DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2018
Jul
6
 
 
Tonight’s episode is all about “Desserts.” How sweet. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
6
 
 
Yesterday, I noted that I would selfishly be pointing out CNN’s reruns of the TV-centirc episodes of its various documentary series about specific decades – selfishly, because I appear in them. Tonight at 9 p.m. ET: the TV episode from The Eighties, which includes the massively viewed finale of M*A*S*H.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
5
 
 
Give this new ABC series some points for honesty, at least where its title is concerned. One of the creators and one of the executive producers of ABC’s Castle (respectively, Andrew W. Marlowe and Terri Edda Miller) have teamed to create this new series, which has an eager civilian paired with, and shadowing, a veteran cop who’s less than thrilled by the arrangement. With Castle, it was a male novelist paired with a woman detective. In Take Two, it’s a Hollywood actress paired
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
5
 
 
For the next few days in this space, Bianculli’s Best Bets is going to be unabashedly self-serving – and recommend one TV documentary a night that features, well, Bianculli. My association with the CNN documentaries examining specific decades began with The Sixties, and has continued for every 10-year period of television covered in the opening installments since then. This Sunday, the newest entry, the opening-day TV episode of The 2000s, premieres – and as a buildup, on this
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
5
 
 
This video of Japanese child drum prodigy Yoyoka Soma languished on Youtube since it was posted in January, but finally picked up steam last week after appearing in the Huffington Post. It’s now clocking almost one million hits... Robert Plant, like the rest of us, is all smiles...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
4
 
 
Traditionally, Syfy was the place, and the Fourth of July was one of the days, for TV to present a holiday marathon of Rod Serling’s classic The Twilight Zone series. But this year, Syfy has passed. Stepping into the fray, though, is a little-known, little-seen operation called Decades. Decades, launched in 2015, is a digital broadcast TV network that’s lumped with those digital subchannels you can find clustered next to local network affiliates on your cable or satellite lineup. It
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
4
 
 
There are several TV marathons on tap today – and here’s one with a poignant residue. To honor their recently deceased food and travel correspondent, CNN is serving up a very generous helping of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknowns series. See the world. Imagine tasting the food. And miss Bourdain…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
4
 
 
SPECIAL: This live show broadcasts the fireworks display from New York’s East River, and makes room for performances by Jennifer Lopez, Sheryl Crow and Lady Antebellum. But before it starts sounding too classy, consider this: the hosts are the three hosts from American Ninja Warrior.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
4
 
 
SPECIAL: One of the guests for this year’s Capitol Fourth live celebration from Washington, D.C. is Renee Fleming, the opera diva currently starring in the Broadway revival of the musical Carousel. She’s scheduled to sing one of the show’s classics, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” – which, given what’s happening with families being wrested apart by recent administration policies, is almost devastatingly pertinent. It may also explain why President Donald
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
4
 
 
SPECIAL: Last year, President Donald Trump didn’t even hold a concert event, much less televise it. But this year, Hallmark Channel is presenting the President’s White House concert and fireworks event. Expect most of the fireworks, though, to come from the view above, not the stage below. The concert headliners for Trump’s event include American Idol performers (but not winners) Jonny Brenns and (pictured) Jax.