Part of TCM’s all-night salute to A Christmas Carol, this late-night offering is one of the earliest. Released in 1938, it stars Reginald Owen as Ebenezer, and certainly goes for a darker approach whenever a spirit visits the old miser. Watch, in particular for Marley’s ghost, because he’s played by a young Leo G. Carroll – who, later in his career, would revisit the concept of spirit visitations as the haunted hero of TV’s Topper.

2013

Dec

NO ONE CAN RESIST THEM By Eric Gould

SNL has a grand tradition of sketches which come close to using curse words or sexual references – that aren’t... Here's Alec Baldwin as Pete Schweddy, proprietor of a local bakery guesting on a typically downbeat NPR cooking show with a whole selection of baked goodies that are simply shaped for the hosts to sample...

2013

Dec

ALIEN By David Bianculli

It’s a double feature of extraterrestrial terror, as Sundance presents 1979’s Alien, followed at 10 p.m. ET by its first sequel, 1986’s Aliens. Both star Sigourney Weaver as the resourceful Ripley – but the two Ripleys are decidedly different, as you’ll soon learn, if you don’t already know. After one encounter with that shape-shifting terror, who wouldn’t be a little changed?

2013

Dec

MARY POPPINS By David Bianculli

Saving Mr. Banks, the new movie about the making of the Mary Poppins movie, opens Friday. Meanwhile, ABC Family repeats the original: 1964’s movie musical, giving Julie Andrews her first starring film role, opposite Dick Van Dyke. Good timing – and fun family movie.

2013

Dec

INSIDE THE NFL By David Bianculli

With playoff ramifications in almost every other game this year, this show’s postgame breakdown – and next week’s pregame projections – are as enjoyable as the NFL Films-enhanced highlights, which go well beyond the usual big plays. There’s a reason this series, which started on HBO in 1977 before moving to Showtime, is one of cable’s oldest continuing weekly series.

2013

Dec

MOB CITY By David Bianculli

CONCLUSION: TNT’s six-hour Frank Darabont mob drama comes to an end, at least for this season, as Bugsy Siegel gets set for trial and the LAPD gets ready for more rounds of mob violence.

2013

Dec

HOMELAND By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: This repeat of Sunday’s episode gives viewers another chance to catch, or a chance to review, the game-changing events of the series’ season-ending episode. As with the recent season finale of FX’s Sons of Anarchy, it packs quite a punch, and a second viewing shows how well everything was foreshadowed.

2013

Dec

THE ZOMBIES IN MY DVR By Jonathan Storm

The Walking Dead is not lurching across my TV because too many zombie series are clogging the apparatus. Not shows about zombies, but ones that are zombies -- lying, undead, waiting to rise up at my command...

2013

Dec

TOY STORY By Eric Gould

Here are Jimmy Fallon and The Roots, from last year, doing a sweet backstage version of Mariah Carey’s soon-to-be-classic holiday song “All I Want For Christmas Is You” – all on grade school rhythm instruments or toys like a Fisher Price xylophone...

2013

Dec

THE FUGITIVE By David Bianculli

Made 20 years ago, this movie version of the classic Sixties TV series flipped the central dynamic unintentionally, but very effectively, making this one of the better TV-to-film efforts ever produced. On TV, David Janssen’s Richard Kimble ran away with the show (in one sense, literally). But in this movie, though we root for Harrison Ford’s Kimble, it’s Tommy Lee Jones as his pursuing adversary who really keeps things moving. And moving. And moving even faster.

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