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

 
 
2013
Jul
4
 
 
This live concert and fireworks show is hosted by Nick Cannon, and features scheduled performances by Tim McGraw, Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift, Cher, Pitbull and Selena Gomez.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jul
4
 
 
This live concert, emanating from the West Lawn in Washington, D.C., is hosted by Tom Bergeron, and is scheduled to include performances by Barry Manilow, Megan Hilty, Darren Criss and composer-conductor John Williams. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jul
4
 
 
The plot of this 1962 movie ends on the 4th of July, but that’s not why I’m recommending it here. I’m recommending it because any time you can see this movie musical uninterrupted, and in its full wide-screen format, it’s a nostalgic journey well worth taking. Robert Preston and Shirley Jones star – and yes, that’s Ron Howard lithping his way through “Gary, Indiana.”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jul
3
 
 
There have been so many upsets at this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament, if today’s men’s quarterfinals don’t produce another upset, it would be… upsetting. No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic, from Serbia, plays No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych from the Czech Republic. Also of major interest this morning: No. 2 seed Andy Murray (pictured), still trying for his first win on his home-kingdom Wimbledon court, plays unseeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jul
3
 
 
Brian De Palma’s violent remake of the gangster classic is itself, by now, a classic. His 1983 reboot turned the title character into a Cuban cocaine mob boss, played with chewy, playful intensity by Al Pacino. And as his blonde trophy moll, Michelle Pfeiffer got the first meaty role of her career, and proved she was more than just another beautiful young actress.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jul
3
 
 
Doris Day and Brian Keith star in this 1968 big-screen romantic comedy, about a widow and a widower who meet cute and decide to get serious – despite from misgivings, and internal squabbling, from their respective children. This movie is more interesting than amusing, and mostly for its place in pop-culture history. It not only predated by one year the blended-family premise of 1969’s The Brady Bunch, but also provides an early supporting film role for George Carlin, who very quickly
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jul
3
 
 
This week’s new episode has Bender working with a scientist who claims he can use the latest technology (including, gasp, a 3-D printer!) to turn the robot’s dream into reality. And even though most of Bender’s hard drive memory is reserved for porn, he does have one other object for which he lusts mightily: a vintage guitar. And the scientist is about to make him an exact copy – no strings attached.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jul
3
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: I don’t usually pay attention to cooking shows, but this competition program is so specialized, and features such apparently enthusiastic and knowledgeable representatives from bakeries around the country, that I can’t help myself from turning into the TV critic equivalent of Homer Simpson. “Mmmm – doughnuts!”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jul
2
 
 
It’s always compelling to see famous people make fun of themselves, and in Between Two Ferns, Zach Galifianakis takes it to a completely different level of sarcasm...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jul
2
 
 
Liberty Island, home ground for the Statue of Liberty, was swamped by Hurricane Sandy last November, and though Lady Liberty stood firm, the facility’s docks and infrastructure took a beating (see photo). The tourist attraction has been closed for repairs ever since, but is scheduled to reopen July 4, making this an ideal time for PBS to repeat Ken Burns’ 1985 history of the iconic landmark, made five years before his Civil War masterpiece. But even here, the "Ken Burns effect" was v