I adore these annual Kennedy Center Honors specials – they’re not only among the best TV treats of the season, they’re among the best treats of the year, period. Tonight’s honorees – each of whom is saluted by fellow artists, making for a talent-packed television special – are Sally Field, Michael Tilson Thomas, Linda Ronstadt, Sesame Street, and Earth, Wind & Fire. Well, sure, Earth and Fire deserve it –but I’m still not to

2019

Dec

RAY DONOVAN By David Bianculli

Tonight’s new episode is called “An Irish Lullaby” – but why do I have the feeling, given what’s happened to all three generations of the Donovan clan, that this hour won’t be lulling anyone to sleep?

2019

Dec

WATCHMEN By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: That’s the way HBO is promoting tonight’s episode – calling it a “Season Finale,” rather than a finale, period. That suggests that Damon Lindelof’s treatment of this DC Comics series will continue into a second season. And that’s fabulous news, because Watchmen, in this new iteration, has quickly become one of the best and boldest shows on television. Spoiler Alert – but not about the series: Watchmen, in its fres

2019

Dec

GANDHI By David Bianculli

Mohandas Gandhi started off as a sort of Indian Rosa Parks – spurred to nonviolent protest after being denied equal treatment on public transportation. In his case, he was ejected from the first class compartment of a South African train merely because he was an Indian. That was in 1893, and led to a successful protest against South African policies that, in turn, inspired Gandhi to push for change in his native India, calling for independence from the British empire. Ben Kingsley stars as

2019

Dec

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli

Making her sixth appearance tonight as a guest host: Scarlett Johansson, who, like the other best guest hosts in this show’s long history, is bravely game to try about anything. Even ASMR…

2019

Dec

GONE WITH THE WIND By David Bianculli

TCM already has shown this 1939 epic on TV a few times this season – and I never shake the memory of the mid-1970s, when NBC presented Gone with the Wind on television for the very first time – as a two-part presentation, nearly 30 years after it was made. And back then, being able to watch the burning of Atlanta, and other scenes from Gone with the Wind, on your home TV set was a big enough deal that, for a while, both parts of the movie telecast topped

2019

Dec

MEL BROOKS UNWRAPPED By David Bianculli

If you’ve watched Mel Brooks’ series of HBO specials over the past few years (and if you haven’t, what’s wrong with you?), you’ll recognize the face of Alan Yentob, who interviewed Brooks for one of those specials. Their history goes back a long way, to when Yentob, before and after becoming creative director for the BBC, interviewed and profiled Brooks back in his days making The Producers – the original Sixties film, not the subsequent h

2019

Dec

THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW By David Bianculli

Tonight’s guests include some British treasures: a Doctor Who and a member of Monty Python. Yes, tonight’s guest list includes Jodie Whittaker and Michael Palin, as well as Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson.

2019

Dec

THE MAKING OF A LEGEND: GONE WITH THE WIND By David Bianculli

This two-plus-hours of Gone with the Wind background information was a documentary made in 1988, nearly 50 years after the movie itself. And now, another 40 years later, TCM shows it in its entirety, following a prime-time telecast of Gone with the Wind, which also is shown in its entirety. This means, of course, that Vivian Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara endures all her trials and tribulations tonight – but when she’s through, it’s midnight, which, in

2019

Dec

A COMEDY ICON: 'MEL BROOKS UNWRAPPED' By David Hinckley

You see the words "Mel Brooks" on a TV show, and you know that whatever you get, it's going to be funny...

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