Last year at about this time, ABC renewed "Pushing Daisies," one of the best shows in its entire lineup -- then yanked it prematurely once the new season began. This year, with the announcements of next year's prime-time schedules only weeks away, there's still time for the networks to make some smart moves -- and some TV-improving renewals -- and, this time, stick with them. But will they?...

2009

Apr

DIRECTV MAKES TWO MORE BRILLIANT TV ACQUISITIONS: "OZ" AND "DEADWOOD" By David Bianculli

Since most broadcast networks seem to be abandoning quality, the field is wide open for a competing network to embrace it. Satellite's DirecTV is doing just that, and has just added two more champion thoroughbreds to its stable: the first off-HBO telecasts of Tom Fontana's "Oz" and David Milch's "Deadwood."

2009

Apr

"THE COUGAR" ON TV LAND: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? By David Bianculli

TV Land presents the premiere of a new reality dating show called "The Cougar," starring a 40-year-old single mother of four who works her way through a gaggle of guys in their 20s, searching for true love. On TV Land? As Seth Meyers might ask, "Really?!?"...

2009

Apr

STUDENT BLOG #1: A REVIEW, AND DEFENSE, OF "WRESTLEMANIA 25" By David Bianculli

While working on the book, I've had several professional TV critics and reporters as guest writers. Today, as an experiment, I'm presenting an amateur. But an informed one...Since I'm now teaching TV full-time at Rowan University, I thought I'd give a student or two a chance each term to write a review from his or her perspective...The first of these is a subject that always claims one or two passionate students per term: TV wrestling...

2009

Apr

WHAT DO JON STEWART AND BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HAVE IN COMMON? OR STEPHEN COLBERT AND WILL ROGERS? By David Bianculli

Today, instead of writing, I'm linking -- to an impressively well-reported essay on Comedy Central Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart, and his place in history. Not just cable history, or TV history... but history. (Yes, Virginia, there was history before television.) And I'd love the article, published in Sunday's Cleveland Plain Dealer by TV critic Mark Dawidziak, even if I weren't one of the people quoted...

2009

Apr

THREE NEW THURSDAY TV SHOWS, NO NEW THURSDAY TRIUMPHS By David Bianculli

Three new shows premiere tonight, with little cause for celebration. NBC's "Parks and Recreation," with Amy Poehler, may develop into something worthwhile, but it's disappointingly derivative. NBC's "Southland" is even more disappointing, and even more derivative -- and "Harper's Island," on CBS, is a bloody mess...

2009

Apr

FX'S "RESCUE ME" RETURNS -- FINALLY, AND BRILLIANTLY By David Bianculli

The FX drama series "Rescue Me," has been gone from TV so long, it makes "The Sopranos" look like a poster boy for prime-time promptness. FX even presented five-minute "mini-sodes" in the interim, just to remind viewers of what they were missing...

2009

Apr

WITH HBO'S "IN TREATMENT" AND SHOWTIME'S "UNITED STATES OF TARA," TV IS GREAT THERAPY By David Bianculli

HBO's "In Treatment" begins its second season just as Showtime's "United States of Tara" concludes its first. Both series are so engrossing, they prove that, in the right hands, TV isn't just good therapy. It's great therapy...

2009

Apr

APRIL 3, 1969 -- CBS FIRED THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS By David Bianculli

Today, in 1969, CBS fired the Smothers Brothers...

2009

Mar

A FEW MINUTES ABOUT ANDY ROONEY... By David Bianculli

I adore "60 Minutes." I love that the oldest surviving TV show in prime time is still among the very best. I'm thrilled that it caters to intelligence rather than panders to stupidity. Living up to its name, it's 60 minutes of outstanding television. Well, 55 minutes, anyway...

Posts 751-760 of 1097

75 76 77 78 79

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

David Bianculli

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption

1957: Julie Andrews Stars in 'Cinderella'