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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

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

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Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2012
May
17
1997: HBO PREMIERES ‘WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION’ By David Bianculli
 
 
On this day in 1997, HBO presented Larry Gelbart’s penultimate telemovie, a sharp satire about a pro football team being pursued hotly by warring media barons – one played by Ben Kingsley, the other by Gabriel Byrne...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
17
THE TV WORTH WATCHING INTERVIEW: CRAIG FERGUSON By David Bianculli
 
 
Halfway through his CBS talk show’s The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson In Scotland week, I spoke with CRAIG FERGUSON about those shows, and other things, in this exclusive TV WORTH WATCHING INTERVIEW. Expletives included…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
17
CW'S NEW FALL SHOWS: FIRST CLIPS, FIRST IMPRESSIONS By David Bianculli
 
 

The final piece of the 2012 fall TV puzzle has fallen in place. The CW’s plans for the new season include three new fall dramas, changes on every night of the schedule, and a midseason prequel to Sex and the City, featuring a younger Carrie Bradshaw…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
17
COMMUNITY By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: NBC is sending this show off for the season with an odd outburst of excess: three episodes presented the same night, culminating in the last episode of the season. But while this may smell of a loss-leader burn-off move, Community has been renewed for next year – albeit with a smaller number of episodes. So watch tonight, treasuring this particular televised endangered species. Episodes air at 8, 9 and 9:30 p.m. ET.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
17
30 ROCK By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Jack and Avery (Alec Baldwin, Elizabeth Banks) renew their vows in this season finale, while Liz (Tina Fey) gets a chance to advance on her romantic front as well – but, typically, sees the glass as half empty. At best.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
17
THE MENTALIST By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: In last week’s episode, Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) was fired from his job as a police department consultant, and seemingly defeated, at least mentally, by his serial-killer nemesis, Red John. In tonight’s Season 4 finale, Jane takes to the road, ends up in Vegas, meets a cocktail waitress (Emmanuelle Chriqui), and things move on from there. Just don’t expect them to end happily – or for this season to end without some surprising drama. For an appreciation
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
17
LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN By David Bianculli
 
 
For the first time in 13 years, Conan O’Brien visits this program as Letterman’s guest. (Their previous Late Show get-together is shown at left.) O’Brien is in New York for the TBS upfronts, and now hosts Conan for that network. But since his previous Late Show appearance in 1999, O’Brien became the host of The Tonight Show on NBC – a job Letterman coveted, but never got, and lost to Jay Leno. Then, within a year, O’Brien lost the Tonight job, too – to
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
17
THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON IN SCOTLAND By David Bianculli
 
 
This week of shows from Scotland has been so much fun to watch. There’s a true, almost absurd variety of elements presented each night, from quick comedy blackouts to lengthy, eventually intimate interviews. By now, if you’ve tuned in, you know what I mean. If not, it’s not too late to experience it. And today is Craig's 50th birthday, so tune in and celebrate! And read my exclusive TVWW INTERVIEW with him, just posted today, HERE.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
16
GOING MENTAL By Noel Holston
 
 
About this time a year ago, I watched Patrick Jane shoot and kill a man who claimed to be his nemesis — and like millions of fans of CBS’s The Mentalist, I was left wondering how creator Bruno Heller and his writers could keep Jane out of prison...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
16
SEINFELD: THE COMPLETE SERIES By David Bianculli
 
 
SEINFELD: THE COMPLETE SERIES – It may seem unnecessary, because Seinfeld remains such ripe, low-hanging fruit on syndicated TV, but there’s something glorious about having all this brilliance of this 1990-98 NBC series in one smartly packaged box set. All 180 episodes, 32 DVDs, extras, a coffee table book (remember that episode?)...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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