This part of today’s TCM salute to Lauren Bacall arrives late – well, late at night, anyway – but it’s worth the wait. Bacall, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe co-star in this 1953 comedy, playing three women who finagle their way into temporary use of a luxury Manhattan apartment, and try to pool their resources to find and land a rich husband or two. Or three.

2014

Sep

THE ROOSEVELTS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY By David Bianculli

MINISERIES PREMIERE: Ken Burns, writer Geoffrey C. Ward and the rest of Burns’ eager and talented collaborators present what emerges, ultimately, as the finest Ken Burns epic to date: a joint biography of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The voices of those formidable historical figures are provided, respectively, by Paul Giamatti, Edward Herrmann and Meryl Streep, with narration by Peter Coyote and on-camera observations by, among others, Ward himself. Tonight’s Part 1, whi

2014

Sep

SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL By David Bianculli

The San Francisco 49ers won its first game of the season with ease, having its way both offensively and defensively against the Dallas Cowboys. The Chicago Bears, meanwhile, lost its first game the hard way – in overtime, against the Buffalo Bills. Tonight the 49ers and Bears play each other, with San Francisco enjoying home-field advantage.

2014

Sep

THE 2015 MISS AMERICA COMPETITION By David Bianculli

Once called a pageant, and now renamed to reflect not just something less superficial but also something intended to last past the calendar year, tonight’s live TV special is titled The 2015 Miss America Competition. It’s still, in essence, the same beauties on parade event that began in Atlantic City in 1921, the year of Prohibition and the initial setting of Boardwalk Empire. The Miss America pageant, now on ABC, may have lost some of its luster of late – but hey, so has Atla

2014

Sep

BOARDWALK EMPIRE By David Bianculli

Speaking of Boardwalk Empire, this show’s final season has Nucky (Steve Buscemi) planning for the repeal of Prohibition, and planning to go legit in the liquor distribution business. But that doesn’t come easily, and there are factions out to remove Nucky from the equation entirely. Yet just as transition doesn’t come easily, Nucky doesn’t go easily. Nor does Chalky, another Boardwalk Empire character with a keenly honed knack for survival.

2014

Sep

HARRY AT 30 By David Bianculli

Tomorrow, on Sept. 15, HRH Prince Henry of Wales – that’s Prince Harry to you, and to me, and almost everybody else – turns 30 years old. (Older brother, Prince William, is 32, making these siblings the exact ages of my own son and daughter, respectively. Never realized that before.) Tonight’s BBC America special looks at Prince Harry’s life to date – which gives the network one more chance to court Anglophiles by replaying footage from the 1981 wedding of Pri

2014

Sep

MASTERS OF SEX By David Bianculli

After all this time, last week’s episode ended with Masters (Michael Sheen) confessing to Johnson (Lizzy Caplan), in the privacy of their hotel room, that he had a sexual problem. Maybe this week’s episode will begin with him telling her what it is… as the plot, like their relationship and their affair, continues to thicken.

2014

Sep

GREAT PERFORMANCES: “STAR-SPANGLED SPECTACULAR” By David Bianculli

Here’s a live musical performance that’s guaranteed to be off-key. Well, off-Key, anyway. It’s a celebration, live from Baltimore, of the 200th anniversary of Francis Scott Key’s composition of what became our national anthem. At some point in tonight’s show, American Idol winner Jordin Sparks (pictured), backed by the U.S. Marine Band and the Morgan State Choir, will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” – but before that, lots of other people will sing

2014

Sep

BELLE DE JOUR By David Bianculli

In 1968, when Catherine Deneuve starred in this moody and surrealistic Luis Bunuel film, she was taking quite a risk. Bunuel had famously, and infamously, jump-started the surrealistic movie movement, way back in 1929, by collaborating with Salvador Dali on Un Chien Andalou, that short film with the unforgettable slit-eyeball shot. And here he was, decades later, wanting to make a movie in which Deneuve plays a frigid housewife who moonlights – daylights, actually – as a prostitute.

2014

Sep

FRUITVALE STATION By David Bianculli

Michael B. Jordan is a movie star here – in this 2013 fact-based drama, he plays the central character in a story about an ill-fated young man on New Year’s Eve. But fans of quality TV have tracked his star appeal for a while now – as Alex in Parenthood, as Vince in Friday Night Lights, and, long before those excellent performances, as Wallace in The Wire. So don’t be surprised if he draws you in here. He’s been doing that for years.

Posts 91-100 of 169

9 10 11 12 13

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption