DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2013
Nov
23
 
 
Except for Steven Spielberg’s 1971 made-for-TV movie Duel, which was released theatrically overseas, this 1974 film was Spielberg’s big-screen debut.  Goldie Hawn stars as a fugitive from the law, in an adventure drama that eventually leads to an elaborately staged chase sequences --  and not at high speed, either.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Nov
22
 
 
Here’s an astoundingly resonant use of a network’s flagship news website. Beginning this afternoon, and lasting for four days, the CBS News website will devote itself to a minute-by-minute replay of its coverage of the John F. Kennedy assassination and aftermath 50 years ago. My only complaint is that the replay doesn’t begin with the network’s very first bulletin, but that’s a mere completist’s quibble, given the rare opportunity to see so much of this in the
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Nov
22
 
 
The title of this NBC News special is a tipoff that, for once, a news network organization isn’t pandering for younger viewers at the expense of older ones. This doesn’t mean, that if you weren’t alive 50 years ago, you shouldn’t be watching – quite the contrary. But it also means that those of us who were old enough to remember may have been stunned, the last few days, to realize how little we’ve forgotten about those truly tragic, life-changing events. Here,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Nov
22
 
 
Fifty years ago, the day after the JFK assassination, British television transmitted the premiere episode of a little science fiction show called Doctor Who. Tomorrow, in a telecast shown at the same time globally, Doctor Who celebrates its golden anniversary with a long-awaited brand new episode. Meanwhile, tonight, BBC America presents a new telemovie which dramatizes the creation of the Doctor Who TV franchise. David Bradley stars as William Hartnell, who played the first in a long series of
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Nov
22
 
 
For a TV critic with decades of viewing behind him, the JFK assassination coverage brings with it additional memories of previous specials keyed to previous JFK anniversaries. This documentary, for example, premiered in 1988, on the 25th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination. It remains, in my estimation, one of the best, because it captures the public (and sometimes private) speaker unfiltered, quoting him as a candidate, and as President, to let his words speak for themselves.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Nov
22
 
 
A good, talkative bunch is scheduled to show up tonight, including Paul Begala, Dan Savage and, from Treme, Wendell Pierce.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Nov
22
 
 
Fifty years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, it seems like the appropriate time to add, to our all-time TVWW Seal of Approval list,  this NBC miniseries, broadcast 20 years after that fateful event...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Nov
21
 
 
Little notice is being paid to CBSNews.com’s plans: they will begin streaming the same TV coverage CBS aired, also at that exact moment, in 1963, through the Monday funeral, just as it happened on TV 50 years ago...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Nov
21
 
 

Friday, on the exact 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, NBC’s Tom Brokaw asks Where Were You? That same day, on NPR’s Fresh Air, I give my answer…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Nov
21
 
 
Tonight’s new installment is a Thanksgiving episode, which ought to be enjoyable enough. But sometime during the festivities, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) learns, for the first time, that Penny’s drunken Las Vegas wedding years ago, to an old boyfriend, is still valid – and apparently, Penny (Kaley Cuoco) learns it for the first time, too.