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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

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Uncle Barky's Bytes

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TV That Matters

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Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

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Aerial View

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MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

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TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

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Crossing Jordan

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TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2020
May
16
COULD 'GENERAL HOSPITAL' SAVE THE DAY AGAIN? By Ed Martin
 
 
Forty years ago, the nation was enthralled by two summertime TV cliffhangers: Can "Luke and Laura Outrun the Mob?" on General Hospital and "Who Shot J.R.?" on Dallas....
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
16
THE GREAT BUSTER: A CELEBRATION By David Bianculli
 
 
The Great Buster is a very recent, as in 2018, documentary celebrating the artistic achievements of Buster Keaton, whose cinematic masterpiece, The General, precedes the showing of this documentary. And this documentary, by the way, not only salutes one gifted filmmaker, but is itself made by another. The Great Buster is directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who was a cinema historian before he started making such classics himself as The Last Picture Show.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
16
1992: SHOWTIME INTRODUCES 'RED SHOE DIARIES' By TV WW
 
 
On this day in 1992, Showtime debuted Red Shoe Diaries, the full-length Zalman King film starring David Duchovny that launched the cabler's erotic anthology series...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
15
1979: THE END OF 'STARSKY AND HUTCH' By David Bianculli
 
 
Starsky and Hutch wrapped up its four-season run on this day in 1979...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
15
THE GREAT By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: Tony McNamara, who co-wrote The Favourite, created and co-wrote this new 10-part Hulu miniseries, which drops all at once today – and which, I hope, gets an order for additional episodes, and thus becomes an official series. It’s that good, and that much fun. Elle Fanning plays the eventual Catherine the Great in this comedy about 18th-century Russian court intrigue, and Nicholas Hoult plays her boorish regal husband, the not-so-great Peter. The jockeyi
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
15
BLACKLIST By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: What to do when coronavirus considerations put an end to on-location, and on-set, TV production? Well, Blacklist, to finish out its season, took a completed script and adapted and tweaked it a bit, allowing for scenes and a subplot regarding a graphic novel – which, in turn, allows producers of this episode to have actors record dialogue remotely, then flesh out those scenes, without relying on any flesh, by animating them, graphic-novel style.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
15
“BRAVERY AND HOPE: 7 DAYS ON THE FRONT LINE” By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL: This CBS News Special examines the pandemic crisis by  staying in one place for one week, and embedding its journalists with critical care providers at a hospital hit with a sudden influx of patients showing signs of COVID-19. The hospital is New York City’s Montefiore Medical Center’s Moses Campus, which at the time CBS was there was overwhelmed with nearly 700 patients – 80 percent of whom were diagnosed with COVID-19. If you wonder what such an o
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
15
GREAT PERFORMANCES: "BERNSTEIN MASS" By David Bianculli
 
 
Leonard Bernstein’s Mass was commissioned by Jackie Onassis to open the Kennedy Center in 1971. As opening nights go, that’s not too shabby. And tonight’s Great Performances, in addition to recounting the history of this durable work, presents a recent production, starring Paulo Szot as the celebrant. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
15
FRIDAY NIGHT IN WITH THE MORGANS By David Bianculli
 
 
This is one of AMC’s instant series – a sort of "What can we put on easily, televised from people’s homes, that will fill an hour of TV and help promote a franchise series we’re not producing at the moment?" This one takes Jeffrey Dean Morgan, one of the stars of the past few seasons of The Walking Dead, playing casual country farmhouse, socially distanced talk-show host, along with his wife, Hilarie Morgan. Tonight’s show features comic Jim Gaffigan and h
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
15
THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW By David Bianculli
 
 
Among tonight’s not-in-person guests: Sandra Oh, from sister BBC America series Killing Eve, and Stanley Tucci.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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