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

 
 
2014
Sep
9
 
 
For this new PBS special, the producers of Pioneers of Television have taken their interview with, and footage of, Robin Williams, compiled for an earlier installment on TV comedians, and supplemented them with fresh interviews of peers offering remembrances and appreciative remarks. Pioneers usually takes a simple and superficial approach to its chosen subjects, but even that, in this case, is worthwhile – especially since it features such now-resonant clips as Williams acting opposite Jo
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
9
 
 
The news of the Ebola outbreak is spreading – but not as fast as the disease itself. That makes this new Frontline installment, examining not only the disease’s modern resurgence to the tactics and efforts to contain and combat it, particularly timely, as well as important. Also included: a separate report on the hunt for the radical Islamic group Boko Harum in Nigeria, and how that hunt has resulted in its own history of atrocities. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
9
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: For this final season of Sons of Anarchy, the opening episode both begins and ends with a song on the soundtrack that plays uninterrupted – wildly different songs, but in both cases accompanied by almost unwatchable depictions of graphic and sadistic violence. The point? Jax (Charlie Hunnam) has not exactly come to terms with the murder of his wife, Tara – and one of the people on whom he relies most, in the aftermath of that tragedy, is, unknown to him, Tara’s
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
8
 
 
A Monday afternoon men’s final at the U.S. Open is unusual enough – but the players vying for the title this year are even more so. It’s the first time in a long time, almost a decade, that the final is being played by someone outside of the men’s game’s so-called “Big Four” – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray. It’s the first time that the U.S. Open men’s final will be played by two double-digit seeds: No. 10 Kei
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
8
 
 
This week, more NFL evening games will be played in prime time, I believe, than at any time in TV history. There’s already been one game last night on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. And in three days CBS launches the official start of Thursday Night Football. Meanwhile, tonight, ESPN presents the flagship evening NFL game it inherited long ago from ABC, Monday Night Football, with a rare doubleheader event. At 7 p.m. ET, it’s the New York Giants vs. the Detroit Lions. Then, at 10
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
8
 
 
Former firefighter Steve Buscemi, currently starring in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, interviews his old firehouse buddies, and others, in this fond salute to New York firemen, and firewomen. I’ve heard stories for years about how Buscemi, avoiding publicity and wanting only to help, rejoined his old Engine 55 company to show up at Ground Zero the day after 9/11. This documentary, directed by Liz Garbus, confirms that, and even includes eerie footage shot with Buscemi’s own video cam
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
8
 
 
The point of view in tonight’s new POV, titled The Genius of Marian, is an intimate look at a family sadly familiar with Alzheimer’s. Marian Williams Steele, the renowned artist, died from Alzheimer’s in 2001. Her daughter, Pam White, set to work on a book about her mother, tentatively titled The Genius of Marian, then was stricken by Alzheimer’s herself. Her son Banker White, one of Pam’s three children – portrayed, along with his mother, Pam, in the Marian S
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
8
 
 
Tonight’s guest: John Lithgow, whose new film is Love Is Strange, and who’s done double duty on the Broadway stage, having just played King Lear in Central Park, and preparing to play Tobias in A Delicate Balance, which begins previews next month. Colbert’s best guests are the ones who get, and can react to and keep up with, his sense of humor. That makes Lithgow an ideal guest, so stay tuned.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
8
 
 

CBS announced Monday that beginning in 2015, Craig Ferguson’s replacement as host of The Late Late Show will be James Corden. If that name is familiar here in the States, it’s because of what imported treats you’ve been watching…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
7
 
 
The U.S. Open has been a very upsetting sports event this year – that is, in the fact that major upsets occurred all over the place. The men’s championship game, played tomorrow afternoon, features two players appearing in their first major final. And today’s women’s championship, while featuring the dominant and accomplished Serena Williams, has as the other finalist Caroline Wozniacki, who got here by outlasting Peng Shuai in a match, played under grueling, sweltering c