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DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2020
Sep
8
BIOGRAPHY: "I WANT MY MTV" By David Bianculli
 
 
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: It was August 1, 1981, when a new cable channel called MTV launched – and took the “launch” designation seriously, by building its opening campaign around images related to a manned space launch to the moon. The MTV flag was “planted” on the moon with colorfully animated variations, and to this day, the MTV Video Music Awards handed out are in the shape of flag-wielding “moon men.” I was a TV critic in Akron, Ohio, then, watching an
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Sep
8
HARD KNOCKS: TRAINING CAMP By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: With the potential start of the potentially infected 2020 NFL pro football season just around the corner, HBO presents the season finale of its annual preseason sports documentary, Hard Knocks. It’s a season unlike any other, with the two Los Angeles teams, the Rams and the Chargers, struggling to cope with preparing for play while playing it safe from transmitting COVID-19. And last week, even those concerns were dwarfed by something else very significant that was
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Sep
8
HAVE PREQUELS LIVED UP TO THEIR HYPE? By David Hinckley
 
 
You wouldn't think prequels would be an automatic winner in the treacherous television programming game...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Sep
8
1966: 'STAR TREK' LAUNCHES ON NBC By TV WW
 
 
This day in 1966 marked the debut of Star Trek — later known as Star Trek: The Original Series to differentiate the show from its many TV and film spinoffs — on NBC...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Sep
7
1967: 'THE FLYING NUN' SOARS ONTO ABC By TV WW
 
 
On this day in 1967, ABC introduced The Flying Nun, starring Sally Field...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Sep
7
END OF SUMMER TOUR By David Bianculli
 
 
TCM’s “End of Summer Tour,” which started showing concert and musical movies and documentaries last Friday, concludes tonight with one last festive and/or festival night of programming. And what a night. The 1968 documentary Monterey Pop, about the 1967 music festival that changed the Sixties, starts things off at 8 p.m. ET. Whose careers were pushed into high gear by that astounding gathering of musical stylists? Janis Joplin. Jimi Hendrix (pictured). The Who. Ravi S
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Sep
7
P.O.V.: "PORTRAITS AND DREAMS" By David Bianculli
 
 
Elizabeth Barret and photographer Wendy Ewald collaborated on this new edition of P.O.V., which tells her story of getting others to tell their stories – and what a story it is. In the 1970s, she taught elementary school at three schools in Letcher County, Kentucky, and armed her young students with cameras, dispatching them with orders to photograph themselves and their rural and mostly poor Appalachian homes, communities and lifestyles. A decade later, Ewald published
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Sep
7
BIG CAT WEEK: NATGEO WILD'S 'JADE EYED LEOPARD' A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH By Alex Strachan
 
 
On the face of it, National Geographic's annual Big Cat Week...sounds as if it was designed to cash in on the success of rival Discovery's better-known, long-running Shark Week. It's an easy assumption to make, but it would be wrong...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Sep
7
DESPITE THE MOVIE THEATER BEING YOUR HOME, 'MULAN' IS STILL WORTH THE SCREEN TIME By Mike Hughes
 
 
I just remembered why I love movies – the big, sweeping kind that fills the screen and fill your eyes and ears and thoughts. I also found that I miss seeing them in their natural habitat...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Sep
6
GET SMART MARATHON By David Bianculli
 
 
The second day of Decades’ weekend Get Smart marathon continues, with another 3,000 episodes from the classic 1965-70 spy spoof created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. Would you believe the final 1,234 episodes?  How about… a couple dozen?
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley