Now that TV offers pretty much everything all the time for everybody, it's hard to imagine a time when it didn't. But on into the 1970s, with just three commercial networks and a public TV system only beginning to take shape...

2009

Feb

FLICK PICKS: AT BOTH OSCARS AND TCM, SIMPLER WORKS BETTER By Diane Werts

If this year's Oscar ceremony was pretty much an all-over-the-place mess with a couple good ideas thrown in, then it's mirrored by this year's 31 Days of Oscar stunt at Turner Classic Movies, which for me can't end soon enough. (But doesn't, unfortunately, until March 3...)

2009

Feb

WATCH THIS: 'JERICHO' MARATHON By Diane Werts

See what all the fuss was about. Monday's marathon of the initial episodes of Jericho reminds us why so many viewers cared so much about a show that could have been great...

2009

Feb

SMART STUFF: ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 101 By Diane Werts

Hard as I try, I still don't think I really understand how the economy cratered. But in the coming days I've got two good shots at smartening up about it...

2009

Feb

REALITY CHECK: LIL' KIM AND WOZ GO 'DANCING WITH THE STARS' By Diane Werts

I'm always a sucker for Dancing With the Stars, and I think I may be a bigger sucker starting March 9. ABC's latest lineup of celebrity achievers and/or embarrassments, announced Sunday, includes an even wider and stranger variety than usual...

2009

Feb

SMART STUFF: LINCOLN AND DARWIN TURN 200 By Diane Werts

That was the week that was -- 200 years ago. Both Lincoln and Darwin were born, and suddenly, TV can't get enough of these bicentennial boys. They're big news in new shows on channels like History, NatGeo and PBS all week long...

2009

Feb

WATCH THIS: A TASTE OF 'TORCHWOOD' SEASON 3 By Diane Werts

As fans anticipate Season 3 of smart hot actioner Torchwood, arriving later this year..."Children of Earth" will be a five-night arc kicking off with the title characters stopping in movement simultaneously all around the world....

2009

Feb

REALITY CHECK: 'JOCKEYS,' 'RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE,' MORE By Diane Werts

There's a reason I put "reality" TV in quotes: Most of it isn't. Scripted shows tend to have more relationship to the real world than The Real World...

2009

Feb

OH REALLY?: COMMERCIALS MAKE TV BETTER! By Diane Werts

So posits a study in the Journal of Consumer Research that suggests "commercial interruptions can actually improve the television viewing experience...

2009

Feb

THAT'S FUNNY: BUT GEORGE CARLIN WAS ALSO IMPORTANT By Diane Werts

He didn't live to see it, and that makes me so mad, I could say all of the seven words you can never say on TV...

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