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DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2013
May
11
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s guest host is a former regular, and perennial bright spot: Kristen Wiig, making a return appearance as headliner, and bringing several of her favorite old characters with her. You go, girls.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
11
A LOOK AT '10 BUILDINGS THAT CHANGED AMERICA' By Eric Gould
 
 
The PBS special on architecture isn't all about buildings that are the most beautiful or dramatic, but buildings so game-changing they forever altered the home and workplace...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
10
PLANT YOURSELF IN FRONT OF HBO’S 'FAMILY TREE' By David Bianculli
 
 

Christopher Guest’s new comedy series for HBO, Family Tree, is a clever show with a secret weapon — a hand puppet. Hey, hey, it’s the monkey…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
10
LAME DUCK LENO KEEPS WINNING, NBC BOASTS By Ed Bark
 
 
Could there be a second pullback from a premature evacuation of Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show? Just wondering, in light of NBC's latest press release...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
10
MOYERS & COMPANY By David Bianculli
 
 
This weekend’s new show is called How People Power Generates Change, and features Bill Moyers interviewing such guests as lifelong activist Marshall Ganz, whose legacy of change from the grassroots level traces back to the 1960s. Moyers & Company is shown by public TV stations locally from Friday through Sunday. To find when it’s televised in your TV market, see the Moyers & Company website. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
10
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR By David Bianculli
 
 
Robert Redford’s Sundance Channel is showing this 1975 political thriller that’s a precursor of every Bourne-again drama about secret agents gone rogue, or smelling conspiracies. This one is a great little movie, directed by Sydney Pollack and co-starring Cliff Robertson and Faye Dunaway. Redford plays a CIA researcher who suddenly is on the run, chased by his own agency – and though younger viewers may be thrown by the pivotal fact that this whole drama takes place in an era b
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
10
JAKE SHIMABUKURO: LIFE ON FOUR STRINGS By David Bianculli
 
 
You may have to take this one on faith, because it sounds dubious – but I recommend it highly. Director and editor Tadashi Nakamura has compiled a film about 36-year-old Jake Shimabukuro that is part biography, part concert touring film, and part Pied Piper reincarnated. Except that this particular enchanting musician doesn’t play a wind instrument, but a ukulele – yet unlike any ukulele player you’ve ever heard, or seen. He won me over years ago, when he first posted a Y
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
10
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli
 
 
This week’s guests include two people who aren’t regular visitors to Maher’s show, but whose appearances here are something to anticipate. One is actor Zachary Quinto, who plays Mr. Spock (pictured) in the new Star Trek film franchise – and the other is Mark Bittman, the straight-talking, sensible-cooking New York Times food columnist.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
10
MARON By David Bianculli
 
 
In this second episode, Marc Maron makes room on his show, and in his podcast garage studio, for Denis Leary, who smells a rat. Well, he smells something – and apparently, it’s dead, and it’s underneath Maron’s crawlspace.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
10
SUNDANCE CHANNEL CELEBRATES 'MAMMAS' By Christy Slewinski
 
 
Just in time for Mother's Day, the Sundance Channel presents Mammas, Isabella Rossellini's latest collection of nature-themed shorts...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley