TV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive.^[1] The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan. UK and Australia versions of the website are also available, at uk.tv.com and au.tv.com, respectively.

History[link]

CNET Networks had originally acquired the domain name (among other generic domain names like news.com, radio.com, etc.) in the mid-1990s to host a website for the company's technology-related TV shows. One of these shows was actually titled TV.com. The program, highlighting the best of the Internet for new and casual computer users, aired in U.S. syndication.

CNET then acquired TV Tome, a popular fan-run television database, and TV.com was launched on June 1, 2005^[2] with many of the features and content of the original TV Tome site.

On May 15, 2008, CBS formally announced its purchase of CNET Networks,^[3] and the company changed its name to CBS Interactive.

TV.com has continually looked at innovating the television-viewing experience by incorporating it with technology, as seen with the creation of WatchList.^[4] This service offered personalized TV listings influenced by user actions and social media, which eventually carried over to the creation of TV.com Relay.

Features[link]

TV.com provides show descriptions, cast and crew listings, full episodes as well as clip length videos, discussion forums, and detailed episode guides for many TV shows. Episode guides may include synopsis information, a recap, credits, notes, trivia, quotes, and images provided by the networks. All textual information in the guides is user generated. Users earn badges and points for participating. After a user earns above a certain number of points, they become editor for the guide where they get to moderate all user submissions made to the guide. The site also provides actor guides which includes the actors’ bios, credits, trivia and quotes, images, forums, and related news. Like show pages, users can become editors for these guides after earning points by providing sourced content.

In addition to its user-generated database of television information, TV.com creates original editorial content and special features for noteworthy television events, such as Comic-Con, season finales, award shows, upfronts, holiday TV, and more.

Mobile app[link]

The site has created a mobile application for download on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad through the iTunes app store, and another application for Android mobile phones and tablets on the Android Market.^[5] Both applications allows users to stream video content, including clips and full length episodes directly to their device.

Relay[link]

TV.com Relay is a social television check in application that is available over mobile and web.^[6][7] Users can check in to shows they are watching, see what their friends are watching, participate in discussion, and earn badges.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

Kevin Spacey
Spacey in April 2009
Born	Kevin Spacey Fowler (1959-07-26) July 26, 1959 (age 52) South Orange, New Jersey, United States
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1981–present

Kevin Spacey, CBE (born Kevin Spacey Fowler; July 26, 1959) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in the early 1990s, culminating in his first Academy Award for The Usual Suspects (Best Supporting Actor), followed by a Best Actor Academy Award win for American Beauty (1999). His other starring roles in Hollywood include Seven, L.A. Confidential, Pay It Forward, K-PAX, and Superman Returns in a career which has earned him several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Since 2003, he has been artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London.

Early life[link]

Spacey was born in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of Kathleen Ann (née Knutson; December 5, 1931 – March 19, 2003), a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler (June 4, 1924 – December 24, 1992), a technical writer and data consultant.^[1][2][3] He has two older siblings: a sister, Julie, and a brother, Randy. He attended Northridge Military Academy, Canoga Park High School (in tenth and eleventh grades), and then Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, where he graduated valedictorian of his class.^[4][5] At Chatsworth High, he starred in the school's senior production of The Sound of Music, playing the part of Captain Georg von Trapp, opposite Mare Winningham's character, Maria.

While in high school, he took on his paternal grandmother's maiden name, "Spacey", originally a Yorkshire name, as his acting surname.^[3][6] Several reports have incorrectly suggested that he took his name in tribute to actor Spencer Tracy, combining Tracy's first and last names.^[6] He had tried to succeed as a comedian for several years, before attending the Juilliard School in New York City, where he studied drama,^[7] between 1979 and 1981. During this time period, Spacey performed stand-up comedy in bowling alley talent contests.^[8]

Career[link]

Spacey's first professional stage appearance was as a spear-carrier in a New York Shakespeare Festival performance of Henry VI, part 1 in 1981. The following year, he made his first Broadway appearance, as Oswald in a production of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, starring Liv Ullmann. Then he portrayed Philinte in Molière's The Misanthrope. In 1984, it was David Rabe's Hurlyburly, where he rotated through each of the male parts (he would later play Mickey in the film version). Next came Anton Chekhov's The Seagull and a period, in 1986, performing Sleuth in a New Jersey dinner theatre.

His prominence as a stage actor began in 1986, when he was cast opposite Jack Lemmon, Peter Gallagher and Bethel Leslie as Jamie, the eldest Tyrone son in Jonathan Miller's lauded production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. Lemmon in particular would become a mentor to Spacey.^[9] He made his first major television appearance in the second season premiere of Crime Story, playing a Kennedy-esque American senator. Although his interest soon turned to film, Spacey remained actively involved in the live theater community. In 1991, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of "Uncle Louie" in Neil Simon's Broadway hit Lost in Yonkers. Spacey's father was unconvinced that Spacey could make a career for himself as an actor, and did not change his mind until Spacey became well-known.^[8]

Some of Spacey's early roles include a widowed eccentric millionaire on L.A. Law, the made-for-television film The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988), opposite Lemmon, and the Richard Pryor/Gene Wilder–starring comedy See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989). Spacey earned a fan base following after playing the criminally insane arms dealer Mel Profitt on the television series Wiseguy. He quickly developed a reputation as a character actor, and was cast in bigger roles, including one-half of the bickering Connecticut couple in the dark comedy The Ref (1994), a malicious Hollywood studio boss in the satire Swimming with Sharks, and the malevolent office manager in the all-star ensemble film Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), gaining him positive notices by critics. His performance as the enigmatic criminal Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.^[7]

Spacey appeared in the 1995 thriller film Seven, with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, making a sudden entrance late in the film as the serial killer John Doe, after going unmentioned in the film's advertisements and opening credits. His work in Seven, The Usual Suspects, and Outbreak earned him Best Supporting Actor honors at the 1995 Society of Texas Film Critics Awards.^[10][11]