DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: This new documentary salutes Lucille Ball, one of the pioneers and moguls of television. Next year will mark the 70th anniversary of I Love Lucy, the groundbreaking sitcom starring Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, who co-founded Desilu Studios and changed the way, and the place, most TV sitcoms were made. I teach this stuff, and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s importance to TV history – and am interested to see how Reelz covers the same ground.

2020

Sep

1954: CBS INTRODUCED 'LASSIE' By TV WW

On this day in 1954, CBS introduced the series, Lassie...

2020

Sep

1967: 'THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW' DEBUTS By TV WW

On this day in 1967, CBS introduced the popular variety/sketch series, The Carol Burnett Show...

2020

Sep

9/11 REMEMBERED: THE DAY WE CAME TOGETHER By David Bianculli

Today is, of course, the 19th anniversary of the destructive tragedies of 9/11. Next year, on the 20th anniversary, expect a much more prominent display of remembrance than TV provided this morning and is providing tonight. (Television and journalists love round numbers.) But ABC, at least, is devoting prime time to a special offering perspective about what happened, in three different locations, that day in September in 2001.

2020

Sep

URSULA ANDRESS TRIPLE FEATURE By David Bianculli

Three movies featuring Ursula Andress are shown by TCM tonight. The first is somewhat iconic, the second forgettable save for its special effects – and the third is a personal favorite. Starting the triple feature at 8 p.m. ET is 1965’s She, in which the actress sports a headdress, and costume (pictured), rivaling anything Elizabeth Taylor wore two years earlier in Cleopatra. At 10 p.m. ET comes 1981’s Clash of the Titans, memorable for Ray Harryha

2020

Sep

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli

After the Bob Woodward interview revelations with President Trump, it’s easy to imagine Bill Maher pacing impatiently backstage to get out there and deliver this week’s monologue. A president whose true thoughts, and true nature, are captured on audiotape. A president whose time in the White House may end up cut short, in part due to the dogged reporting of Bob Woodward. A nation divided by so many issues, with its leader pushing a fearful law-and-order platform. It’s such old

2020

Sep

CULT FILM TRIPLE FEATURE By David Bianculli

After three Ursula Andress films, TCM presents three cult classics. Well, two cult classics and a relatively rare cult “sequel.” First up: at 2:45 a.m. ET, 1957’s Plan 9 from Outer Space, the low-budget sci-fi messterpiece featuring Maila Nurmi, a.k.a. Vampira (pictured), and Tor Johnson. It was directed by Edward D. Wood Jr., immortalized by Johnny Depp in the wonderful movie Ed Wood. At 4:15 a.m. ET comes 1936’s infamous anti-drug film Reefer Ma

2020

Sep

THE SIT-IN: HARRY BELAFONTE HOSTS THE TONIGHT SHOW By David Bianculli

DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: For an entire week in February 1968, Johnny Carson turned over the reins of his NBC Tonight Show, the dominant late-night program in the country, to entertainer and civil-rights activist Harry Belafonte. Carson knew exactly what he was doing, and probably had a better idea of what Belafonte would do as guest host than most of the millions of viewers who tuned in. At a time when people of color still were relative rarities on TV, and examinations of civil rights is

2020

Sep

FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: For football fans, this is a season unlike any other – but it appears it will begin on schedule, at least regarding tonight’s season-opening Thursday night game, the first official contest of the 2020 NFL pro season. The Houston Texans and the Kansas City Chiefs take the field at Arrowhead Stadium, where the audience capacity in that Kansas City venue will be limited to 20 percent. I wonder how they set up and enforce six-feet-distancing at the food vendor stalls, wh

2020

Sep

MASH By David Bianculli

In this 1970 movie directed so inventively by Robert Altman, Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould play renegade Army surgeons Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John, the roles played in the subsequent TV series by Alan Alda and Wayne Rogers, respectively. The Korean War setting is the same in both the TV show and the movie, but Altman’s take is much darker, and there are other differences as well. The only film actor to reprise his or her role for the CBS spinoff is Gary Burghoff, who played clair

Posts 101-110 of 157

10 11 12 13 14

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