Enough with the wacky packages! Building a TV DVD library is starting to require building special shelving to hold all the strangely shaped boxes, heavy Lucite containers, enormous hardcover "book" sleeves, and "collectible" packaging of jumbo 3D plastic Bender heads and Cylon helmets...

2010

Aug

GOOD SPORTS: LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES THIS WEEKEND By Diane Werts

It's that most wonderful time of the year. Okay, maybe second most wonderful time, behind Christmas. (You know how I am about Christmas.) It's time for the Little League World Series, which has become such a viewing favorite at our house that we forego weekend activities during the final two weeks of the annual youth baseball extravaganza from Williamsport, Pa...

2010

Aug

FUN FINDS: 'HIDDEN' SHOWS By Diane Werts

Vintage (and not-so-vintage) shows are showing up in the strangest places. TV Guide Network, Reelz, Centric, Gospel Music Channel and other unlikely archives are airing encores of faves from the '80s to last year. Since there's nothing we love better than digging through the listings rubble, here's the result of our latest exercise in TV archaeology...

2010

Aug

WEIRD & WILD: PENN & TELLER & SHAQ By Diane Werts

This is why you need to read For Better or Werts. Sure, Bianculli will tell you about some critically acclaimed drama or some innovative comedy or some blockbuster movie. But look at the photo. You need me for this...

2010

Aug

FALL TV: 'H50' MUSIC REBOOT By Diane Werts

Fall season pilot episodes are always a dicey thing for critics to write about, because you never know what the networks will change before the show finally hits air. So now that critics are writing about the 2010 Hawaii Five-0 pilot's awful "update" of the show's iconic theme music...

2010

Aug

WEIRD & WILD: 'BAYWATCH' NIGHTS (AND 'BEACH' BURLESQUE) By Diane Werts

There are all kinds of TV worth watching, right? Eye-opening, mind-bending brilliance, insight and information. Sure. But also eye-opening, mind-bending, time-killing, camp-courting awfulness. So long as you realize which kind you're getting yourself into...

2010

Aug

FLICK PICKS: TCM'S SUMMER UNDER THE STARS By Diane Werts

It's here -- Turner Classic Movies' big annual month that daily devotes 24 hours to a single star. Wish I could say that August's Summer Under the Stars is one of my favorite cinephile events, but the truth is, I dread it...

2010

Jul

GOOD SPORTS: SATURDAY '30 FOR 30' MARATHON ON ESPN CLASSIC By Diane Werts

Though I'm a huge sports fan, there are still athletes and events I don't know anything about -- until I see films about them in ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series. The Birth of Big Air just premiered in conjunction with the current X Games, and now I'm fascinated by high-flying BMX innovator Mat Hoffman...

2010

Jul

DVD UPDATE: OUT OF NOWHERE, 'THE MOTHERS-IN-LAW' By Diane Werts

How great is it when DVD resurrects TV shows that you'd forgotten even existed? That's what happens this week with The Mothers-in-Law, the 1960s sitcom pairing Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard as the title neighbors, normally warring yet suddenly stuck together by their progeny's surprise elopement...

2010

Jul

FALL PREMIERES: ON CABLE, TOO By Diane Werts

Cable is pulling out some big guns this year to run head-to-head with the networks' traditional fall premieres. Established faves like Dexter and Sons of Anarchy return, joined by promising newcomers like Boardwalk Empire and Terriers. Cable even has a late-night talk show featuring some Irish comic named Conan. Here's a look at just a few of the cable arrivals announced for fall...

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Diane Werts

Associate Editor

Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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