DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2020
Aug
19
 
 
DOCUMENTARY SERIES PREMIERE: This new Netflix documentary series focuses on the  development and popularity of the first generation of videogames, back when Nintendo’s 8-bit game console claimed about 97 percent of the market until Sega came up with a 16-bit alternative. And while High Score is much too superficial in spots, and misses lots of opportunities for explorations of both history and social impact, it touches on enough topics to make it worth a visit. If you g
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Aug
19
 
 
History gets made tonight, as the first woman of color is nominated officially to a presidential ticket by a major party. Kamala Harris, as the final speaker, will strive to deliver a socially distanced speech that captures the moment – but there will be other elements of tonight’s penultimate Democratic National Convention worth keeping an eye on. Yesterday’s roll call, for example, was a brilliant use of television. The roll call and delegate vote count always was one of the
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Aug
19
 
 
On this day in 2003, MTV introduced one of TV's earliest celebrity reality shows, Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Aug
18
 
 
On this day in 1996, Showtime debuted the film Losing Chase, which marked the directorial debut of actor Kevin Bacon...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Aug
18
 
 
The import series The Suspect proves real life can give us a murder mystery as complex as the scripted kind...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Aug
18
 
 
Today’s “Summer Under the Stars” subject is Warren Beatty, who started as an actor, and expanded in time to become a producer, writer and director as well. His career scored hits in several different decades, as even a sample of four of his movies, shown tonight, demonstrates. Four films, four different decades, all of them worth paying attention to. At 6 p.m. ET, there’s 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, co-starring Faye Dunaway. At 8 p.m. ET, there’s 1981&r
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Aug
18
 
 
Last night, the Democrats presented America’s first virtual political convention – with a mixture of taped pieces, awkward Zoom meetings, and both pre-recorded and live speeches, punctuated by occasional music videos and performances, and hosted by actress and activist Eva Longoria. Some stuff didn’t work at all. The music, however it was delivered, seemed like filler. And one Zoom-like effect, in which Bernie Sanders’ speech was punctuated, at the end, by the sudden appe
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Aug
17
 
 
Now it's convention time, a two-week stretch when TV is consumed by politics. Well, sort of...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Aug
17
 
 
There are 24 hours of Maureen O’Hara movies on today’s “Summer Under the Stars” TCM schedule – but let me steer you straight to the best one, and a movie that’s worth revisiting no matter how many times you’ve seen it. At 8 p.m. ET, in the coveted start-of-prime-time spot, TCM presents 1939’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. O’Hara co-stars as Esmeralda, the beauty who catches the eye (and what a bulging eye it is) of Charles Laughton&r
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Aug
17
 
 
PBS Kids can be found mornings on your local PBS station, and on line, and also on the PBS Kids 24/7 channel. And today, it launches a new season of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, the delightful animated spinoff of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Two episodes are shown in each half-hour installment of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, and today’s inaugural program is all new. It begins with “Won’t You Sing Along with Me?,” a way in wh