DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2020
May
2
 
 
How many times have I recommended this 1952 musical comedy already this year? Every time TCM has shown it, I’m guessing, because this Gene Kelly musical is so iconic, and so perfect. Arguably, with this 2001: A Space Odyssey and Singin’ in the Rain double feature, TCM is showing movies that represent the pinnacle achievements of their respective cinematic genres: the best sci-fi movie, and the best musical. And when Debbie Reynolds was tapped to co-star in Si
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
2
 
 
TCM is the best network at showing old movies, but it doesn’t have a monopoly on the concept. Tonight on Sundance, for example, that network presents a showing of 1970’s Kelly’s Heroes, a WWII comedy-drama starring Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and Don Rickles (now there’s an odd quartet) as soldiers who recognize an opportunity to rob a Nazi bank of gold bars in the heat of battle.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
2
 
 
Last weekend, I wrote about NBC’s scheduled repeat of SNL – recommending that viewers tune in even though it was a rerun from March 7, the last show televised before the pandemic changed the rules, at least for a while, about social gatherings in New York. Daniel Craig was the host, and the premiere of his latest James Bond film had just been postponed, one of the first artistic “victims” of COVID-19. I noted that the program, from only a month before, captured
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
2
 
 
Despite the challenges that talk shows and unscripted entertainment programs currently are facing, though, certain of them are starting to feel very comfortable and familiar in their new formats...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
2
 
 
This day in 1986 marked the final telecast of the ABC series, The Fall Guy...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
1
 
 
This day in 2004 marked the last telecast of the CBS drama, The District...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
1
 
 
If you’re missing The Good Place, which you absolutely should be, check out Amazon Prime’s new dramedy, Upload...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
1
 
 
It’s no secret that with the wonderful golden-age Hollywood movies, as with sausage, you didn’t want to know what went into making them...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
1
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: You might expect Upload, the new series coming from Greg Daniels, to be very funny and clever and wry – and it’s all of that. Daniels, after all, was the guy who cracked the code, and adapted the brilliant British version of The Office into what became its impressive American equal – surprising skeptical TV critics, including myself, in the process. Upload is about a young man who dies in a freak accident, but whose consciousness a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
1
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Rafe Spall and Esther Smith star in this new comedy as Jason and Nikki, a young couple who discover they have infertility problems – and set out not only to enhance the frequency and passion of their lovemaking, but to explore other avenues, including adoption. All of which means they have to start seriously thinking of themselves as future parents, which is where the conflict and comedy in Trying resides.