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
Jan
12
 
 
Maybe it had something to do with the connection to his father, but encountering Charlie Sheen at press tour was almost like coming face to face with Kurtz in Apocalypse Now...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
12
 
 
Bill Moyers is back -- twice! This weekend, he'll make you think, as he launches the inaugural edition of public TV's Moyers & Company. But already this week, he's made you laugh -- as Stephen Colbert's guest on Tuesday's installment of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Not many people can parse the differences between tax breaks and tax dodges on one show, and screech owls and hoot owls on another. But Moyers can, and does...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
11
 
 
If you're wondering why this week's BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS provide no mention of either the new NBC sitcom Are You There, Chelsea? or the new CBS sitcom Rob, let me be clear. It's not an oversight. It's a judgment. Both shows are terrible -- but Chelsea Handler's program is the more disappointing, because she's been so clever and successful at hosting talk shows and writing memoirs...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
11
 
 
One of the greatest television miniseries ever made -- and made 25 years ago, no less -- is a documentary. Actually, a discussion: Two older men in chairs, talking. For six hours...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
9
 
 
By watching its premiere telecast, you can tell much more about a news program's immediate weaknesses than its potential strengths. Chemistry and reputation take time to build, but groan-inducing mistakes, missteps and poor editorial judgments are there from the start...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
9
 
 
You never know what you'll find at TVWW. Or where. So be sure to check out all the little nooks and crannies of this home page. (If you can find the cranny...)
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
6
 
 
PASADENA, Calif. -- What did NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt tell critics attending TCA Friday morning? The first network executive session of the Television Critics Association tour will be hard to top for candor. Greenblatt actually answers questions...And, as usual, a few of the best goodies came in the post-session scrum...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
6
 
 
At first, I was kinda bummed my flight to Pasadena to attend the January 2012 Television Critics Association press tour would detour through the San Francisco airport, a necessary stopover in order to cash in some Aeroplan points. Mmmm -- points. Then I happened upon a treasure trove of television history. Truly, every journalist traveling to TCA should be routed back through SFO...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
6
 
 
Portlandia isn't a show that bursts with big laughs or lurches into irreverent turns. It's more like watching nerdy kids spinning goofy improv in theater class. And that feel is due in part to its locale -- it's all shot in Portland, Oregon, the fertile left coast that sprouts the hyper-moral, alt-eco-culture quirks the show thrives on satirizing...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
6
 
 
Sunday, in addition to the NFL playoff games, there are a ridiculous number of fresh TV offerings -- way too many to mention in BEST BETS alone. But on my most recent radio report for Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I tried. Read on for details about not only Showtime's House of Lies and PBS's Season 2 of Downton Abbey, but NBC's new The Firm, BBC America's Absolutely Fabulous special, and more...