Maybe he really does have something to laugh about: according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports, in a three-way presidential race with Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, Stephen Colbert would pull 13% of the vote. (Hat tip to my friends-I’ve-never-met at fellow TIME blog Real Clear Politics, who pointed to this the other day, but [...]

NBC Photo: Carol Segal Wednesday is the Big Fat Night of new series, very little of which I actually got around to watching yet, so you can start the conversation: Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money (which I’m going to try to take Evie’s suggestion and do A Second Look At), Kid Nation, or what have [...]

What did I watch on TV when I was a small child, when I wasn’t watching high-minded social dramas about stroke-suffering steelworkers? I was lucky enough to grow up in Michigan, within broadcasting range of Canadian TV, and so had greater opportunities than those of you in warmer but less blessed parts of America. That [...]

Working man Archie: Those… were… the… days! / CBS Photo Archive I don’t know why I remember Skag, but I do. Airing in 1980, when I was a kid, it starred Karl Malden as a steel-mill foreman, who suffers a stroke and has to rebuild his life. Among the storylines in the show was his [...]

DEAN HENDLER / ABC Usually when I and other TV critics review a show, especially one we’re not crazy about, we move on and never look back. And in general I’m more than glad to do that. But now that we’re past the crush of fall premieres, A Second Look At will give an occasional, [...]

Damages wrapped up last night, but I didn’t, as I’m still two episodes behind on the show. Don’t let me stop you, though; chat away. I’ll be on the other side of the room, singing loudly to myself, with my fingers stuck in my ears.

This past summer, I wrote, then wrote some more, about NBC’s plans to devote a week of programming, November 4-10, to episodes of its shows with environmental themes. I pretty much exhausted my supply of cheap Deal or No Deal jokes then, so I’m just going to recycle a few highlights from the press release. [...]

myspacetv.com From the folks over at myspacetv.com comes word of the social-networking site’s “first co-developed original web series.” (Whatever exactly that means, it involves a sponsorship by the Ford Focus.) Roommates follows four young women, recent college grads, as they get an apartment together in Los Angeles and embark on adult life. (Four other friends [...]

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, eject that “Secrets of Double Dutch” video and watch last night’s Heroes. NBC Photo: Chris Haston One of my past problems with Heroes has been that it cast one of my favorite TV actors, Greg Grunberg, but gave him little interesting to do. That may finally be changing. [...]

K-Ville, Journeyman, Dancing With the Stars: you name it, you can post about it here. If you watched any program on NBC last night (a Heroes Watch is forthcoming), didja happen to notice that PHENOMENON is PREMIERING this WEEK? By now I’m used to “snipes”–the little in-house show promo ads at the bottom of the [...]

“We ask a lot of love.” –May HBO photo: Doug Hyun Only time for a quickie today. That’s what she said! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. That’s what she– OK, seriously. You can’t really write about Tell Me You Love Me without having sex on the brain, and this episode was a reminder of how much [...]

Robert Voets/CBS Push, Nevada no longer holds the record as most disastrous show ever set in the Silver State. CBS, Variety reports, has already canceled Viva Laughlin. Laughlin aired two episodes, so it doesn’t beat ABC’s Emily’s Reasons Why Not–axed after one–but on a sheer debut-to-cancellation scale, it’s impressive: killed a mere four days after [...]

I’ll admit, when I first heard that Stephen Colbert was running for President, my reaction was: Oh, Stephen, you can do better. Colbert, I thought, was too much of an original to be reviving a stunt that’s been done for generations by TV comedian and cartoon character alike. But as with so much about The [...]

Frank Micelotta / FOX So did anyone else watch The Next Great American Band (i.e., “We Wish We Could Air American Idol Twice a Year”) Friday night? While it doesn’t look like the travesty that American Juniors was (before it launched Lucy Hale to Bionic Woman semistardom), I was surprised the quality of the bands [...]

WARNING: People who get offended by things will get offended by the following videos. I usually TiVo South Park and watch it too late to blog about it, but I finally watched this week’s part 1 of the Imaginationland trilogy. And watched it again. And might watch it one more time. Oh. My. God. If [...]

Bob D’Amico / Disney Channel In this week’s shiny-paper edition of TIME, I have (with the help of Amy Goehner and Rebecca Winters Keegan) looked into the fearsome heart of the pop-culture force that is Hannah Montana. For those of you (like me) without tween daughters, Hannah Montana is a Disney Channel show starring Miley [...]

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, load up your Kodak Carousel and watch the Mad Men season finale. There is something in people that loves persuasion, yet knows to fear it. Maybe that’s why it’s the devil’s greatest power, not fire or magic. Eat this fruit. Cast yourself on these stones. And Don Draper: [...]

Robert Voets/CBS So despite the warnings of the industrialized world’s largest force of trained television critics, did you watch Viva Laughlin anyway? Time to chime in on that or any other of last night’s TV. The Office was nice and poignant, though I’m eager to get back to the half-hour format, while 30 Rock absolutely [...]

I’m usually hesitant to link to Time Inc. sister sites because it looks like shameless corporate whoring. And yet it never manages to do anything for the share price. But I think you’ll be interested in this. In an excerpt from an upcoming book, David Chase talks to Entertainment Weekly about That Last Scene: There [...]