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

 
 
2017
Mar
5
 
 
It’s been 50 years since The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premiered on CBS. Tonight, on getTV, two of the best 1967 episodes are repeated back-to-back. The first is a Season 2 episode guest-starring Bette Davis, who is the scene-stealing subject of tonight’s new Feud: Bette and Joan miniseries on FX. It also guest stars The Who, a group making its American TV debut (pictured is Tom Smothers with lead singer Roger Daltrey), and making it with a bang – an infamously out-of-contr
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
4
 
 
More than half a century after her death, Patsy Cline remains a north star to women artists in country music and beyond...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
4
 
 
This fabulously photographed sequel to Planet Earth continues – and you’d better enjoy it while it’s here. (Your call, whether I’m referring to the series or the planet.) Tonight’s subject: “Jungles.” Which is vine with me…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
4
 
 
This 1976 movie was director Alfred Hitchcock’s final film – and his last presentation of a cinematic trademark: the sexy but icy blonde. In this case, though, the blonde was wearing a wig as part of a disguise: Under her fake tresses (which, like her sky-high heels, were worn to confuse witnesses to her crime), she was a brunette played by Karen Black. She’s pictured here in her femme fatale disguise – and on her trail, on this very funny suspense film, is a ditsy psychi
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
4
 
 
Tonight’s guests, on this new edition, include two excellent actors, Tom Hiddleston and Ruth Wilson, as well as the irrepressible Ricky Gervais.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
4
 
 
After a short break, Saturday Night Live returns, with a lot to make fun of – especially, but not exclusively, politically. Octavia Spencer, who won an Oscar for The Help and was just nominated, but did not win, for Hidden Figures, is the guest host. Musical guest: Father John Misty.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
3
 
 
“Here’s what you need to know about Russia’s ambassador to the US,” the Washington Post told readers, in its Friday edition. Joe Weisberg, the former CIA case officer who co-created The Americans with Joel Fields, could be forgiven for allowing himself a small laugh...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
3
 
 
This 1942 movie comedy, starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in their first, utterly electric screen pairing, is one of the funniest and most insightful movies ever made about the newspaper business. They’re delightful together, and her character is such an early feminist that she’s got to be considered groundbreaking, even given all the strong women in film in the previous decade. Of note, too, is that Oscar-winning screenwriters Ring Lardner, Jr. and Michael Kanin were so y
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
3
 
 
MINISERIES FINALE: Part 4 of 4. This four-part dramatization of LGBT rights concludes tonight. The ratings haven’t been terrific, but the effort has been a noble one – even for the miniseries as a genre. The broadcast networks almost never attempt this sort of multi-part commitment any more.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
3
 
 
The last time environmental author Bill McKibben was on Real Time with Bill Maher, five years ago (pictured), he memorably told Maher, “We broke the Arctic.” Wonder what he’s going to say in 2017, making a return visit as one of this week’s scheduled guests, just as the Environmental Protection Agency comes under new management.