On tonight’s new outing, Emma Stone returns as guest host. It’s her third appearance, and she’s been very game, and very funny, on previous outings. Musical guest: Shawn Mendes.

2016

Dec

PACIFIC HEAT By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: Today, Netflix – which has presented a large tonnage of new series this month – presents another, with the Season One unveiling of an animated comedy series called Pacific Heat, about an investigative squad Down Under. Think of it as an Australian Archer – which is a compliment, because this show is just as verbally quick and naughty and unexpected as that delightful FX animated spy spoof. Try it. Bet you can’t watch just one. For a full review, see David

2016

Dec

I LOVE LUCY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL By David Bianculli

SPECIAL: Two episodes of the classic 1950s series I Love Lucy are colorized for the holidays, as they were last year. One is a repeat of the colorized “The Christmas Episode,” and the other is the newly colorized episode “Lucy Gets in Pictures,” in which Lucy (Lucille Ball) gets a part as a chorus girl in a Hollywood movie. It’s one in which the colorization really works, no matter what you pink of the whole computer-coloring issue. I’m sorry. I meant to type,

2016

Dec

CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND By David Bianculli

Tonight’s episode is called “Who Needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?,” and by focusing on the old and new women in Rebecca’s life, this hour is positively spicy – as in, it makes room for a musical number paying homage to the Spice Girls.

2016

Dec

TRACEY ULLMAN'S SHOW By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: This is the Season 1 finale for Tracey Ullman’s Show, and I certainly hope HBO picks up the show for its sophomore season, which already has been announced back in Ullman’s home turf of England. Her gift for impersonation, and immersion into characters, has, if anything, gotten better over the years, though that would have been impossible. Except that the first time Dame Judi Dench showed up, I thought it was Judi Dench, as a guest star – but it was Ullman. And t

2016

Dec

COMEDY BANG! BANG! By David Bianculli

SERIES FINALE: This series ends tonight, with a doubleheader of episodes that culminate with Andrew Lloyd Webber as a special star. If that seems odd – well, so is this entire series, so there you go. And it’s not really Andrew Lloyd Webber, just comic Paul F. Tompkins making one final guest appearance playing him, which is even odder…

2016

Dec

'PACIFIC HEAT' IS THE AUSSIE 'ARCHER' -- AND THAT'S ACE! By David Hinckley

If you love FX’s Archer – and who, to be honest, cannot love Archer? – you need to check out Netflix’s new Pacific Heat...

2016

Dec

HOW A LETTER FROM GRANT TINKER CHANGED MY LIFE By Ed Martin

The loss of Grant Tinker this week feels very personal to me – even though I never even met the man, and not because so many of the shows he was responsible for in the Seventies and Eighties...

2016

Dec

A QUALITY MAN OF QUALITY TELEVISION By Bill Brioux

In 1985, TV critics held the first Television Critics Awards. Only one of the winners showed up to accept his TCA Award that first year: Grant Tinker...

2016

Dec

FAREWELL TO THE KING OF QUALITY TELEVISION By Noel Holston

The first time I met Grant Tinker, on my wide-eyed first TV critics press tour way back in 1973, I wanted to be him. I mean, c'mon. He looked like the distinguished gentleman in the Hathaway shirt magazine ads and he was married to Mary Tyler Moore...

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