The seventh season of Lifetime's Project Runway just finished up, and here's another show that has a lot of rewards for artists, designers and creative types beneath the catty cloak of its reality show format. (And yes, this comes from a middle-aged, male heterosexual who is fascinated with the show. Not that there's anything wrong with that...)

2010

Apr

SO LONG, BILL MOYERS: TELEVISION WILL BE POORER WITHOUT YOU By David Bianculli

Friday night, the host of "Bill Moyers' Journal" presents an expanded 90-minute edition of his superb program, then says goodbye -- putting a self-imposed end to a stellar TV career that began 40 years ago. It's safe to say, given Moyers' reliable excellence and the qualitative demise of most network news and public affairs shows, we're unlikely to see his equal again...

2010

Apr

ACTOR JOE PANTOLIANO BECOMES A DIRECTOR, AND CHAMPIONS COMPASSION FOR "MENTAL DIS-EASE," IN NEW DOCUMENTARY By David Bianculli

Beginning today, Amazon has begun offering exclusive distribution of a new documentary by Joe Pantoliano...But this time, as writer-producer-director of "No Kidding?!! Me, Too!", the performer known as Joey Pants isn't hiding behind a role. He's being as honest as he can, about his personal battles with depression and other forms of what he calls "mental dis-ease,"...

2010

Apr

DVD UPDATE: ANDY KAUFMAN LIVES! By Diane Werts

Two of the coolest, and rarest, things on TV are surprise and ambiguity. Not just "We're soooo complex" surprise/ambiguity, but real, stunning "What the bleep is happening?!" Two words: Andy Kaufman...

2010

Apr

GUEST BLOG #88: ERIC GOULD ON WHAT AN ARCHITECT -- AND YOU -- CAN LEARN FROM GORDON RAMSAY By Eric Gould

Followers of Kitchen Nightmares (Friday nights at 9 ET, Fox) know well that the host, Gordon Ramsay, is a wound-up, caffeinated mix of successful restaurateur, life coach and perverse provocateur. He can turn very bad restaurants into high-functioning and very well-received ones...

2010

Apr

GUEST BLOG #87: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, IT'S A WONDERFUL TOWN... AND YOU CAN EXPLORE IT ON WNET'S WEB SERIES By Tom Brinkmoeller

[Bianculli here: One of contributing writer Tom Brinkmoeller's specialties is finding intriguing TV in out-of-the-way places. This time he's found some worthwhile stuff in a place so far out of the way, it's not even ON television... but emanates from public TV anyway...]

2010

Apr

FLICK PICKS: FUN WITH SPLIT SCREENS AND FILM FESTIVALS By Diane Werts

Just old movies? Think again. Turner Classic Movies is always thinking outside the box that holds the Warner/MGM film library from which the channel was launched 16 years ago this week. They've added lots more titles, many of them newer, and they've found increasingly clever ways to lovingly package their film presentations for both edification and sheer fun...

2010

Apr

DVD UPDATE: SERIOUS SOAP, CIRCA '80S By Diane Werts

At least Dallas had a sense of humor. Larry Hagman's adulterous oil man J.R. Ewing? C'mon. He had his tongue firmly in-cheek through all his dastardly deeds...

2010

Apr

"GLEE" AND "LOST": TWO OF TV'S MOST INVENTIVE, ORIGINAL SERIES ARE MUST-SEE TONIGHT By David Bianculli

Two of television's most exciting, inventive and original broadcast network series right now, Fox's "Glee' and ABC's "Lost", present can't-miss episodes tonight. Unfortunately, they're on at the same time, so a little time-shifting is required. But see them both, by all means...

2010

Apr

SPEAKING AND WATCHING AT THE BEA: MY WEEKEND IN VEGAS By David Bianculli

This weekend capped the latest frenzied round of what passes for my life, with a presentation about my book at the Broadcast Education Association convention in Las Vegas. But what I was most excited about at the convention was the King Foundation Awards show, which selected and honored the best student and faculty productions in various media categories...

Posts 1-10 of 23 1 2 3

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption