Three new shows premiere tonight, with little cause for celebration. NBC's "Parks and Recreation," with Amy Poehler, may develop into something worthwhile, but it's disappointingly derivative. NBC's "Southland" is even more disappointing, and even more derivative -- and "Harper's Island," on CBS, is a bloody mess...

2009

Apr

FX'S "RESCUE ME" RETURNS -- FINALLY, AND BRILLIANTLY By David Bianculli

The FX drama series "Rescue Me," has been gone from TV so long, it makes "The Sopranos" look like a poster boy for prime-time promptness. FX even presented five-minute "mini-sodes" in the interim, just to remind viewers of what they were missing...

2009

Apr

WITH HBO'S "IN TREATMENT" AND SHOWTIME'S "UNITED STATES OF TARA," TV IS GREAT THERAPY By David Bianculli

HBO's "In Treatment" begins its second season just as Showtime's "United States of Tara" concludes its first. Both series are so engrossing, they prove that, in the right hands, TV isn't just good therapy. It's great therapy...

2009

Apr

APRIL 3, 1969 -- CBS FIRED THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS By David Bianculli

Today, in 1969, CBS fired the Smothers Brothers...

2009

Apr

THE JAY LENO WARS: HOMETOWN STATION NIXES 10 P.M. QUIP STRIP By Diane Werts

And it isn't even on the air yet. NBC's Boston affiliate WHDH has said "nuts" to the network's plan to strip Jay Leno into the weeknight 10 p.m. ET hour this fall. They'd rather run their own local news...

2009

Apr

THE PEABODYS: AWARDS GO TO 'SNL' ON POLITICS, 'BREAKING BAD,' 'LOST,' 'JOHN ADAMS,' TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES, MORE By Diane Werts

The Peabody Awards have a long history of recognizing the best in television, whatever and wherever it is -- from pioneer '50s comedy Mister Peepers and early TV opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, to current overachievers like South Park and Battlestar Galactica...

2009

Apr

GUEST BLOG #5: ED MARTIN ON CBS DIMMING ITS "GUIDING LIGHT" By Ed Martin

CBS made history today in a bad way. It cancelled Procter & Gamble Productions' classic soap opera Guiding Light, the longest running scripted franchise in the history of modern media! I have during the last ten years written many times about Guiding Light for Jack Myers Reports and other publications, and whenever possible I used those platforms to remind executives at CBS and P&G that it isn't simply another soap opera -- it's an American institution, and a national treasure at that...

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