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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

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All Along the Watchtower

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Uncle Barky's Bytes

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TV That Matters

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Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

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Aerial View

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MNtv

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TV Feeds My Family

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Must-Click TV

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Raised On MTM

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Crossing Jordan

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TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2012
May
11
DARK SHADOWS - 1967 By David Bianculli
 
 
DARK SHADOWS, 1967 - Diane Werts, in her review of the new, complete Dark Shadows TV series box set HERE, describes how the daytime gothic soap opera series changed when Jonathan Frid entered the fray, by exiting his coffin, as long-dormant vampire Barnabas Collins. Here’s the moment, from 1967, when Barnabas emerged – released by Willie Loomis, who was in search of treasure. – DB
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
11
MOYERS & COMPANY By David Bianculli
 
 
Now that it’s apparent that it’s going to be Mitt Romney vs. incumbent President Barack Obama duking it out for the 2012 election, Bill Moyers invites Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the election-ads expert from the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, to talk about the latest moves – good and bad – in on-air political campaigning. If you plan to vote, you should watch. If you don’t (and I don’t suspect that’s the case), why are yo
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
11
BEDAZZLED By David Bianculli
 
 
This is the original 1967 comedy, not the more modern cinematic remake, which took the Faustian bargain and set it, in this case, against the swinging Sixties. Peter Cook is the devil, Dudley Moore plays his hapless victim, and Raquel Welch has a small yet substantial role as the embodiment of Lust. Lillian Lust, to be precise.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
11
FRINGE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Part 2 of 2. Last week’s episode – part 1 of this year’s two-part season finale – ended with Leonard Nimoy making a surprise, and sinister, appearance as Dr. William Bell. His arrival on the scene doesn’t bode well for our heroes. Or their alternates. Or even the universe as they, and we, know it. So stay tuned, definitely.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
11
THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW By David Bianculli
 
 
I laugh a lot watching this show. Tonight Karl complains about his inability to exercise self-control when it comes to various food cravings – as when, all of a sudden, he gets an urge to eat plums, and eats so many he gets… plum tired. (My words, not Karl’s.)
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
11
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli
 
 
With President Obama’s sudden supportive statement about gay marriage, there’s a lot to talk about already on tonight’s show. And one of the guests, promoting Sunday’s finale of ABC’s Desperate Housewives, isn’t your usual suspect on this kind of talk show. She’s Eva Longoria, who plays the pampered Gabby on that long-running prime-time soap. She was booked before Obama made his statement – but now, given the specifics of many Housewives subplots
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
11
'DARK SHADOWS' FANS WILL HUNGER FOR THE ULTIMATE DVD COLLECTION By Diane Werts
 
 
Whether you're a long-time Dark Shadows fan or merely curious about the inspiration behind the new Tim Burton/Johnny Depp comedy, the ultimate Dark Shadows collector set is sure to impress...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
10
THE SILVER AGE OF RADIO: 'FRESH AIR' CELEBRATES 25TH ANNIVERSARY By David Bianculli
 
 
NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross turns 25 years old this week. The long-running Philadelphia show’s first national broadcast was May 11, 1987. I feel both proud and old to say I was a part of that maiden voyage, providing a piece on the finale of NBC’s Hill Street Blues…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
10
THE BIG BANG THEORY By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: For once, and earlier this month than usual, the commercial broadcast networks demand most of the evening’s attention, as a lot of series either present or prepare for their season finales – weeks earlier than usual. This sitcom, for example, finally puts Howard (Simon Helberg) on the launch pad, with flashbacks to his hurried marriage to Bernadette (Melissa Rauch). For a new Everybody's a Critic feature from a real-life Penny, who writes about her marriage to a real
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
May
10
30 ROCK By David Bianculli
 
 
This isn’t a season finale, but it’s a sweeps-month stunt-casting episode, featuring the return of Elizabeth Banks as Jack Donaghy’s wife, Avery – who, when last seen, had been kidnapped while filming Hot Blondes in Weird Places in North Korea, and forced to marry the son of  Kim Jong-Il. Since then, of course, there’s been a change of leadership in real-life North Korea – and a change in Banks’ real-life fortunes as well, since she’s one of
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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