NBC has branded Whitney Cummings this fall's "It" girl. This doesn't necessarily mean she's the best thing about the new sitcom Whitney (Thursday at 9:30 p.m. ET), although she's still quite a bit better than good. The revelation here is Chris D'Elia, who plays Whitney's live-in boyfriend, Alex...

2011

Sep

NBC'S 'PRIME SUSPECT' IS AN APPLAUSE-WORTHY ENCORE By Ed Bark

How dare they try to do a new Prime Suspect series without Helen Mirren as put-upon, hard-boiled London detective Jane Tennison? Well, NBC takes that dare Thursday at 10 p.m. ET and does a very decent job of it, in a Manhattan-based version starring Pennsylvanian Maria Bello as tough-minded detective Jane Timoney...

2011

Sep

FUNNY THING ABOUT THESE JOKES... By Ed Bark

Some things just shouldn't be joked about, particularly on network TV sitcoms seen by millions. Humor is subjective, of course. And political correctness can be insidious when taken too far, as it often is. But among the hundreds of one-liners in this fall's new crop of comedies, I'm still wondering about two of them...

2011

Sep

CW'S 'H8R' JUST MIGHT LEAVE YOU GIDDY WITH GUILTY PLEASURE By Ed Bark

Most pseudo-celebrities just can't get enough of themselves. Marching straight to the head of that class is Dallas-born Jake Pavelka, the pilot turned "fame whore" in the words of fellow fame whore Vienna Girardi...Now comes The CW's new H8R (short for "Hater"), where Wednesday's opening episode finds -- pause, one-two -- the ubiquitous Pavelka and fellow "reality" show creation Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi confronting commoners who think they're garbage...

2011

Sep

FALL SEASON AGAIN FLIES CABLE'S COLORS By Ed Bark

Another new fall season is nigh. But is excitement running high? There's rhyme and reason leading into this basic deduction. If you're hooked up to cable or a satellite dish, then the possibilities are sky high. If not, the new offerings by the five broadcast networks again are mostly nothing to run home about...

2011

Aug

MSNBC'S SHARPTON HIRE GIVES IT YET ANOTHER LEFT HOOK By Ed Bark

MSNBC's concerted tilt to the left just got more top-heavy with the official addition of the Rev. Al Sharpton as the network's newest full-time host. Sharpton, who has been auditioning for the past two months in MSNBC's 6 p.m. ET slot, will begin helming the new PoliticsNation at that hour this Monday (Aug. 29). The heat-seeking firebrand joins a roster of like-minded politicos who already have their own shows...

2011

Aug

'THE HOUR' IS SO GOOD, IT'S NOT LONG ENOUGH By Ed Bark

Intelligent, suspenseful and stylish through and through, The Hour has just one shortcoming. BBC America didn't send enough episodes. Four of the six were made available for review and devoured in one sitting. So the central mysteries of this mid-1950s period piece are still very much at large for everyone except those who watched "The Hour" during its earlier United Kingdom airing...

2011

Aug

GEORGE LOPEZ: TONIGHT, BUT NO TOMORROW By Ed Bark

George Lopez played the good soldier. Now he's paying the price. TBS abruptly canceled the veteran comic's Lopez Tonight Wednesday, with his final fresh hour airing Thursday. In a statement, the network said it had "reached the difficult decision not to order a third season" of the show, which premiered on Nov. 9, 2009 at 11 p.m. ET before the arrival of Conan O'Brien's Conan pushed Lopez back to midnight ET last November....

2011

Jul

MR. 'NO SPIN ZONE' ROLLS OVER By Ed Bark

Mum's the word that most Brits use when talking about their moms. Mum's also mostly been the word at Fox News Channel, whose two main prime-time personalities -- Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity -- so far have yet to even mention the far-flung phone-hacking scandal that's engulfed Great Britain and world News Corporation chieftain Rupert Murdoch...

2011

Jul

THE OLD MAN AT SEA By Ed Bark

Just what Rupert Murdoch needed -- a shaving cream pie to the puss. Actually, it may have been exactly what he needed to perhaps gain a little sympathy after a long Tuesday morning (U.S. time) of taking no direct responsibility for the phone-hacking scandal bedeviling his far-flung world News Corporation...

Posts 11-20 of 28

1 2 3

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption