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

 
 
2012
Jul
1
 
 
This day in 1941 marked the first day of commercial television broadcasting. Although "experimental" television had been around since 1939, July 1, 1941 was the day that the Federal Communications Commission licenses went into effect, permitting broadcasters to transmit programs and advertising. The first channels to receive FCC licenses were New York's WNBT (the precursor to WNBC), operated by the National Broadcasting Company, and WCBW (now CBS) operated by the Columbia Broadcasting System.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jul
1
 
 
As cryptic as modern art can be, performance art can be the most challenging. And it can be the most moving. Both sides are revealed in one artist's work...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jun
30
 
 

Cable news outlets got the U.S. Supreme Court health care decision embarrassingly wrong — but cable entertainment programs, in criticizing their rush to judgment, got it spectacularly right...

 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jun
30
 
 
They’ve finally announced a sequel to this stylized 2005 movie – one that’s scheduled to arrive in fall 2013. Many of the stars of this first drama, though, won’t take part, because a lot of characters died before the film was over. But it’s always fun to watch, party because of its visual bravado, and partly because it has a lot of interesting actors and actresses in minor as well as major roles. Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis star, but check out the supporting cas
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jun
30
 
 
Patton Oswalt is wonderful, and wonderfully sincere, in this 2009 character study about a quiet nobody who finds his voice, and his passion, only when he phones in to a radio sports talk show. It may sound like an opportunity for ridicule, but this movie is up to something a lot more ambitious than that.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jun
30
 
 
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. This 1941 Preston Sturges film stars Joel McCrea as a director who forsakes his successful string of comedy films and hits the rails to find life’s true meaning, costumed as a hobo and searching out the truth in basic human drama. Veronica Lake co-stars, and this is one of the smartest movies ever made about Hollywood.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jun
30
 
 
This 2002 movie isn’t good, but its stars deserve mention, and maybe a quick look, for what they’ve done lately. It’s a drama about a battered wife who ultimately fights back, and the leading roles are played by Jennifer Lopez (her career now revived because of American Idol) and Billy Campbell (his career now revived because of his role as the politician in The Killing).
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jun
30
 
 
This repeat features Coldplay as the musical guest, and Emma Stone as the guest host. She’s pretty good, and certainly game, though the writers didn’t really do her justice. The costume and photo crew did, however. She mentioned in a recent interview that one of her heroes is Gilda Radner, and one of this show’s interstitial “lobby cards” (shown in photo) features her sporting Radner’s Roseanne Roseannadanna wig – which Stone called an absolute thrill. I
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jun
30
 
 
On this day in 1955, CBS introduced the prime-time variety show, The Johnny Carson Show. The half-hour program was one of the first starring vehicles for Carson, a Los Angeles-based comedian who came to the network's attention as a monologue writer for The Red Skelton Show. One could say it was a practice run for his eventual role as the long-running host of NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Ironically the CBS show wasn't well-received, and was cancelled eleven months la
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jun
29
 
 
In HBO’s new drama series The Newsroom, Jeff Daniels plays a veteran newsman who ultimately decides to take the brave step of “speaking truth to stupid.” In real life, Bill Moyers is doing that already – as exemplified by this week’s new essay, in which he describes what we should really be thinking about during the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. Moyers & Company is shown by local public TV stations between Friday and Sunday. To find it in your local area, cli