History is complicated. No one has done more to bring "serious" history to television than Ken Burns. In his latest nonfiction miniseries, Prohibition, he and co-producers Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein again marshal a small army of academics, writers, and researchers to explore a key epoch in US history -- the nation's nearly 14-year-long experiment in outlawing booze.

2011

May

HBO'S 'TOO BIG TO FAIL': TO THE FINANCIAL PRECIPICE... OR, REDEEMING HANK PAULSON By David Sicilia

[In which our resident TVWW business historian and professor takes a very informed view of HBO's telemovie about the financial crisis, and pronounces it complex yet invaluable. "Watch Too Big to Fail more than once," he concludes. "You'll need to, and it's worth it"... -- DB]

2011

May

ADVICE FOR ABC'S 'SECRET MILLIONAIRE': MORE CASH, LESS BLUBBERING By David Sicilia

When I saw the trailer for ABC's Secret Millionaire, which premieres Sunday night at 8 ET, I immediately thought of John Beresford Tipton...an industrialist as shadowy as James Bond's foes, who, through a stolid intermediary, "Michael Anthony" (played by Marvin Miller), handed over a check for $1 million to an unwitting stranger...

2011

May

EVERYBODY'S A (FOOD) CRITIC By David Sicilia

At a time when tens of millions of Americans are out of work and countless others clutch their jobs in white-knuckled insecurity, must Charles Darwin script every reality show? So it seems. The same ruthless culling-from-the-herd that now gives us our pop singers, our weight losers, our island survivors, clothes designers and homemaker entrepreneurs will now produce a restaurateur...

2011

Jan

CBS'S 'UNDERCOVER BOSS': CORPORATE CROSS-DRESSING By David Sicilia

As the U.S. economy limps along and, intones the somber narrator of Undercover Boss on CBS, "public distrust of wealthy CEOs remains high, more and more bosses are looking for radical ways to reconnect with their workforce." This reality show's answer each week is to dress up the "boss of a major corporation" as an entry-level worker, and send him or her incognito to see what it's REALLY like out there...

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