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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
 
 
2009
Apr
24
"CELEBRITY APPRENTICE" HEAVYWEIGHT DIVA DUEL: FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY, STING LIKE A BEEYOTCH By David Bianculli
 
 
Cain vs. Abel. Frasier vs. Ali. And now, in this corner, another duel for the ages: Joan Rivers vs. Annie Duke. NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" has been providing some of the most jaw-dropping television of the season. And, I'm happy to say, it's not over yet...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2009
Apr
23
TV WORTH WATCHING BEGS: NETWORKS, PLEASE, RENEW THESE SHOWS By David Bianculli
 
 
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
22
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
14
"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
14
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
13
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
8
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
7
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
5
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
3
APRIL 3, 1969 -- CBS FIRED THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS By David Bianculli
 
 
Today, in 1969, CBS fired the Smothers Brothers...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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