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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
 
 
 
 
 
2008
Dec
10
NOW THAT LENO HAS LANDED, WHAT'S NEXT? SOME THOUGHTS... By David Bianculli
 
 
Now that Jay Leno has landed -- and landed at a surprising place, in prime time on NBC -- the other players in the late-night wars of 2008-09 can begin planning their moves...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Dec
9
LENO IN PRIME TIME? GOOD FOR BUSINESS, BAD FOR TV By David Bianculli
 
 
I had intended to devote today's column to ABC's "Boston Legal" finale (thoroughly delightful), then to Craig Ferguson's remembrance of his mother on CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (touchingly emotional). Both deserve fuller attention...But today's breaking-news topic, trumping the others, is NBC's reported decision to turn over its 10 p.m. hour each weeknight next fall to a new talk show hosted by Jay Leno.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Dec
8
THE SHOW WITH THE MOST FAMOUS BALCONY SCENES SINCE "ROMEO & JULIET" ENDS TONIGHT By David Bianculli
 
 
December 8, 2008 9:21 AM ABC's Boston Legal, one of the braver and more delightful TV series of the past five years, ends tonight, with a two-hour episode that concludes with one last scene on the balcony. And that's only fitting, since this David E. Kelley series has done more for the balcony scene than any drama since Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet... Last week's episode had Carl, the attorney played by John Larroquette, complaining that there was nothing on TV worth watching, especially
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Dec
4
CNN'S CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR PROBES HISTORY OF GENOCIDE; ABC'S BARBARA WALTERS INTERVIEWS "FASCINATING" MILEY CYRUS By David Bianculli
 
 
On CNN tonight, Christiane Amanpour looks at 70 years of genocide, in a two-hour "CNN Presents" special...On ABC, meanwhile, in a one-hour special, Barbara Walters interviews Miley Cyrus, Michael Phelps and eight other people she considers "fascinating." Is it unfair to compare the two?...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Dec
3
LOOK WHO'S TALKING -- ON TV, THAT IS -- AND WHO'S SHOCKINGLY GOOD AT IT By David Bianculli
 
 
Don't look now -- or, rather, DO look now -- but there are some new TV talk show hosts in town, and they're unexpectedly fabulous. Almost shockingly so: William Shatner? Elvis Costello? Yes, and yes. Big time...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Dec
2
ABC'S "ACCORDING TO JIM" -- IT'S ALIVE! ALIVE! By David Bianculli
 
 
Here's a TV mystery for you: Beginning tonight, ABC's According to Jim is back. In prime time. With new episodes. Starting its eighth season. It's an inexplicable rebound, more improbable than the return from the ashes of Fox's "Family Guy"...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Dec
1
WELCOME TO CYBER MONDAY! SHOP FOR TV DVDS, AND PLAN YOUR HOLIDAY VIEWING, HERE AT TV WORTH WATCHING... By David Bianculli
 
 
Welcome to Cyber Monday! Shop for TV DVDs, and Plan Your Holiday Viewing, Here at TV WORTH WATCHING... Because it's Cyber Monday, TV WORTH WATCHING is making it easy for you. Click on one of the Santa-hatted home-page puppies, and start shopping for the best, or most holiday-appropriate, TV shows on DVD...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Nov
27
FOR THANKSGIVING, TV WORTH WATCHING WILL SPARE A TURKEY: "ROSIE LIVE!" By David Bianculli
 
 
The original plan today was to review last night's Rosie Live!, Rosie O'Donnell's attempt to revive the variety-show format on NBC. But since today is Thanksgiving, and the show was such a turkey, TV Worth Watching has decided to spare it...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Nov
26
THE VARIETY SHOW DESERVES TO BE REINCARNATED -- BUT IS ROSIE ITS SAVIOR? By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight at 8 ET, in a very rare attempt to revive the TV variety show format, Rosie O'Donnell is hosting a one-hour live special on NBC, smack in the middle of prime time. I concur completely with her passion that this is a genre worth reviving -- but I doubt whether Rosie, despite her enthusiasm and clout, is the person to do it...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Nov
25
FX'S "THE SHIELD" ENDS AS IT BEGAN, WITH A KILLER EPISODE By David Bianculli
 
 
The FX series The "Shield" shook up viewers, and all of TV, when it burst onto the scene in 2002 -- with the show's purported hero, Michael Chiklis' rogue cop Vic Mackey, knowingly and ruthlessly killing an undercover officer...six years later, the show goes out the way it goes in -- with a killer episode...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

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