SPECIAL PREMIERE: Netflix started by generating original series – for adults and for children. Then it added TV movies and miniseries, and also has elbowed its way, quite forcefully, into the area of television specials. Standup comedy specials and music concert specials, long part of the territory claimed by HBO and Showtime, are now being mounted, quite forcefully, by Netflix as well. This morning, Netflix dropped this new filmed-for-posterity version of Taylor Swift’s recently com

2018

Dec

DICK CLARK’S PRIMETIME NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN’ EVE WITH RYAN SEACREST By David Bianculli

This is the prime-time appetizer for the main course, which occurs at 11:30 p.m. ET on ABC. But if your party starts early, this is something to consider having on TV in the background. Or, if your party is a markedly low-key affair, perhaps even the foreground. Jenny McCarthy co-hosts.

2018

Dec

NEW YEAR’S EVE LIVE WITH ANDERSON COOPER AND ANDY COHEN By David Bianculli

Last year, Anderson Cooper presided over the New Year’s celebration with a new co-host, Andy Cohen – replacing the suddenly controversial Kathy Griffin. Tonight, Cooper and Cohen are paired again, which means CNN can now claim it as a new annual tradition.

2018

Dec

THE TWILIGHT ZONE MARATHON By David Bianculli

This year’s Twilight Zone marathon continues all day and night, and goes into tomorrow – so any time you like, you can into the Zone merely by tuning to Syfy. But this year, today, I highlight in particular the 8 p.m. ET showing of “The Invaders,” the episode of The Twilight Zone I singled out for praise, and interpretation, as my contribution to Mark Dawidziak’s Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone – the perfect companion book, by the way,

2018

Dec

THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! MARATHON By David Bianculli

If you don’t yet have plans for a wildly entertaining New Year’s Eve, TCM provides one tonight – and it’s one that keeps going long after other New Year’s Eve festivities have concluded. Starting at 8 p.m. ET, TCM presents a quintet of full-length movie compilations of highlights from other movies. First up is 1974’s That’s Entertainment!, a breathless but proud romp through the golden era of MGM musicals. That’s followed at 10:30 p.m. ET by 1976&r

2018

Dec

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC NEW YEAR’S EVE WITH RENEE FLEMING By David Bianculli

The orchestra’s new music director, Jaap van Zweden, presents a program broad enough to include Broadway songs and Viennese waltzes, as well as classic selections of classical music. Check local listings.

2018

Dec

DICK CLARK’S NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN’ EVE WITH RYAN SEACREST By David Bianculli

The scheduled headliner, making an appearance on this ABC countdown celebration for the first time in more than a decade, is Christina Aguilera. Also performing from the New York City block of Times Square: New Kids on the Block.

2018

Dec

NBC'S NEW YEAR'S EVE By David Bianculli

Carson Daly hosts this special, with help from Keith Urban (the special is a split venue between New York and Nashville) and new co-hosts Leslie Jones from Saturday Night Live and Chrissy Teigen from Lip Sync Battle. Along the scheduled performers: Jennifer Lopez (pictured) and, taking the stage just before the end of 2018, Bebe Rexha.

2018

Dec

BATMAN MARATHON By David Bianculli

Beginning exactly at midnight ET – Holy Happy New Year, Batman! – IFC presents a marathon of the entire first season of ABC’s mod, mad, improbably entertaining Batman series, starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as his sidekick Robin, the boy wonder. The action begins with “Hi Diddle Riddle” and “Smack in the Middle,” the episodes introducing Frank Gorshin as the Riddler – with Jill St. John as, if my memory is correct, the

2018

Dec

THE 2000S: "THE PLATINUM AGE OF TELEVISION" By David Bianculli

I mentioned yesterday that CNN was ending the year by repeating its most recent TV-centric installments of its ongoing documentary series devoted to each decade since, and starting with, The Sixties. Tonight at 8 ET, CNN repeats the lead-off two-hour episode of The 2000s, with a title it borrowed, with my blessing, from the title of my recent book: “The Platinum Age of Television.” I’m interviewed on camera, briefly, but recommend this program regardless. And since the year 201

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