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

 
 
2021
Jan
1
 
 
On this day in 1976, NBC marked its fiftieth year of broadcasting with the introduction of a new network logo...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2021
Jan
1
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: This New Year’s special is the one burst of new Doctor Who we’ll see for now, and it’s transitional – marking the final appearance for some of the characters traveling in the TARDIS of late. But not the Doctor: She will continue to be played, at least for a while, by Jodie Whittaker, who begins this special confined in a super-secure Space Prison. Meanwhile, we get to spend some time with John Barrowman as Jack Harkness, a character who first a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2021
Jan
1
 
 
I started talking about television on CNN in a documentary miniseries called The Sixties, leading off that nonfiction series by being part of an hour devoted to the decade in television. That first outing isn’t repeated tonight, but the TV-focused openers of the next four CNN decades miniseries are, starting with The Seventies: TV Gets Real at 4 p.m. ET. That’s followed by the two-hour TV episode of The Eighties at 5 p.m. ET, the two-hour TV episode of&n
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Dec
31
 
 
And the prize for the best documentary of 2020 goes to – wait for it – The Crown. Go ahead, laugh...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Dec
31
 
 
Perhaps even more than usual, television was comfort food in 2020...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Dec
31
 
 
I’m not recommending any of the televised New Year’s Eve celebrations this year. Too depressing. I can’t wait for the pages to turn on the calendar, but for the ball to drop? If there are no people gathered to celebrate, that’s a sad sight. And if there are people to party, and watch the ball drop in Times Square and elsewhere? Even more depressing. But TCM is showing, starting at 8 p.m. ET, all three That’s Entertainment! compilation films of mo
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Dec
31
 
 
For good and bad, PBS keeps surprising us. We don't expect it to be involved with New Year's Eve, a holiday that includes confetti, inebriation, and silly hats. Arbor Day is more its style...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Dec
31
 
 
This day in 1972, marked the last telecast of the CBS sitcom, Anna and the King...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Dec
30
 
 
On this day in 1963, NBC introduced the game show, Let's Make a Deal...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Dec
30
 
 
Because we’re in the middle of the “Dead Week” between Christmas and New Year’s, when almost nothing new or good is presented on television, choices are few, and tonight’s Bianculli’s Best Bets recommendations are for the birds – and they’re crazy. Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, from 1963, begins at 8 p.m. ET on TCM, and another of his horror movie masterpieces, 1960’s Psycho, follows at 10:15 p.m. ET, with