On this weekend’s installment, Bill Moyers takes a chilling, informative report from last year – on the influential, Machiavellian, very secretive American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC for short) – and updates it. The original story was frightening enough, and I’m afraid that the news, about how major corporations influence politics and especially state politicians, will not have gotten better. Moyers & Company airs from Friday to Sunday on local public TV stati

2013

Jun

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT By David Bianculli

Whether or not you’ve plunged into the new, Netflix-presented season of Arrested Development, tonight’s prime-time quadruple-feature of classic episodes is worth watching and enjoying. The second episode in this mini-marathon introduces Charlize Theron in her recurring role as lovely Rita. She’s British, but she’s no meter maid. She is, however, not quite what she initially appears, and that leads to a rather hilarious misunderstanding. Her performance, alone, is worth th

2013

Jun

NETWORK By David Bianculli

Paddy Chayefsky became television’s first well-known star writer, the first to emigrate to Hollywood, after writing such early 1950s gems as Marty. Two decades later, still in Hollywood, he reflected on his roots by taking aim at TV in the 1976 movie Network – but instead of looking back with nostalgia, he looked ahead with astonishing prescience. Before Fox existed, he tells the tale of a fourth broadcasting network that becomes successful by pandering with outrageous reality shows,

2013

Jun

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE By David Bianculli

This 1978 movie comedy signaled that a new generation was coming, in a big way – not only to the movies, but on the screen and behind the camera. Watch John Belushi, already a Not Ready for Prime Time Player on Saturday Night Live, steal the movie in his big-screen debut, like all four Marx Brothers rolled into one.

2013

Jun

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli

Tonight’s guests include political columnist Joshua Green and author Michael Pollan, who specializes now in books and essays about food. There has been lots of news in both arenas this week, so Maher ought to be able to lead quite a discussion. Last week’s show, by the way, was the best of the season – very heated, yet very illuminating, and very smart.

2013

Jun

UNTAMED YOUTH By David Bianculli

Untamed Youth isn’t the sort of B movie TCM presents very often – but tonight, it’s the first of a mini-marathon of films featuring actress Mamie Van Doren, who competed with Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield in the late Fifties for the title of American film goddess (and lost to both). This is a rare chance to see a lot of her films in one place, beginning with this 1957 drama, in which she plays a wannabe actress detained in a rural prison. Six additional Mamie Van Doren mov

2013

Jun

NBA FINALS: MIAMI HEAT VS. SAN ANTONIO SPURS By David Bianculli

Game 6 went into overtime, saw the San Antonio Spurs collapse at the very end, and gave the Miami Heat another day to play, in an end-of-it-all Game 7 in front of a home crowd. Given both the home crowd and the momentum, the Heat have the advantage – but no team in this year’s finals has found a way to win two games in a row. Expect the game to be gripping – and the ratings to be huge, at least for pro basketball.

2013

Jun

WILFRED By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: The first two episodes of the new season are shown back-to-back – starting with a memorable visual reference, then getting down to business, and a second episode that ranks among this show’s best. For a full review, see Eric Gould’s Cold Light Reader.

2013

Jun

HANNIBAL By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: If you’ve stayed with this show, tonight’s the night the plot thickens substantially. The hero is suspected of murder, and the person to whom he turns for help is, as only we know, the real killer. And when the killer’s name is the title of the show, it doesn’t bode well for the good guys.

2013

Jun

THE COLBERT REPORT By David Bianculli

Tonight on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert plays host to Joss Whedon, whose new film, after The Avengers, is a modern-dress, black-and-white Shakespearean adaptation filmed in his own house. The film is Much Ado about Nothing, and the stars include lots of veterans from previous Whedon works: Amy Acker (seen here with Whedon) from Angel and Dollhouse, Nathan Fillion from Firefly, Alexis Denisof from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Fran Kranz and Reed Diamond from Dollhouse, and Clark Gre

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