Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is an official holiday. It's also the return travel day for critics and reporters who have been out in Pasadena for the Television Critics Association press tour. And at Rowan University, where I teach, it's the last day of winter break before the spring term begins Tuesday.
So the TV WORTH WATCHING staff should be enjoying a day of rest. Instead, we're all over the place -- literally, figuratively, and, on the web, virtually...
Monday, for example, I can be heard on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, reviewing Fox's Alcatraz, which premieres Monday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox, and FX's Justified, which returns for Season 3 Tuesday night at 10 ET. You can hear that report, after about 5 p.m. ET Monday, by clicking HERE.
Several of our contributors have been out covering press tour. Bill Brioux has been our go-to guy, because he's been kind enough to share with us some of his dispatches for his own website, TV Feeds My Family.
In his most recent post for us, Brioux describes the lively, genially foul-mouthed press conference for HBO's Luck, the upcoming David Milch series starring Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte. Brioux, in reporting about the R-rated exchanges between critics and actors, singled out the quote-sparking questions by our own Ed Bark.
Bill Brioux's TVWW column on that lively session can be read HERE -- but I also recommend visiting Bill's home site TV Feeds My Family, HERE, to read yet another dispatch from the tour, yet another play-by-play account of the already infamous Jennifer Lopez-Marc Anthony panel by Univision. Bill's writing made me laugh out loud, but that's nothing new.
Since Bill was writing about Ed, it also makes sense to follow Ed firsthand as well. His latest contribution to TVWW is his current Uncle Barky's Bytes review of Alcatraz, which you can read HERE.
However, when Ed Bark is on press tour, he reports exclusively for LocateTV, and was filing stories as recently as yesterday, when he covered a Sunday afternoon press conference with Russell Brand, tied to his upcoming late-night FX program, Strangely Uplifting.
Ed's LocateTV stories, starting with that one, can be found HERE. And, of course, his regular home-field site, UncleBarky, can be found HERE.
Another intrepid TVWW columnist who appears elsewhere during TCA tour dates is Ed Martin, who files exclusively, during that period, for Jack Myers' MediaBizBloggers. Like Ed and Bill, he's been busy filing -- and, unlike many of those in attendance at TCA these days, busily asking questions.
Ed's stories for MediaBiz are filed under the Ed Martin's Watercooler TV banner, and can be found HERE -- including his recent story, an interview with Al Gore about the Current TV network and its plans for this election year.
And, of course, Ed also writes stories for us HERE, at Ed Martin's TV Mix, when he's not on tour.
And while I don't want to exclude anyone -- we're all busy, it seems -- I should end with a nod to yet another TVWW contributor, Alan Pergament, who writes the Still Talkin TV column for us. StillTalkinTV also is the name of his personal blog, which just posted a review of a show both Ed Bark and I thought worthy of mention: Fox's Alcatraz. You can read Alan's review HERE.
Well, that's enough of that. Go enjoy your holiday. And don't worry about me, as I watch stuff that's going to be on TV the next few days. To me, watching good TV is a holiday...
Spoiler Alert: Justified is magnificent.