DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

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MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

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TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2020
Oct
10
 
 
Richard Pryor was one of the writers on this Mel Brooks 1967 comedy, and Brooks had intended for Pryor to star as his Western spoof’s racism-confronting, African-American new sheriff in town, Black Bart. But the movie studio wouldn’t insure Pryor for the film (even that early, his bouts with substance abuse were well known), so Brooks cast Cleavon Little instead. Similarly, Brooks had hired Gig Young to play Black Bart’s eventual sidekick, the alcoholic Waco Kid, but on the fir
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
10
 
 
…And speaking of last-minute replacements. Bill Burr, that very caustic and funny comedian, was scheduled to host tonight’s second SNL of the new season – and he still will. But tonight’s scheduled musical guest, country artist Morgan Wallen, was disinvited, after videos surfaced of him partying recently without social distancing or masks. His probable replacement, according to reports: Jack White. Meanwhile, I hope the SNL writers and producers have
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
9
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: The story of the space race, and the United States’ selection, training and employment of our country’s first astronauts, is an exciting and engrossing one. It’s been told, brilliantly, twice – first in the movies in the 1983 movie The Right Stuff, based on the nonfiction book by Tom Wolfe, and then on TV in the equally excellent HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon in 1998. It’s been told somewhat less impressively, and on
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
9
 
 
PBS is repeating this 2010 documentary about John Lennon’s years in New York City tonight -and with good reason Today, October 9, marks the 80th anniversary of Lennon’s birth, in Liverpool in 1940. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
9
 
 
Last week, Maher took the week off. But tonight, he’s back – and boy, does he have a lot of ground to make up… tax scandals, a presidential case of COVID-19, two debates, and President Trump’s hospital stay and release.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
9
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: This is the official Season 28 season premiere of The Graham Norton Show, and his guests for this edition include Dolly Parton. Norton always elicits quirky, and very interesting, things from his guests, and Parton has visited his show enough times to come ready to play. And this time, she plays her fingernails  – using them to tap out a handy version of the 9 to 5 theme. How talon-ted is that?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
9
 
 
On this day in 1990, TBS debuted Part 1 of the celebrated Australian miniseries, Bangkok Hilton...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
8
 
 
On this day in 1984, NBC aired the TV movie The Burning Bed...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
8
 
 
You knew it was only a matter of time before someone would create a sitcom that looks like a Zoom meeting...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
8
 
 
There's a hint of Monty Python in the new British sitcom Code 404, and that's enough to make a marginal premise into an entertaining half-hour of television...