What makes this 1962 musical such a fine fit on this day of TCM’s patriotic programming? Basically, because not even baseball and apple pie are more American than The Music Man – not, at least, since we’ve had to worry about steroids and gluten. But with one song alone, the classic brass-band number “Seventy-Six Trombones,” composer Meredith Willson captured everything about small-town America, and Iowa in particular, that made the country what it was. And still is.

2017

Jul

50 YEARS AGO, ‘STAR TREK’ BOLDLY WENT WHERE HARDLY ANY TV SHOWS HAD GONE BEFORE By Alex Strachan

Several years ago, in a memorable exchange on HBO’s Real Time, host Bill Maher and guest Seth MacFarlane were discussing the nature of actual war, as opposed to the sanitized version so often seen on the nightly news...

2017

Jul

TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN MARATHON By David Bianculli

You may or may not have noticed, but there was no Episode 9 of Twin Peaks: The Return last night. Showtime took the holiday weekend off and will present the next episode in the series this coming Sunday. Meanwhile, Showtime is repeating the episodes to date, in a two-day catch-up marathon presented today and tomorrow. Today, beginning at 5 p.m. ET, are the first four episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return, where you’ll see, by my count, at least four different Coopers, all played by Kyle MacLa

2017

Jul

THE SEVENTIES MARATHON By David Bianculli

CNN did this the other night and is doing it again tonight: repeating installments of its marathon documentary series, The Seventies, in preparation for this weekend’s unveiling of its newest entry in the series, The Nineties. I appear in the episode devoted to television, but given recent headlines, I’d recommend paying even closer attention to the episode about Watergate. CNN, by rebroadcasting The Seventies, is repeating history, true, but these days, history also seems to be repe

2017

Jul

P.O.V.: "THE WAR SHOW" By David Bianculli

This new episode takes a look at the war in Syria – and what makes it stands out is that it’s a long look, explaining the conflicts over a five-year period, beginning with the Arab Spring protests of 2011. Check local listings.

2017

Jul

THE TWILIGHT ZONE MARATHON By David Bianculli

It’s an annual tradition at Syfy, the 4th of July marathon of Twilight Zone episodes, and it begins at midnight ET tonight, so get ready for the earliest batch, which in these overnight hours includes Carol Burnett and Jesse White in a Rod Serling-written 1962 episode, “Cavender is Coming.” Of special interest when watching this episode: Burnett told me she had a major crush on Serling at the time, though nothing happened and he was, at the time, happily married.

2017

Jul

ANOTHER STRONG SEASON OF 'JANET KING' COMES TO ACORN By David Hinckley

For the record, I liked Janet King even before I knew she doesn’t understand cricket either. Now that I know, I like her more. It’s like we’ve bonded...

2017

Jul

AMERICA IN COLOR By David Bianculli

MINISERIES PREMIERE: To answer the question, “Why watch a documentary series where all it does is present colorized images of still photos and newsreel footage”,” all you have to do is see the accompanying photo of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. Or read the reviews by Ed Bark for his latest Uncle Barky’s Bytes blog and David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower. Either way, you should watch. That’s my verdict – right here in black and white.

2017

Jul

DRESSED TO KILL By David Bianculli

There are a couple of brazenly concocted and photographed set pieces in this 1980 Brian De Palma thriller, which stars Michael Caine as a psychiatrist, and Keith Gordon and Nancy Allen as young people trying to identify and trap a murderer who targets attractive women. One is when Angie Dickinson, in a lengthy tracking shot through an art gallery, is stalked by the killer. The other is when Allen, a call girl, offers herself up as bait to distract Caine, whose patient she suspects of being the m

2017

Jul

SERENITY By David Bianculli

In 2002, Joss Whedon followed up Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel with another excellent genre series, Firefly, about the captain and crew of a rogue spaceship traveling the untamed far reached of space – an inventive mashup of sci-fi and the Western, starring Nathan Fillion, pre-Castle, as the ship’s cavalier captain. Firefly lasted only one season before Fox canceled it. But Whedon loved its characters and premise enough to revive it one more time, in a 2005 movie version called

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