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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
 
 
2012
Aug
29
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART By David Bianculli
 
 
The best part of a convention night is the one-two punch of this show and The Colbert Report. No matter where you spend your time until prime time is through, when it’s over, convene here. You’ll be glad you did – and you’ll be laughing while you learn. Last night’s live Daily Show, with its reporters covering everything from muggy climates and giant palmetto bugs to Tampa’s strip clubs, had me laughing out loud many, many times. And that’s something the
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
28
2012 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION By David Bianculli
 
 
Yesterday’s scheduled Day 1 of the 2012 Republican National Convention was canceled due to inclement weather (and, I suspect, media apathy as well). So today’s schedule is jam-packed – though the broadcast networks are sticking to their original, barely covering schedule. For a history of the shifting treatment of televised political conventions, see Bianculli’s Blog. But this year, as for several decades now, the one place to go for unadulterated coverage is C-SPAN. So a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
28
2012 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION By David Bianculli
 
 
This is a catch-all listing for the major coverage today. CNN, Fox News and MSNBC will be talking about the convention all day, though don’t expect any of them to sideline their regular anchors and pundits for the occasion. As for commercial broadcast TV, CBS, NBC and ABC all are devoting the 10 p.m. ET hour – but only that hour – to prime-time convention coverage. Other, more specialized coverage is listed separately.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
28
2012 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION By David Bianculli
 
 
Here’s broadcast TV convention coverage the way it used to be: consuming all of prime time, with smart people on hand to analyze events and put them into context. Good for PBS. Good thing for viewers. Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill co-anchor. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
28
POLITICALLY DIRECT: REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION By David Bianculli
 
 
This begins at 2 p.m. ET, with Current TV taking two different approaches to coverage. One sounds really good, because it features former presidential candidate Al Gore, along with other Current TV colleagues, such as Jennifer Granholm and Eliot Spitzer, presiding over convention activities and providing analysis. The other idea, though, sounds really bad: a live mega-tweet of pertinent Twitter feeds from various sources, both political and individual. That’s not a TV show, folks. That&rsq
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
28
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART By David Bianculli
 
 
And finally, when convention activities end, the best part of the day begins, as Jon Stewart and company make sense, and nonsense, of it all. Recently, the intrepid comic correspondents were shown training for the Tampa humidity by interviewing people in saunas. If you watch only one TV source for your convention news this week, you could do a lot worse. And I’m not joking.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
28
2005: 'ROME' RISES ON HBO By Christy Slewinski
 
 
On this day in 2005, HBO introduced the BBC/HBO-produced historical drama, Rome...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
28
BUSINESS IS BIG AT 2012 RNC — JUST NOT BIG BUSINESS By David Sicilia
 
 
TVWW's resident business historian shares unexpected insights gleaned from an evening of convention viewing, illustrating how themes are lost when networks cut coverage...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
27
1992: 'MARTIN' DEBUTS ON FOX By Christy Slewinski
 
 
On this day in 1992, Fox launched the situation comedy, Martin...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
27
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION By David Bianculli
 
 
Forecast: Completely cloudy. With tropical storm Isaac waiting until the dramatic last minute to build to hurricane-wind status as it approached the Gulf Coast, the planners of the Republican National Convention decided to play it safe and cancel all Monday proceedings. The fact that the TV broadcast networks already had announced their plans to ignore Monday’s events in prime time (see my related Bianculli’s Blog) had nothing to do with this decision, I’m sure. But it leaves s
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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