2021
 
 
 
 
 
 
2020
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2019
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2018
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2017
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2016
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2015
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2014
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2013
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2012
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2011
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2010
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2009
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2008
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2007
 
 
 
 
 
 
2001
 
 
 
 
2000
 
 
 
 
1998
 
 
 
 
1990
 
 
 
 
1989
 
 
 
 
1987
 
 
 
 
1985
 
 
 
 
1982
 
 
 
 
1980
 
 
 

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
 
 
2020
Nov
19
1995: 'THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY' AIRS ON ABC By TV WW
 
 
On this day in 1995, ABC debuted the first installment of the three-part documentary series, The Beatles Anthology...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
19
SUPERNATURAL By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: This Supernatural series, and supernatural series, began a long, long time ago – 15 seasons ago, starting back in 2005, when it was aiming to serve the audience left behind when Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel left the air in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Tonight, in a two-hour special edition, the Winchester brothers, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), engage in their final battle with the devil, and some angels, and God, in vari
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
19
A VOICE THAT DEMANDS – AND NEEDS – TO BE HEARD: 'I AM GRETA' By David Hinckley
 
 
The public visibility of socio-political campaigns surges and recedes, often with little relation to the importance of the issue they focus on...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
18
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF MICKEY MOUSE By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: In this new showcase, Disney+ adds to the canon of Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts, which is where Walt Disney’s entire empire began. Like most other modern continuations of classic cartoons, the animation itself, like the writing, is a bit less animated. But it’s nice to see traditions upheld and continued, rather than just tossed aside and ignored. Are you listening, White House?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
18
BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940 By David Bianculli
 
 
In this 1940 movie musical, Fred Astaire is paired with Eleanor Powell, and they do one stamina-challenging, fantastically precise tap dance number – with minimal edits and with the camera framing their full bodies and panning to follow them – that I just showed to my Rowan University film class. But here, thanks to a late-night showing on TCM, is the entire film, for my students, and you, to enjoy in its entirety. At this point in this pandemic school term, I don’t expect them
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
18
1951: CBS INTRODUCES TV'S FIRST NEWSMAGAZINE 'SEE IT NOW' By David Bianculli
 
 
Television's all-time most important and impressive newsmagazine, See It Now, was also its first. It began Nov. 18, 1951 in an almost hidden timeslot — 3:30 on a Sunday afternoon — with reporter Edward R. Murrow and Director Don Hewitt broadcasting live from a cramped CBS News studio...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
17
1968: NBC CUTS AWAY FROM JETS-RAIDERS NAILBITER FOR 'HEIDI' By TV WW
 
 
On this day in 1968, AFL rivals the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders were locked in a back-and-forth battle for dominance when, with just over a minute to play, NBC cut away from the game to broadcast the previously-scheduled film, Heidi, in the Eastern time zone...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
17
LEGO STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: Now this is diving deep into the geek weeds. Star Wars, the original George Lucas film that launched the franchise (now part four in the saga), premiered in 1977. A TV holiday special followed the next year, featuring enough of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher to get them in the credits, but mostly focusing on Chewbacca and a trip to his Wookie homeland. I reviewed the show then (yes, I’m that ancient), and not that favorably – and th
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
17
WOMEN MAKE FILM: A NEW ROAD MOVIE THROUGH CINEMA By David Bianculli
 
 
This is Night 12, almost the end, of TCM’s Women Make Film documentary series. This week, the movies shown after the documentary are the biggest draw, so stay tuned. They include Zelda Barron’s 1989 film Shag, a romantic comedy-drama set in 1963 and starring Phoebe Cates and Bridget Fonda (9:15 p.m. ET, pictured). And Wednesday morning, the film treasures continue at 7:30 a.m. ET with 1992’s Orlando, Sally Potter’s take on the Virginia Woolf
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
17
BIG SKY By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: David E. Kelley, having quite a stretch adapting other people’s books into TV series and miniseries, currently is doing great work on HBO’s The Undoing. And starting tonight on Big Sky, he does some solid work adapting the C.J. Box book about young women who become the latest captives, and potential victims, of a human predator prowling the open roads and shadowy truck stops of Montana. The story opens slowly but effectively, with some jolting sur
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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