SATURDAY

NOVEMBER 30

2019

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

When the original copyright was allowed to lapse on this 1946 holiday movie, it was all over the place during the Christmas season – and I do mean all over, because even local broadcast stations and low-rent cable channels could run It’s a Wonderful Life for free. No rights fees. Every ad they crammed into the telecast, and there were plenty, amounted to 100 percent pure profit. What could be more perfect for the commercialization of the season than that? But when NBC and Universal wrapped up exclusive rights a few years ago, the Frank Capra movie, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, is available only twice yearly, on NBC: once on Christmas Eve, and once tonight. And every time a bell rings, the peacock makes a little more money…

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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.

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