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

 
 
2015
Jul
2
 
 
In anticipation of all the outdoor grilling to be attempted this weekend, weather and vegans permitting, BBQ Pitmasters serves up a seven-hour marathon of grilling tips. Included among the recipes: bacon-covered bison brisket, which may be the most audacious and aromatic alliterative I’ve ever encountered. The coals start heating up at 5 p.m. ET, and the last dishes are served at 2 a.m. ET.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jul
2
 
 
Because this is heading to a holiday weekend, CNN is opting not to present an original installment of its newest documentary series. That’s the bad news. The good news is that, starting tonight at 9 p.m. ET, it’s repeating the three episodes televised so far: on television, Watergate, and the Vietnam War, respectively. Oh, and consider this a warning, as well as a recommendation: In the first part, on television in the Seventies, I appear on camera from time to time. But watch it any
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jul
2
 
 
On tonight’s episode, Marc Maron accepts an invitation from his friend Adam Goldberg to visit Adam’s college class and lecture on comedy. I haven’t seen the entire episode, just a preview clip – but even the clip made me laugh out loud, once the students starting interrupting Maron’s lecture. “Academic heckling,” he responded wearily. “Is that a thing, really?” It can be. When I tell a joke or make a reference in one of my classes and am gree
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jul
2
 
 
In these last Daily Show programs before he steps down, Jon Stewart has made it clear that he doesn’t want a Cal Ripken-style farewell tour – just a last lap with good guests and good friends. Tonight, he has both. His scheduled guest is author Sarah Vowell, who’s not only a former contributing editor to This American Life, but also was a former correspondent for The Daily Show.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jul
2
 
 
Larry Wilmore, in the wake of news events the past few weeks, has done his very best work since launching The Nightly Show – great pieces, provocative discussions, and brave, funny, intensely honest personal reflections and history lessons. (For a sample of these, listen to my report, on cable comedy shows and their reactions to recent news events, on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross website.) Tonight, reacting to news events in his booking of guests as well, Wilmore welcomes LaBree
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jul
2
 
 
Prime-time TV’s original running man, Dr. Richard Kimble, spent four seasons and 120 episodes under the cloak of numerous aliases and in the arms of women he couldn’t have. Meanwhile, an obsessed Lt. Philip Gerard pursued him in fine grim-faced form...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jul
1
 
 
The USA women’s team played a thrilling game Tuesday night, moving the ball and pushing the offense better than in any other match at this year’s tournament. Kelley O’Hara’s insurance goal near the end of the game, giving the USA a 2-0 lead over Germany, not only was the capper, but was a beautiful, and an exciting, play. Tonight’s game, Japan vs. England, is the other semifinal match, and the winner tonight will face USA on Sunday. Japan is the defending champion,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jul
1
 
 
Tonight’s prime-time doubleheader on TCM features individual movies by two Seventies movie stars who, a few years later, would team up for the classic All the President’s Men: Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. And each of their respective movies tonight is an epic, rugged period piece, starting with Redford’s 1972 film, directed by Sidney Pollack, about a Rocky Mountain trapper in the 1830s. Redford is captivating here, playing against his matinee-idol looks, growing a grisly
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jul
1
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Not necessarily a recommendation. Halle Berry’s futuristic mystery series returns for Season 2, and for those who remained intrigued by the goings-on last season, here it is again. The big change this year is that Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been added as a regular, playing a detective with whom she’s teamed to try and explain a series of puzzling deaths. Watch if you like – but if the subplot about the humanity level of her android son intrigues you, you’re
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jul
1
 
 
This 1970 Dustin Hoffman epic, directed by Arthur Penn, is a comedy so subtle that while some scenes are played broadly, others are somewhat dramatic.  Hoffman plays a very, very old man (pictured) looking back on his life on the prairie, which includes being abducted and raised by Indians and fighting with General Custer (a delightful Richard Mulligan, from Soap). Faye Dunaway co-stars.