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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
 
 
2015
May
19
INSIDE AMY SCHUMER By David Bianculli
 
 
On this week’s show, Amy plays a contestant in a child beauty pageant in a takeoff of Toddlers & Tiaras (which, arguably, already is a spoof of itself, since it’s so horrid in every way). Schumer’s version is “Babies & Bustiers,” and she plays a contestant with abnormal growth spurts, named Amy Merryweather Sherman (the contestant, not the spurts). And her stage mom, because there has to be one? She’s played by Jennifer Coolidge… so watch out. A
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
19
INSIDE COMEDY By David Bianculli
 
 
This week, David Steinberg talks to standup comic and Seinfeld writer Carol Leifer, and also talks about comedy with someone who has subsequently moved on to, and won Emmys for, dramatic acting: former Malcolm in the Middle sitcom co-star Bryan Cranston, later of the phenomenally good, and dark, Breaking Bad.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
19
LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN By David Bianculli
 
 
The next-to-last Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, not the finale, is the one most people remember – the one where he was serenaded by Bette Midler. Well, tonight is the penultimate episode of Late Show with David Letterman, and there’s also a musical guest on board for the occasion: Bob Dylan. Somehow, though, I’m not expecting an original-lyrics tribute from Bob. But regardless, it’s Dylan’s first appearance on the show since 1993, Letterman’s first year on C
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
19
THE HIGH COST OF LOW COST TV By Candace Kelley
 
 

[Ed. note: TVWW Guest Contributor Candace Kelley has numerous areas of expertise to draw from in order to write for a website such as TVWW. In this particular case, she's putting on her TV producer hat and has something to say about the reality of reality television. - DB]

 

 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
18
THE VOICE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Part 1 of 2. This is the night when the remaining four contestants – one for each judging chair – sing for the right to appear again tomorrow night and the chance to walk away a winner. Whatever happens to one of these Final 4, one of them, Sawyer Fredericks, already has attracted the attention of Belle from Beauty and the Beast – well, Paige O’Hara, anyway, who starred as Belle in the classic animated Disney film. She’s asked TVWW to pass on a person
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
18
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME By David Bianculli
 
 
So many great movies were made in 1939 – and here’s one of them, for sure. Charles Laughton stars as a deformed bell-ringer at the grand Paris cathedral, with Maureen O’Hara as the beautiful gypsy woman who catches his bulging eye.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
18
THE FOLLOWING By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES FINALE: It’s over. Unless, like some of the characters on this somewhat sadistic, logic-defying series, apparent death is only a temporary impediment to a return appearance. But let’s hope The Following has, as announced by Fox, breathed its last – because clearly, this is a warning, not a recommendation, for tonight’s expanded two-hour finale. Kevin Bacon stars.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
18
SOUTHERN RITES By David Bianculli
 
 
In 2009, photojournalist Gillian Laub took pictures in Georgia of an event that sounds more common to an era more than 50 years earlier: segregated high-school proms. Her photographs prompted an end to that shockingly existent policy in Montgomery County – but when she returned the following year to document the area’s first integrated prom, she encountered angry and physical resistance from local police. She also stumbled upon an even bigger story in a nearby Georgia county: a shoot
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
18
LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight, with three shows to go, Letterman’s special guest tonight is Tom Hanks, who, according to CBS, is making visit No. 60 to one of Letterman’s talk shows. Another guest tonight is Eddie Vedder, who plans to perform, backed by Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
18
AMC'S 'MAD MEN' ENDS BETTER THAN I COULD HAVE IMAGINED By David Bianculli
 
 

Was Sunday’s finale of AMC’s Mad Men a fitting end to a fabulous TV series? Absolutely. And not only was it satisfying, it was wickedly clever, and even a little twisted. I loved it…

 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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