ABC isn’t taking a Wallenda-sized risk with Friday's high-wire walk over Niagara Falls, and it may even garner decent ratings, since the national prime time network competition isn’t much of a threat...

2012

Jan

WITHOUT QUESTION, 'CHELSEA' IS LAME By Alan Pergament

I have an answer to the question in the new NBC sitcom Are You There, Chelsea? Let's hope that it won't be there for long...

2011

Nov

'BONES' RETURNS WITH SATISFYING 'UNSOLVABLE SITUATION' By Alan Pergament

Stephen Nathan, one of the executive producers of the Fox hit series Bones, wrote a message to the nation's television critics that came with the DVD of the first two episodes of the seventh season. He wrote: "Bones finds itself dealing with a happily unsolvable situation: Brennan and Booth are a couple. And they are about to have a baby... but we also have seen they couldn't be more unsuited for each other...

2011

Oct

ABC HAS A FAIRY TALE WINNER IN 'TIME' By Alan Pergament

Once upon a time, ABC used to carry a Sunday night series called The Wonderful World of Disney that enabled the whole family to sit together and watch a sweet family-oriented program. That magical time is back...

2011

Sep

ABC'S 'PAN AM' HAS BUMPY ARRIVAL By Alan Pergament

ABC's Pan Am arrives on schedule opposite CBS's The Good Wife this Sunday at 10 p.m. ET. It isn't exactly a soft landing for the pre-feminist 1960s stewardesses and jet age pilots who are circling the globe when the women offered coffee, tea or milk with a smile, and occasionally added something extra...

2011

Sep

'REVENGE': PRETTY EVIL SOAP SUDS By Alan Pergament

Who doesn't love Emily VanCamp? The Canadian actress has been adorable ever since she hit the American TV screen as a teenager on Everwood, the WB series in which she played Amy Abbott, love interest of the emotionally scarred Ephram. And now she gets her star turn on "Revenge", a new ABC drama that the producers told TV critics is loosely based on The Count of Monte Cristo...

2011

Aug

'PERSON OF INTEREST' MAKES FALL TV INTERESTING By Alan Pergament

TV critics and bloggers across the nation just gathered at the semi-annual Television Critics Association tour looking for the next great thing. I've watched several already and imagine that one of the series bound to get the most attention is CBS' new drama "Person of Interest" -- There are plenty of reasons for it to get extra buzz...

2011

Jul

'RESCUE ME' AS DEPENDABLE AS JETER By Alan Pergament

The FX series Rescue Me rescued me one recent weekend. I was sick and felt kind of low, but had seven episodes of the final season (back Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET) to make me laugh, think about death and how crazy life can be...

2010

Nov

WHEN COMEDY GETS LAUGHS FOR THE WRONG REASONS By Alan Pergament

It was hard not to laugh this week when NBC announced its midseason schedule would continue its Thursday night of comedy past 10 p.m. ET, by pushing back Tina Fey's Emmy-winning 30 Rock and the freshman series "Outsourced". After all, one of the jokes in the previous weekend's PBS special honoring Fey with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor concerned how low the ratings for 30 Rock have been...

2010

Nov

'FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS' REMAINS A WINNER By Alan Pergament

It is time to get sentimental about "Friday Night Lights". And with Friday Night Lights. The series about life in a small Texas town where high school football is king just entered its final season on DirecTV's The 101...In a TV season that is without a must-see new hit, Lights shone as brightly and as beautifully as ever in last week's premiere episode, titled "Expectations"...

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Alan Pergament

Alan Pergament was the television critic for the Buffalo News for 28 years and the TV Sports critic for several years before that. In his 40-year newspaper career, he has covered sports, the courts, the suburbs and crime stories. He also is an adjunct at Buffalo State College and Medaille College, where he teaches journalism and criticism. In 2010, he began his own website, stilltalkintv.blogspot.com.

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