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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
 
 
2018
May
5
HAS THE BAR MOVED TOO LOW FOR INDUCTION INTO THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME? By Roger Catlin
 
 
Though the first induction ceremonies of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame more than 30 years ago boasted the biggest guns and most wide ranging jam sessions, they were private affairs...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
May
5
AFTER YEARS OF FAN PROTESTS, BON JOVI GETS ITS SHARE OF THE SPOTLIGHT AT THE '2018 ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY' By David Hinckley
 
 
The annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony remains a weird animal in the television music show game...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
May
5
2018 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY By David Bianculli
 
 
The overall effect of this year’s ceremony, taped last month in Cleveland, might well be doesn’t even bother to show up. Ironically, he fails to follow the advice in the opening lines of “Money for Nothing,” the hit song and video (pictured) that made his band popular in 1985: “Now look at them yo-yo’s, that’s the way you do it / You play the guitar on the MTV / That ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it / Money for nothin’ and
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
May
5
MARK FELT: THE MAN WHO BROUGHT DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE By David Bianculli
 
 
In one corner, you had Richard Nixon, the Oval Office inhabitant who whose minions acted surreptitiously, and illegally, to further his presidential campaign chances. In the other corner, you had Mark Felt, a high-ranking FBI agent who helps guide the Washington Post coverage of the Watergate affair by becoming the informant quickly nicknamed Deep Throat. Felt was identified only by his alias when portrayed so brilliantly by Hal Holbrook in the 1976 movie All the President’s Men, which tol
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
May
5
A SHOT IN THE DARK & THE PINK PANTHER By David Bianculli
 
 
Peter Sellers’ first two turns as Inspector Clouseau are presented tonight, as MGM pairs A Shot in the Dark and The Pink Panther – and televises them in the correct order of their production, rather than the order of their cinematic release. A Shot in the Dark, co-starring Elke Sommer, was filmed first, but shelved by the studio until director Blake Edwards and star Sellers reteamed for Pink Panther, which became a big hit in 1963. A Shot in the Dark, though filmed first, followed in
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
May
5
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s guest host is Donald Glover, star of Atlanta and, before that, co-star of Community. And tonight’s musical guest is Grammy-winning rap artist Childish Gambino. Any resemblance to Glover is strictly unavoidable: Donald Glover and Childish Gambino are the same person. As they say on certain social media websites: It’s complicated….
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
May
4
WHEN NOSTALGIA CLASHES WITH CONTEMPORARY REALITY: RECONCILING ‘I, SPY’ WITH BILL COSBY By Alex Strachan
 
 
It’s one of the toughest questions there is, as a fan. How do you separate an actor from the character he, or she, plays on TV? Can you separate the two? Is it even right to try to separate the two?...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
May
4
THE STORY OF 'THE JAZZ AMBASSADORS' ON PBS By David Hinckley
 
 
Once upon a time, America practiced international diplomacy with a cornet, a piano, and a trumpet...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
May
4
FROM DENMARK, 'THE RAIN' IS FAMILIAR BUT STILL WORTH WATCHING By David Hinckley
 
 
Take the framework of The Walking Dead, grab a little of The 100, add ancestral echoes from Lord of the Flies, toss in a hint of Flowers in the Attic and you’ve got the new Danish miniseries The Rain...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
May
4
MY NEXT GUEST NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION WITH DAVID LETTERMAN By David Bianculli
 
 
Once a month, David Letterman returns with a new installment of his Netflix talk show, and with a new guest. Tonight, it’s someone who’s conquered late-night TV as Letterman has, but, unlike Letterman, also has tasted major success in prime time, the movies, and, more recently, on Broadway: Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, and cinema and the stage’s Mean Girls creator, Tina Fey.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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