With a 10 p.m. ET prime time hour, and more festivities beginning at 11:30 p.m. ET, NBC’s Carson Daly manages to present a lineup that’s both super-traditional and oddly modern. His guests include Pharrell Williams and occasional crooner Seth MacFarlane, along with the generations-spanning duo of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.

2014

Dec

TV ROLES IN 2014: A MINORITY OPINION By Gerald Jordan

Leading roles for minority actors remain scarce, but this TV season brought some major achievements for network programming and the advertisers who support them...

2014

Dec

THE WALKING DEAD MARATHON By David Bianculli

Strap in and ride: Beginning at 9 a.m. ET today, AMC is ushering in the New Year by repeating, in sequence, all five seasons of The Walking Dead, beginning with the stunning opener that sets the scene in goosebumps-raising fashion. Watch this marathon if you dare – but side effects of binge-watching The Walking Dead include an increase in dramatic tension and the occasional sudden loss of beloved characters.

2014

Dec

IN MEMORIAM MARATHON By David Bianculli

Tonight on TCM, the evening is devoted to acknowledging artists who died in 2014, by presenting representative samples of their cinematic work. The salute begins at 8 p.m. ET with 1964’s Topkapi, starring Maximilian Schell, and ends late into the night with 2008’s Doubt, featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman. In between: 1959’s Imitation of Life (10:15 p.m. ET), featuring Juanita Moore in her Oscar-nominated role as the housekeeper; Elaine Stritch in 1959’s Kiss her Goodbye (1

2014

Dec

THE KENNEDY CENTER HONORS By David Bianculli

Right on schedule, the best variety show on TV returns for another year of honoring the best in a wide sampling of the arts. Tonight’s honorees: Tom Hanks, Al Green, Sting, Lily Tomlin and Patricia McBride. Stephen Colbert hosts. For a full review, see Bianculli’s Blog.

2014

Dec

REVELATION: THE END OF DAYS By David Bianculli

PART 2: The History channel didn’t send a copy of this new program, which began yesterday, for preview. (You can catch up on Part 1 at 7 p.m. ET.) Nevertheless, I’m hoping it’s more conjectural and hypothetical than a fact-based documentary. Otherwise, I’ve bought January plane tickets for nothing. And I’ve just had a revelation of my own: If this special is, we hope, theorizing about the future, isn’t the History Channel the last place it should be televised?

2014

Dec

DOUBT By David Bianculli

This 2008 movie version of the acclaimed Broadway play ends TCM’s salute to performers who died in 2014, because it features Philip Seymour Hoffman. His performance here is indeed fantastic – but so are those of his co-stars. That goes not just for Meryl Streep, who gets top billing, but also for some supporting players who, like Hoffman, would achieve even greater status in subsequent years: Amy Adams and Viola Davis.

2014

Dec

KENNEDY CENTER HONORS ENDS THE YEAR BEAUTIFULLY – AS ALWAYS By David Bianculli

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, on television, is a vast wasteland, with one glorious exception. And, once again, the Kennedy Center Honors delivers the goods. And the greats…

2014

Dec

FATHER GOOSE By David Bianculli

It’s the last Monday in December, which means it’s the last night on TCM to enjoy an evening of movies starring Cary Grant – featuring, tonight, the ones from the end of his long, impressive career. The evening begins with this 1964 comedy, in which Grant plays an island recluse whose isolation is interrupted during WWII – not by invading troops, at last not initially, but by a woman (Leslie Caron) and the seven schoolgirls in her charge.

2014

Dec

BRANSON FAMOUS By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: I’m not recommending this, necessarily, but it’s certainly worth noting, as television’s first reality-series musical of sorts. It takes place in Branson, MO, the place where show-biz performers past their prime come to perform for aging, enthusiastic audiences. And it concerns the Baldknobbers Jamboree, the unfortunately named family revue that has operated in Branson for 55 years. That’s an astounding feat of show-business longevity, but understandably,

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