I expected more, and less, out of Conan O'Brien's new Conan TBS talk show than he delivered in Monday's premiere. More, because with months to prepare, the opening and prepared bits should have been sharper. And less, because I hoped, without the constraints of trying to please most of the people most of the time on NBC's The Tonight Show, he'd be freer to be himself...

2010

Nov

READY FOR SOME LATE-NIGHT COCO? FOR CONAN O'BRIEN, THIRD TIME'S THE REAL TEST By David Bianculli

Monday night at 11 ET, with the premiere of Conan, Conan O'Brien steps into the spotlight of a TV talk show for the third time. And whether or not this time's the charm, it is, for the first time, the one where we'll see him at his most undiluted... It's not that O'Brien, in his previous incarnations, lacked conviction or wit. I was at the NBC press conference where Conan O'Brien first met the press in 1993, introduced as David Letterman's successor on Late Night. The first volley from reporter

2010

Nov

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US -- TV WORTH WATCHING IS THREE YEARS OLD! By David Bianculli

David wrote about TVWW being launched three years earlier on Nov. 5, 2007, the day the television writers went on strike -- and one reader wrote back, "I get so much more enjoyment from television since I started visiting this site a couple years ago. So many of my favorite shows are ones that I would have never tried at all..."

2010

Nov

SUNDAY, SUNDAY: ANSWER TO A QUALITY TV LOVER'S PRAYERS By David Bianculli

It may be hyperbole, but it also may be true. Sunday nights, at this point in the fall 2010 TV season, may be the richest one-stop shopping source for quality television in history. This occurred to me, the last few weeks, when I was selecting five shows to highlight as the Sunday BEST BETS, and rejecting as many excellent TV shows as I accepted...

2010

Nov

FROM D.C. RALLY TO 'INDECISION 2010' - AND THE 'REAL' NEWS TEAMS ARE AROUND, TOO By David Bianculli

Three days after staging their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are teaming for another ambitious event -- live election-night Comedy Central coverage (at 11 p.m. ET) of what it calls Indecision 2010. But this time, the real news networks are playing, too...

2010

Nov

NEW TCM HISTORY OF OLD MOVIES: IT'S GOOD, AND THE MOVIES AFTERWARD ARE EVEN BETTER By David Bianculli

Turner Classic Movies, one of the only cable networks that has remained totally true to its original vision, begins a seven-part documentary series tonight that examines the history of the movies, and the business behind it. It's a good, solid examination -- and what's even better are the movies that follow each week's installment...

2010

Sep

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO YOU! AND YOU, AND YOU... By David Bianculli

As we near the end of 2010, television certainly doesn't seem that interested in remembering its own past, much less celebrating it. But someone should... so here we are. Did you know, for example, that today -- Wednesday, Sept. 29 -- is the golden anniversary of the premiere of My Three Sons?... Or that, this weekend, The Andy Griffith Show also turns 50?...

2010

Sep

BUSY DAY: HOSTING 'FRESH AIR,' TEACHING FILM AND TV, PUBLISHING PAPERBACK AND WRITING FOR TVWW... AAAAND LOVING IT! By David Bianculli

Today's such a busy day, even by my standards, that I barely have time to type what's going on. But since I do, I will. Starting with the fact that today, I host NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and conduct two TV-related interviews. We start off with Terence Winter, creator of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, and conclude with Jim Parsons, Emmy-winning star of CBS's The Big Bang Theory...

2010

Sep

SPOILER ALERT: I'M ABOUT TO RANT ABOUT SPOILER ALERTS By David Bianculli

This is getting ridiculous, this "Spoiler Alert" hypersensitivity. Now that VCRs and DVRs and DVDs have given everyone the opportunity to watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it, now some of them want to be protected from their enjoyment being spoiled before they DO watch it. Within limits, that makes sense But guess what, folks? There ARE limits...

2010

Sep

SHOWTIME'S 'DEXTER' CONTINUES TO SLAY ME By David Bianculli

Sunday night is ridiculously rich for quality TV fans. AMC gives us Mad Men each week, with Breaking Bad waiting in the wings. HBO just ended True Blood, and started Boardwalk Empire. And Showtime, beginning this weekend, returns with another season of its brilliant Dexter. With options like this, who needs broadcast TV?...

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