All this month, TCM has been leading up to the Academy Awards telecast by showing movies, moviemakers and stars that have either won or been nominated for Oscars. I mention it now only because tonight’s lineup is a quartet of movies that, taken together, are an almost unfairly strong evening of cinematic entertainment. Two Dustin Hoffman standout movies start things off, with 1982’s Tootsie at 8 p.m. ET and 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer at 10 ET, followed by two Robert De Niro class

2016

Feb

AMERICA MASTERS: "B.B. KING: THE LIFE OF RILEY" By David Bianculli

If you’re puzzled by the subtitle of this week’s new American Masters entry, B.B. King: The Life of Riley, the first thing you should know is that the late blues legend B.B. King’s real first name is Riley. This biography, like last week’s profile of the late Mike Nichols, is told mostly via vintage interviews with the documentary subject himself, along with supplemental interviews by close friends and collaborators. In this case, those interviewed include Keith Richards

2016

Feb

DAVID BOWIE: FIVE YEARS By David Bianculli

The key thing about this new David Bowie documentary is that the Five Years in the title are sequential but not chronological. Or, if this is clearer, they’re in order, but they skip some years. The Five Years examined here start with 1971, the year of Ziggy Stardust, and end with 1983 and the Niles Rodgers-produced “Let’s Dance.” In between – well, if you want to know that, you should be watching this special. Check local listings.

2016

Feb

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli

What a news week – and Bill Maher will be here to comment on it all, along with NBC foreign correspondent Richard Engel, comedian Margaret Cho, and a roundtable of guests.

2016

Feb

HBO'S 'VINYL' ADDS A SCORSESE GANGSTER VIBE TO '70S MUSIC SCENE By Ed Bark

Mobsters and Martin Scorsese go together like cake and ice cream, chips and dips, Donald Trump and egomania. So the maestro behind Goodfellas, Mean Streets, Casino, Gangs of New York and Boardwalk Empire invests HBO’s Vinyl with a strong gangster vibe...

2016

Feb

TERENCE WINTER: HIS NEW HBO SERIES 'VINYL' AND THE CHAOS OF THE '70S MUSIC SCENE By David Hinckley

"...A lot of what we’re writing about in this series is chaos,” Terence Winter says of his new series with HBO, Vinyl...

2016

Feb

AMERICAN IDOL By David Bianculli

Some of the contestants are voted out in tonight’s show – but others get the benefit of the experience of some previous Idol survivors, as previous contestants show up to mentor the new folks. And sing with them, too, as part of this final-season stroll down Idol memory lane. Note that, for this final season, interactive home voting has been removed from the equation for this Top 24 elimination round. Idol wants to do everything it can to stack the deck with someone worthy of bookend

2016

Feb

GREY'S ANATOMY By David Bianculli

Let this serve as notice that all three ABC Thursday dramas are making their midseason returns tonight: Grey’s Anatomy at 8 p.m. ET, Scandal at 9 ET, and How to Get Away with Murder at 10 ET. But I point out Grey’s Anatomy, in particular, because this is an unusually dramatic episode even for this show – and because it marks the TV directorial debut of Denzel Washington. It’s a fitting debut, too, because his career was launched on a TV medical show, way back in the early

2016

Feb

2016 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE By David Bianculli

This latest Democratic presidential debate, the last one scheduled for the month of February, is the second one in which Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders debate one another solely. After last week’s debate, Sanders won the New Hampshire primary – and this debate, live from Milwaukee, comes as a prelude to Tuesday’s Nevada Democratic caucus and the perhaps pivotal South Carolina primary on Feb. 27. Tonight’s debate is hosted by PBS NewsHour in partnership with Facebook,

2016

Feb

BASKETS By David Bianculli

Tonight’s episode is titled “Easter in Bakersfield,” and Baskets (Zach Galifianakis) celebrates the holiday with a family Easter brunch – though, with his family, and his demeanor, “celebrate” is far from the right word. At a family celebration, most of the family isn’t driven from the table. Louie Anderson, as Baskets’ mother, is a standout here.

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