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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

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TV That Matters

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Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

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Aerial View

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MNtv

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TV Feeds My Family

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TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

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TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2014
Dec
3
SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT By David Bianculli
 
 
In this 1955 Ingmar Bergman film, Fredrik is a turn-of-the-century lawyer, married to his young wife, Anne, who, after years of marriage and at age 19, remains a virgin. After a night at the theater, Fredrik reconnects with an actress who is his former mistress, the glamorous Desiree Armfeldt, and their lives all intertwine. Sounds a little like A Little Night Music? It should. That 1973 musical – book by Hugh Wheeler, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim – was based on this movie, w
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
3
NOVA: "FIRST MAN ON THE MOON" By David Bianculli
 
 
Astronaut Neil Armstrong was very protective of his own celebrity and biography, and very careful about which details of his life he shared, and with whom. Tonight’s new Nova interviews friends and colleagues, some speaking for the first time, to gain insight into the man who first stepped on lunar soil. Or lunar dust, or whatever it is. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
3
NASHVILLE By David Bianculli
 
 
In this new episode, Rayna (Connie Britton) agrees to let TV cameras into her home to film a Christmas special – with all the accompanying pomp, circumstance and complications. As part of the festivities, she and Luke (Will Chase) sing “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
3
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW By David Bianculli
 
 
It’s getting to be almost like a themed season of Survivor on this show, with the tribes divided into men vs. women. Or strong vs. weak. Or, maybe, two heads are better than one.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
2
AMERICAN MASTERS: "BING CROSBY REDISCOVERED" By David Bianculli
 
 
This new career biography of Bing Crosby, by Robert Trachtenberg, shows how effortlessly the crooner made it all seem, becoming a fixture on radio, in movies and on TV appearances, while maintaining a less than devil-may-care attitude about it all. This study is a bit too fawning, overall, but it doesn’t skimp on either the achievements (the first singer to use amplification properly in recordings, the one whose “White Christmas” single sold more than any other, ever) or the ac
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
2
NICK NEWS WITH LINDA ELLERBEE: “THE BORDER KIDS” By David Bianculli
 
 
This timely new Nick News special looks at the young children crossing the U.S. border from Mexico – a number that’s more than doubled in one year. Are they illegal immigrants, or refugees? And now that they’re here, what next? Unlike most news specials on this topic, executive producers Ellerbee and Rolfe Tessem also ask the kids themselves.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
2
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS By David Bianculli
 
 
The best Christmas special ever made, and one of the first. And somehow, though I have it on several DVDs without ads or edits, there’s something about watching it in “real time” that makes it seem like… Christmas. I much prefer, though, when it’s expanded to a one-hour slot, so I know it isn’t being squeezed.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
2
SONS OF ANARCHY By David Bianculli
 
 
This is the penultimate episode of this series – and much as I hate that word, there is a sense of (next-to-) finality about it, as Jax gets closer and closer to the truth about the actions of his mother Gemma, who killed his wife. Jax made a lot of wrong, lethal moves as a result of that murder – so the question becomes, will he react similarly now? And when your mother kills your wife, what is the correct response? Especially in a bikers club?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
2
THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON By David Bianculli
 
 
The countdown celebration of Ferguson’s final shows continues – and tonight, it continues with two of the host’s clear favorites: Henry Winkler, who’s been a guest more than almost anyone else, and Kristen Bell, who accompanied him on his Late Late Show invasion of France. The accompanying photo does not include Henry Winkler…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
2
2007: CABLE'S SCI FI REIMAGINES 'THE WIZARD OF OZ' By Christy Slewinski
 
 
On this day in 2007, cable's Sci Fi channel (before it became SyFy) introduced a reimagined version of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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