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

 
 
2012
Dec
22
 
 
On this day in 1975, Archie Bunker's "little girl" Gloria gave birth to a son, Joseph Michael Stivic, on CBS's All in the Family...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
22
 
 
What a holiday treat! This 1964 ABC telemovie, basically buried after its initial telecast until TCM dug it up this month, is yet another variation on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – but this one is by Rod Serling, and stars Peter Sellers, and, given the time, is overtly political. And what a supporting cast: Sterling Hayden, who had just starred with Seller that same year in the Stanley Bubrick movie Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, is here.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
22
 
 
This 1939 children’s classic gets its annual holiday showing – on cable these days, not the broadcast networks, but still an event of note. If you have little ones around this weekend, and most people do, there are few better places to be, once you’ve gathered in front of the TV set. Set your DVRs!
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
22
 
 
Though I still hold that A Charlie Brown Christmas remains the best holiday special ever made, I submit this one, a musical version of A Christmas Carol starring Quincy Magoo (voiced by Jim Backus), as a firm second place. Made in 1962, it’s the first prime-time animated TV special ever made – and on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, is getting a rare prime-time showing by the networks that first presented it. Here’s hoping it becomes an annual event from now on – so
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
22
 
 
Burning off inventory during a slow holiday period, tonight CBS presents not just one, but two, fresh episodes of this clunky legal drama series, the first casualty of the 2012 fall season. I note this, but the note is not accompanied by a recommendation. Don’t set your VCRs!
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
22
 
 
Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton take the Glee formula – a singing competition at regionals, or nationals, or somewhere – and transfer it to a 2012 movie plot. This time it’s a choir – but, as always, it’s really all about the music.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
21
 
 
On this day in 1983, former president Gerald R. Ford and his wife, Betty Ford, appeared as themselves on an episode of ABC's Dynasty...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
21
 
 
Just in case the Mayans were right, why not turn on your TV and go out with a bang? (And an ironic one, at that.) This disaster movie, made three years ago – when 2012 wasn’t yet a date on all our checks – suggests that solar flares will trigger a sudden planetary apocalypse. John Cusack stars. Bad movie, but perfect timing. Why not go out with a smile? It's the end of the world as we know it... and I feel fine.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
21
 
 
It must be John Cusack’s night. Not only can he be seen here in 1989’s Say Anything, an iconic romance movie for the post-Boomer generation, but that film is followed, at 10 p.m. ET, by another Cusack classic: High Fidelity, Stephen Frears’ 2000 character study about a record-store owner who’s intense about his love for music and his relationships with women. (And let's not forget the aforementioned disaster flick, 2012.)
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
21
 
 
Part I of 2: Tonight and next Friday (if there is one), when ratings don’t matter, ABC deigns to devote chunks of prime-time to a news program that’s actually worthwhile – unlike, say, John Quinones’ worthless What Would You Do? hidden-camera “ethics show.” Amanpour visits ancient sites of importance to Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, explains why, and explores their treatment and impact today.