Okay, so it’s not a Christmas movie special – but any time you get a chance to watch a pair of movies featuring Marilyn Monroe, it’s a gift. And tonight, TCM presents, in prime time, two films in which Monroe shone with mesmerizing exuberance. In Some Like It Hot, from 1959, she’s the radiant star, throwing off equal measures of sex appeal and playful humor as a member of an all-girl music band – a band infiltrated by two musicians in drag (played by Tony Curtis and

2018

Dec

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS By David Bianculli

Here’s another nicely conceived double bill. NBC’s prime time Christmas lineup begins with yet another showing of the 1966 holiday cartoon special, featuring Dr. Seuss’ holiday-hating Grinch…

2018

Dec

DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS By David Bianculli

…And that’s followed by the 2000 Ron Howard live-action adaptation of the same source material, starring Jim Carrey as an amazingly elastic-faced green Grinch. Also featured, as residents of Whoville: Christine Baranski, Jeffrey Tambor, Bill Irwin, and, as Cindy Lou Who, Taylor Momsen. My favorite character name? Played by Clint Howard, it’s the mayor’s aide, Whobris.

2018

Dec

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST By David Bianculli

The most recent time we saw an animated Belle was in last year’s Ralph Breaks the Internet, where she made a cameo along with all the other Disney princesses. But the first time was in 1991, as the central star of Disney’s animated musical Beauty and the Beast. In both films, Belle is played, and her voice provided, by Paige O’Hara, who has built a successful second career painting authorized portraits of her Disney alter ego (pictured). And in prime time, on Disney-owned ABC,

2018

Dec

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE By David Bianculli

NBC and its sister networks have shown this film sporadically, but sparingly, during the holiday season, making the most of its exclusive TV rights. But this is the highest-profile showing of all: in prime time, on Christmas Eve. Every time a bell rings…

2018

Dec

A CHRISTMAS CAROL By David Bianculli

Here’s another well-time holiday movie telecast: The 1938 version of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, starring Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge. It’s a short movie adaptation of a very short book, so when this 10 p.m. ET showing is over, it’ll still be a few minutes shy of midnight – plenty of time to make room for your own midnight spirits. (I prefer Scotch.) And what’s interesting about this particular adaptation is that Marley’s Ghost is played by

2018

Dec

CHRISTMAS EVE MASS By David Bianculli

Once again this year, NBC televises the Christmas Eve mass from St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, with Pope Francis presiding.

2018

Dec

AN AUCTION TELLS THE STORY OF A LIFE CUT SHORT: 'MARILYN MONROE FOR SALE' By David Hinckley

If you’re tired of getting the same old sweaters or shirts for Christmas, the Smithsonian channel can give you a glimpse of truly creative clothes shopping...

2018

Dec

WATERSHIP DOWN By David Bianculli

MINISERIES PREMIERE: This is the third time animators have taken a stab at presenting a version of author Richard Adams’ deep, allegorical story about rabbits in the English countryside. The narrative covers everything from hero’s journey quests to a rabbit-world equivalent of Nazi domination. This new version, presented in four parts by Netflix, opens with a highly stylized visualization of the rabbit myth, then proceeds to present its rabbit heroes, and villains, in computer-animat

2018

Dec

THE SIMPSONS: "SIMPSONS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE" By David Bianculli

Tonight on The Simpsons, Fox is repeating the show’s first full-length episode, a Christmas special that first expanded Matt Groening’s vision of the Simpsons as a mostly feuding family seen in interstitial breaks during Fox’s The Tracey Ullman Show. “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” was the name of that initial episode, which was televised on Dec. 17, 1989. The animation will look a lot rougher around the edges than it does today, but the wit is just as fresh, an

Posts 31-40 of 2056

3 4 5 6 7

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption