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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

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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
 
 
2015
Aug
21
MORTON DOWNEY JR. FINDS HIS FANGS By Noel Holston
 
 
Contrary to his atomic-fireball TV persona, the Morton Downey Jr. I knew was a pussycat. A pussycat o’nine tails sometimes, but a pussycat all the same...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
21
ALAN ARKIN FILM FESTIVAL By David Bianculli
 
 
Today is Alan Arkin day on TCM’s “Summer Under the Stars,” and one of the best things shown – twice, in fact – is the network’s home-grown interview special with host Robert Osborne, Alan Arkin: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival, produced and televised earlier this year. You can see it at 8 a.m. ET, and again at 7 p.m. ET. And of the many Arkin films shown today, one of my very favorites, at 12:15 a.m. ET, is 1979’s The In-Laws, in which Arkin
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
21
WAIT UNTIL DARK By David Bianculli
 
 
In 1967, Alan Arkin, who’s being saluted all day today by TCM, played one of his darkest roles as a drug smuggler terrorizing a young blind woman – played by Audrey Hepburn. It’s very tense, and, just when it needs to be, very cinematic.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
21
BACK TO THE FUTURE & BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II By David Bianculli
 
 
A double-header of the Marty McFly adventures is presented tonight in prime time: 1985’s Back to the Future at 8 p.m. ET, and its 1989 sequel at 10:30 ET. In the former, Marty (Michael J. Fox) goes back 30 years, to 1955. In the sequel, he jumps ahead 30 years – to that bizarre sci-fi future of… 2015.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
21
CNN SPECIAL REPORT: THE DONALD TRUMP INTERVIEW By David Bianculli
 
 
CNN’s Chris Cuomo interviewed Donald Trump in a special interview Wednesday, and the network is wasting no time in giving it a same-week second viewing. So here it is. Surprise: Give Trump a platform like this, and he says something quotable.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
21
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s scheduled lineup includes a couple of politicians and an explorer – but the person I’m most eager to see, and hear, is comedian Marc Maron.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
20
EVOCATEUR: THE MORTON DOWNEY, JR. MOVIE By David Bianculli
 
 
Morton Downey, Jr. was the host of a TV talk show in the late Eighties, one that fanned the flames of televised incivility to previously uncharted levels. This documentary looks at the personality, and the programs he hosted, to analyze a period in TV that is both unsettling and unfortunate. And according to TVWW contributor Ed Bark, who’s seen Evocateur in advance, I’m in there somewhere, in vintage TV footage discussing Downey, back when I was about the age my son is now. For a ful
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
20
FRANKENSTEIN By David Bianculli
 
 
Today is Mae Clarke day on TCM – and while her most famous screen appearance comes very late at night (at 2:45 a.m. ET), when TCM shows her being smacked in the face by a grapefruit wielded by James Cagney in 1931’s The Public Enemy, she’s also on view earlier, at 9:30 p.m. ET, in the classic 1931 film Frankenstein, alongside Boris Karloff (pictured) and Colin Clive.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
20
SEX&DRUGS&ROCK&ROLL By David Bianculli
 
 
In tonight’s episode, Johnny Rock (Denis Leary) is dared to get his first tattoo – and the person daring him is his own rebellious daughter. Also in this episode: guest star Callie Thorne, my favorite actress from Leary’s previous series, Rescue Me. John Corbett co-stars.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
20
DOCUMENTARY NOW! By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This six-part comedy series, hosted by a totally straight-faced Helen Mirren, pretends to present “classic” documentaries, starting tonight with “Sandy Passage,” a parody of Grey Gardens starring Fred Armisen and Bill Hader as “Big Vivvy” and “Little Vivvy,” and written by fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus Seth Meyers. Other documentaries and documentarians are spoofed in coming weeks, always with a twist that makes them more
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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