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The Grateful Dead will celebrate their 60th anniversary this year not only with a massive 60-disc live collection but also with a just-announced Best Of compilation.

Fittingly titled Gratest Hits, the LP features nine classics from the Dead’s studio catalog, “Casey Jones” and “Friend of the Devil” to the Phil Lesh standout “Box of Rain” and the band’s biggest hit “Touch of Grey” to the one-two punch of “Scarlet Begonias” and “Fire on the Mountain.”

While there have been dozens of Best Of collections dedicated to the Grateful...

Alan Hale, Jr. was a deeply committed and versatile character actor whose career stretches all the way back to the 1930s. He has appeared on stage, in movies, and on hundreds of TV shows. He played the lead role in the 1952 TV series "Biff Baker, U.S.A." and the 1957 series "Casey Jones." He was involved with comedy, drama, Westerns, superhero shows, romances, and legal thrillers. There didn't seem to be much Hale would say no to. 

Of course, most audiences know Hale as Jonas Grumby, a.k.a. The Skipper on the 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island." That show was an enormous hit when it debuted, and, entrenched itself deeply in the American consciousness. Also, thanks to sweet, sweet syndication deals, reruns of the three-season show managed to stay on the air continuously for decades. Gen-Xers grew up watching "Gilligan's Island" as late as the late '80s. Alan Hale became a broadly recognized archetype,...

When Sherwood Schwartz was creating "Gilligan's Island" back in 1964, he designed the series as one might an animated show. It was meant to be a broad, unrealistic farce, so Schwartz had no issues with making "Gilligan's Island" into something colorful and artificial. The characters, for the most part, wore the same clothes every day, allowing Schwartz to color-code them. Gilligan (Bob Denver) always wore a long-sleeve red shirt and sailor's cap. The Skipper (Alan Hale) always wore blue and wore a captain's hat. The Professor (Russell Johnson) always wore slacks and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Ginger (Tina Louise) may have changed often, but she always wore something glamorous, and her red hair was always highlighted. 

What's more, Schwartz seemingly kept a close eye on characters' silhouettes. One of the reasons why The Skipper and Gilligan emerged as such an effective comedy duo was that Gilligan was...

Alan Hale, Jr. became a performer as part of his family's legacy. His mother was actress Gretchen Hartman who appeared in dozens of films in the 1910s, while his father, Alan Hale (real name: Rufus Edward MacKahan) racked up hundreds of credits in the silent era, typically as a reliable sidekick to Errol Flynn. Hartman retired from acting in 1929, and Hale, Sr. continued to work until his death in 1950. Alan Hale, Jr. first appeared on the screen as an infant, "starring" opposite his mother. Hale made his Broadway debut in 1931, when he was only 10, appearing in a very, very short-lived show called "Caught Wet" (it opened and closed in the same month). In 1933, Hale played uncredited role in William Wellman's Depression-era drama "Wild Boys of the Road," and it may be the first movie a casual observer would recognize him in. 

Staring in 1941, Hale began his acting career in earnest,...

Before "Gilligan's Island," comedian Alan Hale, Jr. had a prolific, decades-long career on stage and screen. He made his stage debut in 1931 at the age 10, began a very busy film career in 1941, and made multiple films a year throughout the 1950s. He played the title characters in both the 1953 adventure series "Biff Baker, U.S.A." and the 1957 Western "Casey Jones." He was a regular visitor of "The Gene Autry Show," and had guest spots in many of the more popular TV shows of the day. He was in "Maverick," "Bonanza," "The Untouchables," "Gunsmoke," and "Rawhide." There was, it seemed, nothing he couldn't do. 

Hale was reported always friendly and affable, and it was his affability that landed him the role of Jonas Grumby, aka The Skipper, on Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island." The Skipper had to be the outraged, wrathful friend of the bumbling title character, but also...

There are some filmmakers that just effortlessly ooze cool, and Jason Eisener is absolutely one of those people. The Canadian creative first came to mainstream public consciousness after winning the "Grindhouse" fake trailer contest hosted by Robert Rodriguez and SXSW Festival, and his winning short, "Hobo with a Shotgun," led to a feature film of the same name starring Rutger Hauer. In the years that followed, Eisener has been involved in a slew of ridiculously rad projects, like the killer Christmas tree slasher, "Treevenge," serving as a producer on the well-loved "Turbo Kid," co-creating the Vice series "Dark Side of the Ring," and directing a segment of "V/H/S/2" that evolved into the genre-bending feature film, "Kids vs. Aliens."

If you want a film to have striking visuals, snappy dialogue, and a bleeding, beating heart of genre influences, you call Jason Eisener. This is why it makes complete sense that Eisner...

The Grateful Dead will reissue their classic album, Workingman’s Dead, for its 50th anniversary, with the CD deluxe edition boasting a previously unreleased concert recording. That set, and a vinyl version of the reissue, will arrive July 10th.

Both the CD and vinyl reissues will boast a newly remastered version of Workingman’s Dead, and the vinyl release will be printed on a picture disc limited to 10,000 copies. Only the CD release, however, will include the Dead’s February 21st, 1971 concert at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York.