Original release 12 novembre 1997
Previous episode S1999E100 - Gypsy Rose Lee: Naked Ambition
Number S1999E101
Episode runtime 50 minutes
Country United States
Original language English
Genres Documentary, History
External links TheTVDB page
IMDB page
TheMovieDB page
Last update 2 novembre 2026 - 18:15
on 11 databases

Neil Simon: The People's Playwright

1 member

He is the most prolific and commercially successful playwright in Broadway history. But even though there is a theater named after him, some question whether his plays belong on the Great White Way today. Neil Simon survived a stormy childhood by escaping into books, movies and his imagination. His gift of invention landed him a job as a writer for Sid Caesars Your Show of Shows when he was in his 20s. Soon, his plays were on Broadway and he was the toast of the town. Through extensive interviews with those who know him best, BIOGRAPHY® presents a fascinating chronicle of the man behind such hits as Barefoot in the Park, Plaza Suiteand Biloxi Blues. See clips from the film adaptations of his most popular plays and learn why some feel that Simon no longer belongs on Broadway. From The Odd Couple to the Pulitzer Prize winning Lost in Yonkers, this is the complete story of the man behind some of the most beloved plays of all time.

BetaSeries' opinion

Secrets d'histoire Season 20 Finale: Stéphane Bern's Messalina Episode Ends a Season About Reputations on Trial

Twenty seasons in, "Secrets d'histoire" can still surprise its audience. The Season 20 finale aired on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, at 9:10 p.m. on France 3, and Stéphane Bern closed the season with one of the most notorious women of antiquity: Messalina, the third wife of Emperor Claudius. If you watched it, you already know it was more than a parade of Roman scandal. It was a careful re-examination of a woman whose name has been shorthand for depravity for almost two thousand years. If you haven't caught up yet, this debrief shows why the episode, and the whole season, deserves a place in your watchlist.

A finale that puts history's verdict on trial

The question at the centre of the finale was simple: does Messalina deserve the brutal nickname history gave her? Roman writers handed down a woman driven by insatiable desire and a hunger for power. Bern's team took that portrait apart piece by piece. They asked who wrote the story, why they wrote it, and what they gained from it. This is the series at its best. It doesn't simply retell a legend. It looks into how the legend was made. Messalina's world gave the episode plenty of drama: Caligula, Nero, Agrippina and the freedman Narcissus all appear, each with their own agenda in the deadly politics of the Julio-Claudian court. Without spoiling anything for latecomers, the finale's real emotional pull comes from the gap between the caricature and the young woman caught up in a machine much bigger than she was.

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