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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

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2020
May
15
FROM BEYOND By David Bianculli
 
 
This 1986 horror film is based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, and it’s a wild ride in terms of its special effects, its imaginative premise (parasitic entities from another dimension leak into ours and feed on and generate abnormal impulses), and one performance in particular. Barbara Crampton, as part of a research team dispatched to investigate a scientist’s sinister and apparently deadly experiments, has scenes here which are unforgettable. At least for me, for the last 34 years an
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
14
FAME: LIVE FROM LONDON'S WEST END By David Bianculli
 
 
Here's a special streaming event that’s already begun, but that slipped by me – yet it’s still available for a while, so I’ll mention it here. The website BroadwayHD released, a few days ago, a filmed performance of the 30th anniversary West End production of the stage production of the musical Fame, which began as a movie in 1980, and continued as an NBC series in 1982. (Think of it as the original Glee – because it was.) This recent F
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
14
PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION: LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL: Here’s another limited-window streaming TV event well worth seeking out. For a few days only, from tonight through Sunday, the Prince estate is hosting a “watch party,” a charity event supporting the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 response. It’s not a brand new concert, or TV offering: Prince and the Revolution: Live captured the band on stage at Syracuse, NY in 1985, during Prince’s Purple Rain tour, and previously was avail
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
14
WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week, Catherine O’Hara, the SCTV and Schitt’s Creek veteran who almost never shows up on television as herself, showed up opposite host Jimmy Kimmel to play Millionaire for charity. She earned $32,000 last week before the show ended, and this week continues her quest for the big charity contribution. She still has help: with the studio audience banned from the set due to COVID-19 concerns, Millionaire currently allows its celebrity contest
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
14
FOR THE MEANING OF "PROPHETIC," SEE 'COOPED UP' By David Hinckley
 
 
You’re never going to believe what was lying around in a box labeled “charming small films made in 2016 in Australia.”...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
14
1973: 'ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN' ENDS ITS RUN By David Bianculli
 
 
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In ended its run today in 1973...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
13
2004: THE END OF 'FRASIER' By David Bianculli
 
 
This day in 2004 marked the last telecast of Frasier...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
13
IS MINDY KALING GOING BACK TO HER ROOTS? By Monique Nazareth
 
 
“You have an idea of how your life is going to turn out. When I was a kid, all I did was watch romantic comedies in our living room while I did my homework.”...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
13
MRS. AMERICA By David Bianculli
 
 
With each episode focusing primarily on a different key player in the quest to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, today’s Episode 7 brings Bella Abzug front and center. And that allows this FX production, presented as the first “FX on Hulu” exclusive, to give another meaty role to FX’s all-star utility player, Margo Martindale. First she was a backwoods power broker, matriarch and moonshine poisoner in FX’s Justified, then an often ruthless Ru
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
13
NATURE: "SPY IN THE WILD" By David Bianculli
 
 
You can continue to watch this multi-part Nature special, Spy in the Wild (this is week two of a three-week look), for the creatures it photographs. But I’m just as taken by the way the footage is shot – using “animal cams” that are drones or robots designed to look like other animals. Last week, it was the hummingbird cam that flew among the monarch butterflies that made my jaw drop. This week, who knows? Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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