Yes, it’s synergy, since Disney owns ABC – but for this extended family, a trip to Disneyland is going to seem a lot less like product placement and a lot more like actual humor. This show has earned the benefit of the doubt, so expect something Goofy.

2012

May

ED WOOD By David Bianculli

With Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s latest collaboration, Dark Shadows, premiering later this week, here’s a chance to catch their 1994 teaming, in which Depp plays one of the worst, but most impassioned, film directors in history. It’s a delightful film, one in which all the Burton-Depp quirkiness is employed to perfection. Whether that happens in Dark Shadows – well, I’ll keep you posted.

2012

May

CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: At the start of the season, Ted Danson showed up to take the reins of this long-running CBS crime procedural. He made it through the season, and restored stability to the show – and perhaps as a result, tonight’s episode gives him more dramatic things to do than usual. And there are other familiar TV faces on board, too, as guest stars, including Jaclyn Smith from Charlie’s Angels and Peri Gilpin from Frasier.

2012

May

ON NBC’S 'THE VOICE,' TONY LUCCA DOES '99 PROBLEMS' AND CHRISTINA AGUILERA IS ONE By David Bianculli

As we approach Tuesday’s winner-crowning season finale on NBC’s The Voice, this deserves note: On Monday’s show, judge Christina Aguilera’s treatment of finalist Tony Lucca, who started out with Aguilera on The All New Mickey Mouse Club, was rude beyond belief…

2012

May

REMEMBERING MAURICE SENDAK By David Bianculli

Maurice Sendak died Tuesday at age 83, and the media are paying proper tribute – if you know where to look, and listen. Tuesday’s edition of NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross is devoted to Sendak, and includes a crushingly tender and raw interview. Then there are the folks at Moyers & Company, who distributed this full-length program from NOW in which Moyers talks to Sendak – and begins the interview by quoting what Joseph Campbell told Moyers about the hidden message of Where the Wild Things Are. – DB

2012

May

'NEW GIRL' STAR JAKE JOHNSON REFLECTS ON THE SHOW'S FIRST SEASON By Ed Bark

Jake Johnson's very first pilot, New Girl, hit Fox running in September and became this season's first and really only instant hit. The actor reflects on the show's debut season, and his passion for Chicago sports...

2012

May

GLEE By David Bianculli

I know, I agreed that this series had failed to earn a regular Best Bets slot at this point of the season. But hey: this is prom night. And Brittany (Heather Morris), as class president, is doing everything she can to see her very specific, and peculiar, visions come true. Meanwhile, speaking of visions: Finn and Rachel look very decked out for the occasion.

2012

May

THE ROARING TWENTIES By David Bianculli

James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart in the same movie, about bootlegging in the twenties? Made in 1939, this caught both guys in top form – and Priscilla Lane, too. You’d expect the drama, and the tough-guy talk – but the music may come as a surprise.

2012

May

THE VOICE By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: The person with “the voice,” and the recording contract, is identified tonight. I’m rooting for Juliet Simms, but Jermaine Paul is pretty impressive, too. Whatever happens this season, The Voice itself already has won, and stolen much of the spotlight from American Idol.

2012

May

FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER By David Bianculli

With The Avengers cracking the $200 million U.S. box office mark its first weekend in release, that makes all Marvel-based movies newsworthy for one reason or another. This 2007 film, a disappointing sequel to the first Fantastic Four film, can be looked at now as a relative strikeout – the year before Marvel hit a home run, and started The Avengers franchise, with its first Iron Man movie. For my Bianculli’s Blog about previous Marvel missteps, click HERE.

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