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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
Nov
23
GIVING THANKS THIS TV SEASON: I MAY AS WELL SPELL IT OUT By David Bianculli
 
 
The Thanksgiving holiday is a time for gratitude, for reflection --and for watching TV, from the Turkey Day football games to the Sunday night dramas. Just to stoke the fires of appreciation, I've made a list of six reasons to be grateful, media-wise, for our recent bounty of tasty treats. Put them all together, they spell T-H-A-N-K-S....
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Nov
21
FIGHTING FOR PBS'S 'FIGHT OF THE WEEK' By Noel Holston
 
 
If it please the court, I'd like to advocate on behalf of The Advocates. It's a series whose time has come. Again. The Advocates was a weekly public-TV presentation from 1969 through 1974, revived as a bi-weekly program for most of 1978-79...while the fisticuffs were all verbal, it could pack a wallop. Many an intellectual hotshot left the arena with his or her ego bruised...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Nov
18
THE MANY FACES OF WOODY ALLEN By Eric Gould
 
 
Coming up on PBS Sunday and Monday at 9 p.m. ET, Nov. 20-21 (check local listings), are four hours of actors, writers and critics lining up to pay homage to one of the true auteurs of our time -- one who somehow was able to muse on life's great metaphysical mysteries while slipping on a giant banana peel, or dressed as a Hassidic Rabbi...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Nov
18
WOODY ALLEN PBS DOCUMENTARY IS NO DEAD SHARK: IT KEEPS MOVING -- AND IT'S FASCINATING By David Bianculli
 
 
The upcoming PBS American Masters two-parter, Woody Allen: A Documentary, is getting a lot of attention and acclaim, and deserves it all. I raved about it in my Thursday review on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, which I'll recap in a second. But here, I want to point out some other, additional things to anticipate and enjoy about this fine new TV biography...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Nov
16
IN 'X FACTOR,' X MARKS THE SPOT... FOR X-CRUCIATING By David Bianculli
 
 
I wanted to like The X Factor, I really did, and I'm usually impressed by Simon Cowell as both an on-air judge and backstage producer. But there are two things I just can't abide about his new Fox competition series, and they both came to a creepy, weepy head last week, when Willow Smith sang and Paula Adbul sobbed...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Nov
15
TODAY ON NPR'S 'FRESH AIR': REGIS AND I SPEND AN HOUR TALKING ABOUT OLD TV TIMES By David Bianculli
 
 
In the midst of a crazy week, even for him, Regis Philbin sat down and carved out more than an hour yesterday to talk about his career, his future, and his new memoir, How I Got This Way. Our conversation airs today (Tuesday), as the featured interview on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. But there's one thing you won't hear during the broadcast version of our talk: my cell phone ringing...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Nov
14
THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE WARM By Tom Brinkmoeller
 
 
In which our TVWW correspondent, recounting a long-untold story from the days when he'd left the TV critic beat and become a publicist for Walt Disney World, finally reveals details of the time he was recruited as a "spy" to gather information about a new competitor to the equally new Regis Philbin syndicated TV talk show...(DB)
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Nov
12
SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY By Eric Gould
 
 
Once the sacred territory of horror and slasher films, hefty servings of fetishized blood and guts are now regular television fare in plentiful supply on Sunday night. And every other night of the week, for that matter -- but somehow Sunday, with its massive audience and its collection of daringly dark drama series, gets the lion's share...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Nov
11
NBC'S 'GRIMM' PROMOTION: WE'RE #1 -- SORT OF... By David Bianculli
 
 
NBC hasn't been able to celebrate much this season, but it's trying its best to make the most of a grim fall 2011 development season -- the highlight of which, ironically, appears to be Grimm. The network is touting the new drama series, which premiered two weeks ago, as "Friday's #1 New Show." Well, maybe. Sort of...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Nov
10
WHO YOU GONNA CALL AS NEW OSCARS HOST? MY VOTE: BILLY CRYSTAL! By David Bianculli
 
 
After movie producer Brett Ratner made enough insensitive comments about his personal life and views to have him replaced as producer of February's Oscar awards, host Eddie Murphy, star of Ratner's Tower Heist, has walked as well. The new producer, Brian Grazer, has to find a new host, fast. Who's he gonna call? Here's who he should call: Billy Crystal...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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