The on-the-shelf banishment of this sitcom continues to show, drastically and almost absurdly. Having a Halloween episode in the dead of winter, necessitated by NBC’s decision to bench this series until midseason, was awkward enough. But now, in March, comes a Thanksgiving episode. But timing, in this case, isn’t everything, because it’s still worth watching – because Jeff (Joel McHale) finally comes face to face with his long-estranged dad. And the dad is played by guest

2013

Mar

AMERICAN IDOL By David Bianculli

After two days of live performances by the 20 singers who have made it thus far in this year’s competition, tonight that numbers will be cut in half, ending up with the year’s Top 10. It’s the viewers, not the judges, who are making the cuts this time, but expect, on this live outing, that the judges still will have plenty to say. Especially Nicki Minaj (pictured), who seems to have no seven-second delay in her own head, and Mariah Carey, who seems to have no sense of time bein

2013

Mar

CAN-CAN By David Bianculli

Tonight’s TCM lineup is a cinematic salute to Paris, with four movies set in Paris presented back to back (to back to back). The evening begins with 1960’s Can-Can, starring Shirley MacLaine as a scandalous dancer in Paris of the 1890s. In addition to the high-kicking exposed legs of the can-can dance itself, MacLaine also performs in an on-stage set piece called the “Garden of Eden ballet” (pictured). When it was shown, prior to the film’s release, during Soviet pr

2013

Mar

GLEE By David Bianculli

Tonight’s new episode of Glee pits the boys against the girls – and one of the acts by the girls treads heavily upon the Marilyn Monroe territory claimed by NBC’s Smash. The young ladies take on Monroe’s famous “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” number – but also update it by mashing it up with Madonna’s “Material Girl.” You go, girls.

2013

Mar

LITTLE LOST SHOWS: TV THAT DIED TOO SOON By Eric Gould

No, Enlightened hasn't been cancelled yet, but the web's aflutter about the possibility, and it got us to thinking about other shows we've loved that didn't make it...

2013

Mar

THE SHINING By David Bianculli

The exciting news that Steven Spielberg is working with the Stanley Kubrick estate to complete the director's never-realized Napoleon epic is more than enough reason to revisit a Kubrick film that works every time you watch it anyway. This 1980 adaptation of the Stephen King novel is one of the spookiest movies ever made - and Jack Nicholson is the demented beating heart of it.

2013

Mar

AMERICAN IDOL By David Bianculli

Last night, we finally got our first live edition of this year’s Idol incarnation, and left with several first impressions. First, the women challengers are not the overwhelmingly impressive batch of singers the judges have claimed them to be. As for the judges this year: Keith Urban is a nice-guy singer in the Adam Levine mold, Mariah Carey loves the sound of her own voice whether she’s singing or talking, Nicki Minaj is the most blunt judge of the group (but also the Steven Tyler-t

2013

Mar

KIM NOVAK: LIVE FROM THE TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL By David Bianculli

Last year, TCM host Robert Osborne, at the third annual TCM film festival event, had a special sit-down interview with the reclusive Kim Novak. Tonight, that interview is televised, followed by a quartet of Kim Novak films. There’s no Vertigo, but the films do include 1955’s Picnic (at midnight ET) and the same year’s The Man With the Golden Arm (at 2 a.m. ET), as well as our next Wednesday Best Bet, Bell, Book & Candle.

2013

Mar

BELL, BOOK & CANDLE By David Bianculli

This 1959 comedy reteams James Stewart and Kim Novak, who had starred, the year before, in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. In that movie, he played a man obsessed with her. In this movie, he plays a man who isn’t — not, that is, until she casts him under her spell. Literally, because she’s a witch. And when she casts a love spell, the look in her eyes sells it. Completely.

2013

Mar

THE AMERICANS By David Bianculli

This series has upped its game quickly and commendably, as it becomes more and more like a game of international chess. The Americans have recruited a Soviet informant by threatening to reveal that she’s stolen things from the Soviet embassy in the States, where she works. The Soviets, in turn, suspect that someone in their employ has been turned by the U.S. feds – and tonight, they try to ferret out the mole. Or mole out the ferret. And even Russian undercover agents Elizabeth and P

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