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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
 
 
2019
Dec
18
MONTEREY POP By David Bianculli
 
 
This arrives early, but it’s worth it: TCM presents this 1968 rock documentary chronicling the birth and explosive presentation of rock music’s big bang. Not the moment of its creation, but the weekend in 1967, two years before Woodstock, in which many of the best minds and musicians of the Summer of Love got together and made beautiful music together. Jimi Hendrix was there, and Janis Joplin, and the Mamas and the Papas, and The Who, and Otis Redding, and Simon & Garfunkel, and
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
17
THE VOICE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: My theory about reality TV competition shows is based on my own practice, and experience, with them. The ones I like, and watch, are ones where the talent is showcased cleverly and vividly – but after a few seasons, the repetition of the format eventually leads me to move on. This didn’t happen to me with The Voice until last season, when the spotlight-grabbing impulses of that year’s batch of celebrity judges finally wore me down, and wore me out. But
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
17
A MORE COLORFUL DOG SHOW WITH THE HBO SPECIAL 'WELL GROOMED' By David Hinckley
 
 
Every year after the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, my cousin Dianne and I review the results. We like it more when big old shaggy dogs win, like Josh the Newfoundland...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
17
THE STATE OF 'EMPIRE' HALFWAY THROUGH ITS LAST SEASON By Mike Hughes
 
 
When Empire arrived six years ago, it brought waves of optimism. The show would be the best of both worlds: The music would be vibrant – R-&-B, rap, pop, more – and the stories would have a Shakespearean influence...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
16
THE SAG AWARDS AND ENSEMBLE ACTING: THERE IS NO "I" IN 'GAME OF THRONES' By Alex Strachan
 
 
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) nominations have been announced — think The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Fleabag, don't think Succession — and once again media attention is on the movie nominees, as with the Golden Globes, and not so much the TV nods...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
16
A FEW GOOD MEN By David Bianculli
 
 
Playwright Aaron Sorkin’s inaugural Broadway effort was the basis of this 1992 movie, whose screenplay he also wrote. Rob Reiner directed, and the two of them led the way, dramatically, in so many ways. The drama stars Tom Cruise and Demi Moore as attorneys defending a Marine accused of murder on a military base, and undergoing a military trial. It’s a drama that arrived years before the TV series JAG, and also years before the military base at Guantanamo Bay made major hea
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
16
LITTLE WOMEN DOUBLE FEATURE By David Bianculli
 
 
On Christmas Day, a new movie version of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women will hit theaters, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Meryl Streep, Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan and others. Meanwhile, tonight, TCM presents two cinematic versions of this enduring 1868 novel: At 8 p.m. ET is the beloved 1933 version, directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett. That’s followed, at 10:15 p.m. ET, by the 1949 version, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
16
HIS DARK MATERIALS By David Bianculli
 
 
This series may not have swung into high gear yet – but the bears certainly are making themselves known…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
15
SINGING A SONG THAT’S LOUD AND STRONG – 'SESAME STREET' AND 'KENNEDY CENTER HONORS' By Monique Nazareth
 
 
Sesame Street premiered in 1969, at the height of the civil rights movement, and in the midst of the war on poverty...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
15
'KENNEDY CENTER HONORS' CELEBRATES A VARIETY OF LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENTS By Mike Hughes
 
 
One of TV's annual gems returns Sunday – feeling a little different than in its past...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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