of a vacuum between him and the audience, yet the conceit remains: the show is meant to be funny.
But whether viewers laugh while visiting the art exhibition almost doesn’t matter. For Martin, the reward has been the process of creation — the meditative zone he sinks into, indie rock oozing from his CD player, as he envisions and re-envisions the work. (Many of the paintings in the show are derived from old sketches.)
The show also represents Martin’s re-emergence from his own mid-life existential crisis. At 51, he is older than his dad was when he died and about the same age as his late mom, when she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. “So now, is this like bonus time for me?” he started to ask himself in his late 40s.
In some ways, Martin has always been a tortured artist. After graduating from Yale, he attended NYU Law only to drop out after the second year. But New York City is also where he found himself, spending late nights at the Comedy Cellar and the Boston Comedy Club. His days were spent visiting the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Daydreaming his way through the galleries, jotting jokes in his notepad, is when he first gained an appreciation for the arts.
“He’s not without cynicism once you know him, but where comics so often lead with cynicism, he has this wide-eyed openness, and I think that’s a thread that pulls through all of his work,” says comedian and fellow Comedy Central alum Sarah Silverman.
Demetri Martin’s first solo art exhibition is a collaboration with his wife, Rachael Beame Martin.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Now, Martin is a father to an 8-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son — the same age he was when manning his Greek family’s shish kebab stand on the Jersey Shore. His self-described anger at seeing the world his kids are growing up in, namely their peers’ obsessions with cell phones, seeps into his paintings and drawings. But ultimately, being a father has irrevocably improved Martin’s perspective on life.
“I think sometimes resignation is also acceptance,” he says, on his new appreciation of midlife. “You’re still motivated, but maybe not in the same way. … You still want to make things, but maybe it doesn’t matter as much, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. So that’s where I feel like I’m at, where I’m saying, ‘You know what, I’m grateful.’ I understand how lucky I’ve been now.”
He’s not quite done with touring but “Acute Angles” represents a potential escape. If his comedy can travel without him, if he can make money while foregoing lonely nights on the road, he can prioritize more important moments, like playing catch with his son after school. After all, his kids aren’t at the age yet where they hate him — a joke his kids don’t like.
Still, Martin’s art-making mirrors his joke-writing. It’s a numbers game, meticulously filling notebooks in handwriting Silverman describes as “tiny letters all perfectly the same size,” then revisiting and sharpening material until the joke emerges, like a vision.
“It’s really a privilege to have the kind of career where I can try something like this,” Martin says. “I don’t take that for granted anymore.”
The Eurovision Song Content 2025 is finally here, and fans are flooding into Basel, Switzerland for the latest blockbuster TV extravaganza – and now you and your friends can come up with your own live scoreboard during the show
Eurovision is finally here – and you can play along by rating the performances with our very own interactive scoreboard. Play along with your friends and family to compare your final ranking after a winner has officially been crowned!
Fans will have to wait until near the end of the evening to see the bookies’ favourite, KAJ of Sweden, who is 23rd in the lineup.
Meanwhile, British hopes rest with the country pop group Remember Monday. Band members Charlotte Steele, Holly-Anne Hull, and Lauren Byrne are sixth in the lineup with their energetic song, What the Hell Just Happened?
After the UK finished 18th last year, and 25th in 2023, Remember Monday will be hoping they can return to the successes of 2022, when Sam Ryder came second.
Now, as you watch the action unfold, you can keep track of your favourite performances by playing along with our interactive widget. Simply rate the artists out of 10 to choose your favourite. Then check back to see how your score tallies with the opinions of other Eurovision fans.
Hosts Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer speak during the rehearsal(Image: Getty Images)
Meanwhile, as fans wait for the excitement to start on Saturday, why not take our quiz to test how well you know Europe’s premier song contest?
Can you recall the year Bucks Fizz performed Making Your Mind Up, when Abba met their Waterloo, or even as far back as Sandy Shaw and Puppet on a String? Or perhaps you came late to the Eurovision party and have fond memories of more recent winners Netta, Maneskin, and last year’s champion Nemo?
To help get you in the mood for Eurovision we’ve prepared a quiz testing your knowledge of all the cheesiest Eurovision classics.
All you have to do is guess the year of the song and performer. Use the slider to choose the year. Points are awarded for how close you get to the right answer, with 10 for being spot on, nine for one year out, eight for two, seven for three, and so on until you get to 10 years out.
Eurovision 2025 lineup (in running order)
1. Norway: Kyle Alessandro – Lighter 2. Luxembourg: Laura Thorn – La Poupée Monte Le Son 3. Estonia: Tommy Cash – Espresso Macchiato 4. Israel: Yuval Raphael – New Day Will Rise 5. Lithuania: Katarsis – Tavo Akys 6. Spain: Melody – ESA DIVA 7. Ukraine : Ziferblat – Bird of Pray 8. United Kingdom : Remember Monday – What The Hell Just Happened? 9. Austria: JJ – Wasted Love 10. Iceland: VÆB – RÓA 11. Latvia: Tautumeitas – Bur Man Laimi 12. Netherlands: Claude – C’est La Vie 13. Finland: Erika Vikman – ICH KOMME 14. Italy: Lucio Corsi: Volevo Essere Un Duro 15. Poland: Justyna Steczkowska – GAJA 16. Germany: Abor & Tynna – Baller 17. Greece : Klavdia – Asteromáta 18. Armenia: PARG – SURVIVOR 19. Switzerland: Zoë Më – Voyage 20. Malta: Miriana Conte – SERVING 21. Portugal: NAPA – Deslocado 22. Denmark: Sissal – Hallucination 23. Sweden: KAJ – Bara Bada Bastu 24. France: Louane – maman 25. San Marino: Gabry Ponte – Tutta L’Italia 26. Albania: Shkodra Elektronike – Zjerm
Looking back, casting Diego Luna in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” may well prove to be the single most consequential decision in that storied franchise’s history. Hearing Luna’s Mexican accent in a galaxy far, far away was not only refreshing. It was radical.
And as Season 2 of “Andor” proved, it set the stage for what has to be the most Latino-coded of all the “Star Wars” tales, which is fitting considering this Tony Gilroy-created series was designed not just to explore Cassian Andor’s backstory but flesh out the dashing revolutionary spirit Luna had brought to the character. What better place to, pardon the pun, mine for inspiration than the vast history of resistance and revolution throughout the American continent?
Here are a few ways in which “Andor” felt particularly Latino.
Warning: this article contains some spoilers.
Undocumented laborers
Season 2 of “Andor” found Cassian, Bix (Adria Arjona), Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) and Wilmon (Muhannad Bhaier) relocated to the agricultural planet of Mina-Rau. It’s a place that served as a safe haven for these Ferrix folks, allowing them to be housed while working for a local farmer — all without papers. Yes, our very own Cassian is an undocumented laborer (when he’s not, you know, on some super-secret Luthen-guided mission, that is).
“Andor” has always focused on the way the Empire functions at a granular level, while the “Star Wars” feature film trilogies are all about big-picture stuff. In its two-season run, this Luna-fronted project followed the day-to-day lives of those living under the thumb of the Empire. And in the scenes at Mina-Rau, the show insisted on showing what happens when those with a semblance of power (a uniform, a weapon) confront those who they think have none.
When Lt. Krole (Alex Waldmann), a lowly Imperial officer carrying out a run-of-the-mill audit of the crops in Mina-Rau, comes across Bix, he sees an opportunity. She’s clearly alone. And, perhaps most obviously, at a disadvantage: She has no papers. If she’s caught, the secure, if precarious, life she and Cassian have built in Mina-Rau will come crumbling down — all while putting them at risk of being revealed as smugglers and rebels.
Still, watching Krole escalate his slimy sexual advances into a rape attempt was a reminder of the impunity of such crimes. When those who are undocumented are seen as undeserving of our empathy, let alone the protections the law is supposed to provide — like many people in our current government seem to think — the likes of Krole are emboldened to do as they please.
Hiding in plain sight and los desaparecidos
Such ideas about who merits our empathy are key to authoritarian regimes. Borders, after all, aren’t just about keeping people out or in. It’s about drawing up communities and outlining outsiders; about arguing for a strict sense of who belongs and who does not.
When Cassian and Bix land in Coruscant after their escape from Mina-Rau, they struggle with whether to just lay low. You see Cassian being jumpy and constantly paranoid. He can’t even handle going out shopping; or, if you follow Bix’s winking joke at the grocer, he can’t really handle the spice. But that’s expected if you constantly feel unsafe, unable to freely move through the world, er, galaxy. More tellingly: If your existence is wedded to bureaucracy, it’s easy to be dispensed with and disappeared. Bix knows that all too well. She’s still haunted by the specter of Dr. Gorst (Joshua James), the Imperial Security Bureau officer who tortured her. He appears in her nightmares to remind her that this is a war now littered with “desaparecidos”: “His body won’t be found and his family won’t know what happened to him,” his hallucination taunts her. It’s not hard to read in that line an obvious reference to those tortured and disappeared under the military dictatorships of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the like.
Throughout “Andor” Season 2, we also watched the Empire slowly rev up its border policing — especially when it came to Ghorman. At first a planet most known for its gorgeous textiles, Ghorman later became the anchor for the show’s entire narrative. The best way to control a people is to surveil them, particularly because soon enough they’ll start surveilling themselves.
The Ghorman Massacre
The beauty of “Star Wars” has always been its ability to speak to its time. When the original film first premiered in 1977, echoes of the Vietnam War and anti-imperialist sentiment could be felt in its otherwise outlandish space-opera trappings. But not until “Andor” could the politics of George Lucas’ creation be so viscerally felt. This is a show, after all, that didn’t shy away from using the word “genocide” when rightly describing what happened in Ghorman.
In “Who Are You?” audiences got to see the Empire at its cruelest. Watching the Death Star destroy Alderaan from afar is one thing. But getting to watch Stormtroopers — and a slew of young, inexperienced Imperial riot police officers — shooting indiscriminately into a crowd that had just been peacefully singing in protest was brutal. It was, as Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) would later frame it, unconscionable.
The chants in the crowd “The galaxy is watching” are clearly meant to evoke the chants heard at the 1968 Democratic National Convention: “The whole world is watching.” But the essence of the massacre harks back to another infamous 1968 event: the Tlatelolco massacre.
Just like Ghorman, the Oct. 2 student protests at Mexico City’s Plaza de las Tres Culturas began as a peaceful demonstration. But soon, with helicopters up above and an encroaching military presence from every which way, chaos followed and the incident has long served as a chilling example of state-sanctioned violence. The kind now best distilled into a fictional massacre in a galaxy far, far away.
Villa, Zapata, Andor
In the hands of Gilroy and Luna, “Andor” billed itself over two seasons as the begrudging rise of a revolutionary. Cassian spent much of Season 1 trying to hide from who he could become. It took being sent to a grueling slave prison complex in a remote location (sound familiar?) to further radicalize the once-smug smuggler.
But with every new Empire-sanctioned atrocity, he found himself unable to escape his calling as a member of the Resistance. Yes, it costs him his peaceful life with Bix, but neither would have it any other way. Cassian has a solid moral compass. And while he may not play well with others (with authority, really), he’s a charming leader of sorts whose childhood in Ferrix set him up to be the kind of man who would sacrifice his life for a cause.
You don’t need to have Luna sport a mustache, though, to see in his rascal of a character hints of revolutionary icons from Latin America. Even if Cassian is more Emiliano Zapata than Pancho Villa (you’d never find him starring in films as himself, for instance), the revolutionary spirit of those historical Mexican figures is undeniable. Especially since Cassian has long been tied to the marginalized — not just in Ferrix and Mina-Rau but later still in Ghorman.
Add the fact that his backstory grounds him in the indigenous world of Kenari and that he is quite at home in the lush jungles of Yavin IV (where he may as well be playing dominoes in his spare time) and you have a character who clearly carves out homages to resistance models seen all over Latin America.
As attacks on those most disenfranchised here in the United States continue apace, “Andor” (yes, a spinoff sci-fi series on Disney+!) reminds us that the Latin American struggles for liberation in the 20th century aren’t mere historical stories. They’re warnings and templates as to how to confront this moment.
And yes, that message obviously works best when delivered by the devilishly handsome Luna: “The Empire cannot win,” as his Cassian says in the first episode of the show’s stellar second season. “You’ll never feel right unless you’re doing what you can to stop them. You’re coming home to yourself. You’ve become more than your fear. Let that protect you.”
After humans, and arguably before dogs and horses, there is no character more vital to the screen, and more vital onscreen, than the automobile.
Driven or driverless, the car is the most animated of inanimate objects, sometimes literally a cartoon, with a voice, a personality, a name. Even when not speaking, they purr, they roar. They are stars in their own right — the Batmobile, the Munster Koach, James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5, K.I.T.T. (the modified 1982 Pontiac Trans Am from “Knight Rider”), the Ford Grand Torino (nicknamed the Striped Tomato) driven by Starsky and Hutch. They might represent freedom, power, delinquency or even the devil. Whole movies have been built about them and the amazing things they can do, but even when they aren’t jumping and flipping and crashing, they play an essential role in helping flesh-and-blood characters take care of business.
Perhaps in some sort of reaction to our enlightened view of the effects of our gas-guzzling ways, two new series fetishizing the internal combustion engine arrive, Max’s “Duster,” now streaming, and Prime Video’s “Motorheads,” premiering Tuesday.
Created by J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan and named for the supernaturally shiny cherry-red Plymouth the hero drives, “Duster” is stupid fun, a comic melodrama steeped in 1970s exploitation flicks, with a lot of loving homage to period clothes, knickknacks and interior design. The driver is Jim Ellis, played by Josh Holloway, in what reads like a turn on Sawyer, his charming, criminal character from Abrams’ “Lost,” topped with a shot of Matthew McConaughey.
Jim, a man who has never bothered to make a three-point turn, works out of Phoenix for Southwest crime boss Ezra Saxton (Keith David, monumental as always), picking up this, delivering that. The first delivery we see turns out to be a human heart, picked up from a fast-food drive-through window, destined for Saxton’s ailing son, Royce (Benjamin Charles Watson). Along for the ride is little Luna (Adriana Aluna Martinez), who calls Jim “uncle,” though you are free to speculate; her mother, Izzy (Camille Guaty), is a big-rig trucker — trucking being another fun feature of ’70s pop culture — who will find cause to become a labor leader.
Keith David, left, as Ezra Saxton and Benjamin Charles Watson as his son, Royce.
(Ursula Coyote / Max)
The Ellises and the Saxtons, also including daughter Genesis (Sydney Elisabeth), have history — Jim’s father, Wade (Corbin Bernson), served with Ezra in World War II, and his late lamented brother had worked for him as well. Saxton is the sort of bad guy with whom you somehow sympathize in spite of the violence he employs; there’s genuine affection among the families, though one is never sure when or where a line will be drawn, only that one probably will be.
Into Jim’s low-rent but relatively settled, even happy world comes FBI agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson, sparky), fresh out of Quantico and ambitious to make a mark. As a Black woman, she’s told, “No one’s clamoring for an agent like you,” but she’s been assigned to Phoenix “because we have no other options.” She’s partnered there with cheerful Navajo agent Awan (Asivak Koostachin), as if to corral the minorities into a manageable corner, and assigned the Saxton case, regarded as “cursed” and so intractable as to be not worth touching.
Which is to say, agents deemed not worth taking seriously — along with underestimated “girl Friday” Jessica (Sofia Vassilieva) — have been thrown a case deemed not worth taking seriously. This is a classic premise for a procedural and strikes some notes about racism and sexism in the bargain, not out of tune with the times in which it’s set, or the times in which we’re watching.
Nina, who has managed to gather evidence of Jim crossing state lines to deliver the heart, which was stolen, and that Saxton may have been responsible for his brother’s death, bullies and tempts him into becoming a confidential informant. Thus begins an uneasy partnership, though their storylines run largely on separate tracks in separate scenes.
“Lost” was not a show that bothered much with sense in order to achieve its effects, and “Duster,” though it involves a far-reaching conspiracy whose payoff plays like the end of a shaggy-dog story, is a show of effects, of set pieces and sequences, of car chases and fistfights, of left-field notions and characters. These include Patrick Warburton as an Elvis-obsessed mobster named Sunglasses; Donal Logue as a corrupt, perverse, evangelical policeman; Gail O’Grady as Jim’s stepmother, a former showgirl who doesn’t much like him; LSD experiments; absurd puzzles (also see: “Lost”); an airheaded version of Adrienne Barbeau (Mikaela Hoover), with the actual Barbeau, a queen of genre films, making an appearance; Richard Nixon (in a few creepy seconds of AI); an oddly jolly Howard Hughes (Tom Nelis) in his Kleenex-box slippers; and a “Roadrunner” pastiche. Though not devoid of genuine feeling, it’s best experienced as a collection of attitudes and energies, noises and colors. Don’t take it any more seriously than it takes itself.
The opening titles are super cool.
Zac (Michael Cimino), left, Caitlyn (Melissa Collazo) and Marcel (Nicolas Cantu) in Prime Video’s “Motoheads.”
(Keri Anderson / Prime Video)
“Motorheads” is a familiar sort of modern teenage soap opera but with cars. For reasons known only to series creator John A. Norris, the whole town is obsessed with them, and along with its human storylines, the series is a tour of automotive entertainments — drag racing, street racing, ATV racing, go-kart racing, classic car collecting. I have no idea whether this will resonate with the target demographic, but there is much I cannot tell you about kids these days.
As is common to the form, our young protagonists — Michael Cimino as Zac and Melissa Collazo as Caitlyn — are new to town, having been brought back from New York City by their mother, Samantha (Nathalie Kelly), to the oxymoronically named Rust Belt hamlet of Ironwood, where she was raised, and which is the last place anyone saw their father, Christian (Deacon Phillippe in flashbacks), 17 years earlier. He’s an infamous local legend, admired for his skill behind the wheel; aerial footage of Christian threading his way through a cordon of police cars as the getaway driver in a robbery keeps making its way into the show, though if you live in Los Angeles, you see this sort of thing on the news all the time. Marquee name Ryan Phillippe plays the kids’ Uncle Logan, who runs a garage that apparently does no business, but he has love and wisdom to spare.
Though at the center of the series, Zac’s storyline is a little shopworn, not just his wish to become, almost out of nowhere, Ironwood’s top speed racer, but his textbook interest in rich girl Alicia (Mia Healey), the girlfriend of rich boy Harris (Josh Macqueen), a Porsche-driving bully who is also hurting inside — so feel free to get a crush on him, if that’s your type. More interesting is sister Caitlyn, who prefers building cars to racing them and is perhaps the series’ most emotionally balanced character.
She becomes friends with shop classmate Curtis (Uriah Shelton), tall and good-looking, whose criminally inclined older brother, Ray (Drake Rodger), will become a sort of dark mentor to Zac. With the addition of Marcel (Nicolas Cantu), the archetypal “geek who becomes the hero’s best friend,” who works at the diner his father (grieving, drunk) used to own and dreams of designing cars, the four constitute the show’s outsider band of good guys.
They’ll have their not-always-happy business with each other — being teenagers, you know, things happen — and with their elders, as their elders will with one another. The past is not past in Ironwood; old feelings will resurface and old plots unravel. (And no one knows what happened to Christian.) Except for the cars sprinkled on top, it’s old stuff, not very deep, but produced with an engaging naturalism that rounds off the narrative extremes, enhances what’s commonplace and makes “Motorheads” easy to watch. (Colin Hoult is the sensitive director of photography, it’s worth mentioning.)
Helen Flanagan has teased a potential return to Coronation Street six years on from Rosie Webster’s exit, with the former Celebs Go Dating star having already proposed a storyline
23:17, 16 May 2025Updated 23:17, 16 May 2025
Helen Flanagan spoke about Coronation Street in a recent interview(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Primark)
Actor Helen Flanagan has hinted at a potential return to Coronation Street. The actress, who suggested that the soap opera “needs” her and her character, spoke about the show six years on from her departure.
Helen, 34, is best known for playing Rosie Webster on the long-running ITV soap opera. She made her debut in 2000 and remained on the show until 2012, before returning from 2017 to 2018. Her character hasn’t been seen since then.
There’s been speculation over her potentially returning in recent months. Earlier this year, Helen shared her desire to return and teased how Rosie coming back could play out, saying that she could work at the Rovers Return and “dump” her kids with Sally Metcalfe (played by Sally Dynevor).
Speaking to the Mirror, she said at the time: “I would love to go back to Coronation Street.” Proposing the circumstances of Rosie’s return, she added: “A single mum with a real storyline, with two kids that she dumps with Sally to have her Rovers return play out an iconic barmaid role.”
Then last month, it was suggested that it isn’t the right time for Rosie to return to Corrie though. Helen has now teased the prospect of reprising her character in an interview with the Sun, which was released earlier this evening.
Helen Flanagan has teased a potential return to Coronation Street(Image: Getty Images)
Helen said: “I can’t say too much, but it could be possible that I could go back.” The former cast member added that she gets on with “everyone” on the show, which “changed” her life. She then said that her “loyalty” is with Corrie.
The actor went on to discuss Rosie, with Helen telling the outlet that she feels like the character is “part” of her. Sharing her thoughts, she teased that Corrie “needs” her, before adding that the soap opera “needs” Rosie too.
Alongside a potential return, Helen also expressed interest in taking part in Celebrity Big Brother in the future. She’s no stranger to appearing on reality TV, including having taken part in dating show Celebs Go Dating last year.
The actor, who played Rosie Webster, was last seen on the ITV show in 2018(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
She was also among the campmates on I’m a Celebrity back in 2012, appearing alongside the likes of EastEnders star Charlie Brooks, who won that series. Helen later took part in the ‘All Stars’ spin-off, which was broadcast in 2023.
Helen however shared concern about the prospect of reality TV work affecting her acting career. She said: “If you want to focus on your acting, I do think sometimes it can be hard going down the reality TV route to be taken seriously.”
Since Helen last appeared on Corrie, relatives of Rosie have arrived in Weatherfield, with the character now having more family there than before. They include her aunt Debbie Webster (Sue Devaney), who returned in 2019 after 30-year absence.
More recently, another relative of Rosie’s father Kevin Webster (Michael Le Vell) turned up on the street. Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard), who is the younger brother of Kevin and Debbie, was introduced to viewers last month.
The Disneyland Resort’s new “World of Color” show begins with some regal nostalgia. Standing before a lagoon in Disney California Adventure, we hear the voice of Walt Disney, and see a host of Disney’s animated classics — “The Little Mermaid,” “Pinocchio,” “The Lion King” and more — projected on fountains to a patient, stately interpretation of “Rainbow Connection” from Boyz II Men.
We are prepped for a show of romanticized remembrance while we hear Disney recite the original dedication speech for Disneyland. The park, he tells us, is hoped to be a “source of joy and inspiration,” only when he hits the word “joy,” the show suddenly switches direction. That’s when the character of Joy from the “Inside Out” films arrives on the scene, and quickly stamps out any looks back. “World of Color Happiness!” is then off and running, a brisk, music-focused show dedicated to all things “happiness.”
Disneyland this July is turning 70, but the festivities officially launch Friday. “World of Color Happiness!” is one of many entertainment offerings that the park will highlight over the coming year, but it’s designed to be arguably the showcase production, as many others, such as the nighttime parade “Paint the Night,” are returning shows. And “World of Color Happiness!” sets the tone of the 70th anniversary celebrations. Disneyland faithful who remember the 60th anniversary a decade ago will recall an anniversary year that dug deep into Disneyland history and lore.
“Paint the Night,” initially introduced for Disneyland’s 60th anniversary, is back for its 70th.
(Christian Thompson / Disneyland Resort)
For the 70th, Disney creatives spoke of wanting to create a party vibe. Even the logo jumps out like a birthday cake topper, with the number “70” alternately blocky and rounded as if constructed out of frosting. Those after some of that patented Disneyland nostalgia will find it in a short, five-minute projection show over on the facade of It’s a Small World, but even that production — “Tapestry of Happiness,” which ever-so-slightly glances at the artwork of key Small World designer Mary Blair — is a jovial affair.
Similarly, a projection show on California Adventure’s Carthay Circle — “Celebrate Happy: A Little Bit of Magic Every Night” — is a two-minute, energetic morsel, one featuring Tinker Bell turning the upscale lounge and restaurant into Sleeping Beauty Castle one moment, and a canvas for fireworks in the next. Consider it a mini street fest. Elsewhere, Disney has tastefully added “Coco’s” Miguel and Dante to It’s a Small World, and the video game attraction Toy Story Midway Mania has been outfitted with a host of new targets, some worth 700 or 7,000 points.
Still to come, of course, is “Walt Disney — A Magical Life,” set to open on Disneyland’s official anniversary date of July 17. The show will feature the debut of an audio-animatronic figure of Disney, and is expected to retell the Disneyland creation myth. No doubt “A Magical Life” will inject Disneyland’s 70th celebration, which is scheduled to last through next summer, a dose of history, but for now, the resort wants guests tapping and dancing. Even a new show for tots, “Disney Junior: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live!,” is framed around throwing a house party, complete with a booty-shaking Goofy.
A good time, no doubt, and yet I found myself missing a hint of sentimentality while watching “World of Color Happiness!” Ostensibly a clip show, any “World of Color” presents a challenge in trying to stitch together a theme out of sometimes dozens of films — some that soar by across a pond of cascading fountains, and others that float into the sky on cleverly crafted projected bubbles. Songs given centerpiece showings here include “I2I” from “A Goofy Movie” and “I’ve Got a Dream” from “Tangled.”
The new projection show “Celebrate Happy: A Little Bit of Magic Every Night” is a morsel of energy that illuminates the facade of restaurant and lounge Carthay Circle.
(Christian Thompson / Disneyland Resort)
The narrative throughline follows the characters of “Inside Out” as they circle in and around other Disney films, so much so that “Happiness!” at times feels like an “Inside Out” short. Joy’s quest is to discover what makes everyone happy and she struggles with some other emotions, such as Sadness and Anxiety, and “Encanto’s” “Surface Pressure” arrives to remind us that happiness isn’t always easy to come by. But that moment is fleeting. Joy has a mission.
I wish it dug a little deeper. Happiness, after all, isn’t always our goal, and Disney’s films feature a breath of emotions, including a number that focus on finding strength in adversity. “Happiness!” glances at them, with quick references to “The Lion King” or “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” but the focus is on having a blast — the boy band crushes of “Turning Red,” for instance, or platitudes such as focusing on a dream and making a wish (“This Wish”). Have we already forgotten the lessons of “The Princess and the Frog”?
Yet “Happiness!” is so steadfast — borderline oppressive, I’d argue — in its message that here, at Disneyland, with family or friends, we are happy, that it became the rare Disneyland show I actually felt slightly excluded from. Happiness is a luxury, and audiences will bring their own emotions to the show. I arrived in the midst of what’s been a difficult year, one that has me turning to Disneyland, yes, but for comfort rather than pure joy.
Disney’s full dedication speech notes it’s a place dedicated to “the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts” that have created America, and throughout the park we find idealized messages, but those that help us make sense of the world rather than wish it away. Whether exploring gluttony and sin (Pirates of the Caribbean), the impermanence of life (Haunted Mansion) or perseverance in hard work (Snow White’s Enchanted Wish), Disneyland finds delight in the messiness of life.
“World of Color Happiness!” centers on a quest from “Inside Out” character Joy to discover what makes each of us happy.
(Sean Teegarden / Disneyland Resort)
By the end of “World of Color Happiness!,” which concludes with an upbeat commercial jingle of a tune from Fitz of Fitz and the Tantrums, I found myself wanting to scream at Joy: Leave me alone and let me be down. For while that is totally OK, too, “Happiness!” doesn’t aim to be anything more than a marketing tag line — “celebrate happy” — for Disneyland’s 70th.
And yet I found myself charmed by the pre-show for “Happiness!” Here, we see the Muppets, also celebrating a 70th anniversary, try and fail to give a safety spiel. Gonzo wants to perform a stunt, Miss Piggy aims to steal the show, and Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem fail to get the band back together. Ultimately, the job gets done, but not without an assortment of comedic fits and starts. Here’s betting it brings a smile to your face, and does so without telling you to do so.
In “Overcompensating,” Prime Video’s newly released comedy series, everyone is doing too much. That’s what Benito Skinner, the creator and star of the A24-produced show, experienced in college in the mid-2010s, and why it felt like a perfect backdrop to tell a heightened version of his own coming out story.
“Overcompensating” centers around Benny (played by Skinner), a closeted former high school football player turned college frat bro who spends too much energy posing as a straight guy by lowering his voice and keeping his love for Lorde’s songwriting in check. That’s the case even, or especially, when he’s greeted by “The Alliance of Gay People and Lesbians and Bisexual People and Asexuals too even” as he makes his way around campus.
But Skinner knew there was plenty of narrative potential in focusing on the thorny relationship Benny strikes up with Carmen, a girl who ends up being both his beard and his BFF. Only in this telling, Carmen, played by Wally Baram, isn’t just a supporting player in Benny’s path toward self-acceptance.
“Naturally that story and getting to college, it’s this coming of age thing,” Skinner says. “And for so many gay people, it’s meeting these girlfriends who are creating these safe spaces — all the while they have their own s— going on. What was so interesting to me is thinking how I’m going through this whole journey inside. But so is she. She is having this whole other experience too.”
Benny (Benito Skinner) and Carmen (Wally Baram) in “Overcompensating.”
(Sabrina Lantos / Prime Video)
Baram says when she read the show’s pilot episode, she instantly understood where the character was coming from.
“I got the script, and within the first three pages, there’s this character — this frizzy, curly haired girl who’s kind of awkward and just can’t do the same thing that everyone else is doing,” Baram recalls. “And who, over the course of the script, is overcompensating with love. That was just so me for a really large chunk of my life, frankly.”
After meeting at orientation — and bonding over the need to ignore the kid who insists on telling everyone he’s Amanda Knox’s cousin — Benny and Carmen fumble through a performed kind of meet-cute. Wishing to do away with his sexual urges for cute boys on campus and hoping to avoid becoming a campus pariah if he doesn’t sleep with a girl on his first day at school, Benny pursues Carmen.
Over the course of the eight-episode season of “Overcompensating,” their freshman situationship quickly gets more and more complicated. Carmen is clueless at first about why things aren’t clicking with Benny in the bedroom (or more like the dorm room). And the root of the issue can be difficult for her to discern.
“It’s like, how could you not know he was gay? But in these relationships I’ve had with women, there was so much confusion and miscommunication through sad dishonesty,” he says. “The Carmen character was so fun to write because this girl is experiencing this on the other side being like, ‘What the f— is wrong with this guy?’ I found that for women, gay was the last thing on their list of things why these relationships weren’t working. And I’m like, ‘No, babe, that’s No. 1.’ You did nothing wrong.”
Benito Skinner on writing the relationship between his character and Carmen: “I found that for women, gay was the last thing on their list of things why these relationships weren’t working. And I’m like, ‘No, babe, that’s No. 1.’ You did nothing wrong.”
(Dutch Doscher / For The Times)
Finding the right actress to nail Carmen’s charming awkwardness was a challenge. Like Benny, Carmen is trying to start anew and fit in at the fictional Yates University. She’s often pushing herself to perform whatever normalcy looks like for a college freshman.
Carmen doesn’t nail collegespeak — “Here’s to a night we’ll never remember with the friends we’ll never forgive,” she captions her first selfie with Benny — but she’s skilled at beer pong, first-person shooters and chugging drinks like the frat boys on campus. More importantly, she is sweet and attentive, the kind of tender girlfriend a closeted boy like Benny would naturally gravitate toward.
At the suggestion of A24 producer Alli Reich, Skinner watched Baram’s 2021 set on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” There, the young comedian, who’s Mexican and Syrian (“or as Fox News would call me, a ‘very lazy terrorist,’” she joked), poked fun at how she’s struggling with adulthood, especially since her body felt both childlike and grown-up at the same time. “I’m 5’2”, I have a baby face, but I’ve [got] boobs and the voice of like an eighth grade Jewish boy,” she deadpanned in the set.
“I had sat with this character for four and a half, five years,” Skinner recalls. “And I watched this video, and it was this very surreal moment. She was exactly what I had in my head for Carmen. I was like, ‘OK, well, it’s her.’”
Baram’s winsome self-deprecation felt like a perfect match for the cast of this off-kilter comedy Skinner was assembling.
“When we met in person, I felt like I had little maracas out,” Baram jokes. “The energy in that room was just like, ‘Oh, hello!’ Like when two dogs meet, and their tails go up.”
“It was so two chihuahuas meet, finally,” Skinner adds.
“When we met in person, I felt like I had little maracas out,” Wally Baram says about Benito Skinner.
(Dutch Doscher / For The Times)
“Overcompensating” hinges on their crackling chemistry. But as the season unfolds, the series becomes more and more of an ensemble piece. As Benny navigates his first semester at Yates, we spend more time with his sullen sister, Grace (Mary Beth Barone); her douchey frat boyfriend, Peter (Adam DiMarco); Benny’s swoon-worthy crush, Miles (Rish Shah) and Carmen’s brassy, sassy roommate Hailee (Holmes).
Together, they create a vision of college life that will make millennials cringe in recognition. The pilot, after all, opens with Britney Spears’ “Lucky” and the foundational queer film “George of the Jungle,” starring a chiseled, loin-clothed Brendan Fraser. But it’s the needle drops throughout the show that best capture that generation and moment in time. Charli XCX may get the spotlight treatment — she guest stars as herself in Episode 4 — but the deployment of a My Chemical Romance song in a later episode made the cast realize just how wounding and specific the writing on the show could be.
“I read ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ and it sent a chill down my spine because I thought that was private to me, alone in my room,” Baram says. “And then you put it in there and I was like, ‘OK, so we all had that moment,’ which is both good and also, wow, my plight is not special.”
“That is so true that it felt private to all of us,” Skinner adds. “Because that was also something with Mary Beth, too. When we were talking about that song, she’s like, ‘I feel this in my bones, maybe in a good and a really mortifying way.’ I hope it has a resurgence. I do think Gen Z will really enjoy that song. It feels very them.”
Barone’s cringey karaoke rendition of that emo 2006 banger resonates because it captures the joy (and embarrassment) that comes from being unabashedly oneself — something every character in “Overcompensating” grapples with to varying degrees of success.
“Overcompensating” hinges on the chemistry between Wally Baram and Benito Skinner.
(Dutch Doscher / For The Times)
Skinner’s comedy excels at capturing those crippling feelings of inadequacy — whether you’re a closeted dude rushing a frat, a secretly emo girl trying to please her boyfriend or a shy freshman figuring out who she could be away from home.
“Some of these people that come into college where they’re like, ‘I’m gonna do me no matter what, and I’m coming in here like a bat out of hell’ — I felt so in awe watching them,” Skinner says. “I was like, ‘This is so incredible that you can do this.’ Meanwhile I feel so confident in one room and in the next room I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I should not be here.’”
That’s precisely what Baram keyed into when bringing Carmen to life, as well as listening to “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo to get into character.
“Because it reminds me of a time in my life in which I thought I was conquering the social. I was going to a party, and I thought that I was gonna, you know, get down and dirty,” she says. “But really, I was a disingenuous version of myself, and ultimately ended up feeling unrewarded at the end, no matter what I did, whether I had a successful social interaction or I failed miserably.”
“Overcompensating” broadens concepts that are central to the queer experience — like the closet and found families — and places them at the heart of the modern college experience. And, in between jokes about pink eye, Grindr dates gone wrong and a pitch perfect takedown of college improv, the series makes a heartfelt case for how to make the best out of those formative years.
“To do it right, I think, is the Benny and Carmen way,” Skinner says. “It’s finding the person that doesn’t make you feel like you have to be so inconsistent with who you are and the things you actually want to do. For me it’s like, you’re bad at overcompensating when you’re with the right person.”
Qatari prime minister states that the UN should be allowed to resume aid distribution inside Gaza.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said that a series of recent Israeli attacks on Gaza show that Israel is not interested in ending the war.
In an interview with the US news outlet CNN on Wednesday, Al Thani said that he had hoped that the release of a US-Israeli soldier named Edan Alexander from captivity in Gaza would be a “breakthrough that will help bring back the talks on track” but that Israel had instead opted to step up strikes on the Strip.
“Unfortunately, Israel’s reaction to this was [bombing] the next day, while sending the delegation,” he said.
Al Thani also stated that a US-backed plan for distributing aid in Gaza through a newly created group is unnecessary. Humanitarian and United Nations aid groups have said that they already have the means of delivering aid to Gaza but are being blocked from doing so by Israel.
Israel has completely cut off Gaza’s access to food, water, fuel, and humanitarian aid since March 2, prompting global monitors of extreme hunger to warn of possible famine and allegations of the use of starvation as a weapon of war by human rights groups.
Israel has claimed, with little evidence, that members of the armed Palestinian group Hamas are stealing large portions of aid entering the Strip, and have pushed for the exclusion of UN organisations, long viewed with ire by Israeli authorities, from aid distribution.
A newly created body with US backing called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said on Wednesday that it would begin operations in Gaza by the end of May, and that it has asked Israel to allow increased levels of aid into the Strip.
Critics have said that the new organisation fulfils an Israeli goal of sidelining the UN and independent international organisations from aid distribution in Gaza.
“GHF emphasizes that a successful humanitarian response must eventually include the entire civilian population in Gaza,” the foundation’s executive director, Jake Wood, wrote in a letter to the Israeli government.
“GHF respectfully requests that the [Israeli military] identify and deconflict sufficient locations in northern Gaza capable of hosting GHF-operated secure distribution sites that can be made operational within 30 days,” he added.
A recent report by the Observer, a UK-based news outlet, notes that a GHF fundraising document appears to mirror claims about the problems of humanitarian assistance in Gaza that do not include the actions of the Israeli government itself and instead blame a “collapse” of “traditional humanitarian channels” due to aid diversion and combat operations.
Thousands of aid trucks have been bottlenecked outside of Gaza amid Israel’s blockade for weeks, with UN officials stressing that they are ready and capable of resuming aid distribution in the Strip, if Israel will lift the siege.
Imagine you’re on a cruise ship for a four-day excursion to the Bahamas. You’ve got your swimsuit, an adult beverage, and you’re ready to relax. As you make your way to the pool deck, you’re hit with the sound of distorted guitars and in-your-face vocals as legendary L.A. punk band X rips through “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene.”
That was the scene on Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise, which set sail from Miami on May 9-13 on board Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Norwegian Gem, and the 1,800 or so passengers were in punk rock heaven.
The lineup featured an array of SoCal-based bands, including Social Distortion, L7, Rocket From the Crypt, the Lords of Altamont and the Dollyrots. They were joined by dozens of other performers across the rock ’n’ roll spectrum, from the hard-stomping Fleshtones to the incorrigible Supersuckers, to Tommy Stinson’s Bash & Pop, to the ageless Linda Gail Lewis — younger sister of music icon Jerry Lee Lewis.
As John Doe of X said, “bands you never thought you’d see on a boat.”
The festival-at-sea concept isn’t new. Sixthman, the company that ran the cruise, has been organizing festivals since 2001 and offers more than 25 curated cruise experiences. Upcoming sailings include Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea Alaska, Chef’s Making Waves Boston, Rock the Bells Cruise and Headbangers Boat.
In many ways, the first Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise is an offshoot of Sixthman’s Outlaw Country Cruise, which completed its ninth sailing earlier this year. It was a somewhat somber celebration because both its architect, SiriusXM’s Jeremy Tepper, and its ambassador, Mojo Nixon, died suddenly in 2024.
That cruise drew an eclectic mix of performers such as Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and Dave Alvin, who share musical DNA with many of the artists on the Underground Garage Cruise and vice versa. For example, Alvin’s former band the Blasters played alongside X during L.A.’s first wave of punk, and Social Distortion’s Mike Ness was often in the front row watching them play.
“Jeremy and Mojo were incredibly close,” Alvin said. “They were like soulmates in a weird way. Cultural, artistic soulmates.”
One surprise guest on the Outlaw Country Cruise was Jello Biafra, who released the album “Prairie Home Invasion” with Mojo Nixon in 1994. He played with Nixon’s backing band the Toadliquors during an emotional tribute to his late friend.
“It’s hard,” Biafra said, “because there is a little bit of a pall over this whole event, because Mojo isn’t here, and everybody’s got their memories bubbling up. I have plenty of that.”
Many of the performers, including some who’d never taken a cruise before, had reservations about what the Underground Garage Cruise would be like.
“I thought there was going to be a lot of crazy drunkenness,” said Donita Sparks of L7. “I was thinking it was a booze cruise, but I haven’t seen a whole lot of that. I haven’t seen a single fight. I’ve seen people laughing and hugging and rocking out to the music. I’ve just seen a lot of joyousness.”
John Reis, vocalist and guitarist of Rocket From the Crypt, was concerned about seasickness and feeling “trapped” but neither proved to be an issue, and he found it easy to “succumb to the vibe.”
“We don’t take certain things all that seriously,” Reis said of Rocket From the Crypt, “and festivals can be very regimented. There’s often a lot of stress involved, mainly with the people putting on the shows. The cruise isn’t like that at all. It’s way more casual.”
Even Ness of Social Distortion was seemingly won over by the cruising lifestyle. “Ease into the day, do what you want. No traffic, no hassles,” Ness said from the stage.
X performs on Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise
(Eli Johnson)
Punks of a certain age are all too familiar with the phenomenon of looking forward to a show but, once it’s time to actually leave the house, losing all enthusiasm to drive across town, find parking and wait for opening bands to wrap up their sets. On the Underground Garage Cruise, all shows are a short walk away and run from an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. No openers. No encores.
Although some shows overlap, unlike most festivals, the bands play several times throughout the course of the cruise. So if you missed a band’s performance on the spacious pool deck, you could catch them later at the 850-seat Stardust Theater or one of the more intimate lounges that provide a clublike setting.
That means you can choose where and when you want to see the band — even early in the afternoon.
“We’ve been doing this a long time,” Eddie Spaghetti of the Supersuckers told the crowd at the band’s 1:15 p.m. gig. “But never this early,” quipped bandmate “Metal” Marty Chandler.
Fans cram the deck of the cruise to watch their favorite bands play on a trip sailing from Miami to the Bahamas
(Rich Johnson)
Performers participated in events offstage as well: autograph signings, a wine tasting with the Dictators, a poker tournament with the Slim Jim Phantom Trio and interview sessions that will eventually make their way to the Little Steven’s Underground Garage channel on SiriusXM. An interview with Mike Ness ended with a surprise short set by Social Distortion, accompanied by keyboardist Ben Alleman on the accordion.
There are, of course, drawbacks to the cruise experience. If you’re not having a good time at a festival, you can always leave and go home. Obviously, you can’t do that on a cruise ship. There are also larger concerns with the cruise industry itself, from the impact these behemoth ships have on the environment to the low wages paid to foreign workers, who do the bulk of the cooking and cleaning.
John Doe said he was conflicted about the gig. “As you grow up, you do things for love or money, right? This is for money. But I love the band X.”
Then there’s the elephant in the room: the perception that cruises aren’t for kids; they’re for elderly people.
A lot of these old punks are, well, old. And if you were in the pit with bands like X, Social Distortion and L7 when they were first making waves, then so are you.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“Rock ’n’ roll is like jazz now,” said Eddie Spaghetti. “Essentially, it’s become a niche art form for older people because most kids don’t like rock ’n’ roll anymore.”
As fans age, their bodies may break down but their passion for the music of their youth remains the same. But a lot of music fans, this writer included, deal with disability, health and/or mobility issues that can put a damper on the typical festival experience. Sixthman, however, excelled at making sure every passenger felt welcome.
For instance, all of the venues on the Underground Garage Cruise had an abundance of ADA seating, with staff designated to assist those who requested it. One staff member I spoke with told me she scans the crowds during the shows and looks for people who might benefit from extra assistance.
That kind of personal attention goes a long way toward explaining why fans, performers and staff members alike think of these cruises as a community. There’s a camaraderie on these trips that you won’t find at your typical festival.
The people you meet at the show aren’t just festivalgoers; they’re your neighbors and sometimes your breakfast companions. The intimidating-looking punk rocker covered in tattoos is a lot more approachable when eating pancakes with his partner at the buffet.
This camaraderie isn’t what leads most fans to sail on a music cruise, but it’s one of the reasons they return year after year. During the Outlaw Country Cruise in February, passengers assembled for a group photo for those who’d sailed on all nine Outlaw Country Cruises.
That camaraderie is important to the musicians too. Everyone I talked to raved about the shows they’d seen. Jonny Two Bags of Social Distortion told me that when he received the schedule, he highlighted the bands he wanted to see — just like any fan. He was especially excited to see Bash & Pop, who he’d played with in the early ’90s.
L7 performs at Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise
(Rich Johnson)
Donita Sparks of L7 had fond memories of playing with the Supersuckers in the early ’90s. “We used to sleep on the Supersuckers’ floor in Seattle,” Sparks said, “and we would have a dance party every night.”
That excitement for what L7’s Jennifer Finch called “the buffet of bands” is infectious. It’s also why Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise will sail again next April, to Cozumel, Mexico.
“We’re all alive,” Sparks said. “We’re here and we’re still rocking.”
Jim Ruland is the L.A. Times bestselling author of “Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records” and of the novel “Make It Stop.”
From a gritty Netflix documentary about the Wests to a silver anniversary for Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer, our TV columnist Sara Wallis picks tonight’s best telly
Alice in Chains announced on Monday that they will cancel their forthcoming tour as well as any festival appearances. The decision came after a previous show was called off on May 8 because drummer Sean Kinney experienced medical complications.
“After our soundcheck this evening at the Mohegan Sun Arena, Sean experienced a non-life-threatening medical emergency,” the group wrote on X. “We unfortunately have to cancel tonight’s show. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.”
Just two days later, the band confirmed on Instagram that they were canceling all upcoming appearances.
“After careful consideration and following the advice of medical professionals, we have made the decision to cancel our upcoming festival performance and the Alice in Chains headline shows,” they wrote.
“While we were all eager to return to the stage, Sean’s health is our top priority at this moment. Although the issue requires immediate attention, his long-term prognosis is positive.”
Kinney is one of the group’s last remaining founding members, alongside lead vocalist Jerry Cantrell. Layne Stanley and Mike Starr passed away in 2002 and 2011, respectively, and were later replaced by current members William Duvall and Mike Inez.
The “Would?” and “Man in the Box” band was slated to perform four shows across the United States before going across the Atlantic for two appearances in Birmingham, U.K. The latter would see them on July 5 as openers in Ozzy Osbourne’s final show and Black Sabbath reunion “Back to the Beginning.”
“We sincerely appreciate your understanding and support at this time,” the band added.
Fans were quick to support the group in their decision. “When a brother and fellow band mate is sick and in need of medical care,” one fan insisted, “the opening line of the statement should’ve been, ‘Without hesitation and with full interest in the well-being of our brother and fellow band mate…’”
Others offered their prayers and shared “get well soon” messages in the comment section on the band’s post.
No further details were shared as to the condition of Kinney and what led to the “medical emergency.”
There’s an oft-repeated Disneyland creation myth: Artist and animation art director Herb Ryman was given 48 hours to draw an early, heavily detailed and romanticized map of the theme park, which would be used to help sell the project to investors. Although that’s all true, Ryman’s work — one of the most famous and important Disneyland drawings — was far from the first map of Disneyland, as it is often colloquially referred to.
Ryman’s work was in fact an iteration of sorts, based upon years of master planning from Walt Disney and early collaborator Marvin Davis, a cinematic art director responsible for much of Disneyland’s early designs. Some never-before-seen work of Davis and other Disneyland designers will be unearthed in the new book “The Happiest Place On Earth,” from animation producer Don Hahn and theme park designer Christopher Merritt. Both Hahn and Merritt have over the years morphed into theme-park historians, and the book is being released July 15 to coincide with Disneyland’s 70th anniversary.
“Marvin Davis claimed that, as he sat there, probably in a room by himself at the studio with Walt standing over him poking him in the shoulder, he did 133 revisions of these maps to get to the Disneyland layout by 1955,” Merritt says. “A few of these maps have been shown before but a lot of these have not been seen before.”
The archives at Walt Disney Imagineering, the secretive division of the company responsible for theme-park experiences. Found in the archives were multiple maps from Marvin Davis that explore Disneyland’s roots.
(Walt Disney Co.)
The book will trace the development of Disneyland, starting in the early ’50s when Disney flirted with the idea of placing the park next to the studio in Burbank — concepts drawn by Harper Goff — to many of Davis’ gradual advancements of the theme-park form. Study them, and they reveal how many of Disneyland’s core ideas were in place by the early 1950s, although they morphed. Alice in Wonderland, for instance, was once envisioned as a walk-through attraction, to be placed across the way from an archery in Fantasyland.
Hahn makes the case that many of the early seeds for Disneyland were planted during a 1948 trip that Disney and animator Ward Kimball took to Chicago. There, the two attended the Chicago Railroad Fair, which had, among its attractions, Abraham Lincoln reenactments and a re-creation of a frontier town.
“His first memo he did when he got home from the Chicago Railroad Fair was all about trying to create these certain regions,” Hahn says. “If you look at the early Burbank parks, there was a western village, there was a stagecoach, there was a railroad station, there was a Tom Sawyer-ish island. A lot of those things came from the Railroad Fair.”
And there was a lot of early experimentation and many a discarded idea. One of Merritt’s favorite rejected concepts was a Tomorrowland exhibition dedicated to hunting for uranium. The attraction has been referenced by Disney and others over the years as a “lost” attraction, but “The Happiest Place on Earth” will feature some never-before-seen concept art from Imagineer Claude Coats.
“Uranium Hunt was an attraction strangely enough to be placed in Tomorrowland, although Claude designed it with Southwestern rock work,” Merritt says. “It was kind of outside rock maze, and the idea was they would hand you Geiger counters, and there was going to be real radioactive uranium embedded in the rock work that you would measure. In the end, they would give you a souvenir uranium to take home with you, which is just crazy-pants.”
Not all of the early Disneyland ideas are as outlandish. What follows are a few of the maps — and some early designs — that led to what would become Disneyland as we know it today.
Early sketches reveal an opera house, general store and more
A Harper Goff-drawn concept for a Disney theme park in Burbank. This is believed to have been drawn in 1951.
(Walt Disney Co.)
An early 1950s sketch layout of Disneyland, focusing on merchandising outlets.
(Walt Disney Co.)
Disney first considered a theme park across from its studios in Burbank, land that is today occupied by Walt Disney Animation Studios and the West Coast headquarters of ABC. The idea, in its early conceptions, included much of what would later make its way to Disneyland — a train, a steamboat and less detailed versions of Main Street and a Frontierland.
Of particular note here is the second photo, unearthed in “The Happiest Place on Earth” for the first time. The focus is on merchandising locations, but those who study the image will spy an opera house and a general store, believed to be the first time such concepts appear. There’s also a spaceport, a haunted house and a re-creation of London’s Tower Bridge. Shops are said to be themed to properties such as “Cinderella” and “Pinocchio.”
“It shows the holistic thinking, too, of not just the attractions but commerce,” Hahn says. “Where the stores would be, where the cafes would be, and kind of a guest-experience mentality. That was a real theme-park innovation, where you’re transported in time to Frontierland but the food and the costumes add up to Frontierland as well. You see the beginnings of that in a map like this.”
The beginnings of Frontierland and the Storybook Land Canal Boats
An early Disneyland map drawn by Marvin Davis. This map was likely drawn around 1953.
(Walt Disney Co.)
These early Disneyland schematics from Davis begin to capture Disneyland’s “hub” idea, that is, a central area that leads to and from its themed spaces. There’s a large theater space, believed to be designed in the hopes of Disneyland becoming a television production locale, and a significant plot dedicated to a river with surrounding attractions — the map calls for a space for otters, as well as a swamp area.
The Frontierland concept is still present, complete with a pony ranch and a stagecoach, as is a haunted house and a land themed to miniatures, a concept that would ultimately become the Storybook Land Canal Boats. Merritt notes that this design is location-agnostic, as Anaheim had not yet been decided upon for Disneyland.
Of particular note here is an introductory land like a Main Street, U.S.A., leading to a central hub. “These maps are revelatory when you look at them all in sequence,” Merritt says.
Davis’ early maps also highlight a residential street with large Victorian homes. The second image, in particular, mentions a town hall and a church. Hahn and Merritt believe this land was heavily influenced by the look and tone of “Lady and the Tramp.”
Main Street starts to materialize
An early Harper Goff design that influenced the look of Frontierland.
(Walt Disney Co.)
Some early Harper Goff designs for what would become Disneyland.
(Walt Disney Co.)
Early Disneyland concept art from Harper Goff
(Walt Disney Co.)
These, says Merritt, are a selection 1951 drawings from Harper Goff. The work is exploratory, in that it could have been envisioned for multiple parts of the park. While Goff’s impact on Frontierland is well documented — and Hahn notes, perhaps, an influence from Knott’s Berry Farm’s Ghost Town in these images — it’s also believed some of these designs were kicked around as a potential Main Street, U.S.A., concept.
Main Street, says Hahn, is often noted as being largely influenced by Disney’s time as a child in Marceline, Mo. While that isn’t really doubted these days among Disney’s fan base, Hahn says that theory wasn’t arrived upon immediately. He notes that some of Goff’s early concept work has a slight Victorian bent, which Goff drew from both “Lady and the Tramp” and his own childhood.
“It’s really the childhood of nobody,” Hahn says of Main Street. “It’s an idealized America. Goff grew up in Colorado, and a lot of these are his Victorian memories of his Colorado hometown. These are set designers who were bringing their movie chops to Disneyland.”
Welcome to the park’s destination: Anaheim
A pivotal early Disneyland map drawn by Marvin Davis.
(Walt Disney Co. )
Merritt and Hahn believe this third early schematic of Disneyland from Davis — the drawing is undated — is perhaps the first to envision Anaheim as the park’s destination. The image needs only to be rotated and one can see many of the pieces that would comprise the park — a Main Street, a central hub and, for the first time since Goff’s drawings of the Burbank park, a train that encircles the grounds.
Zoom in, and one will see there’s a large “emporium” to greet guests — and shoppers — on Main Street, U.S.A., as well as a castle-like moat to mark the entrance to Fantasyland. Still present are TV production spaces at the front of the park, and the map lists a host of attractions, including a horse-drawn carriage, train rides and boat rides.
Maps begin to show the Disneyland attractions we know today
A fall 1953 map of Disneyland from Marvin Davis.
(Walt Disney Co.)
A September 1953 map of Disneyland from Marvin Davis.
(Walt Disney Co.)
A September 1953 map of Disneyland from Marvin Davis.
(Walt Disney Co.)
These three Davis maps are from September 1953, made just days apart. The bottom drawing is a bit more simplified, as it was designed to be shown to TV networks and financiers. One can see a ride inspired by Disney’s “True-Life Adventures” on the right side of the park. This would ultimately become the Jungle Cruise and be flipped to the left side of the park.
All three maps, however, were instrumental in the final design of Disneyland, envisioning Anaheim as the ultimate destination. Of note in the middle image is a Recreation Land, home to a ball field, a mini-golf course and a bandstand. At this time, Disneyland was still envisioned as housing a circus, a concept that was explored in the actual park after opening but soon discarded. Yet Fantasyland, a Land of Tomorrow, Frontierland and what would become Adventureland are all present.
Fantasyland is home in these drawings to attractions themed to “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Peter Pan,” “Alice in Wonderland,” Pinocchio” (denoted as Pleasure Island) and “Fantasia.” Also present is what would become Autopia, signifying that Disneyland in late 1953 had many of its early attractions solidified. Still, many, such as a Mother Goose area, would pop-up and then disappear from the maps.
Says Merritt, “You’re going to want to get your magnifying glass to look at some of this stuff.”
