Antiques Roadshow begins its 16th PBS season Monday, Jan. 2 at 8 p.m. ET (check local listings). It's a series that fascinates millions weekly, and has thrived over these many years on the air...

2011

Dec

THREE KINGS OF CHRISTMAS CONCERTS By Tom Brinkmoeller

For those politically incorrect enough to still not only use the word "Christmas" but to think of the day primarily as a religious observance, PBS has three upcoming concerts that should suit the season perfectly. Not only do these concerts acknowledge the origin of the event, they do it with the kind of depth and high quality -- that the commercial networks wouldn't, and couldn't, try to copy...

2011

Dec

PAUL SIMON SINGS ON PUBLIC TV: 50 WAYS TO PLEDGE YOUR MONEY By Tom Brinkmoeller

The final performance of Paul Simon's "So Beautiful or So Whatspring" 2011 concert tour will show up on many PBS stations this month...Does Paul Simon, in this public-TV setting, reflect more Vincent van Gogh -- or more Lawrence Welk?...

2011

Nov

'ESSENTIAL PEPIN' LIVES UP TO ITS TITLE By Tom Brinkmoeller

Jacques Pepin has a new public-television series, Essential Pepin, and an accompanying book of the same name. This chef has acquired millions of television followers over several decades and 12 previous public-TV cooking series. Even as his age has reached the mid-70s, the new series' quality remains as high, and the content as fresh, as ever...

2011

Nov

THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE WARM By Tom Brinkmoeller

In which our TVWW correspondent, recounting a long-untold story from the days when he'd left the TV critic beat and become a publicist for Walt Disney World, finally reveals details of the time he was recruited as a "spy" to gather information about a new competitor to the equally new Regis Philbin syndicated TV talk show...(DB)

2011

Nov

TO SALUTE STEVE JOBS, PBS PRESENTS AN UNUSUALLY TIMELY SPECIAL THAT ILIKE By Tom Brinkmoeller

Less than a month after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, PBS airs an hour-long special program about him Wednesday night that probably could never have been turned around so quickly, cleanly and completely had Jobs not been such an egocentric and ruthlessly competitive genius...

2011

Sep

LET THEM EAT CABLE: ROASTING TV'S FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE CHEFS By Tom Brinkmoeller

The following is a rant. Because it is for a civilized website, I will do my best to keep it polite. But this is one idiocy, plucked from television's large army of dimwitted efforts, that makes me especially irritated. It has to do with cooking shows -- and the high cost of certain elite ingredients...

2011

Aug

LOST AND FOUND: PBS REDISCOVERS CORE AUDIENCE IN NEW PLEDGE PROGRAMS By Tom Brinkmoeller

During the upcoming pledge period, PBS will air three musical specials that are so enjoyable, and so well performed and produced, they may remind those watching of when the major networks regularly broadcast these kinds of shows. Even though commercial broadcast networks have abandoned such musical programming for less costly amateur hours, PBS ably picks up that dropped baton with concerts by Barbra Streisand and Michael Feinstein and a special about how the pre-Beatles folk-music scene grew

2011

Jul

DOUBLE 'TALK': A PAIR OF DIAMONDS MAKES A STRONG HAND By Tom Brinkmoeller

When gems are graded, weight isn't the only criterion. Cut and color matter a lot, too. Emmy nominators made "gem judgments" of TV's best recently, with Nielsen points, as always, the equivalent of carat weight. Submitted for your approval: Two delightful TV gems that don't pull the ratings of the Emmy-nominated productions, but still have a cut and clarity that make them valuable -- and worth knowing about: Theater Talk and Vine Talk...

2011

Jul

A TRUE-LIFE TV LOVE STORY: HOW A STROKE STOPPED OLD VIDEO VIEWING HABITS IN THEIR TRACKS By Tom Brinkmoeller

You won't find note of this in a any medical journal, but an after-effect of stroke is an unreasonable addiction to... Emeril Lagasse. Though not a neurologist, I conclude this from experience -- and, it has to be noted up front, with the bemused approval of my spouse...

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