These end-of-year specials are excellent overviews of the year in sports, but, with host Bryant Gumbel debriefing his contributors on their favorite stories, also are that rarity in broadcast journalism: a chance to revisit old stories to receive updated information and new perspectives.

2016

Dec

DEATH OF A SALESMAN By David Bianculli

This 1985 CBS version of the Broadway stage revival of Arthur Miller’s classic drama is astoundingly good from start to finish. When I saw it on Broadway, it made me cry – and not just silent little weepy tears, either, but convulsive sobs. A lot of that was due to the dynamism and realism of the acting, and those same actors are on display here, being just as vital and visceral. Dustin Hoffman stars as Willy Loman, that delusional traveling salesman who both lives in and is betrayed

2016

Dec

YOU SAY YOU WANT A RESOLUTION By Linda Donovan

2016 has been volatile, to say the least, and seemed about 863 days long...

2016

Dec

FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA SAYS FAREWELL TO THE WHITE HOUSE – AN OPRAH WINFREY SPECIAL By David Bianculli

The current First Lady of the United States, and the most recent First Lady of All Media, meet for one high-profile prime-time interview, in which both of them play host. Michelle Obama is host because she’s receiving her guest at the White House, before the White House is inherited by its next First Lady, Melania Trump. And Oprah Winfrey is host because she’s asking the questions, just as Oprah always has done.

2016

Dec

A CHRISTMAS CAROL By David Bianculli

Here’s yet another excellent adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic. This is one of the most recent, filmed in 1999. It stars Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer Scrooge – and his stentorian voice and starchy demeanor, so perfect on the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, is perfectly suited to this drama as well.

2016

Dec

PEOPLE OF EARTH By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: Two episodes are shown tonight, in a finale that’s out of this world – or, in this case, close enough.

2016

Dec

THE WALL By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: Part Plinko from The Price Is Right, part isolation booth from the classic Quiz Show scandal challenge Twenty-One, and part trivia contest from… well, you can identify the final fraction for yourself, if you’re that interested. At any rate, this new NBC game show gets a sneak preview tonight, before settling into a regular run next month, in 2017. The host is Chris Hardwick, who needs more TV exposure about as much as our President-Elect.

2016

Dec

FULL FRONTAL WITH SAMANTHA BEE By David Bianculli

Now more than ever, perhaps, we need this woman’s particularly acerbic and questioning comic approach to the headlines. And as we head into the new year, with all the activity in the headlines of late, Samantha is a very busy Bee indeed. Tonight, her unlikely special guest is Glenn Beck, who, like Bee, is decked out in a colorful Christmas special. “Is this how you imagined the End Times?” she asks him. Amazing. Even more amazing: He says yes.

2016

Dec

RUFUS SEWELL MAKES AN OLD CHARACTER TYPE NEW IN 'MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE' By David Hinckley

Rufus Sewell may play a loyal lieutenant of Adolf Hitler in Amazon’s Man in the High Castle, but this isn’t your grandfather’s Nazi. And Sewell knows it...

2016

Dec

A CHRISTMAS CAROL By David Bianculli

As we get nearer to the holidays, the number of Christmas-themed specials and movies increases. For the most part, that’s as regrettable as it is unavoidable. On occasion, though, something slips through that rarely is televised, and definitely is worth the effort to seek it out. Here’s one case of precisely that: a showing of one of the first filmed adaptations of the Charles Dickens classic, released in 1938. Reginald Owen stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, with Marley’s Ghost played

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