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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

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All Along the Watchtower

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TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2012
May
3
1991: WITH ONE SHOT, J.R. BRINGS 'DALLAS' TO AN END By Christy Slewinski
 
 
Today in 1991, a broken and suicidal J.R. Ewing raised a pistol and - off camera - fired a single shot. The ambiguous ending marked the end of CBS' Dallas, one of the most popular prime-time dramas of all time. For 13 seasons...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
3
IN COLD BLOOD By David Bianculli
 
 
TCM offers up a killer schedule tonight – true-crime movies – with more to come every Thursday in May. And what a start: Robert Blake, after years as a child actor, burst into adult stardom as the psychopathic loose cannon at the center of Truman Capote’s fact-based story, in this 1967 film directed energetically by Richard Brooks.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
3
30 ROCK By David Bianculli
 
 
What do do after last week’s live triumph? Return to the familiar, I guess – this time a sequel of sorts to a previous episode, introducing Tracy Jordan’s attention-hogging wife as the star of her own reality show, “The Queen of Jordan.” And is Susan Sarandon back this week as well. According to the promotional photos, at least, yes.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
3
PARKS AND RECREATION By David Bianculli
 
 
And there’s a noteworthy guest star on this fresh NBC sitcom as well. Tonight on Parks, Leslie (Amy Poehler, who also, coincidentally, appeared on last week’s live 30 Rock) squares off, yet again, in an election debate against the incumbent city councilman – played, with a mixture of smarm and cluelessness, by recurring guest star Paul Rudd.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
3
THE MENTALIST By David Bianculli
 
 
The title of tonight’s episode, “So Long and Thanks for All the Red Snapper,” plays off a famous Douglas Adams title and quote from his Hitch Hiker’s books. And the plot of tonight’s story is no day at the beach. Actually, it is: There’s the murder of a surfer to investigate. And the investigation leads, somehow, to Lisbon’s ex-fiance, played by Shield and Sons of Anarchy regular Kenny Johnson.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
3
THE BOSTON STRANGLER By David Bianculli
 
 
Another true-crime thriller, this one, from 1968, stars Tony Curtis as Albert DeSalvo. Thought to be extremely gruesome at the time, it now seems almost quaint – and is better as a police procedural, really, than a character study. Think of it as an expanded episode of Law & Order: The Previous Generation.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
2
THE WEATHER CHANNEL 30TH ANNIVERSARY By David Bianculli
 
 
On May 2, 1982, The Weather Channel began its nonstop programming cycle with a bare-bones budget and approach that made C-SPAN look like Donald Trump’s bedroom. You can see an image from the network’s opening seconds at left. To see more moments from throughout the channel’s 30-year history, tune in all day today, and be entertained by the interstitials. All hurricanes, some of the time!
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
2
GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD By David Bianculli
 
 
Part 2 of 2. You can buy this excellent documentary HERE, or read about it on TVWW by clicking HERE (and listening to the Beatles’ rooftop concert as you do so). Or, you can just tune to HBO2 tonight, and catch the conclusion of Martin Scorsese’s excellent biography and appreciation of “the silent Beatle.” Musically, he was anything but.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
2
SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS By David Bianculli
 
 
Preston Sturges wrote and directed this 1941 comedy, one of the best Hollywood films about Hollywood ever made. Joel McCrae stars as a disillusioned screenwriter who hits the rails in search of truth, and Veronica Lake is the woman who brightens his journey – and then some. Slyly cynical, yet full of heart, and still impressively sharp and smart.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
2
MODERN FAMILY By David Bianculli
 
 
Jay (Ed O’Neill) is eager to take his family to a school reunion – and since he’s married to Gloria, who’s played by Sofia Vergara, who can blame him?
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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