James Gandolfini may be best remembered for The Sopranos, but David Bianculli recalls a project that's not to be missed by those seeking insight into Gandolfini, the man...

2013

Jun

REMEMBERING JAMES GANDOLFINI By Ed Bark

Indelible TV roles will never say die. But the actors who played them are all too perishable. Adding James Gandolfini to a list of late actors is particularly painful...

2013

Jun

JAMES GANDOLFINI: 1961-2013 By David Bianculli

The death of James Gandolfini, of a reported heart attack at age 51, is as shocking a piece of news as the sudden cut-to-black that ended his superb HBO series, The Sopranos…

2013

Jun

AT 91, BETTY WHITE PULLS OFF LIVE TV ON ‘HOT IN CLEVELAND’ By David Bianculli

Betty White starred in her first live TV series at age 30. She was 91 when, Wednesday night on TV Land, she and her costars went live for a special Hot in Cleveland…

2013

Jun

BLAZING SADDLES By David Bianculli

If you watched Saturday's AFI salute to Mel Brooks on TNT, you saw Clint Eastwood wincingly (and playfully) introduce a clip of this 1974 Brooks master work, which skewered the Western as it had never been skewered before. (And never has since.) Now here's the full-length article – the original 1974 comedy, co-written by Richard Pryor and starring Cleavon Little as a black sheriff appointed to a bigoted Old West town. Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn and Harvey Korman co-star, and excel.

2013

Jun

HOLIDAY By David Bianculli

Adapted from the Broadway play by Philip Barry, this 1938 George Cukor film is about a rich young woman (played by Doris Nolan) who has brought home her new fiancé, a dashing young man who insists he would rather do nothing for the next few years of his life, exploring and enjoying the world on “holiday,” rather than join the wealthy family’s business. This aggravates everyone except for the family rebel, a black-sheep sister who finds the young man’s attitude refr

2013

Jun

FRANKLIN & BASH By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: I wouldn’t normally recommend this series for a Best Bet, but there’s a little bit of TV history going on tonight. For its Season 3 premiere, Heather Locklear joins the cast – a move aimed at rejuvenating this show just as when she jump-started the original Melrose Place decades ago (and, more recently, tried to again, with the remake). On Franklin & Bash, she plays an attorney who’s the new boss of Franklin (Breckin Meyer) and Bash (Mark-Paul Gossela

2013

Jun

FUTURAMA By David Bianculli

SERIES RETURN: There hasn’t been a new episode of Futurama since last August, and it’s not clear whether these last-gasp fresh episodes, running until September, are a new final season or the final episodes of Season 7. Either way, it’s another example of how resilient and underappreciated this series has been, since it’s taken 14 years to clock seven seasons of shows – the TV equivalent of dog years. But Matt Groening and company’s other animated gem, this sc

2013

Jun

HOT IN CLEVELAND By David Bianculli

LIVE TELECAST: To resume its Season 4 after a brief break, Hot in Cleveland tonight presents a live telecast – well, live on the East Coast, anyway – with co-stars Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick all tackling the challenge of live television. So do recurring and special guest stars, including William Shatner. This episode not only is a bit of TV history: It echoes a bit of TV history. For my full-length preview, see Bianculli’s Blog.

2013

Jun

THE TWILIGHT ZONE: THE COMPLETE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION By David Bianculli

The Writers Guild of America just voted The Twilight Zone Number 3 on its list of all-time best-written TV series... For a series that launched in 1959 to rank so highly on the list hints at just how good, and how continually resonant, Rod Serling’s superlative TV anthology series really is...

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