September 2010 Archives

Happy Anniversary to You! And You, And You...

September 29, 2010 8:55 AM

Hi.

As we near the end of 2010, television certainly doesn't seem that interested in remembering its own past, much less celebrating it. But someone should... so here we are. Did you know, for example, that today -- Wednesday, Sept. 29 -- is the golden anniversary of the premiere of My Three Sons?... Or that, this weekend, The Andy Griffith Show also turns 50?...

This disregard for our collective TV past is as foolish as it is frustrating. Last Sunday, for example, marked the 50th anniversary of the first televised presidential debates, the one pitting Richard M. Nixon against John F. Kennedy. But on TV that day, where was it mentioned? Not on 60 Minutes, whose creator, Don Hewitt, had directed those debates. Not on the History Channel, which could have -- and should have -- run at least the first debate in total.

But it's not only political history that gets short shrift. In these days when the only viewers worth chasing seem to be the ones between ages 18 and 34, what's the point of pointing out things that happened before they were born?

Today, My Three Sons turns 50. But where is it? Not anywhere on TV Land, or on Nick at Nite. Not anywhere at all on broadcast or cable TV, so far as I can tell. Yet when this Fred MacMurray family sitcom premiered on ABC in 1960, featuring him as single parent Steve Douglas raising his sons with help from William Frawley's "Bub," the show proved popular enough to run (with several cast additions and changes) for 12 years. If you're young, you may have no idea what I'm talking about -- but if you're not, just the sight of the cartoon feet from the opening credits doubtlessly have you humming the theme song.

Tomorrow (Thursday), The Flintstones turns 50. But at least, in this case, someone's remembering. Boomerang, the cartoon network that ISN'T the Cartoon Network, is presenting the prehistoric animated sitcom's premiere episode at 8:30 p.m. ET -- 50 years to the minute from its original debut.

And Sunday, Oct. 3, marks not one significant anniversary, but two different ones. First is The Andy Griffith Show, which turns 50. TV Land, thank goodness, isn't forgetting about this one, one of the most seminal comedies in TV history.

Episodes of CBS's Andy Griffith Show will be televised in a four-hour block, from 4-8 p.m. ET, in honor of Griffith's TV triumph. But the episodes aren't chosen with that much thought -- they don't even include "Opie the Birdman," the series' inarguable highlight.

Finally, also on Sunday, there's the 60th, NOT 50th, anniversary of another significant sitcom.

It's Beulah, the first prime-time sitcom to star an African-American. From 1950-1953, three different actresses played the loving household maid: Ethel Waters, Hattie McDaniel and Louise Beavers. Surely, this show -- some episodes which still exist on kinescope -- could and should be shown somewhere. But not even BET is bothering.

I'm tempted to say, as did George Santayana, that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

But, in this case, TV programmers who cannot remember the past are condemning US to no repeats.

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Busy Day: Hosting 'Fresh Air,' Teaching Film and TV, Publishing Paperback and Writing for TVWW... Aaaand LOVING It!

September 28, 2010 10:23 AM

Today's such a busy day, even by my standards, that I barely have time to type what's going on. But since I do, I will. Starting with the fact that today, I host NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and conduct two TV-related interviews. We start off with Terence Winter, creator of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, and conclude with Jim Parsons, Emmy-winning star of CBS's The Big Bang Theory...

Tune in your local NPR station to listen, or, after about 5 p.m. ET, you can visit the Fresh Air website and listen to the entire hour HERE. I don't often stop to say this, but I'm really proud of my association with this program, and appreciate the trust I've been given to review, guest host and interview there. I'd never spoken with either Winter or Parsons before, but really enjoyed them both.

As soon as I finish typing this, I rush off to teach my Film History and Appreciation I class at Rowan University. Today's all about the early silent cinematic efforts of French filmmaker Georges Melies, where I show everything from 1900's Fat and Lean Wrestling Match to 1902's classic A Trip to the Moon.

Then, later tonight, I teach TV History and Appreciation I (with George Back and a new columnist here, Mike Donovan), where today's topics includes Dwight Eisenhower's political TV ads, the Nixon-Kennedy debates -- which just reached its golden anniversary Sunday -- and the radio and TV reporting of Edward R. Murrow.

Again, I don't often stop to say this, but when you can go from Melies to Murrow, that's a great day at the office.

Also, today is the official publication date of the paperback edition of my Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.' Same words, lower price! (More words, actually, because they added the chapter-by-chapter detailed source notes.) It can be ordered by clicking on the ad at right... but I've talked about myself enough for one day.

Which reminds me. I've written the Best Bets, and finished this blog, and now I can head to class. Sixteen tons, and what do you get?

Spoiler alert: Another day older, and deeper in debt...

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Spoiler Alert: I'm About to Rant about Spoiler Alerts

September 27, 2010 10:30 AM

This is getting ridiculous, this "Spoiler Alert" hypersensitivity. Now that VCRs and DVRs and DVDs have given everyone the opportunity to watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it, now some of them want to be protected from their enjoyment being spoiled before they DO watch it. Within limits, that makes sense

But guess what, folks? There ARE limits...

On this site last week, I previewed the fifth-season premiere of Showtime's Dexter, discussing -- in the most general of terms, I thought -- why the new season was starting out as gripping as last year's, and that it picked up at precisely the same moment where last season's finale had ended: With Michael C. Hall's Dexter discovering the body of his wife, Julie Benz's Rita, the final victim of the serial murderer Dexter himself had just killed.

My complete column can be read HERE. And if you care to go back and read it, as Exhibit A, please take special note of how much detail I DIDN'T give -- and how I was more focused on conveying my opinion, and my excitement, than recounting any key plot points.

On this site, which clearly is read exclusively by the most discerning TV fans on the planet, no one complained. But when I previewed the same show last Friday for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross -- which you can both read and hear HERE, in what I shall mark as Exhibit B -- some listeners blasted me for revealing too much. (For that matter, you read those comments in full as well.)

Now, Fresh Air listeners, too, are way up there on the discerning meter, but a few of their comments were so passionate and angry, I feel compelled to respond.

"You have completely ruined a fantastic series for hundreds of thousands of people," said one, upset that I had revealed that Rita had died the season before. "Many of us do not watch shows when they are broadcast," said another.

Okay. BUT... there have to be limits. There oughta be a law about when Spoiler Alerts become outdated, like groceries with use-by expiration dates. And I'm about to propose one.

The fourth-season finale episode of Dexter, the one I raised some ire by describing, was televised by Showtime last December. In 2009.

This is 2010. Not only that, but the fourth-season DVD set, which could be purchased and viewed by people who didn't even subscribe to Showtime, was released in August. It is now September. In four days, it will be October.

So how long, as a professional critic, am I supposed to wait before the pop-culture stragglers finally get around to the wanna-see stuff in their "To Do" piles? Do I have to wait until the slowest runner in the marathon crosses the finish line? And even then, what about Viewers: The Next Generation?

In the case of Dexter, I think -- and I assert, I argue, I insist -- that I'm completely within my rights, when a new season of a TV show begins, to discuss how the previous season ended. How else can it be placed into context? And if nine months isn't more than enough time to keep mum before "spoiling" something, then something's wrong. And not with me.

I'm not insensitive to wanting to preserve, for viewers, the same sense of surprise that I have when I watch something in advance. Monday night at 9 ET on NBC's The Event, for example, viewers who tune in will learn what happened to the plane, and its passengers, and where that all of that fits into the conpiracy-laden, flashback-obsessed plot of this complex new series.

I know already, because I've seen this week's episode (and next week's) -- but all you'll get out of me, for now, is that it isn't surprising, isn't impressive, and isn't worth the wait.

But that's NOW.

In 1988, when NBC's St. Elsewhere concluded with one of the most controversial finales in TV history -- the "snow globe" ending, in which the entire series was explained away as the meandering daydreams of an autistic kid -- critics such as myself were aware of the stunner, but didn't write about it in advance.

We did, however, write about it the next day, once it was broadcast, covering it as a news event worth discussing -- the same as we did for the boldly brilliant surprise ending of CBS's Newhart in 1990, which returned Bob Newhart to his previous TV bedroom, character, and spouse.

These days, technology has progressed so much that news value has, paradoxically, retreated. Decades ago, pre-VCR, no one thought of issuing Spoiler Alerts, because you either saw it or you didn't. But now, the sensitivity has gone the other way, and has gone way too far.

The picture at the top of this column is from one of the most famous movies ever made. If you know the film, you know what it is, and why the image is important. But if not, should there be a Spoiler Alert for a movie that was made more than half a century ago?

Should I keep quiet about what happens at the end of Moby-Dick -- the movie OR the book -- because some people haven't gotten around to it yet? Is it fair, yet, to commit to print any discussion of the twists in The Crying Game (20 years old next year) or The Sixth Sense (11 years and counting), or should we protect those secrets for those who have yet to experience them?

There has to be an end to the absurdity. My personal opinion is that once something has been broadcast, printed, exhibited or otherwise made available to the public, it's fair game. If I want to talk about the ending of Lost the day after it ended, I can, and will.

As for the issuance of Spoiler Alerts, I have my own sense of when to be sensitive -- and if you haven't gotten around to watching a show two months after it's come out on DVD, then, sorry, I don't have much sympathy for you. In fact, I don't have any. Once something is out there, if you don't want to know about it, then it's your responsibility to avoid discussion of it, not mine to avoid discussing it.

By the way, here's one last Spoiler Alert:

Ding-dong, the witch is dead. Which old witch?

You don't want to know.

Or do you?

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Showtime's 'Dexter' Continues to Slay Me

September 24, 2010 9:30 AM

Sunday night is ridiculously rich for quality TV fans. AMC gives us Mad Men each week, with Breaking Bad waiting in the wings. HBO just ended True Blood, and started Boardwalk Empire. And Showtime, beginning this weekend, returns with another season of its brilliant Dexter. With options like this, who needs broadcast TV?...

Well, I do, so long as broadcast TV, this Sunday, is rolling out some potent season premieres of its own. At 9 p.m. ET, ABC's Desperate Housewives starts its seventh season. At the same time on Fox, The Simpsons begins its 22nd season. Amazing (and still hilarious). And at 7 p.m. ET on CBS, the granddaddy of prime-time series, the still-impressive 60 Minutes, begins its 43rd season.

Forty-third!

But I digress. It's Dexter, starring Michael C. Hall as a crafty, conflicted serial killer who targets OTHER serial killers, I want to spend some time (and space) praising.

This is a show that delights in painting itself, and its protagonist, into impossible corners. Last season ended -- and I think it's ridiculous, once a show is out on DVD, to protect "spoilers," so here come some details -- with one of the most horrifying twist endings ever shown on television.

All season long, Dexter engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with another serial murderer -- the so-called Trinity Killer, played by John Lithgow, who won an Emmy for his efforts. Dexter almost killed him once, but didn't -- until the season finale, when the two killers confronted each other one last time, with Dexter emerging triumphant.

But not really. Because just before being captured and killed by Dexter, the Trinity Killer had claimed one last victim of his own: Dexter's loving wife Rita (Julie Benz), whom he killed and bled out, ritualistically, in her bathtub. Dexter found her body -- and also found their baby, crying, seated by the tub in a pool of her blood.

How horrible, but also how horribly poetic. Dexter was three when he was found, by his eventual foster-father cop, under similar circumstances. How will this next-generation trauma affect their child? And how, by visiting the sins of the father upon the son, will it affect Dexter?

Sunday's fifth season of Dexter picks up immediately where that grisly cliffhanger left off. It takes us through the police reports, the funeral plans and such -- giving us last looks at Benz's Rita, looking awful as a corpse at her own crime scene, and lovely in an open casket as her own funeral.

Except that the series isn't through yet, and gives us ADDITIONAL looks at her, courtesy of newly filmed flashbacks that are almost painfully poignant to watch.

(To hear one of them, and read and hear my review of Dexter for Friday's Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR, listen to the show Friday, or visit the website HERE after about 5 p.m. ET.)

I've seen the first three episodes of the new season, and at least twice, I was stunned and surprised, in a positive sense, by what I was seeing. And Hall, this season, gets to play new stages of grief and emotion: Just when he's learned how to feel, his feelings get crushed, and out of control. By the end of the third episode, he's got an entirely NEW problem on his hands, and I can't wait for more. Even though I'll have to.

But one element of the premiere is too good not to share, and demonstrates just how sly this show's writers and producers are.

Rita's two children from her former marriage are unaware of what happened to their mother because they were away, with their grandmother, at Walt Disney World. When they return, happy to see Dexter but wondering where their mother is, they lovingly put some Mickey Mouse ears on him -- and that's when he has to tell them the bad news.

That visual, like SO much about Dexter, is simply unforgettable.

And, so far as I'm concerned, unmissable.

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Why Are TV's Court Jesters Making the Most Sense? And The Most News?

September 22, 2010 10:50 AM

On Comedy Central, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are mounting a Washington, D.C. rally that may end up being one of the biggest political stories of the season. Meanwhile, on HBO, Bill Maher is making news by resurrecting old Politically Incorrect clips featuring current Tea Party heroine Christine O'Donnell. What's going on here? Why are our politically interested comics making more sense, and news, than anyone else around right now?

Because, I fear, they may have the most credibility -- especially with younger viewers. And you know what? I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

On The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last week, the host of that program flipped the idea of the old "Silent Majority" on its edge, reclaiming it as a majority of quiet reason -- and calling on those people to join him, at the Washington Mall on Saturday, Oct. 30, for a RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY.

Why don't we hear, Stewart asked, from the 70-80 percent of people who aren't protesting at Tea Party rallies and other venues, drawn to TV lights like moths to flames?

"Most likely," he guesses, talking to his audience directly, "because you have ____ to do."

He called his rally, and his movement, "a clarion call for rationality." And beneath all the jokes, it was precisely that. As for actually bothering to attend a RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY, Stewart adds, "You may be asking yourself right now, sitting at home, 'But am I the right type of person to go to this rally?'

"The fact that you would even stop to ASK yourself that question," he adds...

...and the smile on his face proves his point before he even concludes his sentence.

Later, to make things even easier on possible visitors, Stewart offers examples of hand-painted signs that will be handed out at the rally. They, too, are funny, lonely voices of reason.

On the other hand, on the same night, Stewart's Daily Show Comedy Central spinoff series, The Colbert Report, threw down its own gauntlet, announcing a simultaneous rally -- same time, same place, different message.

Stephen Colbert's rallying cry, in the spirit of his over-the-top conservative commentator persona, was KEEP FEAR ALIVE. He announced it by draping himself in the image of the Lincoln Memorial, and by turning Stewart's "reasonable" rally into an instant classic star feud. Fred Allen, Jack Benny, take that.

What a brilliant idea. You can watch Stewart's entire piece setting up the rally HERE.

Then, to complete the twofer, Stephen Colbert's foamy counter-rally proposal can be seen HERE.

Interest in, and news about, this rally will only intensify in the coming weeks. And if you go, look for a bearded guy in a loud Hawaiian shirt... because I'll probably be there as well.

Seems like a reasonable thing to do...

--

Meanwhile, tune to HBO tonight (Wednesday) at 11 ET for a rerun of last Friday's season premiere of Real Time with Bill Maher, in which the host unveiled an 11-year-old clip featuring Christine O'Donnell on his old ABC series, Politically Incorrect.

In it, the Tea Party candidate who upset the Senate race in Delaware by winning the GOP primary, admits to, among other things, having "dabbled in witchcraft."

After Maher unearthed and played the clip on Friday, O'Donnell, whose political platform includes being opposed to masturbation, cancelled scheduled weekend appearances with national TV shows, and said between now and election day she'd deal only with local media.

Perhaps we've misunderstood or misheard this particular politician. Perhaps what Christine O'Donnell is really against is not masturbating, but mass debating.

Regardless, Maher announced on last week's show that he had clips of nearly two dozen other Politically Incorrect appearances by O'Donnell, and that he likened his power position to a hostage situation. Come on his Real Time show, he told her, or he'd reach into his vault of old clips and "throw out one body a week."

Here's the clip:

Now THAT'S entertainment.

And, like what Stewart and Colbert are concocting for next month, it's also news, and may even have a measurable political impact.

So what's so funny about TV's court jesters?

Or, to put it another way: What have the REAL news commentators and analysts done for us lately?

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Oh, Hoppy Day: Another New Columnist Joins the TVWW Fold

September 21, 2010 10:30 AM

Starting today, there's another new columnist roaming free here on the TV WORTH WATCHING ranch. And this one is the guy who got me into teaching college full-time, so I either owe him, or have a score to settle. Either way, he's the only human I know who watches more TV than I do, and he's got some strong, often contrary opinions. His name is Mike Donovan (seen teaching above), and my nickname for him -- a nod to his childhood TV idol, Hopalong Cassidy -- is Hoppy...

So, please, read Hoppy's, I mean Donovan's, inaugural entry today, the first under his TVWW column titled THINKING INSIDE THE BOX.

(By the way: After Pat Paulsen's death, his widow and son continued to run the late comedian for President, and that was their slogan, too. Brilliant. They also had another slogan, almost as good: "Dead Man Running.")

Donovan and I disagree a lot, but we agree a lot, too -- in class and out of it. He should be right at home here, where good writing, original thinking, and taking television seriously are all part of the required prerequisites. Please welcome him -- and, if you want, argue with him. Believe me, he's used to it... and he takes as well as he gives.

His nickname for me, by the way, is Shirt Boy...

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Lots to Cover: The New TV Season, New TVWW Writers, and the Newest Student Blog, Reviewing NBC's "Event"

September 20, 2010 7:15 AM

Busy day -- for the networks, and for us. The 2010 TV season begins officially today, and we have new stories, new summaries, and even new TV WORTH WATCHING writers on board. Plus we have our first Student Blog of the term, assessing whether NBC's new Lost-like drama really IS an Event. So welcome, and come dive in...

Welcome, at long last, to the official start of the 2010-2011 TV season. We have a new banner, and fall banner, for the occasion -- and also have some new writers on board.

One of them, Ronnie Gill, is a former colleague of Diane Werts' at Newsday, who for years generated her own popular blog covering reality TV shows. Now she's doing it for us, in a new column called Altered Reality -- and she starts today, just in time to take the temperature of the phenomenon known as ABC's Dancing with the Stars. Check out her take, and her observations and complaints, HERE. Glad to have you aboard, Ronnie!

(The other one is Mike Donovan, who will make his debut later this week -- so I'll welcome him then. And not a minute sooner...)

--

As for my own take on the fall season, the easiest thing for me to do (so that's what I'm doing) is to point you towards today's Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR, where I'll be delivering a summary of the fall 2010 offerings, and which ones are worth adding to the Must-Watch list. (Okay, I'll give you a hint: HBO's Boardwalk Empire. And another hint: HBO's Boardwalk Empire.) Listen to it today on the radio, or visit after about 5 p.m. ET to read and hear it online HERE.

(And while you're there, you can read and hear my review of Boardwalk Empire, which Fresh Air broadcast last Friday. One-stop shopping...)

Also, please check out our fact-filled, show-filled, and punch-line filled TV WORTH WATCHING FALL PREVIEW, a special section featuring most of our correspondents, chiming in on the new offerings. Visit HERE... and come back often, because we keep adding stuff.

--

And finally, this is the sixth time in three years that I've showcased the writing of one of my college students from New Jersey's Rowan University. I'm interested in what young people think about TV, and I KNOW the networks share that interest -- so here is one of my students, who's written here before on anime and on Fox's Sons of Tucson, offering his opinion of NBC's The Event, which premieres tonight at 9. The rest of today's column is all his...

STUDENT BLOG #6: In NBC's "Event," More Fizzle Than Fireworks

By Rich Greenhalgh

After another dismal season, NBC needed something big this year to remind people that it used to be the network of "Must See TV." One might even say they needed an "Event." A show was chosen, people were cast, and the fuse was lit. But after seeing the first episode, I have to say it's like watching the fuse sparkle on a fireworks display... and have it NOT go off. Based on the opener, The Event, premiering tonight at 9 ET on NBC, is a dud.

This is only the first hour, though, and perhaps they need a second episode to seal the deal. Lost needed a two-hour opener, and look how it exploded. The problem I have with The Event, though, is with the use of its one-hour format.

The Event begins intriguingly enough, dropping you right into the action, then going backwards days or hours to show what led to what you just saw. It even prints times, places and character names to identify what you’re watching. But after an hour of all this, you need a payoff -- what I call "the Cookie."

Instead, you get a "revelation" that you already knew 20 minutes ago. This revelation is so weak, I can tell you what it is without spoiling anything. It's a line of dialogue saying, "I haven't told you everything, Mr. President."

That's all you get, by way of explanation, for the hour you just sat through. There is a big surprise moment that occurs prior to this line being uttered, but like the President in this series, you're just as dumbfounded as the credits roll. No Cookie!

After one hour of NBC's Heroes, you knew the deal, and that people had powers. In ABC's FlashForward, you saw the blackout and knew people had to deal with it. The Event starts off looking like footage from the 2008 movie Cloverfield, with people wigging out over some impending unseen nastiness. But it ends up... where?

The structure of The Event reminds me a bit of another 2008 movie, Vantage Point, when action is repeated from various points of view, with details changing depending upon the perspective. As The Event begins, Sean Walker, played by Jason Ritter, appears to be a nervous airline passenger, then a hijacker.

Later, we're introduced to Sophia Maguire, played by Laura Innes of ER, a woman who is a detainee at a secret North Pole version of Gitmo. She is the leader of the mysterious prisoners there, and has been granted rights to tell the President what she knows about the prisoners. We don't know -- but neither does the Prez.

At this point, I'm already guessing that The Event is about Area 51, aliens, captured time-travelers, or secret people from other dimensions. (Hey: why not all of them?). All I'm going to say is that when the meeting with the Prez and Sophia happens, it leads to a big "What the hell just happened?" moment -- to which Sophia simply explains she hasn't told the Prez everything.

That's all you get? They light a fuse for an hour of TV, then it almost pops and you're left still wondering what happened. Is the "Event" coming? Did it already happen? Is it ongoing?

After the last few dramas and seasons it's had, NBC does not have the right to be this pretentious.

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Let It Ride on HBO's "Boardwalk Empire": It's the Best Bet for Fall, By Far

September 17, 2010 6:30 PM

There's only one new show, among all the offerings for the fall 2010 TV season, that has earned its place onto a must-watch list from the start -- and it's not a series from any of the broadcast networks. Instead, it's Boardwalk Empire from HBO, which starts Sunday night at 9 ET with the sort of opening salvo that promises great things ahead...

Boardwalk Empire, based on the nonfiction history of Atlantic City politics by Nelson Johnson, tells a story that is part truth, but a good part fiction, mixing real and imagined characters and events in the manner of E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime. For this HBO series, the time is the 1920s, the setting is Atlantic City -- and the central character is a local power broker nicknamed Nucky.

In real life, his name was Enoch "Nucky" Johnson. In HBO's Boardwalk Empire, his last name is changed to Thompson, but he's the same guy. And he's played by Steve Buscemi, who, as this character, finally gets the leading-man role he's so richly reserved, after high-wattage supporting turns in Fargo, The Big Lebowski and plenty of other films.

This is where I should get hasten to say that Boardwalk Empire is excellent, and comes supplied with impeccable credentials. Its creator is Terence Winter, an Emmy-winning writer-producer on The Sopranos from season two on. And the director of the pilot, and one of the series' executive producers, is Martin Scorsese, whose last TV work was on the PBS American Masters study of Bob Dylan.

And yes, the pilot LOOKS like Scorsese directed it. But later episodes, directed by Timothy Van Patten and others, look just as rich. Boardwalk Empire is a gorgeously produced, marvelously filmed period series -- and of the six episodes I've seen, each one, methodically and intriguingly, gets a little more involved, and a lot more intense. (The violence, in some scenes, is jaw-dropping -- but never gratuitous.)

I reviewed Boardwalk Empire for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and rather than repeat what I said there, I'll just provide the link HERE, so you can read and hear that review, and a few clips.

The essence, though, is that this is another of those series that both expects and rewards attentiveness and patience. It's like a chess game, where the opening moves are tentative -- but leading to a clear, nasty confrontation of opposing forces.

I'd also like to echo, in particular, my own praise for Kelly Macdonald as Margaret, the pregnant Irish immigrant for whom Buscemi's Nucky finds a soft spot.

I'm also taken by the no-holds-barred performance by Paz de la Huerta as Lucy (seen dancing with Nucky in the photo above that of Macdonald), the dim-witted mistress for whom Nucky has, uh, a hard spot.

Other standouts include Dabney Coleman, unrecognizable as the Commodore; Michael K. Williams (Omar from The Wire), proud and cunning as Chalky; and, of course, Buscemi, who, like Macdonald, will walk away from the other side of this Boardwalk as a major star.

By the way, Thursday I recorded a Fresh Air interview with series creator Terence Winter, which we'll play on the show before the end of the month. So, as they say, stay tuned.

And whatever you do, stay tuned on HBO for Boardwalk Empire. Let me know if you like it as much as I do...

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This Fall's TV Viewing Advice: Out with the New, In with the Old

September 16, 2010 10:53 AM

Next week is the busiest, most premiere-crammed fall TV launch in many, many years. ABC, CBS, NBC and ABC all are rolling out a majority of their top guns, beginning Monday, in hopes of generating both buzz and viewership. But on broadcast TV, the most excitement, by far, comes from the returning shows.

That's not to say that there's nothing from the broadcast networks this year that's both brand new and great -- though I might as well say it, because it's true. Over on HBO, Boardwalk Empire is the best new offering of the season -- but on broadcast TV, stick with the quality returnees.

That means, on Monday, Sept. 20, Fox's House, ABC's Castle, NBC's Chuck, and CBS' Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother. On Tuesday, Fox' Glee is back (and, for fans of that show, so is CBS's NCIS). On Wednesday, the biggest returnee is ABC's Modern Family.

Next Thursday, there are loads of big-news comebacks: NBC's 30 Rock and The Office, CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and The Mentalist, Fox's Bones and Fringe, ABC's Grey's Anatomy and, in its new moved-from-Monday time slot, CBS's The Big Bang Theory.

Then, next Friday, there are returns of CW's Smallville and Supernatural, CBS's Medium, and Fox's Human Target. Finally, on Sunday, Sept. 26, check these out (really): 60 Minutes and The Amazing Race on CBS; The Simpsons and Family Guy on Fox; and Desperate Housewives on ABC.

Next Sunday, it's also the return of Showtime's Dexter, and HBO's Bored to Death.

Which, by the way, pretty much will be your fate if you watch the new broadcast TV shows instead of the returning ones.

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9 Out of 10 Critics Agree: Don't Watch NBC's "Outlaw"

September 15, 2010 8:00 AM

In what amounts to the first nearly unanimous vote of the 2010 fall season, nine critics here at TV WORTH WATCHING have delivered the same verdict regarding Outlaw, Jimmy Smits' new legal drama on NBC. Pending appeal, the verdict is: Don't bother. But there is ONE dissenting opinion...

As more of our resident critics keep adding their two cents (or, in some verbose cases, four), the overall picture of the 2010 fall TV season comes clearer into focus. [Another reason to check in often at the regularly updated FALL TV PREVIEW page.] The picture seems to be cloudy, with a chance of meatball TV. Not miuch is out there, this season, about which to be excited, though we opinionated folk have our share of minority opinions and stark disagreements.

But not about Outlaw, which NBC presents as a sneak preview tonight at 10 ET, and stars Smits as a rebel U.S. Supreme Court Justice who steps down to pursue justice in his own way. Here's just a taste of what our TVWW Scoobies have written about it for our fall TV wrap-up:

Diane Werts: "If Supreme Court justice resigning to fight crime makes the next great Jimmy Smits series, I'm thinking Manimal revival for Kiefer Sutherland."

Bill Brioux: "Always watchable Smits slums through legal lite as flawed folk hero."

Me: "Jimmy Smits has had some great TV roles, but this sure isn't one of them. Could be, in fact, his career worst. But not for long."

Eric Gould: "The question is, who finds the preposterous entertaining? Apparently, all the executives at NBC."

Diane Holloway: "Jimmy Smits and sitting Supreme Court Justices deserve so much better... and so do we."

Theresa Corgliano: "I dearly want to see Smits succeed in something in primetime; there has to be TV life after Victor Sifuentes and Bobby Simone."

Ed Martin: "Smits is obviously a man of good taste, so maybe he sees something in it that the rest of us don't. Whatever that is had better show itself fast."

Alan Pergament: "Conservatives and liberals will agree -- this is one stupid show."

Sharp-eyed readers (and at TVWW, you ALL meet that description) probably have noticed that those judgments add up to eight, not nine. So where's the missing voice of disapproval?

It's that of Tom Brinkmoeller, who wrote an entire column about how ridiculous the premise of Outlaw was -- not only in his opinion,but in the opinion of those who practice or teach the law. His report was published here Aug. 22 -- but, because Outlaw premieres today, you can read it again HERE.

Don't say you haven't been warned.

But also, don't say you haven't also been presented with a minority opinion. As I was writing this column, another of our TVWW contributors, Ed Bark, was chiming in with HIS opinion, which varies from the rest in benefiting from previewing not just one episode, but two.

So to read the opinion of the lone holdout on this jury, read Ed's latest review HERE.

Then deliver your OWN verdict. Is NBC''s Outlaw as bad as it first appears -- or, for now, is there an element of reasonable doubt?

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One Week to the REAL Fall Premiere Week, Look What's Happening NOW...

September 13, 2010 10:00 AM

Next week will mark the busiest fall TV season opening week in years, with ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox all rolling out an aggressive schedule of season premieres and new shows. But this week, as the countdown to the 2010-11 TV season gets nearer to launch, there's STILL a lot going on...

Last week, CW jumped the gun (though not the shark) by premiering two new series, Hellcats and Nikita (starring Maggie Q, shown here), and presenting season premieres of two others, America's Next Top Model and The Vampire Diaries. Also last week, Fox presented the season premieres of two of television's most tenured prime-time series, COPS and America's Most Wanted.

Cable, which used to zag when the network zigged, no longer blinks when it comes to playing the fall TV version of chicken. Last week, FX premiered one new series (Terriers) and unveiled the season premiere of another (Sons of Anarchy). And Sunday night, while MTV mounted its annual Video Music Awards, AMC offered fresh episodes of both Mad Men and Rubicon, while HBO proudly presented season finales of True Blood, Hung and Entourage.

And now, the week BEFORE the fall season... and look what's up:

MONDAY, Sept. 13 -- CW continues its early rollout with season premieres of 90210 and Gossip Girls.

TUESDAY, Sept. 14 -- CW, again, this time with season premieres of One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected. And NBC, trying to get a head start, presents the second-season premiere of Parenthood.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 15 -- CBS jumps in a week early with Survivor: Nicaragua, featuring former NFL coach Jimmy Johnson and teams divided into old vs. young. (Guess which team HE'S on.) And speaking of jumping in early, NBC uses the night to offer a sneak preview of Outlaw, its new Jimmy Smits series.

THURSDAY, Sept. 16 -- NBC presents the newest edition of The Apprentice, this time a NON-celebrity edition. (And, on cable, FX presents season premieres of The League and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.)

FRIDAY, Sept. 17 -- NBC gives the premiere of Outlaw a same-week repeat, and on cable, HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher returns after a summer hiatus. Yet the biggest news on this day arrives prior to prime time: After 54 years, CBS's As the World Turns stops turning.

SUNDAY, Sept. 19 -- On an otherwise slow weekend comes the arrival of the best new series of the season: HBO's Boardwalk Empire.

And THEN the season starts, officially and almost frantically...

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HBO's "True Blood": Thanks for a Bloody Great Summer

September 11, 2010 11:00 AM

On the eve of its third-season finale, I come not to bury HBO's True Blood, but to praise it. Good thing, because burying the vamps and vengeful spirits in this wild supernatural series wouldn't have much effect anyway...

Alan Ball's wonderful series, which concludes its summer run Sunday night at 9 ET, has been TV's richest summer treat. Let me count some ways:

It moves with such breathless pace, it's as though each episode were stuck on fast-forward.

It presents such charismatic and entertaining characters, you could follow any one of a dozen of them for an entire episode without complaint.

Its images and its music are equally bold and bracing. Not an hour goes by without seeing a visual tableaux you won't forget, or hearing a song you're happy to remember, or eager to seek out.

Its imagination knows no bounds -- and almost every episode, there's at least one WOW moment, when you're hit broadside, without warning, with something you didn't expect, and think about long after the TV is turned off.

Young vamp Jessica is a regenerating virgin? Eric and the King of Mississippi are facing the deadly sun together? Sookie is a... fairy?

The cliffhanger from this year's penultimate episode had Eric handcuffing Russell in broad daylight and awaiting the "true death" as Sookie's magical sunscreen-blood-infusion wore off, beginning to sear and fry them both.

On any other show, that would have ended the season... but Ball and company, on a reckless yet confident tear, have so much up their sleeves, they have cliffhangers to spare.

A tip of the hat, by the way, to Denis O'Hare's Russell. His King of Mississippi is such a fabulous character (when he first saw proof of Sookie's unexplained light-shooting power, rather than be fearful, he screamed a delighted "Faaaan-TAS-tic!") that I'd hate to see him go.

(Especially since I remember him displaying similar verve, in Broadway musicals, as Ernst Ludwig in Cabaret and the gun-wielding Charles Guiteau in Assassins.)

But he's only one of many supporting characters I positively adore. Carrie Preston's flustered Arlene, Debroah Ann Woll's frustrated Jessica, Rutina Wesley's haunted Tara, Kristin Bauer's defiant Pam, Evan Rachel Wood's literally-to-die-for vampire queen -- and, okay, the list isn't limited to women. Nelsan Ellis' fiery Lafayette, Chris Bauer's clueless Andy, Jim Parrack's Baby Huey-ish Hoyt, Sam Trammell's shape-shifting Sam, and especially Rwan Kwanten's hot-headed Jason... What a cast.

And that's not even counting the major leads. Anna Paquin, as Sookie, is not only one of the best actresses on TV right now, but indisputably is the best screamer. Stephen Moyer and Alexander Skarsgard, as Bill and Eric (respectively), complete television's most heated romantic triangle of 2010.

The heat they generate is astounding, considering that two of their characters are cold to the touch -- and by the time the season finale is over, their romantic triangle may well have expanded to four points, or shrunken to two.

All I know is, I'll be there -- and when True Blood goes back underground to hibernate for the winter, I'll be sad. TV this entertaining is as addictive as vamp blood, and where am I supposed to get my fix?

Oh, yeah. Showtime and Dexter. Thank goodness -- or thank badness -- THAT bloody good series returns Sept. 26, and is just around the corner.

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Kickoff Curse Claims Another Victim... And Look Who's Next: CW's "Hellcats"

September 9, 2010 9:15 AM

The Kickoff Curse has done it again. Each fall, it targets the first new series to premiere each fall from a broadcast network, and predicts that the show in question will not live to see a sophomore season. Last year, the Curse -- which I invented, by the way, decades ago -- fingered CW's Melrose Place for extinction. And hey: Look what show isn't back for 2010...

The Kickoff Curse has now correctly predicted four freshman losers in a row: Melrose Place last year (despite the midseason publicity injection by Heather Locklear, star of the prime-time soap's original 1990s version), NBC's America's Toughest Jobs in 2008, Fox's Nashville in 2007, and Fox's Vanished in 2006.

The last series to defy the Kickoff Curse was Fox's Prison Break in 2005. But overall, the Curse has a fairly high degree of accuracy. In 35 years, only six Cursed shows have survived. And the new show on the chopping block? That would be CW's Hellcats, which premiered earlier this week. It has one year to succumb to the Kickoff Curse... or to defy it.

Most prominent among the survivors are the CBS sitcom Alice in the '70s, ABC's newsmagazine Primetime Live in the '80s, Fox's sitcom Roc in the '90s, and, in the current decade, the aforementioned Prison Break.

And except for a pair of fairly recent sitcoms from the now-defunct UPN network, Girlfriends and One on One from 2000-01, those are the only survivors of a curse that began way back in 1975, during the Gerald Ford administration.

The most famous victims of the Kickoff Curse include ABC's fabulous 1994 teen drama My So-Called Life, starring Claire Danes; 1984's Call to Glory, an ABC drama starring Craig T. Nelson that explored the Kennedy-era 1960s the way Mad Men is doing now; and 1990's Hull High, the NBC series that was the last show to attempt a weekly high-school musical series until the current Glee.

For the record, and for your amusement, here's the complete list of shows that faced the Kickoff Curse, along with their respective fates. Only shows which are underlined survived the curse.

Remember any of these? If most of the names don't ring a bell... well, that's the point.

YEAR.....NET.....SERIES

2010.....CW.....Hellcats (fate unknown)
2009......CW.....Melrose Place
2008.....NBC.....America's Toughest Jobs
2007.....Fox.....Nashville
2006.....Fox.....Vanished
2005.....Fox.....Prison Break
2004.....Fox.....North Shore
2003.....NBC.....Whoopi
2002......WB.....Family Affair
2001.....UPN.....One on One
2000.....UPN.....Girlfriends
1999.....UPN.....Grown Ups
1998.....Fox.....Holding the Baby
1997.....UPN.....Good News
1996.....Fox.....L.A. Firefighters
1995.....Fox.....The Crew
1994.....ABC.....My So-Called Life
1993.....Fox.....Front Page
1992.....ABC.....Covington Cross
1991.....Fox.....Roc
1990.....NBC.....Hull High
1989.....ABC.....Primetime Live
1988.....NBC.....Baby Boom
1987.....NBC.....Private Eye
1986.....CBS.....The Wizard
1985.....CBS.....Hometown
1984.....ABC.....Call to Glory
1983.....NBC.....We Got It Made
1982.....NBC.....The Powers of Matthew Star
1981.....ABC.....Best of the West
1980.....CBS.....Ladies' Man
1979.....ABC.....240-Robert
1978.....NBC.....Dick Clark's Live Wednesday
1977.....CBS.....The Betty White Show
1976.....CBS.....Alice
1975.....CBS.....Big Eddie

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The First New Fall Shows are Here -- And So Is TVWW's Annual Fall Preview!

September 8, 2010 6:00 AM

The first new show of the 2010 fall TV season, CW's Hellcats, shows up tonight. On cable, so does FX's Terriers. And accompanying them both, for the third straight year, is TV WORTH WATCHING's annual Fall TV Preview...

If you've been a regular at this site for a while, you know the drill. (And drill, this year, is especially apt, since the first series on list is a show about college cheerleaders.) If not , here it is: Click on the Fall TV Preview banner, and get transported to our show-by-show scouting report -- brief capsules, written by our TVWW editors and correspondents.

Take Hellcats, for example, premiering tonight (Wednesday) at 9 ET. A CW series about cheerleading? It's got to be a candidate for instant and fervent ridicule and outright dismissal, right? Not necessarily.

On the Fall Preview page, I call it "Not nearly as bad as I expected."

Diane Werts advises, "Don't hate them because they're beautiful. Don't hate them at all."

Bill Brioux, more pragmatically, says, "You knew Glee had to inspire some kind of spinoff."

And Eric Gould, the curmudgeon in this particular example, welcomes it with a cheer, but with a derisive one: "2-4-6-8, this-is-one-we-really-hate!!"

Then there's Terriers, and more than 20 other new fall shows -- all listed in order of premiere dates, and described by as many TVWW writers as want to weigh in... both before and after the premieres. As subsequent episodes become available, we here at TV WORTH WATCHING, like members of Congress, reserve the right to revise and extend our remarks.

Well, to extend them, anyway...

So for today, click HERE at take it away. And for later visits, just click on the home-page Fall Preview banner, which will remain in place until the last show premieres in October.

Please let us know what you think -- of the Fall Preview, and of the shows themselves, and which ones, through our descriptions and evaluations or the on-air ads, pique your interest...

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TV WORTH WATCHING 2010 Fall TV Preview Is On the Way... Tomorrow

September 7, 2010 10:00 AM

Even though the 2010 Fall TV season doesn't begin officially for two more weeks, the first new show from the broadcast networks surfaces tomorrow night. And, to mark the occasion, so will TV WORTH WATCHING's annual Fall Preview Guide...

The idea of the guide is to have a place where, throughout the fall, you can visit to get recommendations about what to watch -- and what to avoid. This year, the first new show to premiere is CW's Hellcats, right, which already has generated a split decision among our critics.

Two years ago, when we did this, we offered the opinions of three critics: Diane Werts, Bill Brioux and myself. Last year, we were up to twice that number, also adding the opinions of Tom Brinkmoeller, Diane Holloway and Ed Martin.

This year, with a dozen contributing writers on the site, I expect it'll be a free-for-all. And, as always, it'll be free for all.

So visit tomorrow for the unveiling of the new Fall Preview package. And come back often, as more of our critics weigh in, more of the shows premiere, and we at TV WORTH WATCHING keep toiling to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Even if, this year, the chaff seems to have a distinct edge...

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I Want to Be a Paperback Writer... Paperback Wriiiii-ter!!

September 3, 2010 9:25 AM

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? It took me years to write. Will you take a look?...

Yes, my Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' is coming out in paperback -- later this month, with a cool new cover, and, naturally, a lower price. For a sneak peek of the new cover, and (if you want) to pre-order, details follow...

The paperback, by the Touchstone division of Simon & Schuster Inc., will drop (if booksellers aren't careful) Sept. 28, at a retail price of $16.00. You can pre-order it now, and pay a lot less, by pre-ordering HERE.

And if you do, I probably get more from the modest Amazon kickback than I do from royalties.

It's basically the same book, except the front and back covers are redesigned, the first few pages are a collection of positive reviews, and -- the part that I'm really excited about -- restored, at the end of the book, is a section that was removed from the original for space considerations: my chapter-by-chapter detailed notes, citing where, and from whom, I got everything in my 14 years of research.

So here it is -- again. Buy one for a friend, if you can. I need all the friends you can get.

If you must return it, you can send it here -- but I need a break, and I want to be a paperback writer.

Paperback wriiiiiii-ter!!!!

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Where to Find the New Emmy Winners on TV? Glad You Asked...

September 1, 2010 10:00 AM

If you watched the Emmys, or read the list of winners afterward, you may well have encountered an unfamiliar name or show and asked yourself, "Where can I FIND these programs?" Well, don't ask yourself. Ask ME, because here comes a handy-dandy list...

Starting with the Emmy-winning movies and miniseries, there are no scheduled repeat telecasts right now for HBO's Temple Grandin or The Pacific.

But Temple Grandin, the most honored TV show at this year's Emmys, was released two weeks ago on video. So you can -- and, believe me, you SHOULD -- buy it -- and watch Claire Danes' amazing performance, and those of David Strathairn and Julia Ormond (all Emmy winners, along with awards for the show for direction and as outstanding TV movie) by clicking HERE.

The Pacific, the winner for outstanding miniseries, will be released on DVD Nov. 2, and you can pre-order it HERE.

As for the same network's You Don't Know Jack, which won for writing and for actor Al Pacino as Dr. Jack Kevorkian, it can be seen next week on two occasions: Tuesday, Sept. 7, at 11 p.m. ET, and Sunday, Sept. 12, at 4:45 p.m. ET, both on the HBO-S network.

Now for the regular series. Here's where, and when, to catch this year's winners:

Mad Men, AMC (Won for Outstanding Drama, and Writing for a Drama) -- There's a repeat of the current episode on AMC this Friday, Sept. 3, at 9:15 a.m. ET. The next new episode airs in the show's regular Sunday night time slot, Sept. 5 at 10 -- one of the few series to run first-run programming on Labor Day weekend.

Modern Family, ABC (Outstanding Comedy, Writing for a Comedy, Supporting Actor) -- This week's episode is pre-empted by ABC's CMA Music Festival special. But next Wednesday, Sept. 8, at 9 ET, Emmy winner Eric Stonestreet and the rest of the gang will be back, albeit in a summer rerun.

Glee, Fox (Supporting Actress in a Comedy; Guest Actor, Comedy; Director, Comedy) -- Next Tuesday, Sept. 7, Fox presents another prime-time doubleheader. Supporting Actress winner Jane Lynch is is both, but pay special attention to the 9 p.m. ET repeat -- that's the one featuring Emmy-winner Neil Patrick Harris as Will's old glee-club rival.

Breaking Bad, AMC (Actor, Drama; Supporting Actor, Drama) -- Watch Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul work their respective Emmy-winning magic on a rerun, Monday, Sept. 6, at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Dexter, Showtime (Guest Actor, Drama; Director, Drama) -- Sunday night at 9 ET, there's a repeat of one of the episodes featuring guest actor Emmy-winner John Lithgow, as the Trinity Killer. And to see it, tune in to Showtime, even though Lithgow mistakenly thanked HBO during his original acceptance speech.

Saturday Night Live, NBC (Guest Actress, Comedy) -- Betty White isn't the guest host on this week's rerun, but Tina Fey is, and Justin Bieber is the musical guest. Saturday, Sept. 4, at 11:29 p.m. ET.

The Big Bang Theory, CBS (Actor, Comedy) -- Jim Parsons explains it all for you, in next week's rerun: Monday, Sept. 7, at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Nurse Jackie, Showtime (Actress, Comedy) -- Showtime doesn't have any reruns scheduled currently, but DirecTV's 101 Network does. If you subscribe to that satellite service, tune to that channel Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET, or about 100 other times during the week, to see Edie Falco in her very funny "I'm not funny" performance.

The Closer, TNT (Actress, Drama) -- Kyra Sedgwick's next sassy turn as Brenda is Monday, Sept. 6, at 9 p.m. ET -- and even though it's Labor Day, it's an original episode, which has Brenda getting ready for her job interview for her possible promotion as Chief of Police.

Top Chef, Bravo (Reality Series) -- This first-time winner can be seen at 10 p.m. ET Wednesdays. This week's episode has an outer-space theme and features astronaut Buzz Aldrin, while next week's episode, the start of this season's two-part finale, takes place in Singapore.

The Good Wife, CBS (Supporting Actress, Drama) -- Tune in next Tuesday, Sept. 7, at 10 p.m. ET to see Archie Punjabi's attention-stealing role as a tough, resourceful private eye.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NBC (Guest Actress, Drama) -- Ann-Margret won for her guest performance here, which NBC has yet to reschedule. But if you want to catch the series anyway, it airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central (Writing, Variety/Music/Comedy Special) - Weeknights at 11 p.m. ET, and at several rerun points during the day, you can catch installments of this still-brilliant series, which deserves every Emmy it gets. And this show, right now, ISN'T in reruns. Yes, it is, it turns out. But hey, funny is funny, even if, in my case, wrong is wrong...

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