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
Jul
10
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: Earlier variations on this theme were staged and presented by ABC, which, of course, is owned by Disney. This new edition, pegged to summer, is televised by Disney Channel. ABC, Disney Channel, Disney+ -- wherever you turn these days, it’s a Mickey Mouse operation.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
10
 
 
Decades presents yet another of TV’s tributes to Carl Reiner, but this one’s a doozy. It begins with an installment of The Dick Cavett Show in which Reiner is the guest. Then, at 9:30 p.m. ET, presents Head of the Family (pictured), the unsold 1960 pilot written by and starring Reiner – which, when completely recast but still telling the story of TV writer Rob Petrie, became the massively successful The Dick Van Dyke Show. And then, at 10 p.m.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
10
 
 
"Girl tackles the big city" has been a theme of dramas since forever, so it's no surprise that it has quietly emerged as a consistently interesting subgenre in our current ocean of TV programming...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
10
 
 
NBC launched the television version of Your Hit Parade on this day in 1950...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
9
 
 
This day in 1999 marked the Food Network premiere of the original Iron Chef...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
9
 
 
DOCUMENTARY MINISERIES PREMIERE: Back in May, Amy Schumer made a TV show, squirreled away in her family farmhouse with her chef husband Chris Fischer. It was refreshingly low-key, filmed by a few static cameras and by their nanny/assistant, who operated the one handheld camera, usually while the couple’s son, Gene, is napping). That was the Food Network’s Amy Schumer Learns to Cook, a charming little cooking show that recently was renewed for a second season. Before that, a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
9
 
 
Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman directed this film in 1957, and its unforgettable, almost instantly iconic plot and images – about a medieval knight who plays chess with Death – did as much as Italy’s Federico Fellini to launch the international arthouse cinema movement. Woody Allen had great fun making fun of The Seventh Seal in Love and Death and elsewhere, but adored Bergman and the film. It’s always worth a look, and even more so right now, becaus
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
9
 
 
Another beautifully photographed film, this 1978 movie also features a plague – of locusts. It’s set on a Texas farm shortly before WWI, and is the second feature film directed by Terrence Malick, who had made the impeccably paced Badlands five years before. Days Of Heaven also marks the first major starring role by Richard Gere, and features a beautiful score by the late Ennio Morricone, who died Monday at age 91. The beautiful images were captured by the great c
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
9
 
 
Cartoon characters have always been a breeze to work with. They don't age or ache or retire, and now they don't get COVID...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
9
 
 
It looks as though the COVID-19 quarantine will continue driving us all to distraction for longer than we could ever have imagined just a few months ago. Fortunately, there are more compelling television programs to watch...