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

 
 
2014
Feb
12
 
 
You folks watch what you want. I’m heavy into curling again, even if the U.S. men’s and women’s teams, especially the men’s, have been as slippery with consistent shooting as the ice on which they compete. I’d like to see more curling competition live, and from more countries, but as always with the Olympics coverage from NBC’s family of networks, jingoistic concerns always take precedence. Exciting teams from other countries – in curling, this year, tha
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
12
 
 
On Sunday, precisely 50 years – to the minute – after The Ed Sullivan Show presented The Beatles to a U.S. viewing audience on live TV for the first time, CBS presented a giant, sprawling special salute to the Fab Four – part biography and documentary, part interview (with David Letterman, at the site of that seminal 1964 broadcasting event, now Letterman’s home studio) – and lots and lots of music. Tonight, because of the popularity of that Sunday special, CBS repe
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
12
 
 
Playwright John Osborne, author of Look Back in Anger, looked back in anything but anger in this 1963 comedy, for which he wrote the screenplay adaptation of Henry Fielding’s playful period novel. Downton Abbey fans should enjoy this sexy, playful romp through the British class system, starring Albert Finney, in the title role, as a mischievous man with mysterious origins. His many conquests include Sophie, played with unforgettable vigor and abandon by Susannah York.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
12
 
 
William Petersen stars in this 1986 Michael Mann movie, playing a detective on the trail of a serial killer who has proven immensely cinematic over the years, albeit played by different actors and with his character’s name spelled slightly differently. But here, actor Brian Cox, so much fun as a ham actor in HBO’s Deadwood, plays a guy named Dr. Hannibal Lektor.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
12
 
 
In 1970, when I was still in high school, one of the albums I came across – shortly after writing a record-review column for my school paper – was the debut album by a man named Gil Scott-Heron. I snatched up the record because of the intriguing title of one track: “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” (Even then, anything involving TV beckoned me.) It knocked me out: spoken-word poetry, with musical accompaniment, that was somewhere between what once was called beat po
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
12
 
 
Sid Caesar, who died Wednesday at age 91, was the driving engine behind NBC’s original “Saturday night live’’ – a show that has had as great an impact on popular culture as the current SNL…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
11
 
 
Jimmy Fallon will soon take over hosting duties for The Tonight Show. To remind us of that upcoming historic event, Fallon used his waning days on his show recently to insert himself into a set that looked eerily similar to the bedroom of a character from a hugely successful sitcom from the glory days of ABC’s TGIF:  Full House...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
11
 
 
NBC, in prime time beginning at 8 p.m. ET, tonight presents the gold medal final for the men’s snowboarding halfpipe event – a competition that has drawn complaints from U.S. team members all during practice runs and competition, because of conditions at the halfpipe itself. There’s also a prime-time NBC medal round in women’s ski jumping, but you have to go online – to NBCOlympics.com – to see either Russia or Norway compete today in men’s curling. Yest
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
11
 
 
When one of the characters in this series nods off while watching an old movie on TV (been there, done that, ad infinitum), she and her friends find themselves catapulted into a film noir world – black and white, complete with vintage costumes and cars – while solving their own related-to-the-present mystery. Reason enough to watch, because shows aimed at young viewers seldom look in the rear-view mirror, at least in terms of pop culture.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
11
 
 
Linda Cardellini, from ER, Mad Men and Freaks and Geeks, guest stars as the wilder older sister of Jess (series star Zooey Deschanel). Hmm. How, I wonder, did Zooey break this news to her own real-life older sister, Bones star Emily Deschanel? “Sorry, sis… but we just couldn’t see you in the part…”