When I put out a call (actually, an email) to our TV WORTH WATCHING writers for reflections about Walter Cronkite, one of them, Bill Brioux, turns out to have been unreachable for the weekend in some remote cabin. (Canadians will do that.) When he returned, and found what we'd done here, he wrote his own, and it's too terrific -- and R-rated -- not to share...

2009

Jul

WALTER CRONKITE: ALL OF US AT TV WORTH WATCHING REMEMBER THE WAY HE WAS By David Bianculli

We're a bunch of veteran TV reporters and critics here at TV WORTH WATCHING, and each of us has his or her favorite memories -- as viewers and as interviewers -- of iconic CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, who died Friday at age 92. So in a tag-team tribute to one of the finest and most important journalists in television history, today we present a string of salutes, stories and observations about The Most Trusted Man in America...

2009

Jul

2009 EMMY NOMINATIONS: WHAT THEY MISSED, WHAT THEY GOT RIGHT By David Bianculli

The always conservative voters behind the Emmy nominations have welcomed some deserving first-timers this year, including Jim Parsons of CBS's The Big Bang Theory and Elisabeth Moss of AMC's Mad Men. But today's nominations also snubbed a LOT of deserving artists and programs...

2009

Jul

ROMAFICTIONFEST: KEEPING SCRIPTED TELEVISION ALIVE, PART II By David Bianculli

Yesterday I reviewed some of the intriguing completed TV series screened in Rome last week at RomaFictionFest, an international gathering of creative and executive types interested in scripted television. Today I'll detail the best pitches for shows that haven't been made yet -- covering everything from a musical biopic of a largely unexplored chapter in the life of Frank Sinatra, and the story of a pygmy from the Congo who was displayed in a cage at the Bronx Zoo a century ago...

2009

Jul

ROMAFICTIONFEST: KEEPING SCRIPTED TELEVISION ALIVE, PART I By David Bianculli

Tonight on the five commercial broadcast networks, there are a total of 14 hours of prime-time programming. Only four of them are scripted, and only one 30-minute program, ABC's "Better Off Ted," is not a rerun. That's why last week's RomaFictionFest is such a big deal. If quality scripted television is an endangered species, RomaFictionFest is a renewing, encouraging greenhouse...

2009

Jul

THANKS TO THE JACKSON MEMORIAL TV COVERAGE, WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS -- BUT SHOULD WE? By David Bianculli

Just because I was in Rome, that didn't mean I couldn't watch the Michael Jackson memorial TV coverage...I was part of an audience she estimated as "tens of millions," and which CNN International later claimed was "more than 1 billion." All of those viewers saw something, at the very end, I'm not certain they should have...

2009

Jul

MICHAEL JACKSON COVERAGE GOES MEGA -- AGAIN By David Bianculli

Last week on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, an overview of the saturation media coverage of Jackson's death was capped by a reporter who noted, for the record, that Michael Jackson can only die once. Maybe...

2009

Jul

WHEN IN ROME... By David Bianculli

On the 4th of July, while by tradition I should have been grilling a gamey roster of exotic meats, I was instead airborne, flying from Philadelphia to Rome. I'm here for business, which is a pleasure, but I'm also prepared, between duties, for a week of all-out celebration...

2009

Jun

WHAT'S ON YOUR WISH LIST OF TV SHOWS THAT OUGHT TO BE OUT ON DVD? By David Bianculli

Diane Werts' recent column -- a great-news post about the just-announced forthcoming full-series release of Fox's Ally McBeal on DVD -- ended with her prodding for the releases of other not-yet-available series, like ABC's brilliant 1988-93 The Wonder Years. I'm taking her ball and advancing it a little, by giving my own list of TV shows I'd love to see released on DVD -- then asking for yours...

2009

Jun

TNT'S "HAWTHORNE": IS CABLE TV TRYING TOO MUCH AND TOO LITTLE? By David Bianculli

There is much to salute about TNT's "HawthoRNe," the new drama series premiering tonight at 9 p.m. ET -- first and foremost, that this program about a dedicated nurse stars Jada Pinkett Smith, making it one of the still-rare weekly series centered around a black lead. But there's much to regret, too, in how ordinary, rather than extraordinary, its first installment comes off..

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