DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2012
Dec
30
 
 
This new holiday TV special is the best bet of the night. It’s a self-contained Call the Midwife telemovie, set at Christmas time, and will delight fans of the series while serving as a perfect entry point for newcomers. Either way, know this going in: This isn’t your sort of generic, treacly, syrupy holiday special. Even though it has a Nativity play, and a birth or two, not every ending is happy. But with Call the Midwife, every scene, and every character, is memorable. Check local
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
30
 
 
Catch tonight’s conclusion of Season 2, and get ready – because a week from tonight, on the first Sunday of the New Year, Downton Abbey rises again, with Season 3. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
30
 
 
Steven Spielberg directed this 1997 historical drama, about a slave ship whose unwilling passengers staged a mutiny during one voyage in 1839 – and about the subsequent court case about the free man who sparked the onboard revolution. Morgan Freeman, Djimon Hounsou star in this movie, which may be one of the most recent films TCM has ever shown.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
29
 
 
This day in 1989 marked Jane Pauley's final day with NBC's Today...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
29
 
 
2012 left some memorable TV moments, from a chair to a horsey-dancing rapper...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
29
 
 
Write-Off Theatre, Take One: With only a few days left before the end of the fiscal year, CBS is burning off two first-run episodes of a series it’s already canceled, just to get the loss on the books before the New Year arrives. That’s my deduction – and the network’s, too. Just an observation. Not a recommendation.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
29
 
 
Write-Off Theatre, Take Two: With only a few days left before the end of the fiscal year, Fox is burning off a first-run episodes of a series it’s already canceled, just to get the loss on the books before the New Year arrives. That’s my deduction – and the network’s, too. Just an observation. Not a recommendation.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
29
 
 
Werner Herzog filmed this 2010 documentary in 3-D – but even in 2-D, it’s breathtaking. Herzog takes us into the Chauvet Cave in southern France, and its Paleolithic cave paintings estimated to be more than 30,000 years old. Herzog, who narrates, has a whispery, reverent, poetic tone, as he explains how the paintings were found, how difficult they were to film, and how experts have interpreted them. They’re thought to be the oldest cave paintings in existence – and, thus,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
29
 
 
This episode originally aired on Christmas Day, so it’s likely most people missed it. But the guests for this year’s Christmas special include not only Jennifer Saunders, Bill Connolly and Dustin Hoffman, but current Doctor Who star Matt Smith. And, by the way, his Christmas Day Doctor Who special, The Snowmen, is repeated tonight as well, at 9 p.m. ET. On a slow Saturday night, it makes for a delightful double bill.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
29
 
 
This is a thoroughly modern movie, by TCM standards. Made in 1973, it stars Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford as star-crossed lovers in a period romance with a very famous theme song. And in a few days, this movie will be 40 years old. The way we were? Younger.