On the set of Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO show The Newsroom.

At 67, the American Bandstand icon remains “one hard-working mother.”

How reality TV has changed tattooing.

Tattoos and tattoo artists have an undeniable power to attract, repulse, and intimidate. But when confronted with all this life and color, reality TV steamrolls it into the familiar “drama” of preening divas and wounded pride. “Everybody thinks they’re gonna change it,” said Anna Paige, an artist who said she’d turned down her chance at TV stardom. “Everybody thinks they’re gonna have some power.” But wait, isn’t she profiting from tattooing’s mass appeal? “I would have made money anyway.”

A profile of 25-year-old Lena Dunham, showrunner and star of HBO’s Girls.

An oral history of The Sopranos.

Jimmy McNulty, Mike Daisey, and the problems with skirting the system to get to the greater truth.

An oral history of Saturday Night Live.

Part of our guide to SNL for Slate.

How one of the most maligned cast members in SNL history ended up a talking head on Fox News.

On YouTube’s shift towards professionally created content.

A conversation with the comedian.

JW: You’ve talked about how you’ve had to explain moral lessons to your daughters, but do it in an inarticulate, catchy way. It’s almost as though you’re writing material for them. What’s the place of morality and ethics in your comedy?

I think those are questions people live with all the time, and I think there’s a lazy not answering of them now, everyone sheepishly goes, “Oh, I’m just not doing it, I’m not doing the right thing.” There are people that really live by doing the right thing, but I don’t know what that is, I’m really curious about that. I’m really curious about what people think they’re doing when they’re doing something evil, casually.

A suburban dad. A fictional television blowhard. And now a political money launderer. How one funny guy became three.

On “If You Are the One”, the smash hit Chinese dating show that raised the ire of censors.