Along with the final versions of the new fall TV series, my current stack of preview DVDs also includes several 9/11 10th anniversary specials, with more arriving every day. Once again, as in a decade ago, I'm being bombarded with more horrific images and emotional video than any one person should have to absorb...

2011

Aug

FALL CASTING: CHAZ BONO, NANCY GRACE AMONG 'DWTS' CONTENDERS By Diane Werts

There's Cher's daughter turned son, a Queer Eye guy, a Kardashian, a brawling basketballer, Ricki Lake and Nancy Grace. Just for starters. So who's not watching Dancing With the Stars this time?...

2011

Aug

GOODNIGHT, IRENE... HELLO, GAGA? By David Bianculli

Even after Hurricane Irene had passed to the north Sunday and was about to be demoted to tropical storm, I remained without electricity in southern New Jersey. But after more than 12 literally powerless hours (take away electricity, and a TV critic hasn't got much of a day job), the power came back on... just in time for the MTV Video Music Awards. Ten minutes later, I turned off the TV and went upstairs to bed...

2011

Aug

MSNBC'S SHARPTON HIRE GIVES IT YET ANOTHER LEFT HOOK By Ed Bark

MSNBC's concerted tilt to the left just got more top-heavy with the official addition of the Rev. Al Sharpton as the network's newest full-time host. Sharpton, who has been auditioning for the past two months in MSNBC's 6 p.m. ET slot, will begin helming the new PoliticsNation at that hour this Monday (Aug. 29). The heat-seeking firebrand joins a roster of like-minded politicos who already have their own shows...

2011

Aug

STARING HURRICANES RIGHT IN THE EYE -- AND LIVING TO TELL THE TALE (IF YOU CALL THIS LIVING) By David Bianculli

[SUNDAY UPDATE: Lost power, but not resolve. And while the non-powered sump pump had me up before daybreak, toting buckets of water from the basement like those brooms in Fantasia, I have no complaints. Yet... And thanks to Dunkin' Donuts, for being the only place open just after the hurricane hit. Thanks for the coffee, AND the free WiFi... - DB]

2011

Aug

'BURIED TREASURE' - OR JUST MORE TV JUNK? By Ronnie Gill

Wow! When I first heard about Fox's new "Buried Treasure" (Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET), I thought: I'm going to love this show. It's Antiques Roadshow coming to houses like mine and justifying all those years of going to garage, church and yard sales. It's about everyday people picking up something for a dollar or a dime that is going to make them -- well, a millionaire...

2011

Aug

LOUIS C.K.'S WINNING YEAR OF LOSING By Eric Gould

Louis C.K. Is about to wrap up his second season of -- I'm not sure of the right term -- dramedy? Performance art work? Stand-up documentary? A hybrid of all of them? Whatever it is, Louie (Thursday nights at 10:30 ET on FX) is something uniquely his. And it deserves credit as a TV milestone, for both its structure and its intent...

2011

Aug

BILL MOYERS RETURNS TO TV -- A WELCOME MOVE, BUT NOT WELCOME AT PBS By David Bianculli

Bill Moyers will be coming back to TV in January, it was announced yesterday, with a weekly interview series called Moyers & Company, featuring one-on-one conversations with people other than the usual TV talking heads. I'm thrilled by that news, but PBS obviously isn't. The new Moyers show is offered not by the network, but offered instead to local member stations via the American Public Television distribution system...

2011

Aug

PBS 'P.O.V.: SHORT CUTS' HAS SPINOFF GOLD HIDDEN WITHIN By David Bianculli

The latest edition of the PBS series P.O.V., premiering Tuesday night at 10 ET (check local listings), is a potpourri program called Short Cuts, an hour of six entertaining short films. They're all good -- but two of them, animated versions of conversations recorded for the oral history project StoryCorps, are gold. And it's gold that, like the Simpsons shorts originally featured on The Tracey Ullman Show, should be spun off into their own regular series. It could be the most popular, and profitable, and even important, new PBS series in years...

2011

Aug

GOOD SPORTS: 'LITTLE' WORLD SERIES, BIG HEART By Diane Werts

Whoa! Man! Have you been watching this Little League World Series on ESPN? These 11-to-13-year-olds from all over the world are amazing. Tuesday night's Georgia-Pennsylvania game was 6-3 after the first inning -- and we'd already seen incredible slides and tags and almost-home-runs and down-the-line triples and overturned replay calls and just about anything else you could want in a baseball game...

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