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

 
 
2009
Sep
17
 
 
[Bianculli here: With the new fall TV season about to arrive, contributing columnist Tom Brinkmoeller checks out the revamp of a website devoted to old TV, and the preservation of its oral history. Warning: The site, like the columnist, may prove addictive...]
 
 
 
  
 
 
2009
Sep
17
 
 
Ricky Gervais is now a comedy cottage industry, but he was nobody back in 2001 when he co-created and starred in the original British version of The Office. Find out why he's been hot stuff ever since, as the show gets another go...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2009
Sep
15
 
 
America may still be able to fall asleep watching Jay Leno. His 10 p.m. premiere showing on NBC Monday night was a showcase for bad television and an embarrassment for a network trying so hard to create a marketing "event" that it forgot Leno's talents: A powerful gimmick in the variety show/talk show toolbox is real or illusionary spontaneity, not a video screen featuring a "surprise" appearance by Oprah Winfrey. God, that was painful...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2009
Sep
14
 
 
If there's one thing I really hate, it's reading a TV blog entry I wish I'd written. And if there's one thing I really, really hate, it's reading one of those every day. Too bad for me...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2009
Sep
14
 
 
TV history seems to be everywhere all of a sudden. News broke Friday of the death of Larry Gelbart, whose TV triumphs go back to the Golden Age with Sid Caesar. Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of the Ponderosa clan. And tonight, Jay Leno takes the TV talk show into very significant virgin territory...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2009
Sep
11
 
 
So Ellen DeGeneres is replacing Paula Abdul on American Idol. I don't get it. Do we really want to hear jokes while contenders' performances are being assessed? Or are producers thinking Ellen will bring warm-and-cuddly support?...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2009
Sep
10
 
 
There hasn't been a column written about The CW's continuation of the '90s pop-culture fave Melrose Place that did not include a mention of Heather Locklear. Everyone seems to think that if Locklear would agree to reprise her role of ferocious businesswoman Amanda Woodward on the new show, its future would look brighter...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2009
Sep
9
 
 
Today is September 9, 2009. It's no coincidence, given how much stock Yoko Ono Lennon puts in numerology, that this is the day the Beatles and their surviving heirs have selected to release the biggest batch of Beatles merchandise in a generation -- Or, to quote the opening moments of "Revolution No. 9" from The Beatles, a.k.a. the White Album: "Number nine, number nine, number nine..."
 
 
 
  
 
 
2009
Sep
4
 
 
This TV season hasn't generated a lot of buzz, but there are plenty of reasons to come back to the TV set. This month alone, without breaking a sweat or making an exhaustive list,or including AMC's ongoing "Mad Men," I counted 15. Here they are, in order of telecast. Mark your calendars, and plan accordingly...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2009
Sep
2
 
 
The early bird gets the anchor slot. Charles Gibson, Katie Couric, Tom Brokaw and Barbara Walters way back when, and now Diane Sawyer -- all morning-show hosts who made the leap to anchoring their networks' evening newscasts...