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DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2011
May
29
WAR (WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?) By Jane Boursaw
 
 
I admit I'm not really into TV shows and movies focused on war. Up to this point in my life, most of my war viewing has been limited to things like Father Goose, the 1964 movie starring Cary Grant as an aircraft spotter on an isolated island during WW2. But I didn't watch it for the war component. I watched it for his budding relationship with Leslie Caron...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
29
2011 SEASON FINALES: AN ILLUSTRATED, ALPHABETICAL, VERY SUBJECTIVE RECAP By David Bianculli
 
 
As we say hello to June, and new and returning summer series, it's time to give nods to some of the shows that recently wrapped up for the season -- many with dynamic, daring surprises and shifts. If you've still got the year's final episodes of, say, Fringe and Justified and The Good Wife waiting for you on your DVR, you may want to wait before taking my illustrated, subjective A to Z tour. Well, A to S, anyway. Starts with American Idol. Ends with Survivor...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
28
WHAT IS THE SOUND OF TWO HANDS CLAPPING, SLOWLY? By Eric Gould
 
 
We've seen it all before: We're at a critical juncture in the story. The main character has just made a courageous or heartfelt speech, and, maybe after being met with Stunned Silence, makes for the exit. But just as the protagonist appears utterly defeated, one person in the crowd stands and starts to clap alone. Then a smattering of others...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
27
MEMORIAL DAY: MILITARY MOVIES, SHOWS, MORE By Diane Werts
 
 
Hollywood has always found ways to honor those who gave their lives for us -- even sometimes in stories that wonder about war in the first place. This Memorial Day weekend is filled with military films on Turner Classic Movies, Fox Movie Channel and AMC, among others. You'll also find TV shows like "M*A*S*H", documentaries like "Gettysburg"...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
27
SHOULD TV VIEWING COME WITH A MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE? By Tom Brinkmoeller
 
 
When the cost of a tank of gas now is nearly the same as a newspaper reporter's weekly pay in the mid-'70s, and the cost of a week's worth of groceries for two exceeds a mortgage payment during the same era, it's easy, in a long recession, to be wistful over what once was. Much of what television currently doles out, for me, eliicits the same reaction as filling up my gas tank: I can't help but remember when you watched TV and usually got your money's worth...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
26
'OPRAH' FINALE: CUTTING AN ANGELIC FIGURE, IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE By David Bianculli
 
 
Oprah Winfrey's three-day, three-part TV series finale -- two parts Premature Burial fawning salute, one part sermon on the TV mount -- was a study in celebrity worship at its highest. For two days, Monday and Tuesday, a parade of A-listers paid homage to Oprah, talking about nothing but her. On Wednesday's final day, Oprah accepted that load, and spent her last hour, with no guests, talking about herself and her audience...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
26
VISITING 'SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE' LA AUDITIONS: 'YOU'VE GOT TO LAND THE PLANE' By Theresa Corigliano
 
 
TVWW contributor Theresa Corigliano, who has a dance background as part of her very full resume, attended the Los Angeles auditions of Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance," which returns for season eight tonight at 8 ET. "The good ones make it look easy," she writes. "My admiration comes from the muscle memory that it is not..." --DB
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
25
HBO'S 'TOO BIG TO FAIL': TO THE FINANCIAL PRECIPICE... OR, REDEEMING HANK PAULSON By David Sicilia
 
 
[In which our resident TVWW business historian and professor takes a very informed view of HBO's telemovie about the financial crisis, and pronounces it complex yet invaluable. "Watch Too Big to Fail more than once," he concludes. "You'll need to, and it's worth it"... -- DB]
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
24
PEABODYS AT 70: STILL PIONEERING, STILL ENTERTAINING By David Bianculli
 
 
The 2011 Peabody Awards presentation Monday at New York's Waldorf-Astoria was a celebration of excellence, attended by recipients and subjects whose sheer variety exemplified the wide-ranging Peabody standard. Over there, Yoko Ono. Over there, Julianna Margulies. And over there, Spike Lee, Timothy Olyphant, Patrick Stewart and Temple Grandin...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
May
23
SHERMAN, SET THE WAYBACK MACHINE FOR... LATER TONIGHT, AFTER THE PEABODY AWARDS By David Bianculli
 
 
Right after I type this, I'm hitting the road to head north to New York and today's Peabody Awards presentation.... I'll provide coverage of what happened today at TV's most prestigious awards presentation -- as well as quotes from my recent conversation with Peabody Awards director and pioneering TV historian Horace Newcomb...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley