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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
 
 
 
 
 
2011
Apr
16
HBO'S 'GAME OF THRONES': HARD TO FOLLOW, BUT NOT TO WATCH By David Bianculli
 
 
HBO's new Game of Thrones series, which premieres Sunday night at 9 ET, is a TV fantasy epic with grand ambitions -- more mature than Syfy's Merlin or Starz's Camelot, less cartoonish and video-game violent than Starz's Spartacus, and telling a more complicated story, with a more sprawling cast of characters, than anything this side of Middle Earth. But even WITH a scorecard, which HBO provided me, it's confusing at times, and only occasionally satisfying...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
14
MORE BRILLIANT TV IDIOCY AHEAD: SCIENCE CHANNEL ORDERS 'AN IDIOT ABROAD 2' By David Bianculli
 
 
My favorite TV idiot savant is about to strike again. Karl Pilkington, whose quirky conversations with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant make me howl each Friday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO's The Ricky Gervais Show, and whose An Idiot Abroad reluctant travel series for The Science Channel is, to date, my unexpected TV delight of the year, has just agreed to star in a follow-up series, An Idiot Abroad 2...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
13
AT THE PALEY MUSEUM: HEARING, RATHER THAN LECTURING, ABOUT ERNIE KOVACS By David Bianculli
 
 
kovacs-tub-2-top.jpg Tuesday night, instead of teaching a college TV History class about Ernie Kovacs, I went to New York to attend a Paley Museum presentation ABOUT Ernie Kovacs -- moderated by Keith Olbermann, who, even before opening his mouth, honored the spirit of Ernie Kovacs by delivering a memorable, visual ad lib...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
12
REPORTS OF THE DEATH OF BROADCAST TV DRAMAS ARE PREMATURE: JUST WATCH THESE THREE OUTSTANDING SERIES By David Bianculli
 
 
Cable TV dramas may outshine their broadcast counterparts, but major-network broadcast dramas aren't dead yet -- not so long as CBS's The Good Wife and NBC's Parenthood are battling it out on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET, and not when Friday Night Lights begins its final-season NBC run this Friday at 8 p.m. ET...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
9
TV AND BROADWAY INTERMINGLE NICELY IN NY PHILHARMONIC'S 'COMPANY' AND HBO'S 'COLIN QUINN: LONG STORY SHORT' By David Bianculli
 
 
WORTH WATCHING's column space to review a Broadway show presented on HBO makes perfect sense, as with last month's Pee Wee Herman Show on Broadway special and this weekend's Colin Quinn: Long Story Short. But why also review the current, four-performance New York Philharmonic presentation of the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical Company?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
7
GLENN BECK AND 'UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS': DIFFERENT (KEY)STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS By David Bianculli
 
 
If you're wondering why things are a bit sluggish at TV WORTH WATCHING at the moment, it's because our managing editor, Diane Werts, has been traveling, and I've been busier than usual, which is busy enough. I've written stories on Glenn Beck for CNN.com, and on the new Upstairs, Downstairs PBS miniseries for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Keep reading here, and I'll steer you in the right directions...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
5
'MAD MEN,' 'FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS': WATCH ONE WHILE WAITING FOR NEW EPISODES, WATCH THE OTHER INSTEAD OF WAITING By David Bianculli
 
 
Season five of AMC's Mad Men won't arrive until 2012, but season four has just been released on home video. And while NBC is waiting until April 15 to begin broadcasting the fifth and final season of Friday Night Lights (already shown on DirecTV), it, too, has just been released on home video. Thank the TV gods for DVD boxed sets...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
4
HBO DOCUMENTARY 'HIS WAY' SALUTES REAL-LIFE BROADWAY DANNY ROSE By David Bianculli
 
 
The first minute of His Way, HBO's new documentary about veteran show-biz producer Jerry Weintraub, hooks you with the people lining up to tell stories about him: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and lots more. And from then on, Weintraub himself shows up to hook you for the duration...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
2
'THE KILLING': AMC'S LATEST DARK, DARING TV TRIUMPH By David Bianculli
 
 
Of all the special TV events vying for attention Sunday -- including the launch of Showtime's The Borgias and the opening installment of the orphaned, adopted miniseries The Kennedys -- the most compelling and impressive is also the darkest. It's The Killing, the newest bold programming move by AMC...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
1
IT'S SUCH A SPECIAL DAY, ONE SET OF BEST BETS ISN'T ENOUGH By David Bianculli
 
 
Some days are so special, and so packed with TV options, that one set of BEST BETS hardly seems enough to contain everything fairly. So today, which certainly qualifies as special, we offer a bit more...If you're not particularly impressed by today's "official" April 1 BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS offerings, here are some alternatives -- which, I dare say, you might find even MORE entertaining...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

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