SERIES PREMIERE: The premiere edition of this new standup comedy series is a little shaky, but both its timeliness (each weekly episode is taped just a few days prior to telecast) and its free-form lack of structure could, in time, prove to be big pluses here. For a full review, see Bianculli’s Blog HERE.

2012

Jun

THE COLBERT REPORT By David Bianculli

The current VIDEO WORTH WATCHING on this site features a superbly compiled mash-up of recurring themes and lines of dialogue by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. Tonight, Sorkin himself is Stephen Colbert’s guest – in an interview that may be as breathlessly paced, and as dizzyingly clever, as one of Sorkin’s scripted exchanges.

2012

Jun

RUSSELL BRAND’S ‘BRANDX’ HAS POTENTIAL TO BE MORE THAN GENERIC By David Bianculli

The initial installment of FX’s new late-night comedy standup showcase, BrandX with Russell Brand, isn’t that impressive. But both the star and the format show signs of being onto something potentially special here…

2012

Jun

1951: RADIO'S 'AMOS 'N' ANDY' MOVES TO TV By Christy Slewinski

On this day in 1951, CBS debuted Amos 'n' Andy, the television version of the longest-running (and one of the most popular) radio programs in broadcast history. The television show was produced by the radio show's stars, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. Since both men were white, African-American actors — including (left to right) Spencer Williams Jr. as Andy, Alvin Childress as Amos and Tim Moore as George "The Kingfish" Stevens — were brought in for the television adaptation.T

2012

Jun

TURNING AARON SORKIN’S ART INTO ITS OWN MASHUP ART By David Bianculli

Some people have interpreted this intensely edited video, excerpting and compiling recycled lines and bits of stage business from Aaron Sorkin’s various TV shows and movies, as a critical attack on the writer’s propensity for repeating himself. But I sense as much love and affection here as anything else...

2012

Jun

PARIS JE T'AIME By David Bianculli

A few years before Woody Allen celebrated Paris in Midnight in Paris, this 2006 French movie did the same thing, but as a communal enterprise. It enlisted 20 different directors, including “foreigners” Joel and Ethan Coen, to present vignettes, set in Paris, that were five minutes long, and placed them end to end, with the last shot leading into the next narrative. The content is eclectic, as are the stars, who include Juliette Binoche, Nick Nolte, Steve Buscemi, Natalie Portman (pic

2012

Jun

THE KING'S SPEECH By David Bianculli

On a slow TV night, here’s a wonderful movie to help pass the time. Made in 2010, it stars Colin Firth as the stuttering member of the British royal family who ascended suddenly to the throne as King George VI. Geoffrey Rush co-stars as his cheeky but helpful speech therapist.

2012

Jun

FUTURAMA By David Bianculli

In tonight’s new episode, Leela gets involved in politics, and has an eye for political ascension. Well, she has one eye, period, but you get the idea.

2012

Jun

THE IMMIGRANT By David Bianculli

Tonight’s TCM films are devoted to the immigrant experience, and here’s one of the best of them ever put on celluloid. Made in 1917, right when the huddled masses were huddling to Ellis Island, this short film stars Charlie Chaplin as his Little Tramp, who arrives in America after a rocky (and hilarious) ocean voyage.

2012

Jun

THE COLBERT REPORT By David Bianculli

Here’ a guest you don’t see on TV very often: Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Normally, you’d expect a talk-show host to treat one of the world’s wealthiest women with deference – but Stephen Colbert, or at least his TV persona, is no ordinary talk-show host. And she’s been here before (see photo from last year), so she knows what to expect.

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