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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
 
 
2011
May
10
WITH 'THE VOICE,' NBC PROFITS BY GOING DUTCH By David Bianculli
 
 
The only real hit of the 2010-11 TV season has arrived at the 11th hour, as NBC's The Voice moves to a new time slot tonight (10 p.m. ET Tuesday) already acknowledged as a ratings, demographic and even critical success. And its success proves, once again, that when it comes to adaptable TV formats, it's a small world after all...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
9
HAPPY GOLDEN AGE, 'VAST WASTELAND': IT'S YOUR 50TH ANNIVERSARY! By David Bianculli
 
 
Fifty years ago today [Monday], new Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minow (above) gave his inaugural speech to broadcasters, and coined a durable phrase that rattled them a bit by describing what they presented on their TV stations as a "vast wasteland." And that was half a century BEFORE Snooki...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
6
WILL DONALD TRUMP RUN FOR PRESIDENT? MY PREDICTION: YES, BUT... By David Bianculli
 
 
Two weeks ago, Donald Trump irritated President Barack Obama into releasing a longer-form birth certificate to quell absurd yet persistent questions about his country of birth. Last week, Trump scowled as Obama shot back with one-liners at the White House Correspondents Dinner. The next night, Obama coincidentally pre-empted the climax of Trump's Celebrity Apprentice with news of his successful raid on the compound of Osama bin Laden. So what will Trump do...I have a prediction...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
5
'JUSTIFIED' SEASON FINALE: FX SERIES DELIVERS POTENT KICK By David Bianculli
 
 
If you're not ready to read about Wednesday's stellar second-season finale of FX's Justified, then don't read past this paragraph. Because I can't wait to write about it -- and I don't intend to... More than any episode to date, this most recent episode mirrored all the satisfying elements of its inspirational source, an Elmore Leonard story. Characters fleshed out with both wit and menace finally quit circling each other, and moved in for a tense, anything-can-happen confrontation...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
3
TV COMEDIANS: WITH BREAKING BIN LADEN NEWS, IT'S NOT JUST FUNNY BUSINESS By David Bianculli
 
 
After watching traditional news coverage of Osama bin Laden's death at the hands of U.S. forces Sunday night and Monday morning, perhaps you tuned to "lighter fare" for a few laughs. But if you wound up watching, say, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman and Craig Ferguson, you got a lot more, and a lot more thoughtful perspective, than you may have been expecting...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
2
TV DELIVERS THE NEWS: BIN LADEN KILLED IN NAVY SEALS RAID ON PAKISTAN COMPOUND By David Bianculli
 
 
The news came suddenly Sunday night, and still dominated newscasts and news channels Monday morning: The FBI's #1 Most Wanted fugitive, Osama bin Laden, had been found and killed in a U.S. Navy SEALs raid on a secret compound in urban Pakistan. The mood of most reports was unabashedly, sometimes even uncomfortably, jubilant...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
29
ROYAL WEDDING PHOTO ALBUM REVIEW: MAJESTIC INDEED By David Bianculli
 
 
Okay, so I ate my scones, drank my tea and watched the Royal Wedding, transmitted live on BBC America. So here's my personal instant wedding album, of quick screen grabs of some of my favorite moments...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
28
WATCH ME PULL A RABBIT OUT OF MY HAT! AW, THAT TRICK NEVER WORKS... By David Bianculli
 
 
Last-second warning -- and, I hope, a treat, at least to some. On Thursday's edition of NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I review a boxed set I've been meaning to get to for a while. It's Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends: The Complete Series...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
27
OUTRAGEOUS IN THE BEST WAY: TV'S 'SOUTH PARK,' BROADWAY'S 'BOOK OF MORMON' By David Bianculli
 
 
Embarking on their 15th season of Comedy Central's South Park, have that show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, lost their edge? Uh. no. Not when Wednesday's season premiere (10 p.m. ET) imagines a new Apple piece of firmware that requires a human three-way -- and not when their hit Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon, includes such indelible lyrics as "I have maggots in my scrotum"...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Apr
25
PBS 'STONEWALL UPRISING': IT'S A RIOT, BUT IT'S SERIOUS By David Bianculli
 
 
Monday's new PBS American Experience offering, Stonewall Uprising, is a 2010 documentary about the landmark clash between police and the patrons of a Greenwich Village gay bar in the summer of 1969 -- but filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner save that pivotal confrontation for last. The rest of their 90-minute study (9 p.m. ET; check local listings) is an often scary condensed summary of historical local and national attitudes regarding homosexuality...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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