In composer Stephen Sondheim's new book, Look, I Made a Hat, he reveals lots of things that should surprise even the most diehard Sondheim enthusiast -- not personal admissions, but details of works both produced and unproduced. One, in particular, stunned me...

2011

Nov

CHRISTMAS TV: WHAT'S ON NOW By Diane Werts

Christmas listings have now been extended through Wednesday, Nov. 30! By the start of December, we should have all the listings posted for the rest of the holiday season, in a more usable format, with fun seasonal photos. Bear with us -- this project is a monster!...

2011

Nov

OY! TO THE WORLD: CELEBRATING THE 'HEBREW HAMMER' By Eric Gould

No one covers holiday programming like TVWW, and by that, we mean Hanukkah, too. Case in point: we remind you of Shalom TV's annual roll-out of The Hebrew Hammer. It ushers in the annual Festival of Lights with a "Blaxploitation" parody sending up every Jewish cultural stereotype possible in irreverent Airplane style -- from the almighty Jewish Guilt to the meddling Jewish mother...

2011

Nov

'ESSENTIAL PEPIN' LIVES UP TO ITS TITLE By Tom Brinkmoeller

Jacques Pepin has a new public-television series, Essential Pepin, and an accompanying book of the same name. This chef has acquired millions of television followers over several decades and 12 previous public-TV cooking series. Even as his age has reached the mid-70s, the new series' quality remains as high, and the content as fresh, as ever...

2011

Nov

GIVING THANKS THIS TV SEASON: I MAY AS WELL SPELL IT OUT By David Bianculli

The Thanksgiving holiday is a time for gratitude, for reflection --and for watching TV, from the Turkey Day football games to the Sunday night dramas. Just to stoke the fires of appreciation, I've made a list of six reasons to be grateful, media-wise, for our recent bounty of tasty treats. Put them all together, they spell T-H-A-N-K-S....

2011

Nov

FIGHTING FOR PBS'S 'FIGHT OF THE WEEK' By Noel Holston

If it please the court, I'd like to advocate on behalf of The Advocates. It's a series whose time has come. Again. The Advocates was a weekly public-TV presentation from 1969 through 1974, revived as a bi-weekly program for most of 1978-79...while the fisticuffs were all verbal, it could pack a wallop. Many an intellectual hotshot left the arena with his or her ego bruised...

2011

Nov

WOODY ALLEN PBS DOCUMENTARY IS NO DEAD SHARK: IT KEEPS MOVING -- AND IT'S FASCINATING By David Bianculli

The upcoming PBS American Masters two-parter, Woody Allen: A Documentary, is getting a lot of attention and acclaim, and deserves it all. I raved about it in my Thursday review on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, which I'll recap in a second. But here, I want to point out some other, additional things to anticipate and enjoy about this fine new TV biography...

2011

Nov

THE MANY FACES OF WOODY ALLEN By Eric Gould

Coming up on PBS Sunday and Monday at 9 p.m. ET, Nov. 20-21 (check local listings), are four hours of actors, writers and critics lining up to pay homage to one of the true auteurs of our time -- one who somehow was able to muse on life's great metaphysical mysteries while slipping on a giant banana peel, or dressed as a Hassidic Rabbi...

2011

Nov

IN 'X FACTOR,' X MARKS THE SPOT... FOR X-CRUCIATING By David Bianculli

I wanted to like The X Factor, I really did, and I'm usually impressed by Simon Cowell as both an on-air judge and backstage producer. But there are two things I just can't abide about his new Fox competition series, and they both came to a creepy, weepy head last week, when Willow Smith sang and Paula Adbul sobbed...

2011

Nov

TODAY ON NPR'S 'FRESH AIR': REGIS AND I SPEND AN HOUR TALKING ABOUT OLD TV TIMES By David Bianculli

In the midst of a crazy week, even for him, Regis Philbin sat down and carved out more than an hour yesterday to talk about his career, his future, and his new memoir, How I Got This Way. Our conversation airs today (Tuesday), as the featured interview on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. But there's one thing you won't hear during the broadcast version of our talk: my cell phone ringing...

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