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

 
 
2020
Apr
8
 
 
SERIES REVIVAL: In 1999, Regis Philbin hosted an American version of the British quiz-show hit Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and ended up presiding over an instant and mammoth U.S. hit so huge, it propelled ABC to first place – and only lost steam because the network greedily overexposed it by programming it at every opportunity, over up to four nights weekly. But tonight, Millionaire returns for a limited 10-show run – with celebrity contestants playing for thei
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
7
 
 
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: Part 1 of 2. This two-part, four-hour documentary has Ken Burns as its primary executive producer, and is based on the book by physician and New Yorker writer Siddhartha Mukherjee. The other name that stands out, to me, is that of its top-listed TV writer, Geoffrey C. Ward, who has been a major contributor to most of Burns’ best nonfiction miniseries, The Civil War included. (By the way? Want to feel old? This fall, PBS’s The C
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
7
 
 
SERIES FINALE: The finale of this engagingly weird comedy is shown tonight not only on Pop TV, which has ended up being its too-obscure TV home base, but also is simulcast on Comedy Central. See it – and then go back and revel in the rest of the series, based on the comic premise that a wealthy family falls on super-hard times, then remembers that one family member once gifted another with the purchase of a small town with an absurd name: Schitt’s Creek. They end up relocating there,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
7
 
 
Two long-running comedies say farewell this week. One is much loved, one much-liked. Both will be greatly missed. And together, they show how life (especially TV life) has changed in a decade or so...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
7
 
 
This day in 1996 marked the end of Bonnie, the second-chance CBS sitcom starring Second City veteran Bonnie Hunt...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
6
 
 
On this day in 1992, PBS introduced Barney & Friends...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
6
 
 
If David Tennant moves into your town, here's a tip: Move out immediately. Tennant is a wonderful actor, but every time he shows up these days, it seems that a grisly fate befalls some local innocent...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
6
 
 
STREAMING SERVICE PREMIERE: History will record, eventually, whether this new streaming service concept was unfortunate enough to be the right idea at the exact wrong time. The idea behind Quibi, which launches today, is to offer video entertainment in easily digested bite-sized chunks, with each video running 10 minutes or less. Movie-length dramas and comedies are rolled out like old Saturday matinee serials, one short chapter at a time. Some shows are tiny pieces of entertainment, like a sort
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
6
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: In the latest U.K. import to star David Tennant and feature a picturesque remote town, Deadwater Fell is an investigative drama with a twist. Before the first episode is over, Tennant’s character suffers a tragedy, when his family is consumed by a fire that engulfs their home. But the drama in Deadwater Fell isn’t what happened to them – but why. And, most crucially, by whom. And as with all these remote rural British drama, the truth, a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
6
 
 
So “Saul” and Kim are married now. And Mike Ehrmentraut and Gus Fring are officially seeking vengeance together. And look which familiar, foreboding faces are showing up tonight (see photo). But what that all means for the final installments of this season’s Better Call Saul, I have no idea. But I do know this: Come awards time next year, if there are TV awards next year, Better Call Emmy…