DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
2007
Nov
20
 
 
A week ago Monday in this blog, I raved about a new dramatic series by Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick called "Quarterlife" - available, at the time, only on the Internet (on MySpace and its own brand-new website, Quarterlife.com), presented twice weekly in eight-minute chunks...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2007
Nov
19
 
 
This is the start of the third week of the Writers Guild of America strike - and no news, in this instance, is the closest we'll get to good news for quite a while. That's because both the writers and producers have agreed to resume talks one week from today, after Thanksgiving weekend, and, in the meantime, to issue no official press releases...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2007
Nov
18
 
 
"Mission: Impossible," the 1996 Brian De Palma movie that launched the Tom Cruise "M:I" franchise, is televised tonight at 8 p.m. ET by American Movie Classics. I recommend you don't watch it. But I do recommend you think about it - for reasons I'm about to explain...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2007
Nov
17
 
 
At 11:30 ET tonight, for the first time in two weeks, the show "Saturday Night Live" will go on. But only in New York, as a staged Writers Guild of America benefit at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Michael Cera, of "Superbad" and formerly of "Arrested Development," is scheduled to be the guest host of this sold-out event - and though nothing's confirmed, it's rumored...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2007
Nov
16
 
 
Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, the cable network TV Land, in collaboration with Entertainment Weekly, presents what it calls "a definitive list" of The 50 Greatest TV Icons. Not even close - and some of the omissions and inclusions are nothing short of maddening. Of the top 50 all-time TV icons on this list, 30 of them first established their iconic status in the 1970s or later...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2007
Nov
15
 
 
Today is my birthday. Yesterday, I spent most of the day answering the last of the letters wishing me farewell from the New York Daily News, and good luck on whatever I was doing next...Besides, as I celebrate my birthday today, this website is only 10 days old...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2007
Nov
14
 
 
The day I launched this website, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. Less than a week later, the Local One union of stagehands went on strike in New York. Both strikes are still going on strong - which means, among other things, that Aaron Sorkin's "The Farnsworth Invention," scheduled to have its opening night tonight on Broadway, isn't. His drama about TV has, in effect, been turned off...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2007
Nov
13
 
 
You know that feeling, in the middle of May, when you're watching the last few first-run installments of your favorite shows - and feel a little sad because you know you're going to have to wait four months to see them again? Just into the second week of the strike, I feel the same way. Actually, I feel worse...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2007
Nov
12
 
 
Today, on its own website called www.quarterlife.com, a new TV series, also called "Quarterlife," is scheduled to be unveiled. Actually, it was unveiled yesterday as a sneak preview on MySpace -- where, as I watched on my laptop that afternoon, a MySpace counter announced that "Quarterlifehas 856 friends..."
 
 
 
  
 
 
2007
Nov
11
 
 
The Aaron in the title doesn't refer to baseball legend Hank Aaron - but to stage, screen and TV writer Aaron Sorkin. His "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" series folded after its freshman season, but on other fronts, the prolific and gifted writer seemed set, with a new Broadway play opening this Wednesday...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.

 
 
 
 

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