Fifty years ago today [Monday], new Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minow (above) gave his inaugural speech to broadcasters, and coined a durable phrase that rattled them a bit by describing what they presented on their TV stations as a "vast wasteland." And that was half a century BEFORE Snooki...

2011

May

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL: THINKING WAY OUTSIDE THE (LITTLE YELLOW) BOX By Eric Gould

TVWW is dedicated to the best that TV can offer, but it's worthwhile, from time to time, to dredge the bottom of the lake, haul up the darkest muck we can find, and examine it under the cleansing light of our internet glare. Given National Geographic's new season of the bottom-feeding Taboo, it's clear that the little gold rectangle (their logo), which once symbolized the knowledge of the world, also now stands for a meshugganah Pandora's Box of human behavioral disorders...

2011

May

'NATURE' TRILOGY GOES WHERE BEAR CLAWS AREN'T JUST BAKERY GOODS By Tom Brinkmoeller

The PBS series "Nature" has presented some memorable wildlife programming over the nearly three decades it has been on the air. Over the next three Sundays, it will memorably return a term to the wild, when it reminds viewers that mama grizzlies don't care about tea, can't see Russia and can be pretty darn accommodating to outsiders...

2011

May

WILL DONALD TRUMP RUN FOR PRESIDENT? MY PREDICTION: YES, BUT... By David Bianculli

Two weeks ago, Donald Trump irritated President Barack Obama into releasing a longer-form birth certificate to quell absurd yet persistent questions about his country of birth. Last week, Trump scowled as Obama shot back with one-liners at the White House Correspondents Dinner. The next night, Obama coincidentally pre-empted the climax of Trump's Celebrity Apprentice with news of his successful raid on the compound of Osama bin Laden. So what will Trump do...I have a prediction...

2011

May

ADVICE FOR ABC'S 'SECRET MILLIONAIRE': MORE CASH, LESS BLUBBERING By David Sicilia

When I saw the trailer for ABC's Secret Millionaire, which premieres Sunday night at 8 ET, I immediately thought of John Beresford Tipton...an industrialist as shadowy as James Bond's foes, who, through a stolid intermediary, "Michael Anthony" (played by Marvin Miller), handed over a check for $1 million to an unwitting stranger...

2011

May

'JUSTIFIED' SEASON FINALE: FX SERIES DELIVERS POTENT KICK By David Bianculli

If you're not ready to read about Wednesday's stellar second-season finale of FX's Justified, then don't read past this paragraph. Because I can't wait to write about it -- and I don't intend to... More than any episode to date, this most recent episode mirrored all the satisfying elements of its inspirational source, an Elmore Leonard story. Characters fleshed out with both wit and menace finally quit circling each other, and moved in for a tense, anything-can-happen confrontation...

2011

May

EVERYBODY'S A (FOOD) CRITIC By David Sicilia

At a time when tens of millions of Americans are out of work and countless others clutch their jobs in white-knuckled insecurity, must Charles Darwin script every reality show? So it seems. The same ruthless culling-from-the-herd that now gives us our pop singers, our weight losers, our island survivors, clothes designers and homemaker entrepreneurs will now produce a restaurateur...

2011

May

TV COMEDIANS: WITH BREAKING BIN LADEN NEWS, IT'S NOT JUST FUNNY BUSINESS By David Bianculli

After watching traditional news coverage of Osama bin Laden's death at the hands of U.S. forces Sunday night and Monday morning, perhaps you tuned to "lighter fare" for a few laughs. But if you wound up watching, say, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman and Craig Ferguson, you got a lot more, and a lot more thoughtful perspective, than you may have been expecting...

2011

May

YOU GOTTA HEAR 'THE VOICE'! By Ronnie Gill

As American Idol dwindles down to its final five finalists, it seems to lose momentum week by week. Gone is the promise that the Top 13 (well, at least the Top 11) contestants held. Fortunately, as my interest wanes in that chestnut, a new show debuted last week that looks as if it might present Idol's first real competition in the vocal talent genre. If you missed the premiere of NBC's "The Voice," check it out. I consider it a return to must-see TV on NBC...

2011

May

ONE WORD: PLASTICS! By Eric Gould

Have you ever contemplated a stack of Tupperware and suddenly seen the genius of the modern movement? No? Well, the 2010 BBC series The Genius of Design is now out on DVD with five episodes spanning the bulk of the modern movement in design. It's a fun, educational romp through the marketplace, mass production, consumerism -- and yes, the invention of the once revolutionary and now uber-dull plastic Tupperware. This series (broadcast last year on the Smithsonian Channel and now available on

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