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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

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Uncle Barky's Bytes

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TV That Matters

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Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

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TV Feeds My Family

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TV Eye

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Must-Click TV

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Raised On MTM

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Crossing Jordan

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TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2020
May
7
THE GOOD FIGHT By David Bianculli
 
 
The Good Fight isn’t on CBS, just on CBS All Access – but it’s still one of the best shows on all of TV each Thursday. It’s annoying CBS makes you pay extra for the privilege – but a privilege it is nonetheless. And it’s worth pointing out that two of this show’s female stars, Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald, recently teamed with no less than Meryl Streep on a show-stopping diva trio, singing “The Ladies Who Lunch” in the
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
7
NATIONAL THEATRE AT HOME: "ANTONY & CLEOPATRA" By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: Here’s another limited-time-offer treat from England’s National Theatre. On its website and on its own YouTube channel, for one week beginning this afternoon, National Theatre At Home presents yet another televised stage production from its archives. Today it’s Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okodeno in Antony & Cleopatra. It’s directed by Simon Godwin, whose earlier TV work directing a play by William Shakespeare was shown just two weeks ago
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
7
WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? By David Bianculli
 
 
It’s been 21 years since this ABC game show originally premiered in the U.S., as an American version of a British hit, with Regis Philbin as the stateside host. For this revival, the host is Jimmy Kimmel – but the reason I’m recommending you watch tonight is because one of the guests is Catherine O’Hara, the SCTV and Schitt’s Creek veteran who almost never shows up on television as herself, rather than playing some outlandish character. Tonight,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
7
AUSTRALIA'S 'BAD MOTHERS' HAS ARRIVED FOR STREAMING ON SUNDANCE NOW By David Hinckley
 
 
So here’s this group of women in an upscale community, and they hang out together, and some of their kids go to school together. Some of them have more money than others...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
7
1970: 'DANIEL BOONE' ENDS ITS RUN ON NBC By David Bianculli
 
 
On this day in 1970, Daniel Boone, starring Fess Parker, ended its run on NBC...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
6
1980: RON HOWARD AND DONNY MOST EXIT 'HAPPY DAYS' By TV WW
 
 
This day in 1980 marked the final Happy Days episode in which Ron Howard and Donny Most appeared as series regulars...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
6
BECOMING By David Bianculli
 
 
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: Maybe there’s no way to approach this new Netflix documentary, which profiles and shadows former First Lady Michelle Obama as she embarks on her nationwide book tour for her 2018 memoir Becoming, without being political. But frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. This special has impressive shades of scale: It includes not only the giant arena tour venues, with the author interviewed by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King and Stephen Colbert, but pr
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
6
MRS. AMERICA By David Bianculli
 
 
In today’s Episode 6 of Mrs. America, anti-ERA activist Phyllis Schlafly (played so shrewdly by Cate Blachett) comes up against a new opponent. With only a few years to go in which the proponents of the Equal Rights Amendment must get an additional handful of states to ratify the amendment, they enlist a Republican voice of support: Jill Ruckelhaus, played by Elizabeth Banks (pictured). But Schlafly remains a force to be reckoned with – and here comes the reckoning.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
6
THE BIG INTERVIEW WITH DAN RATHER By David Bianculli
 
 
In tonight’s new edition of his one-hour one-on-one interview show, Dan Rather talks with Robbie Robertson – who is very comfortable talking to Rather not only about his years with The Band, but all those years, with and without The Band, with Bob Dylan. And that includes the day Dylan went electric, which makes this an electrifying TV interview indeed.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
6
ASIAN AMERICANS IN CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s lineup of film rarities, presented under the TCM banner “Asian Americans in Classic Hollywood,” serves up two silent films, then one from the sound era. First up, at 8 p.m. ET, is 1919’s The Dragon Painter, an allegory about a man who believes a beautiful woman has metamorphosed into a dragon. Then come two movies starring Anna May Wong: At 9 p.m. ET, it’s 1929’s Piccadilly, a silent film (with dance numbers!) in which she stars a
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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