2013

Apr

MAIN TITLES UP CLOSE: 'VIKINGS' PLUNGES DEEP FOR IMAGERY By Eric Gould

Director Rama Allen, creator of the Vikings opener, talks about engaging viewers in a one-minute sequence...

2012

Dec

MEL BROOKS: THE TV WORTH WATCHING INTERVIEW, TAKE 3 By David Bianculli

Here’s the rest of my recent conversation with Mel Brooks, whose HBO special, Mel Brooks Strikes Back, is repeated Thursday at 8 p.m. ET — and whose boxed set is out now…

2012

Dec

MEL BROOKS: THE TV WORTH WATCHING INTERVIEW, TAKE 2 By David Bianculli

Last year, when Mel Brooks had a TV special on HBO, he spoke with me for an extended exclusive interview. This year he has a new HBO special, and we talked at length again…

2012

Dec

A QUICK CHAT WITH TOM FONTANA: I’D BE SURPRISED IF THIS 'BORGIA' By David Bianculli

After a New York screening Wednesday previewing the upcoming Season 2 of Borgia: Faith and Fear, available in the U.S. on Netflix, series creator Tom Fontana and I had a quick chat…

2012

May

THE TV WORTH WATCHING INTERVIEW: CRAIG FERGUSON By David Bianculli

Halfway through his CBS talk show’s The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson In Scotland week, I spoke with CRAIG FERGUSON about those shows, and other things, in this exclusive TV WORTH WATCHING INTERVIEW. Expletives included…

2012

Jan

KARL PILKINGTON TALKS TO TVWW ABOUT 'AN IDIOT ABROAD 2: THE BUCKET LIST' By David Bianculli

You've seen similar scenes dozens of times on CBS's Survivor, even on the same South Pacific islands of Vanuatu: people stranded and working frantically to build a makeshift shelter as the rain pelts them mercilessly...except, this time, one of the people marooned is Karl Pilkington, the reluctant world traveller sent around the globe by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant for the new season of the Science Channel TV series An Idiot Abroad...

2011

Oct

TOM YELLIN: THE TV WORTH WATCHING INTERVIEW By David Bianculli

Tom Yellin, co-founder of The Documentary Group, used to produce the ABC News Peter Jennings Reporting specials, among other fine programs. His latest project, created with director Lloyd Kramer and others, is America in Primetime, the four-part PBS documentary series premiering Sunday at 8 p.m. ET (check local listings). I'm so impressed with this study of television that I wrote about it for TVWW and for NPR...

2011

Oct

KEN BURNS & LYNN NOVICK: THE TVWW INTERVIEW (PLUS, A REVIEW OF 'PROHIBITION') By David Bianculli

Two months ago, while on the Television Critics Association press tour, I wrote about the then-upcoming documentary series Prohibition, co-directed for PBS by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick...However, I saved a fuller review of the show, and excerpts from a private chat with Burns and Novick before their TCA press conference, until now...

2011

Sep

MEL BROOKS: THE TV WORTH WATCHING INTERVIEW By David Bianculli

Friday night on HBO, Mel Brooks sits down with Dick Cavett to tell jokes, swap stories and regale a theater audience of nearly 2,000 appreciative fans with tales of his life and friends in show business. He did the same earlier this week with TVWW...

2011

Aug

PRESS TOUR: PBS 'PROHIBITION' ANOTHER POTENT CONCOCTION FROM THE KEN BURNS TEAM By David Bianculli

The next documentary from Ken Burns and company, a six-hour look at Prohibition, will run Oct. 2-4 on PBS. It's another strong entry in the Burns canon, directed by Burns and Lynn Novick, written by Geoffrey C. Ward, and featuring, among many others, Last Call author Daniel Okrent. Except for Ward, all of them attended a Television Critics Association press conference Sunday night to discuss the new series -- and, afterward, to raise a glass or two...