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DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

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All Along the Watchtower

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Uncle Barky's Bytes

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Ed Martin's TV Mix

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TV Feeds My Family

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TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2020
Oct
3
CHEERS MARATHON By David Bianculli
 
 
Cheers premiered in 1982, lasted for 11 years, and launched a spinoff series, Frasier, starring  Kelsey Grammer, that lasted just as long. The expanded 1993 Cheers finale remains one of highest-rated sitcom episode of all time – not as popular as the finale of M*A*S*H, but what is? (Answer: nothing.) This Decades weekend marathon of Cheers begins with Season 8, the Kirstie Alley years as Rebecca, and samples episodes of the series up t
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
3
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Chris Rock, currently starring on FX in Fargo, returns to his old SNL roots to host this venerable NBC show’s Season 46 premiere. And the guests include another SNL veteran, Maya Rudolph, as well as a veteran from another sketch comedy TV series, Jim Carrey of Fox’s In Living Color. Carrey and Rudolph have been drafted to play the latest SNL incarnations of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris – a new gig for him, a repr
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
3
PERSONAL, POIGNANT, PROFOUND: DAVID ATTENBOROUGH FINE TUNES HIS LIFE'S MESSAGE IN NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY By Alex Strachan
 
 
"In one human lifetime, wildlife populations have fallen by an average of 60%. The stability of nature can no longer be taken for granted." — David Attenborough, in the opening moments of Our Planet...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
3
1960: CBS INTRODUCED 'THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW' By TV WW
 
 
On this day in 1960, CBS introduced The Andy Griffith Show...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
2
2011: SHOWTIME DEBUTS 'HOMELAND' By TV WW
 
 
Today, in 2011, Showtime introduced its award-winning drama, Homeland...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
2
FROM DARREN STAR, 'EMILY IN PARIS' IS A GREAT WAY TO ESCAPE By David Hinckley
 
 
At a point when we need more rom-coms than ever, we keep getting fewer. That's a problem. Emily in Paris is part of the solution...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
2
FIND OUT WHO 'HERB ALPERT IS…' By David Hinckley
 
 
You might have noticed that we're watching movies at home these days. Even new movies. Theatrical movies. So here's a new movie we can watch...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
2
EMILY IN PARIS By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Darren Star of Sex and the City has a new series, and he’s brought that show’s crucially important and inventive wardrobe designer, Patricia Field, with him. This new series, Emily in Paris, takes the Sex and the City plotline of having Carrie go to Paris, and gives it instead to a younger new character, Emily Cooper. She’s played by Lily Collins, who’s as immediately lovable here as Sarah Jessica Parker was in Sex and t
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
2
DRACULA By David Bianculli
 
 
Tod Browning directed his classic version of Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, in 1931 – and made such a splash with it that Universal let him do anything he wanted as his next film. What he wanted to direct next was 1932’s Freaks, still one of the most amazing and unforgettable movies I’ve ever seen. Freaks isn’t on tonight’s scary TCM bill, but other worthy movies are, including 1942’s moody Cat People at 9:30 p.m. ET, an
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
2
A WILDERNESS OF ERROR By David Bianculli
 
 
DOCUMENTARY MINISERIES PREMIERE: Last week, FX presented the first three episodes of this five-part documentary miniseries, based on the book by filmmaker Errol Morris. Morris doesn’t direct this, but is interviewed a lot of times in this new examination of the case of Jeffrey MacDonald, convicted many decades ago of murdering his wife and children in 1970. The more facts you learn about this case, the murkier it is – which means we’re in for a lot more murk tonight.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley