DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

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TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2013
Dec
25
 
 
Woody Allen movies, shown all day yesterday, continue to be shown all day today, along with the recent PBS Woody Allen documentary. You can tune in any time, but look at this stretch from 5:10 p.m. ET to almost midnight. The action begins with 1972’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex But Were Afraid to Ask, and continues with 1973’s Sleeper at 6:45 p.m. ET, 1984’s Broadway Danny Rose at 8:25 p.m. ET, and 1979’s Manhattan at 10 p.m. ET – all of them deli
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
25
 
 
Mel Brooks is one of our favorite people here at TV Worth Watching. He’s done exclusive interviews for this website on two different occasions, as well as chatted with me on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. And today on TV turns out to be his day, an irony that surely isn’t lost on him at all. Sundance’s marathon of Mel Brooks films includes 1993’s Robin Hood: Men in Tights at 3:30 p.m. ET, followed by 1981’s History of the World: Part I at 5:45 p.m. ET (pict
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
25
 
 
It’s the last Wednesday of the month, which means TCM’s last day-long salute to its star of the month, Fred Astaire. And tonight’s all-night lineup begins with one of his best and most representative efforts: 1935’s glamorous musical comedy Top Hat, co-starring Ginger Rogers. Just for fun, watch for the flower shop girl – she’s played by a young actress named Lucille Ball. Other Astaire movies shown tonight include 1936’s Swing Time at 10 p.m. ET, 1937&r
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
25
 
 
This new Christmas Day episode is Matt Smith’s final episode as the Eleventh Doctor – set in a town called Christmas, and with all sorts of ramifications for what, and Who, happening next…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
24
 
 
Jimmy Fallon returned to host SNL last weekend with musical guest Justin Timberlake. It wouldn’t be a Fallon-Timberlake appearance without another edition of “The Barry Gibb Talk Show," and this one had an all-star cast...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
24
 
 
NBC’s earlier scheduled telecast of this 1946 Frank Capra classic was pre-empted by the network’s live Sound of Music special, so Christmas Eve turns out to be the first time in 2013 to catch this annual holiday TV treat. James Stewart and Donna Reed star, with supporting help from Bert and Ernie. The characters (seen here), not the subsequent Muppets.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
24
 
 
This season, repeats of decades-old animated holiday treats have drawn larger audiences than first-run TV fare – the most heartening example of which being the fact that ABC’s repeat of A Charlie Brown Christmas outdrew the season finale of Fox’s The X Factor. Good grief, Simon Cowell! And tonight, this Grinch cartoon, from 1966, figures to provide some holiday cheer as well, for the network as well as its viewers. ABC follows this telecast with an 8:30 p.m. ET presentation of
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
24
 
 
It’s now been 30 years since this little movie about Jean Shepherd’s holiday memories was released – and quite a few since TBS turned it into an annual TV tradition by showing it nonstop for 24 hours starting on Christmas Eve. So here it is again, thank goodness – a full day’s worth of BB guns, leg lamps and hidden squirrels. Peter Billingsley, Darren McGavin star.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
24
 
 
Alastair Sim makes a crabby, craggy, perfect Scrooge in this 1951 version of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic – and though this is a very vintage version, in black and white, it’s also one of the scariest, even after all this time.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
24
 
 
In a case of either perfect or poor timing – a case could be made for both – Sundance uses Christmas Eve as the occasion to televise Jesus Christ Superstar, Norman Jewison’s 1973 movie version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice rock opera. Yvonne Elliman reprises her role of Mary Madgalene, singing “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” as she did in the original LP that predated the stage and movie versions, but the other stars in this movie – Ted Neeley as Je