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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
 
 
2018
Aug
16
MIRIAM HOPKINS TRIBUTE By David Bianculli
 
 
Today’s saluted TCM star is Miriam Hopkins – and whenever the network devotes one of its all-day tributes to a relatively lesser-known star, the rewards in sampling a generous potpourri of careers-spanning films are obvious. Perhaps the most familiar of Hopkins’ screen roles is as one of the two scheming jewel thieves in Ernst Libitsch’s 1932 romantic comedy, Trouble in Paradise (pictured). TCM televises that one at 8 p.m. ET, but other Hopkins films are shown all day and
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
16
R-E-S-P-E-C-T By Linda Donovan
 
 
R-E-S-P-E-C-T...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
15
TELEVISION'S REBOOT/REBIRTH MANIA By Ed Bark
 
 
Your friendly content provider reviewed all of the following in their original incarnations. And now here they come again to offer another whack...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
15
AMERICA'S GOT TALENT By David Bianculli
 
 
Again, I mention this only for fans of this NBC competition show, or for those curious enough to check in once the chaff is being separated from the wheat in a vigorous way. There were 36 competitors left as this week begins, and last night a dozen of those performed again, hoping to advance to the next level. Tonight, seven of those 12 will receive reprieves from the judges – which means, in this one night of TV, five contestants will not. One of the 12 who performed last night is Courtne
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
15
OUTBACK By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s final installment of this three-part nature documentary miniseries about Australia is titled Return of the Wet, and focuses on that continent’s ruthlessly oppressive rainy season, which usually follows a long, dry, brutally hot spell. Yeah. Tell me about it. Try living in New Jersey in the summer of 2018. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
15
NETWORK By David Bianculli
 
 
In August, TCM salutes a different movie star each day, showing a generous sampling of that performer’s films all day and night. Today’s star in Peter Finch, whose salute begins at 6 a.m. ET with 1957’s The Shiralee, and continues with such Finch-featuring films (say that three times) as 1956’s A Town Like Alice (12:45 p.m. ET) and 1967’s Far from the Madding Crowd (5 p.m. ET). The most gleaming jewel, though, is 1976’s Network, starring Finch as unhinged TV a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
14
AMERICA'S GOT TALENT By David Bianculli
 
 
If you’re into this show, or are waiting for the right time to sample it, tonight shifts the competition to a higher gear. Tonight’s the start of the live quarterfinals, which will cull the herd, fairly quickly, of the 36 remaining contestants.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
14
FRONTLINE: "OUR MAN IN TEHRAN" By David Bianculli
 
 
Part 2 of 2. Thomas Erdbrink, longtime Tehran bureau chief of The New York Times, produced this two-part look at life inside Iran, which concludes tonight. As with last night’s surprisingly upbeat opener (well, in parts), it uses his insider connections to give us a very nuanced look at Iran and Iranians in 2018. For starters, Erdbrink married an Iranian woman, and they still live in that country. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
13
TWO-NIGHT PBS 'FRONTLINE' FILM ‘OUR MAN IN TEHRAN’ IS AN AFFECTING, INTIMATE LOOK AT DAY-TO-DAY LIFE IN AN ISOLATED COUNTRY By Alex Strachan
 
 
Our Man in Tehran, the often illuminating, occasionally moving two-part, four-hour PBS Frontline documentary, was four years in the making...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
13
WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s guest star, on this new installment of the long-running American version of the long-running British improv series, is former Baywatch star Carmen Electra (pictured), whose other TV credits include many shows on which she has proven just famous, or infamous, enough to play herself – on such shows as Just Shoot Me and Matt LeBlanc’s Joey, as well as Suburgatory, Jane the Virgin and even, providing her own voice, for The Simpsons.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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