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

 
 
2011
Dec
19
 
 
Let's hear it for the Golden Globes. No, seriously. The much-maligned Hollywood Foreign Press Association by and large did an intelligent job of picking and choosing the best television has to offer in nominations announced late last week...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
19
 
 
ABC Daytime's One Life to Live -- a show with more creative energy coursing through it than much of what passes for bigger-budget prime-time fare -- won't breathe its last until Jan. 13. But the show is already giving itself a grand send-off...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
18
 
 
One of the many successes of AMC's much-honored Mad Men is its art direction. And now here's a documentary about two American designers who directly shaped the postwar modernism that's such an integral, sexy part of that series...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
17
 
 
Bernie Madoff guessed wrong. His Ponzi scheme would have yielded bucks just as big as the millions he bilked, and he would have been able to hide in plain sight, had he done just one simple thing: corral investors to sponsor college football bowl games...It's true...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
17
 
 
As one final push for holiday gift suggestions, this weekend I'm recommending a handful of new books (and one e-book) I like a lot. And all of these 2011 books, in addition to being excellent reads, have one other thing in common: They're all written by friends of mine. Descriptions of the books, and the friendships, follow...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
16
 
 
We've gotten a lot of response to our coverage this month of ABC's treatment, and occasional mistreatment, of A Charlie Brown Christmas -- and we're not through yet. Want to hear how the special almost was killed by CBS the very year it premiered, way back in 1965? Of course you do... This story comes courtesy of the Cincinnati Enquirer and its TV critic, John Kiesewetter, a good journalist, and good guy, who just repeated his own vintage Peanuts story, the same trick I pulled just the oth
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
14
 
 
NBC's Fear Factor is back on the air -- and, at the same time, polluting it. During Monday's two-hour comeback premiere, Fear Factor presented an outrageously gross stunt that showed everyday people, eager to do just about anything for money, wallowing in a giant vat of animal waste. And then I thought -- wait a minute. I've seen that before...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
13
 
 
Back in February, I wrote and posted a column noting the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest family TV specials ever made. I'm repeating that column today because, when it comes to recommending unusual and inexpensive gifts for children, I can't think of many better choices than to get right to The Point...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
12
 
 
On today's (Monday's) Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR, I interview Michael C. Hall, the talented star of Showtime's Dexter (and, before that, HBO's Six Feet Under). One thing you won't hear in the interview, though, is something we were talking about briefly when we weren't recording: his plans for the holidays, while visiting New York. It turns out he plans to take his mother to a Broadway show, but can't get seats for the one he wants. To put it another way: Dexter would kill for a pair of tickets to The Book of Mormon...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
12
 
 
(from Archive of American Television) George Clooney and Smokehouse Pictures are set to produce a movie about Smothers Brothers Tom and Dick, in an adaptation of David Bianculli’s book, "Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." The film will follow the controversy surrounding the Smothers Brothers’ short-lived television variety show, which debuted in 1967 and was abruptly canceled by CBS in 1969...