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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
 
 
2016
Jan
15
SUPER BOWL I: THE LOST GAME By David Bianculli
 
 
The first Super Bowl game has long been considered one of the “lost” TV events – no surviving videotape was thought to exist, for some reason, of the 1967 game between the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs. Yet NFL Films has found in its archives enough raw footage, and surviving outtakes from other specials, to put together what it’s calling an every-play recreation of the game itself. As for the game, it wasn’t even called the Super Bowl at the time –
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
15
STAGECOACH By David Bianculli
 
 
This 1939 movie, directed by John Ford, is one of the truly great classic Westerns. In part, it’s because of the way Ford uses the rugged frontier landscape. For another, it’s because of the way he uses the young actor tapped to be his leading man: John Wayne.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
15
THE GERSHWIN PRIZE: WILLIE NELSON By David Bianculli
 
 
I haven’t seen this special in advance, but its list of performers, honoring the great Willie Nelson, guarantees I’ll be watching tonight. Nelson himself will be performing (unlike the recipients of the Kennedy Honors, the Gershwin Prize winners get to play, and sing, if they so wish). So will previous Gershwin Prize winner Paul Simon, and Simon’s wife, Edie Brickell, and Roseanne Cash, and Neil Young, and… if you need more names than that, you’re a lot harder to i
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
15
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: It’s the start of Season 14 for Bill Maher and his entertaining, interesting current affairs comedy and discussion show. It arrives one day after the latest Republican Presidential Debate, and two days before the next Democratic one, so there’s automatically lots to talk about. And the guests for tonight’s season opener include former Vice President Al Gore, Cornel West, John Krasinski, and others.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
14
USA'S 'COLONY' GIVES EARTH YET ANOTHER BAD TIME OF IT By Ed Bark
 
 
Earth never comes out ahead in the future. At least not in television dramas...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
14
USA'S 'COLONY' LEADS THE NETWORK INTO THE DARKER SIDE By David Hinckley
 
 
The dark-oppression drama Colony offers an encouraging sign that the USA network is figuring out its own new world...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
14
10 RANDOM THINGS OVERHEARD AT THE TV CRITICS PRESS TOUR By David Hinckley
 
 
Just for the fun of it, here are 10 random things that TV actors, producers and executives have said to writers over the past week here at the semi-annual Television Critics Association press tour...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
14
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE... By Jonathan Storm
 
 
...but you probably won’t find it in The X-Files, one of history’s greatest TV shows, though there are thrills, chills, and weirdness a-plenty. Scully and Mulder return Jan. 24 on Fox...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
14
PSYCHO By David Bianculli
 
 
How many times have I recommended Alfred Hitchcock movies as a Best Bet since I started writing daily recommendations? Hundreds, probably – I’ve been doing this a loooong time, long before this website, or the Internet, was launched. But I always watch, and get drawn in, regardless, so why should you be any different? And tonight, BBC America presents a truly classic double feature, beginning with Hitchcock’s 1960 black-and-white chiller of a character study, starring Anthony P
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
14
GONE WITH THE WIND By David Bianculli
 
 
This 1939 epic film, about the Civil War and its effect upon one self-centered plantation belle, is shown by TCM tonight under virtually perfect conditions: the full wide-screen ratio, in prime time, uninterrupted by commercials, and unedited, right town to the lengthy “intermission” interlude. Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable star.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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