Austin O'Connor

Biography: Austin O'Connor covers television, film, gaming, gadgets and all kinds of entertainment for AARP.org. Follow him on twitter: @austinjoconnor

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Austin O'Connor 'sPosts

Jeffrey Tambor and Jessica Walter, Reunited on ‘Arrested Development’

Posted on 05/22/2013 by Austin O'Connor | Television and Entertainment | Comments

EntertainmentWhen the new season of Arrested Development starts streaming on Netflix Sunday at midnight (PST), it won’t just mark the return of a beloved sitcom most fans thought was gone for good. It also brings back a couple of talented comic actors — Jeffrey Tambor and Jessica Walter — in two of their best roles. They play George and Lucille Bluth, the oft-estranged oddball parents who spawned one of television’s most hilariously dysfunctional clans. TV’s recent past is littered with sitcoms …

NBC’s New Fall Shows: Back to the Future and More

Posted on 05/13/2013 by Austin O'Connor | Television and Entertainment | Comments

EntertainmentNBC, like all the big TV networks, is in New York this week unveiling new fall shows for advertisers. But regardless of what they think, there was plenty for grownup viewers to like in the lineup revealed Monday. Taking a page from the CBS playbook, NBC has hired a number of boomer favorite stars in new comedies and dramas. Among those appealing to the 50-plus audience: The Michael J. Fox Show: Best remembered for his role as Alex P. Keaton …

As ‘Sports’ Turns 30, Huey Lewis Hits the Road

Posted on 05/9/2013 by Austin O'Connor | Television and Entertainment | Comments

EntertainmentRest easy, America: Huey Lewis says the heart of rock ’n’ roll is still beating. “Popular music is one thing America makes that the rest of the world still wants,” the easygoing singer said during a recent phone call from his Montana home. It’s been 30 years since Lewis first weighed in on the pulse of America’s most coveted export. Sports, the album that produced “The Heart of Rock ’n’ Roll,” was released in 1983. When it first hit record …

Phyllis Smith on The End of ‘The Office’ (and Falling Refrigerators)

Posted on 05/7/2013 by Austin O'Connor | Television and Entertainment | Comments

EntertainmentFor the past nine years, Phyllis Smith has played Phyllis (Lapin) Vance, the sneakily snarky den mother on NBC’s The Office. The Lemay, Mo. native was a dancer during her youth—she was a member of the St. Louis Cardinals cheerleading squad and was once part of a burlesque troupe in her home city—but her role on The Office was her very first acting gig. When the series finale airs May 16 at 9 p.m., she will have appeared in all …

‘How to Live With Your Parents’: Boomer Humor Abounds

Posted on 04/3/2013 by Austin O'Connor | Television and Entertainment | Comments

EntertainmentHow to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) sports a title (and a mouthful of one at that) that speaks directly to many boomers whose adult children have moved back home. Premiering tonight at 9:30 p.m. on ABC in the plum post-Modern Family time slot, the new sitcom bursts out of the gate with more than a few belly laughs. It’s funny enough to make you hope it can find an audience during its spring run …

‘Golden Boy’ Looks Like a Winner

Posted on 02/26/2013 by Austin O'Connor | Television and Entertainment | Comments

EntertainmentA lackluster stretch for new network dramas comes to an emphatic end tonight with the premiere of Golden Boy, the gripping new CBS cop show that breathes fresh life into the standard police procedural. British newcomer Theo James, 28, plays New York City cop Walter Clark, the hotshot of the title. Golden Boy’s hook is that we first meet Clark seven years in the future, just after he is named the youngest police commissioner in the city’s history. The completed …