This HBO sports magazine series has been around for 21 seasons now – and tonight’s end-of-year wrap-up looks back not only at the year 2015, with host Bryant Gumbel debriefing his regular, and valuable, correspondents, but also takes a second look at the show’s entire 20-year stretch.

2015

Dec

10 GIFTS THAT TV GAVE US IN 2015 By David Hinckley

The shows aren’t necessarily the year’s best, though some are. But they all offered a level of delight, fun, truth, insight or sheer entertainment that reminded us why, no matter how much we grumble about it, most of us watch television...

2015

Dec

MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET By David Bianculli

It’s another holiday showing for this 1947 movie, starring Edmund Gwenn as a department-store Santa Claus who may be the real deal – but as holiday movies go, this one is easy to rewatch, over and over again. Which is convenient, since AMC shows it twice in prime time tonight, at 8 p.m. ET and again at 10:15 p.m. ET.

2015

Dec

GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES By David Bianculli

Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell are paired as conniving singers in this 1953 comedy – and while Monroe walked (or strutted) away with the most iconic production number, singing “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” Russell scored her own big and outrageous moments too. Watch for her number where she sings as an entire men’s Olympics team, on board the same cruise ship, serves as nothing more than objectified props.

2015

Dec

BOLSHOI BABYLON By David Bianculli

This is Nick Read’s documentary about a disturbing and violent attack that took place in the fine arts world, when Sergei Filin, director of the Bolshoi Ballet, had acid thrown in his face. By whom and why? Those are two of the questions examined in this film.

2015

Dec

THE WHO LIVE IN HYDE PARK By David Bianculli

The Who have been performing live for 50 years now – well, surviving original band members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey have been, anyway – and in this concert film from London, the group starts in broad daylight and plays through sundown and into the evening – the perfect time for a medley from Tommy. See them, hear them. Half a century later, the Who still rocks.

2015

Dec

WHERE THE BOYS ARE By David Bianculli

Paula Prentiss is fun and adorable, and Yvette Mimieux is gorgeous, in this 1960 comedy about girls on spring break in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. But when I watch it, because I grew up there, I watch it for the non-human scenery. Very little of the city looks the same 55 years later – not even the beach. But the Elbo Room is still there…

2015

Dec

NETFLIX'S 'MAKING A MURDERER' IS AN IMPORTANT - AND TROUBLING - LOOK AT OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM By David Hinckley

We’ve all seen the stories, way too many of them really, where a DNA test proves someone could not have committed a crime, years or decades after he or she was wrongfully slapped in jail. Netflix’s Making a Murderer starts off with what appears to be a classic case of Wrong Guy...

2015

Dec

YES, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS IN VIRGINIA By Jonathan Storm

... and her name is Jeannie Klisiewicz. She’s the Good Cheer assistant on Ellen, and Ellen DeGeneres dispatched her to surprise a big-hearted, hard-working second grade teacher in Leesburg, Va., not only with a little airtime on her favorite daytime talk show, but with a few presents, too...

2015

Dec

SEASON 3 OF 'A PLACE TO CALL HOME' SHOULD BE ON YOUR WINTER LIST By David Hinckley

We can never have too many engaging TV dramas, so you might want to put Australia’s A Place To Call Home on your holiday wish list....

Posts 61-70 of 203

6 7 8 9 10

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption