SEASON PREMIERE: One of television’s best and most underrated comedies, this series, now starting Season 3, continues to impress, surprise, and, unexpectedly, touch real emotional nerves. It’s a rare comedy that can make you laugh out loud and feel the characters’ emotional pain, especially at the same time – think of the Ricky Gervais British version of The Office as the nearest modern parallel. Matt LeBlanc, playing an exaggerated version of himself, is giving the perfo

2014

Jan

PRO FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS: NEW ORLEANS SAINTS VS. SEATTLE SEAHAWKS By David Bianculli

For this second-week postseason playoff game, many sports pundits are expecting the Seattle Seahawks to repeat its late-season thrashing of the New Orleans Saints. But Saints QB Drew Brees, who held tough last week to wrest victory from the jaws of the Philadelphia Eagles, says he learned a lot from that earlier game, and is determined to perform better against Seattle this time. And off we go.

2014

Jan

PRO FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS: INDIANAPOLIS COLTS VS. NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS By David Bianculli

Last week, the Indianapolis Colts were 28 points down in the third quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs, but Colts QB Andrew Luck persevered, staging one of the biggest comeback victories in NFL history. This week, Luck faces the Patriots, and stellar QB Tom Brady, so this game might be a thriller that goes down to the final minute of play – a scenario with which the Patriots, in postseason play, are painfully familiar. Speaking of painfully: TVWW’s Eric Gould, who lives in Boston,

2014

Jan

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT By David Bianculli

This 1934 Frank Capra comedy was the first movie to sweep all the major Oscars – film, director, actor (Clark Gable) and actress (Claudette Colbert), and earned them all. It’s a delightfully funny, unexpectedly modern road picture, about a cynical reporter who blackmails his way into accompanying a runaway heiress on her flight to… somewhere.

2014

Jan

THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW By David Bianculli

Please watch this hour, if you’ve never seen talk show host Graham Norton. This hour is a compilation of some of his best moments from the current season – and if the producers are smart enough to include such Season 14 highlights as Paul McCartney verbally sparring with Katy Perry, and Elton John responding to one of Norton’s questions by playfully telling him to “f--- off,” this show should turn any first-time viewer into an instant convert.

2014

Jan

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE By David Bianculli

This 1944 movie, another Frank Capra-directed comedy classic, captures the lunacy of the original Joseph Kesserling stage play, thanks to a screenplay by Julius and Philip Epstein and a fearlessly funny lead performance by Cary Grant as drama critic Mortimer Brewster. Raymond Massey is just fine as Jonathan Brewster, the villainous brother whose botched plastic surgeries have him looking like Frankenstein’s monster – but those references must have elicited even bigger laughs in the 1

2014

Jan

SARAH PALIN: RED, WHITE AND SHOES By Bill Brioux

Did TVWW contributor Bill Brioux attend Friday's Television Critics Association breakfast with Sarah Palin? You betcha...

2014

Jan

CNN'S NEW PLANS: SERIES YES, LENO NO By Donna J. Plesh

Is CNN interested in joining the late-night talk show wars by importing Jay Leno? According to former NBC executive and current CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker, not at this time...

2014

Jan

HBO’S RENEWS 'BOARDWALK EMPIRE' FOR FIFTH AND FINAL SEASON By Donna J. Plesh

Prohibition is almost over again. Really. HBO’s Prohibition-era set drama, Boardwalk Empire, will be back this fall for a fifth and final season...

2014

Jan

MOYERS & COMPANY By David Bianculli

Bill Moyers had announced his intention to stop his public TV series by now, until being persuaded otherwise by fans who begged him to remain a presence and provide his voice to the media mix. (Count me as one of those beggars.) Well, the new version of Moyers & Company begins tonight – trimmed from 60 to 30 minutes, but still determined to examine important issues in a way, and at a depth, that few other TV programs even attempt. Tonight’s inaugural edition of this series reboot

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