LOS ANGELES -- Hugh Laurie, the British star of Fox's House, occasionally has displayed his piano-playing prowess on that drama series -- but for a PBS Great Performances special Sept. 30, keyed to his new album of New Orleans blues, he brings his piano, his guitar and his voice center stage. And in explaining Saturday how he came to discover and love the music of Muddy Waters and others, Laurie made a larger point that isolated and attacked -- precisely and perfectly -- one of the biggest problems with our current multimedia culture...

2011

Jul

PRESS TOUR: VARIED PBS MENU INCLUDES GILBERT & SULLIVAN, PEARL JAM AND 'GREAT AMERICAN DREAM MACHINE' By David Bianculli

The PBS portion of the 2011 Television Critics Association summer press tour began Saturday, with news about an ambitious new arts series showcasing local and regional fare. It's called the PBS Arts Fall Festival, and it's a big enough umbrella to include Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park, a production of HMS Pinafore from Minnesota's Guthrie Theatre, and, as a Cameron Crowe study of the rise of Seattle grunge...

2011

Jul

SPOILER ALERT: ONCE AGAIN, I'M ATTACKING ABSURDLY TARDY SPOILER-ALERT SENSITIVITY By David Bianculli

I recently received a Twitter message (a Tweet, for you Savvier, Younger Communicators) from improv actor and teacher Kevin Mullaney, of Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre fame, who takes me to task for revealing what he considers too much information..."Please stop revealing spoilers on your Fresh Air reviews..."

2011

Jul

'CURB,' 'ENTOURAGE': TWO HBO EIGHTH-SEASON SHOWS -- ONE IMPROVING, ONE OUTRAGEOUS By David Bianculli

Two of HBO's comedy series are now in their eighth seasons: Entourage, which returns Sunday night at 10:30 ET, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, which presents its third episode of its latest go-round Sunday night at 10 ET. Entourage uses the occasion to reshuffle the deck and put all its characters in flux -- but Curb, with Sunday's "Palestinian Chicken" episode, pushes its comedy provocation style to envelope-pushing, jaw-dropping levels...

2011

Jul

TWO, TWO, TWO BLOGS IN ONE: IT'S A LOVE STORY AND A TV REVIEW... By David Bianculli

Yesterday I raved about, and pointed you to, one of our veteran contributors, Ed Bark, whose pair of stories on media coverage of the Murdoch scandal I'm immensely proud to present on this site. Today, another point of pride, from another of our writers. Tom Brinkmoeller provides an intensely personal, yet touchingly funny, account of how and why his home TV viewing habits have changed...

2011

Jul

WANT A FAIR AND BALANCED ACCOUNT OF TV TREATMENT OF MURDOCH SCANDAL? OUR BITE IS AS GOOD AS OUR BARK... By David Bianculli

If you're following the Murdoch scandal, it pays to throw a fairly wide media net. On Tuesday, live coverage of the Rupert and James Murdoch hearing, and the testimony of Rebekah Brooks, was presented on Current TV, with Keith Olbermann presiding as anchor and John Dean weighing in as an analyst. Tuesday night, Comedy Central's Jon Stewart scored big, by underlining how Murdoch's Fox News has been largely ignoring the story...

2011

Jul

THANKS FOR WRITING, AND EVEN TWEETING, ABOUT MY CLASSIC TV NETWORK IDEA By David Bianculli

In my previous blog entry, I suggested the creation of a TV equivalent of Turner Classic Movies, but for TV -- a real one, not like what TV Land has morphed into -- and got lots and lots of fabulous responses, and suggestions for shows deserving of inclusion on such a network. You can read that post, and those comments, HERE. But you can also read a lot more on Twitter, where people have chimed in separately...

2011

Jul

WHY 'MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE' SHOULD BE SENT TO A HOME -- FOR TERRIFIC, UNDERAPPRECIATED TV By David Bianculli

The same year it earned a Peabody Award, and the same week it was handed a second Emmy nomination for Andre Braugher as Outstanding Supporting Dramatic Actor, Men of a Certain Age was awarded by TNT Friday by being given its pink slip. After two excellent seasons...It deserved to be shipped off to a home...

2011

Jul

'FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS' LEAVES, 'BREAKING BAD' RETURNS By David Bianculli

What a weekend for quality TV. I don't know whether it's coming or going -- and this weekend, with Friday Night Lights leaving NBC and Breaking Bad returning to AMC, it's doing both...In both cases, I'll end up referring you elsewhere...

2011

Jul

EMMY NOMINATIONS 2011: NODS AND SNUBS FOR 'JUSTIFIED,' 'EPISODES,' OTHERS By David Bianculli

Many of the nominations I most wanted to see this year, acknowledging such superb work as Margo Martindale's sinister Mags in FX's Justified and Kelly Macdonald in HBO's Boardwalk Empire, ended up making the cut. But others, as usual, did not, starting with egregious snubs in the Outstanding Drama category for FX's Rescue Me and Justified, and HBO's Treme and True Blood...

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