SERIES FINALE: This series never registered as much more than occasionally diverting action fare on a slow Friday TV night – but Melinda Clarke, as the ruthless trainer-turned-enemy of Maggie Q’s Nikita, certainly injected Nikita with bits of flair and fun. For tonight’s series finale, expect a womano y womano showdown, as Nikita finally confronts Clark’s Amanda face to face. Although, since Amanda has been dabbling with lookalike double agents of late, who knows whose fa

2013

Dec

AMERICAN MASTERS: “MARVIN HAMLISCH: WHAT HE DID FOR LOVE” By David Bianculli

As Stephen Sondheim does in HBO’s Six by Sondheim, composer Marvin Hamlisch here, in vintage film and TV clips, explains himself and his music and motivations better than anyone else. Though, in both cases, the “anyone else” group includes some of the biggest luminaries in Broadway and Hollywood. (Here, the roster includes Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Quincy Jones, and Christopher Walken.) Hamlisch, who died in 2012, scored hugely by composing A Chorus Line for Broadway, repo

2013

Dec

THE GODFATHER, PARTS I & II By David Bianculli

Here’s an offer you shouldn’t refuse: The two best Godfather movies, the original 1972 film and its brilliant 1974 sequel, shown back to back. You can almost smell the meat sauce simmering. Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, James Caan – what a cast. What a set of films. Francis Ford Coppola directs, delivering the best gangster movies ever, period.

2013

Dec

INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO By David Bianculli

Bruce Dern, after a film career that stretches back over 50 years, is riding high right now with Oscar talk for his fabulous work in the current film Nebraska. Both he and his daughter Laura also have done fantastic recent work on HBO – he as the bitter dad Frank Harlow on Big Love, she as the driven and redefined Amy Jellicoe of Enlightened. Tonight, in this new edition, James Lipton interviews them both. Expect him to hit all the highlights – including Alfred Hitchcock’s Fami

2013

Dec

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY By David Bianculli

Ben Stiller’s vastly reimagined version of the classic James Thurber story, co-starring Kristen Wiig, is in theaters now – so now is a smart time for TCM to present the 1947 version, starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo, which stuck much closer to the intentionally restrictive confines of the original story. That story, by the way, was first published in The New Yorker in 1939, eight years before Kaye’s movie was made.

2013

Dec

20/20: “MYSTERIES OF THE CASTLE: BEYOND DOWNTON ABBEY” By David Bianculli

Earlier this year, NBC News presented a prime-time special on vampires in popular culture, just to promote the same-night premiere of its new Dracula series. I gave that the worst show of the year award on Fresh Air, but at least it was promoting one of its own programs. Tonight, ABC News devotes two hours to an attempt to ride the wave of a popular program from a competitor: PBS’s Downton Abbey. I suppose, though, you can’t blame ABC for not trying to cash in on its own hit shows. I

2013

Dec

GROUND FLOOR By David Bianculli

Scrubs and Cougar Town creator Bill Lawrence’s new workplace comedy pairs star Skylar Astin, as Brody, with guest star Anna Camp, making it a mini-reunion from when they played a couple in the musical movie Pitch Perfect. They’re an off-screen couple as well, and tonight’s plot has them engaging in a karaoke war with Brody’s friends. One example: the two of them performing a duet of Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time.” Meanwhile, I continue to marvel at

2013

Dec

2013 – THE YEAR IN TV By Eric Gould

We had some unforgettable pictures cross our TV screens in 2013 that should burn on long after 2014 arrives...

2013

Dec

SPACE OPERA By Eric Gould

TVWW is taking its annual year-end look at The Year in TV this week, and part of that includes this video from high above everything. It's Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield doing his version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" on the eve of his return to Earth last May...

2013

Dec

YULE LOG By David Bianculli

Shown on New York’s WPIX-TV, and syndicated to local stations across the country, this is the “original” Yule Log show – well, as original as it gets. (The tradition was begun on TV in 1966, but new video, at a different location, was reshot in 1970.) But the vintage carols and holiday pop songs are what turn this seven-minute video loop into hours of musical entertainment. Turn on the high-def TV, turn up the volume, and warm up to this four-hour Christmas Day special. T

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