17 May
Arts & Culture, Latest, Zoominars

The indomitable Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop with Mallory Lewis, Nat Segaloff and Sarah Breger

Famed ventriloquist and creator of the iconic puppet Lamb Chop, Shari Lewis was one of the few women to run her own television production company at a time when most women were shut out of the industry. Lewis and Lamb Chop entertained generations of children with their many television shows, including specials about Hanukkah and Passover. Mallory Lewis, Emmy Award-winning performer and daughter of Shari, and TV writer-producer Nat Segaloff, join Moment editor Sarah Breger for a conversation about Lewis’ stage and TV career, how Judaism influenced her work, the challenges of being a businesswoman in a male dominated field and how she and her puppet became iconic stars loved by millions. Mallory Lewis and Segaloff are the authors of the forthcoming book Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop: The Team That Changed Children’s Television.

This program is in celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month.

Continue reading

ChaiFlicks, a Santa Monica-based service that acquires and distributes content focused on Jewish culture
03 Sep
Arts & Culture, Latest

ChaiFlicks: Jewish TV and Film on Demand

Moment brings you essential independent reporting from the Jewish community and beyond. But we need your help. Your support is critical to the work we do; every tax-deductible gift, of any amount, keeps us going. Thank you for reading and thank you for your help. Donate here.  Seemingly out of nowhere, the pandemic lockdown has fueled the unprecedented popularity of Jewish-themed streaming series, some with unexpected crossover appeal to broader audiences. Think Unorthodox, Shtisel, The Spy, Fauda and HBO’s The Plot Against America. So it’s only natural that a boutique streaming service has emerged to try to catch this wave, providing engaging, smaller, independent alternatives to the big- and mid-budget blockbuster limited series. ChaiFlicks, a Santa Monica-based service that acquires and distributes content focused on Jewish culture, launched August 12. The new service costs $5.99 per month, roughly what the BBC-overflow Acorn...

Continue reading

01 May
Latest

The (Not-So) Jewish Tao of Howard Wolowitz

The Big Bang Theory, the perennially popular CBS sitcom centered around the social and romantic woes of three exceedingly intelligent physicists and one engineer, is consistently among the most popular shows in primetime on network television, even in its sixth season. The engineer of the bunch, and the only member of the male quartet of characters without a Ph.D., is Howard Wolowitz. Wolowitz is a physically small, even timid, man who is awkward around women, often exaggerating his masculinity and prowess, and who still lives with his overbearing mother. He is also Jewish, although if you didn’t glean that from this description, you obviously don’t watch a lot of television. The range of Jewish references and experiences on the show marks Howard as being more informed by Judaism than one might expect, even if his behavior...

Continue reading

06 Jun
Uncategorized

Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles

By Steven Philp It is a common fiction that Jews control Hollywood. Yet there are few more adamant about this misrepresentation—and no one less happy—than Orthodox Jew and conservative columnist Ben Shapiro. According to his new book Primetime Propaganda the producers, writers, and actors based in Los Angeles are, instead, a group of liberals using television to promote a “radical” agenda. Friends counters traditional family values, Happy Days took a stance against American engagement in Viet Nam, and M*A*S*H pushed the merits of pacifism. In an interview with The Independent, Shapiro promises that his book will illustrate how people in the industry have attempted to “shape America in their own leftist image.” The 416-page exposé utilizes interviews with approximately seventy media professionals; this includes what he characterizes as “gotcha” moments, in which those interviewed admit to...

Continue reading