2012
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2011
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2010
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2009
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2008
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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
 
 
2010
Sep
1
GET REAL: 'SURVIVOR' CAST CONTRACT By Diane Werts
 
 
Here's a fascinating peek inside the "reality" TV world -- the cast contract and "rule book" agreed to by contestants on CBS' competition-genre granddaddy Survivor...And you'll be shocked! shocked! to learn Survivor contestants have to allow themselves to be portrayed "with such liberties and modifications as CBS determines necessary...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Aug
23
DVD UPDATE: GETTING LOST IN THE 'LOST' BOX By Diane Werts
 
 
Enough with the wacky packages! Building a TV DVD library is starting to require building special shelving to hold all the strangely shaped boxes, heavy Lucite containers, enormous hardcover "book" sleeves, and "collectible" packaging of jumbo 3D plastic Bender heads and Cylon helmets...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Aug
19
GOOD SPORTS: LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES THIS WEEKEND By Diane Werts
 
 

It's that most wonderful time of the year. Okay, maybe second most wonderful time, behind Christmas. (You know how I am about Christmas.) It's time for the Little League World Series, which has become such a viewing favorite at our house that we forego weekend activities during the final two weeks of the annual youth baseball extravaganza from Williamsport, Pa...

 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Aug
18
FUN FINDS: 'HIDDEN' SHOWS By Diane Werts
 
 
Vintage (and not-so-vintage) shows are showing up in the strangest places. TV Guide Network, Reelz, Centric, Gospel Music Channel and other unlikely archives are airing encores of faves from the '80s to last year. Since there's nothing we love better than digging through the listings rubble, here's the result of our latest exercise in TV archaeology...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Aug
10
WEIRD & WILD: PENN & TELLER & SHAQ By Diane Werts
 
 
This is why you need to read For Better or Werts. Sure, Bianculli will tell you about some critically acclaimed drama or some innovative comedy or some blockbuster movie. But look at the photo. You need me for this...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Aug
5
FALL TV: 'H50' MUSIC REBOOT By Diane Werts
 
 
Fall season pilot episodes are always a dicey thing for critics to write about, because you never know what the networks will change before the show finally hits air. So now that critics are writing about the 2010 Hawaii Five-0 pilot's awful "update" of the show's iconic theme music...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Aug
5
WEIRD & WILD: 'BAYWATCH' NIGHTS (AND 'BEACH' BURLESQUE) By Diane Werts
 
 
There are all kinds of TV worth watching, right? Eye-opening, mind-bending brilliance, insight and information. Sure. But also eye-opening, mind-bending, time-killing, camp-courting awfulness. So long as you realize which kind you're getting yourself into...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Aug
2
FLICK PICKS: TCM'S SUMMER UNDER THE STARS By Diane Werts
 
 
It's here -- Turner Classic Movies' big annual month that daily devotes 24 hours to a single star. Wish I could say that August's Summer Under the Stars is one of my favorite cinephile events, but the truth is, I dread it...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Jul
29
GOOD SPORTS: SATURDAY '30 FOR 30' MARATHON ON ESPN CLASSIC By Diane Werts
 
 
Though I'm a huge sports fan, there are still athletes and events I don't know anything about -- until I see films about them in ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series. The Birth of Big Air just premiered in conjunction with the current X Games, and now I'm fascinated by high-flying BMX innovator Mat Hoffman...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Jul
29
DVD UPDATE: OUT OF NOWHERE, 'THE MOTHERS-IN-LAW' By Diane Werts
 
 
How great is it when DVD resurrects TV shows that you'd forgotten even existed? That's what happens this week with The Mothers-in-Law, the 1960s sitcom pairing Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard as the title neighbors, normally warring yet suddenly stuck together by their progeny's surprise elopement...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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