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

 
 
2012
Mar
25
 
 
Today’s doubleheader is a battle of the big boys, in more ways than one. In the first game, from the South bracket, No. 1 seed Kentucky (at left) faces No. 3 seed Baylor. In the second game, from the Midwest bracket, it’s another No. 1 seed, North Carolina, playing No. 2 seed Kansas. And when that second game is over, we’ll have this year’s Final 4 – Finally.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Mar
25
 
 
This series marks another ratings triumph for the folks at Discovery, and it continues tonight with “Summer,” showing how animals, and even plants and crystals, adapt to the brief annual warm periods at our planet’s polar regions. For more on this series, see my review in Bianculli’s Blog HERE.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Mar
25
 
 
This show keeps getting, as adversarial attorneys, guest stars who have more than enough talent to carry shows of their own. Last week Michael J. Fox made his latest guest appearance – and this week, making the first of several, it’s Matthew Perry.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Mar
25
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Yes, it’s here. Finally, and fabulously. For more on this two-hour season premiere – but not much more, because (sigh) we’re all protecting secrets – read TVWW contributor Ed Bark’s latest Uncle Barky’s Bytes column HERE, and my own Bianculli’s Blog story, with a link to my Fresh Air review of Mad Men, HERE.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Mar
25
 
 
SEASON FINALE: And, in essence, the series finale, because production on this series stopped, for good, early into filming for Season 2, after a fatal accident involving yet another horse. For a story that puts the series, and creator David Milch, in a wider context, read a terrific guest column by Ben Yagoda, once a student of Milch’s at Yale University, HERE.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Mar
24
 
 
Two strong, dramatic contests are on tap tonight on CBS. In the first game, it’s Louisville vs. Florida, pitting Louisville coach Rick Pitino against his old player and coaching assistant, Billy Donovan, who now coaches Florida. They’ve faced each other, on the opposing benches, six times before (two of them with Donovan at UF), and Pitino’s teams have won them all – to date. But this time, Donovan has freshman powerhouse guard Bradley Beal (pictured), who’s been el
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Mar
24
 
 
Once an annual TV viewing tradition for the entire family, this 1939 musical epic children’s film tonight gets shown by the Cartoon Network. In late March. And not even in prime time, yet! But still: It’s a fabulous movie, with one iconic scene and character after another. If you don’t agree that The Wizard of Oz is one of the most influential pop culture artifacts of all time, I’ll get you, my pretty. And your little dog, too...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Mar
24
 
 
Another brilliant movie, this one is more recent (from 2000), even more strange (it’s loosely based on The Odyssey, but about as loosely as you can get), and has almost as much pivotal music. George Clooney plays one of a small group of convicts on the run from a chain gang – and finding the time, while traversing the Depression-era South as fugitives, to record a hit record and make public appearances in disguise, singing “Man of Constant Sorrow.” Amazing. And somehow, i
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Mar
24
 
 
Not brilliant, this movie, but boy, it’s fun. Woody Harrelson began his current career resurgence with this 2009 zombie horror comedy, which is brimming with talent that was just about to get even hotter: Jesse Eisenberg, just to name one -- and Emma Stone (pictured), just to name two.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Mar
24
 
 
Neil Simon wrote the line, but it took Richard Dreyfuss, punctuating each word with a tugging removal of intimate undergarments hanging from a shower rod, to win an Oscar for complaining to Marsha Mason, “I don’t like the panties hanging on the rod.” This 1977 comedy is a bit unchecked in the acting department (Mason, at the time, was married to Simon), but it’s vey, very funny – and Dreyfuss, as an egotistical actor rooming with a divorced woman and her young daugh