DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
2011
Aug
2
 
 
LOS ANGELES -- At a Television Critics Association press conference Tuesday, three high-profile MSNBC hosts were asked to predict who would win the next presidential election, and to identify the TV commentators who most inspired them before they themselves became TV commentators. Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews and Lawrence O'Donnell, as usual, had no shortage of opinions...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Aug
1
 
 
The next documentary from Ken Burns and company, a six-hour look at Prohibition, will run Oct. 2-4 on PBS. It's another strong entry in the Burns canon, directed by Burns and Lynn Novick, written by Geoffrey C. Ward, and featuring, among many others, Last Call author Daniel Okrent. Except for Ward, all of them attended a Television Critics Association press conference Sunday night to discuss the new series -- and, afterward, to raise a glass or two...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jul
31
 
 
LOS ANGELES -- Hugh Laurie, the British star of Fox's House, occasionally has displayed his piano-playing prowess on that drama series -- but for a PBS Great Performances special Sept. 30, keyed to his new album of New Orleans blues, he brings his piano, his guitar and his voice center stage. And in explaining Saturday how he came to discover and love the music of Muddy Waters and others, Laurie made a larger point that isolated and attacked -- precisely and perfectly -- one of the biggest problems with our current multimedia culture...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jul
30
 
 
The PBS portion of the 2011 Television Critics Association summer press tour began Saturday, with news about an ambitious new arts series showcasing local and regional fare. It's called the PBS Arts Fall Festival, and it's a big enough umbrella to include Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park, a production of HMS Pinafore from Minnesota's Guthrie Theatre, and, as a Cameron Crowe study of the rise of Seattle grunge...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jul
26
 
 
I recently received a Twitter message (a Tweet, for you Savvier, Younger Communicators) from improv actor and teacher Kevin Mullaney, of Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre fame, who takes me to task for revealing what he considers too much information..."Please stop revealing spoilers on your Fresh Air reviews..."
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jul
22
 
 
Two of HBO's comedy series are now in their eighth seasons: Entourage, which returns Sunday night at 10:30 ET, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, which presents its third episode of its latest go-round Sunday night at 10 ET. Entourage uses the occasion to reshuffle the deck and put all its characters in flux -- but Curb, with Sunday's "Palestinian Chicken" episode, pushes its comedy provocation style to envelope-pushing, jaw-dropping levels...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jul
21
 
 
Yesterday I raved about, and pointed you to, one of our veteran contributors, Ed Bark, whose pair of stories on media coverage of the Murdoch scandal I'm immensely proud to present on this site. Today, another point of pride, from another of our writers. Tom Brinkmoeller provides an intensely personal, yet touchingly funny, account of how and why his home TV viewing habits have changed...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jul
20
 
 
If you're following the Murdoch scandal, it pays to throw a fairly wide media net. On Tuesday, live coverage of the Rupert and James Murdoch hearing, and the testimony of Rebekah Brooks, was presented on Current TV, with Keith Olbermann presiding as anchor and John Dean weighing in as an analyst. Tuesday night, Comedy Central's Jon Stewart scored big, by underlining how Murdoch's Fox News has been largely ignoring the story...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jul
19
 
 
In my previous blog entry, I suggested the creation of a TV equivalent of Turner Classic Movies, but for TV -- a real one, not like what TV Land has morphed into -- and got lots and lots of fabulous responses, and suggestions for shows deserving of inclusion on such a network. You can read that post, and those comments, HERE. But you can also read a lot more on Twitter, where people have chimed in separately...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jul
18
 
 
The same year it earned a Peabody Award, and the same week it was handed a second Emmy nomination for Andre Braugher as Outstanding Supporting Dramatic Actor, Men of a Certain Age was awarded by TNT Friday by being given its pink slip. After two excellent seasons...It deserved to be shipped off to a home...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

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.

 
 
 
 

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