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DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
 
 
 
2012
Jan
12
BILL MOYERS RESURFACES -- FIRST WITH STEPHEN COLBERT, THEN ON HIS OWN NEW SERIES By David Bianculli
 
 
Bill Moyers is back -- twice! This weekend, he'll make you think, as he launches the inaugural edition of public TV's Moyers & Company. But already this week, he's made you laugh -- as Stephen Colbert's guest on Tuesday's installment of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Not many people can parse the differences between tax breaks and tax dodges on one show, and screech owls and hoot owls on another. But Moyers can, and does...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
11
ARE YOU THERE, BAD TV? IT'S ME, 'CHELSEA' -- AND 'ROB,' TOO By David Bianculli
 
 
If you're wondering why this week's BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS provide no mention of either the new NBC sitcom Are You There, Chelsea? or the new CBS sitcom Rob, let me be clear. It's not an oversight. It's a judgment. Both shows are terrible -- but Chelsea Handler's program is the more disappointing, because she's been so clever and successful at hosting talk shows and writing memoirs...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
9
'CBS THIS MORNING' TAKES FIRST STEPS, DOESN'T STUMBLE... AND HEADS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION By David Bianculli
 
 
By watching its premiere telecast, you can tell much more about a news program's immediate weaknesses than its potential strengths. Chemistry and reputation take time to build, but groan-inducing mistakes, missteps and poor editorial judgments are there from the start...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
6
PARK IN FRONT OF THE TV AND GORGE -- ON 'HOUSE OF LIES' AND OTHER GREAT OFFERINGS By David Bianculli
 
 
Sunday, in addition to the NFL playoff games, there are a ridiculous number of fresh TV offerings -- way too many to mention in BEST BETS alone. But on my most recent radio report for Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I tried. Read on for details about not only Showtime's House of Lies and PBS's Season 2 of Downton Abbey, but NBC's new The Firm, BBC America's Absolutely Fabulous special, and more...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
4
THE IOWA CAUCUS VOTES ARE IN -- WHICH LEADS, SOMEHOW, TO PAT PAULSEN, MASON WILLIAMS, AND DICK SMOTHERS By David Bianculli
 
 
The Iowa caucus has delivered the first official votes in the 2012 race for President of the United States, and anointed yet another surging challenger to Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination...Next comes the New Hampshire primary, where, 16 years ago, President Bill Clinton took first place in his Democratic bid for re-election. In second place that year, with more than 900 votes?...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
3
CHINA CRACKS DOWN ON REALITY TV -- AND MAY BE ON TO SOMETHING By David Bianculli
 
 
Upset by both the popularity and content of certain of its country's reality TV shows, China has adopted a new, rather severe set of guidelines aimed at containing the genre's excesses and negative messages. Meanwhile, back in the United States, we have Gary Busey on ABC's Celebrity Wife Swap on Tuesday, and the fifth season of MTV's Jersey Shore premiering on Thursday...I don't want to be the subject of a modern Joe McCarthy Communist witch hunt or anything -- but in this case, maybe the Chinese are on to something...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
2
'OPRAH'S NEXT CHAPTER' REWRITES HER PLAYBOOK, AND ENDS UP A WINNER By David Bianculli
 
 
Clearly, Oprah Winfrey began the New Year determined to OWN it. She's doubling down on her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) by premiering, on January 1, 2012, the inaugural edition of her new talk show -- her first since stepping down from her syndicated empire as the Queen of All Media. Her new show, televised Sundays at 9 p.m. ET, is called Oprah's Next Chapter, and it's quite a risk, as well as quite a departure...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
1
MY 2012 TVWW NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION: SEARCH FOR TOMORROW... AND IT'LL BE THERE By David Bianculli
 
 
Happy New Year! We have big plans for TV WORTH WATCHING in 2012 -- some of which will require your help and input, so rest up. Meanwhile, my personal TVWW-related New Year's resolution is one that I'm putting on the record, and implementing, today. It's one that many of you have asked for, quite understandably: a more reliable and helpful posting method for BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS...And wait, there's more...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
31
FOR TV, IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR: MY TOP 10, AND 20, AND MORE, OF 2011 By David Bianculli
 
 
I was a TV critic back in the late 1970s -- pre-cable, pre-Hill Street Blues -- when compiling an end-of-year Top 10 required massive amounts of generosity to fill out the bottom half, at least. But let it be said that, in 2011, not even two different Top 10s can contain all the worthy television that's out there to enjoy...In fact, when you put all the lists together, it's more like -- and more than -- a Top 40...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
30
WHAT A WAY TO END THE YEAR, AT 'FRESH AIR' By David Bianculli
 
 
As I type this, I'm about to host the final two Fresh Air programs of the year: Friday's Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR, and its sister show Fresh Air Weekend, which airs guess when. And they're both fun shows. Fresh Air Weekend is a critics' roundup for 2011, which has Maureen Corrigan on the year's best books, Ken Tucker on the year's best rock music, David Edelstein on the year's best movies -- and me, Jerry Mathers as the Beaver, on the year's best TV...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 

This Day in TV History

1957: Julie Andrews Stars in 'Cinderella'
By TV WW