If you haven’t seen this made-for-TV Disney musical, you might want to catch up: This 2015 movie, about the next-generation offspring of familiar Disney villains and villainesses, proved so popular with its young TV audience that sequels, and theme-park attractions, are foregone conclusions.

2015

Dec

SINATRA By David Bianculli

Frank Sinatra sings 14 songs on this 1969 TV special, one of many unearthed this month as TCM has saluted the 100th anniversary of the singer’s birth. Songs include “My Way,” but also some numbers much less associated with the Chairman of the Board, including “Little Green Apples” and “Goin’ Out of My Head.”

2015

Dec

COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: I love this smartly focused Jerry Seinfeld talk show: one guest, one car, two cups of coffee. And this new season begins with quite a guest: President Barack Obama, whom Seinfeld says is qualified as a “Comedian” because of his well-timed delivery during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. As for the car: It’s a 1963 Corvette Stingray, which Seinfeld and the President of the United States take turns steering around the circular drive on the South Lawn

2015

Dec

PROHIBITION By David Bianculli

Part 3. The repeat showing of Ken Burns’ Prohibition ends tonight, with unspoken but obvious parallels to the growing legalization of marijuana. Wherever you stand on that issue, celebrate Burns and company for what they achieved here in their politically astute account of the movement to ban alcohol from American citizens. Then, at the end, toast to the result. This time of year, I suggest eggnog. Check local listings.

2015

Dec

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN By David Bianculli

I’ve just completed a chapter of my forthcoming evolution of quality TV book (fifthcoming, at the very latest), a chapter devoted to TV war series, from Combat! to Generation Kill and The Pacific. This 1998 Steven Spielberg-Tom Hanks movie is an important part of that continuum, and not only because they collaborated once again for Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, starring Hanks, redefined the intensity of war dramas, and the masterful opening sequen

2015

Dec

GIGI By David Bianculli

Even toned down for the era, this 1958 screen musical is quite surprising, given its subject matter: Leslie Caron plays a young – very young – “courtesan in training,” learning to cater to the whims of weathy, usually elderly men. And when Maurice Chevalier sings “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” in this context, he’s not singing about tiny tykes in baby carriages. Louis Jourdan co-stars.

2015

Dec

THE 38TH ANNUAL KENNEDY CENTER HONORS By David Bianculli

This TV tradition, one of the best and most rewarding shows of the holiday season each year, has been turned over to a new set of producers – but there’s no hiding, or ruining, the talent on hand as the Kennedy Center honors five major contributors to the arts. (Creative contributors, not financial ones.) This year’s honorees include George Lucas, Cicely Tyson, Seiji Ozawa, Rita Moreno, and Carole King. Just off the top of my head, I think it may be the first time the women hon

2015

Dec

INSIDE THE NFL By David Bianculli

With everything that happened this weekend, from New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s surprising overtime coin-toss decision to the Carolina Panthers’ fumbling of its perfect record, there will be a lot to discuss tonight. And with New York Jets star Brandon Marshall among the regulars, his insights, especially into the victory over the Patriots, ought to be very entertaining.

2015

Dec

AMAZON'S 'MOZART IN THE JUNGLE' SWINGS BACK INTO ACTION By David Hinckley

In a television age that has not been kind to the half-hour comedy, Mozart In the Jungle becomes even more of a keeper in its second season than it was in its first...

2015

Dec

LOST IN TRANSLATION By David Hinckley

Imagine for a moment that Michelle Dockery’s Lady Mary on Downton Abbey isn’t an entitled British royal, but an entitled young American... That’s what Stephen Colbert has done by hosting this inspired bit where Dockery, Hugh Bonneville and Allen Leech read a scene from a Season 5 Downton episode in American accents...

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