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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

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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

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Ed Martin's TV Mix

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TV Feeds My Family

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TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2020
May
6
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS By David Bianculli
 
 
On last week’s show, a neighboring vampire clan was discovered – right there in the Staten Island neighborhood – and many of them were dispatched by a very familiar familiar. This week, the rivalry is more immediate. It’s at work, where Colin usually is overlooked – but this week, he’s up for a promotion.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
6
BROCKMIRE By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES FINALE: It’s the last time at bat for Hank Azaria as Brockmire. This season, the fourth and final, finds him eight years in the future – in 2030 – and fighting for the survival of baseball itself. Brockmire, for this final year, dared to dream a dystopian dream, in which the country and its national pastime were a very different place. And this was before the pandemic…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
5
JERRY SEINFELD: 23 HOURS TO KILL By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: This standup comedy special, filmed last October at New York’s Beacon Theatre but only now premiering, is a remnant of the pre-corona age. Seinfeld is on stage in front of a sold-out, crammed-in audience. And while Jerry Seinfeld is ranting about perceived slights and minor annoyances, he’s complaining about things that now seem not only quaint, but temporarily unattainable. A buffet in Las Vegas? Seinfeld lists lots of very funny reasons why the buffet is a bad ide
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
5
THE SCARLET EMPRESS By David Bianculli
 
 
I saw this 1934 Marlene Dietrich historical drama when I was a college student taking a film course – and now, whenever I teach film at Rowan University, I try to find time to show this same movie, hoping it’ll warp and amaze them now the way it affected me then. Dietrich was Josef von Sternberg’s muse, and he lit and photographed and showcased her in ways that redefined cinematic glamour – and, in this movie about the rise and ruthlessness of Catherine the Great, movie k
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
5
NATALIE WOOD: WHAT REMAINS BEHIND By David Bianculli
 
 
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: This biography of actress Natalie Wood is authorized in the most obvious sense, by her family, including two-time husband Robert Wagner, who is interviewed at length anew, by her daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner. What’s not part of this biography, then, is an examination of questions surrounding her death – at least not the rumors that swirl around every so often, about the circumstances about her drowning death off the coast of Catalina, allegedly falling off a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
5
'NATALIE WOOD: WHAT REMAINS BEHIND' CELEBRATES HER LIFE RATHER THAN EXAMINE HER DEATH By David Hinckley
 
 
Almost four decades after Natalie Wood died, her family would love to have the world remember a lot more about her films and a little less about her death...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
5
1988: 'MAX HEADROOM' MAKES ITS EXIT ON ABC By David Bianculli
 
 
This day in 1988 marked the last telecast of Max Headroom on ABC...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
4
1996: 'SISTERS' ENDS ITS RUN ON NBC By TV WW
 
 
This day in 1996 marked the final telecast of the NBC drama, Sisters...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
4
'AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: GEORGE W. BUSH' RECOUNTS THE EVOLUTION OF A PRESIDENT By Mike Hughes
 
 
For four noisy – and kind of cheerful – decades, there was nothing presidential about George W. Bush. But then came the flip side...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
4
STAR WARS MARATHON By David Bianculli
 
 
Beginning at 7:30 a.m. ET, and running all day and into prime time, TBS presents a full day of Star Wars movies. Its programming hook is the date: It’s May 4, an excuse for TBS to promote its Star Wars marathon as “May the Fourth Be With You.” The marathon begins with 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope, which once was titled, simply, Star Wars. Personally, I worry when network publicity and programming departments stretch so far, and stoo
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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