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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

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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
May
9
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: This just in, as they say… NBC has just announced that Saturday Night Live will be ending its current season with tonight’s episode. Usually, the show runs through May, but this third “At Home” edition, presenting sketches and musical guests and a guest host, all performing from separate, isolated home locations, will be this series’ final original production until fall. Previous “At Home” installments were broadcast on April 11
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
9
BREWSTER MCCLOUD By David Bianculli
 
 
In 1970, Robert Altman broke into the big time by directing MASH, the hit movie (later to be adapted as an even more popular TV series, with asterisks added) starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould. The film was so popular, Altman was given the green light to do whatever he wanted to do next – and what he wanted to do next, later that same year in 1970, was this bizarre, weirdly charming allegorical story. Bud Cort, who had appeared in MASH in a small role, and who
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
9
1992: 'THE GOLDEN GIRLS' ENDS ITS RUN ON NBC By TV WW
 
 
On this day in 1992, The Golden Girls wrapped its seventh and final season...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
8
1988: ABC PRESENTS 'THE BOURNE IDENTITY' MINISERIES By TV WW
 
 
On this day in 1988, ABC presented a miniseries version of Robert Ludlum's thriller, The Bourne Identity...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
8
DEAD TO ME By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: The first season of this Netflix series, which stars Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini as two women with what you might call complicated pasts, was one of last year’s more pleasant surprises. As a dual character study, it was impeccable. As a comedy, it was so dry and patient, it was easy to forget it was a comedy, until something Applegate’s understandably acerbic character said made you laugh out loud. As a mystery, and even as a drama, it could pu
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
8
THE EDDY By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Damien Chazelle, the Oscar-winning La La Land director, once again presents a story built around a love of music and, yes, another jazz club. But The Eddy, an eight-episode drama series presented today by Netflix, is vastly different. La La Land was a movie musical, giddy in its occasional flights of fancy amid the more grounded love story it was telling. The Eddy is reality-based in its love of music and the local community flavor, more l
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
8
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli
 
 
Among tonight’s virtual interview guests is someone with whom Bill Maher should have a spirited discussion indeed: Libertarian presidential candidate Justin Amash. I still remember Maher and Michael Moore dropping to their knees to beg Ralph Nader to stop his pursuit of the presidency as a third-party candidate in 2004 (pictured). They feared Nader might siphon off enough votes to allow the Republican incumbent to defeat the Democratic challenger. And he did: Nader persisted, John Kerry wa
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
8
THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW By David Bianculli
 
 
Among tonight’s not-in-person guests: Imelda Staunton, who played Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter movies. She also was featured in the 2019 movie version of Downton Abbey, which, like the TV series, starred her real-life husband, Jim Carter, who played the officious head butler, Mr. Carson. While Staunton is “visiting” Graham from the safety of her own home, her husband makes a cameo appearance, serving her a beverage while looking anything but butlery&
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
8
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF PARISIAN MUSIC CLUBS ON 'THE EDDY' By David Hinckley
 
 
The new Netflix series The Eddy is what we meant years ago when we described something as “a foreign film.”...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
8
BINGE-WATCHING ‘THE CROWN’ IN THE AGE OF COVID-19 By Alex Strachan
 
 
There’s nothing like a pandemic coupled with a stay-at-home order to convince one to catch up on their binge-viewing, in the somewhat vain hope that one’s Netflix watch list will become manageable...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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