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

 
 
 
 
 
2012
Mar
14
 
 
After I had written mostly positive things for TV WORTH WATCHING last year about a public-television series called Theater Talk (read the column HERE), I didn't think I'd be writing about this Broadway-news series again soon. Then NBC premiered Smash, and before the first episode was finished, I knew I had guessed incorrectly...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Mar
1
 
 
Would you suspect something was wrong if you turned on the PBS Newshour one evening and, instead of getting an intelligent dose of the day's news by the program's current on-air team, you saw Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer on the screen, talking about Iraq's recent invasion of Kuwait? Or if you opened your favorite travel magazine and saw a lead story about the imminent opening of Walt Disney World in Florida? We go to archives and libraries for that kind of history. We go to journalists for
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
1
 
 
Antiques Roadshow begins its 16th PBS season Monday, Jan. 2 at 8 p.m. ET (check local listings). It's a series that fascinates millions weekly, and has thrived over these many years on the air...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
12
 
 
For those politically incorrect enough to still not only use the word "Christmas" but to think of the day primarily as a religious observance, PBS has three upcoming concerts that should suit the season perfectly. Not only do these concerts acknowledge the origin of the event, they do it with the kind of depth and high quality -- that the commercial networks wouldn't, and couldn't, try to copy...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Dec
3
 
 
The final performance of Paul Simon's "So Beautiful or So Whatspring" 2011 concert tour will show up on many PBS stations this month...Does Paul Simon, in this public-TV setting, reflect more Vincent van Gogh -- or more Lawrence Welk?...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Nov
23
 
 
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
14
 
 
In which our TVWW correspondent, recounting a long-untold story from the days when he'd left the TV critic beat and become a publicist for Walt Disney World, finally reveals details of the time he was recruited as a "spy" to gather information about a new competitor to the equally new Regis Philbin syndicated TV talk show...(DB)
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Nov
2
 
 
Less than a month after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, PBS airs an hour-long special program about him Wednesday night that probably could never have been turned around so quickly, cleanly and completely had Jobs not been such an egocentric and ruthlessly competitive genius...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Sep
17
 
 
The following is a rant. Because it is for a civilized website, I will do my best to keep it polite. But this is one idiocy, plucked from television's large army of dimwitted efforts, that makes me especially irritated. It has to do with cooking shows -- and the high cost of certain elite ingredients...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Aug
5
 
 
During the upcoming pledge period, PBS will air three musical specials that are so enjoyable, and so well performed and produced, they may remind those watching of when the major networks regularly broadcast these kinds of shows. Even though commercial broadcast networks have abandoned such musical programming for less costly amateur hours, PBS ably picks up that dropped baton with concerts by Barbra Streisand and Michael Feinstein and a special about how the pre-Beatles folk-music scene grew
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

Tom Brinkmoeller

I wrote about television for a daily newspaper (The Cincinnati Enquirer) in the '80s, but what drew me to covering it was how good this young medium so often was. So much of what was good then came from MTM Enterprises and its alumni. When I left the beat, MTM was still setting high standards with drama series like St. Elsewhere and comedies like Newhart. Because general TV standards have dropped a great distance since then, it's no reason to capitulate. My role here is to find and spotlight programming that still honors high standards.
 
 
 
 

This Day in TV History