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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
Feb
9
MOIST EYES, HEAVY HEART, CAN'T WATCH: 'FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS' DELIVERS A BITTERSWEET FAREWELL By David Bianculli
 
 
No spoilers here, since NBC viewers won't see the finale of Friday Night Lights for about half a year. But DirecTV subscribers -- the ones who spent Wednesday night watching the final episode of the five-year drama about family and football life in a small Texas town -- witnessed a loving, thoughtful, inspirational ending to an equally loving, thoughtful and inspirational series. The only thing that put the bitter in its bittersweet is that it's over, for good...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Feb
9
WITH RETURN OF FX SERIES, ENTHUSIASM, PRAISE AND LOYALTY ARE 'JUSTIFIED' By David Bianculli
 
 
Last year's first-season finale of FX's Justified didn't end merely with a cliffhanger. It ended in the middle of a chase scene -- and as the down-home law-and-disorder drama series begins its second season tonight (Wednesday) at 10 ET, it picks up right where it left off. But before long, we're thrown into a whole new story line of second chances, new villains, and an artful mix of comedy, drama and character that does series inspiration Elmore Leonard proud...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Feb
7
SHAWN RYAN SWIMS UPSTREAM, GOING FROM FX TO FOX, WITH NEW 'CHICAGO CODE' COP SERIES By David Bianculli
 
 
Most TV producers, and most quality TV shows, are fleeing from broadcast to cable TV in droves. (Or, at least, mini-droves.) Opportunities are better there, restrictions are looser, and many of the programs are more ambitious. But Shawn Ryan, who helped lead that revolution with FX's The Shield, is going against the grain -- by moving to broadcast TV for his new cop series, The Chicago Code, which premieres tonight at 9 ET on Fox...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Feb
3
WHEN THE SUPER BOWL ENDS, IT'S TIME FOR... 'GLEE'? YES, AND SMARTLY SO By David Bianculli
 
 
Last year, CBS used its post-Super Bowl slot to launch a new reality series, Undercover Boss. It was renewed for a second season, so that game plan worked. This year, Fox is using its ultra-valuable time slot after Super Bowl XLV to expose new viewers to an existing hit...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Feb
1
40 YEARS LATER, YOU REALLY SHOULD GET 'THE POINT' By David Bianculli
 
 
Forty years ago -- on Feb. 2, 1971 -- ABC presented a 90-minute animated movie called The Point. Directed and animated by Fred Wolf, with story and songs by Harry Nilsson, it was delightful, unique and way ahead of its time. In 2011, it still is...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
30
LOOK AT THE (SUB)WAY TV IS MAKING YOU (FORD) FOCUS ON INTERNAL ADS By David Bianculli
 
 
Your move: You don't want to watch ads on broadcast TV shows, so you record the shows to watch later, and zip through the commercials. Network countermove: Inject more giant type and bold graphics into the ads, so you can read (and get) the message even as you fast-forward. But now, the networks have gotten even more insidious, and are stuffing ads where you CAN'T miss them...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
25
OPRAH, LARRY, REGIS... MY TAKE ON THE 'BIG 3' LEAVING THEIR RESPECTIVE TV SHOWS By David Bianculli
 
 
At my advanced age, I've made a Eureka! discovery. It's a lot easier to be interviewed for a story than to write one. So thanks, David Bauder of the Associated Press, for including me in your story about the latest seismic shift in TV's talk landscape. Now, instead of writing a full column about it, I can just steer you...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
24
LOOK WHO'S TALKING, AND TO WHOM, ON TV... OR DON'T... By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week, especially last Monday, Piers Morgan enjoyed a lot of media attention as the new talk-show host replacing CNN's Larry King. This week, he can expect a lot less attention, just as the hosts of Oprah Winfrey's OWN network have seen the media spotlight shift away from them since launching at the start of the New Year. And Conan O'Brien -- what have you heard of him, really, since the first days of his TBS relaunch?...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
21
A VETERAN TV WRITER INTERVIEWED, A NEW TVWW WRITER INTRODUCED: MORE TREATS FROM TV WORTH WATCHING By David Bianculli
 
 
The latest contributions from our ever-expanding, ever-surprising TV WORTH WATCHING roster of writers are worth trumpeting, so here I go, reaching for the brass horn. TVWW correspondent Tom Brinkmoeller lands an exclusive interview with TV writer-producer Steven Bochco as they revisit "Doogie Howser, M.D." ...And our newest correspondent, David Sicilia, takes time off from his professorial duties as an expert on business history to analyze the CBS reality series "Undercover Boss"...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
20
'AMERICAN IDOL' IN A TAILSPIN? AFTER DAY ONE, TOO EARLY TO TELL By David Bianculli
 
 
The newly revamped American Idol on Fox returned this week, with a heavily edited recap of mass auditions in New Jersey (Wednesday) and New Orleans (Thursday). We won't know the true strengths and weaknesses of the new judges' lineup until the live shows begin. In the meantime, if the show's producers didn't pull out all the stops on day one, they sure did pull out all the old tricks...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

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