Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1444 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: Hillary's SNL Strategy

By James Poniewozik

My column in the print TIME this week is pretty much a polished-up version of this earlier post on Hillary and SNL, more or less. (Less, actually: it’s 50% shorter and, therefore, 50% better.) But if you haven’t read it yet—then it’s new to you! You always risk sounding a little ridiculous writing about things [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1445 days ago

Scrubs: The JAG of 2008

By James Poniewozik

Scant hours after the news that quarterlife would move from NBC to Bravo (and that, scant hours after the news that NBC canceled quarterlife) comes word that Scrubs is being saved–by moving to ABC. It’s still rare for a show to migrate among major networks: JAG went from NBC to CBS, and long before, Taxi [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1445 days ago

The Morning After: Idol Free to Defile Beatles!

By James Poniewozik

It’s funny; the other night Mrs. Tuned In and I were watching ’70s night on American Idol and saying how cool it would be if someone picked a Todd Rundgren or Carole King song. We had to wait for the elimination-night medley, but we got both I Saw the Light and The Earth Move. And [...]

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Tuned In+1445 days ago

Lostwatch: Groundhog Day on Christmas Eve

By James Poniewozik

A changed Desmond arrives on Not Penny’s Boat. / ABC: MARIO PEREZ SPOILER ALERT: Before read this post, set your device to 2.342, set the oscillator to 11 Hz, and watch last night’s Lost. How badly is my mind blown? There’s a little rivulet of blood running out of my nose. Excuse me. I need [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1445 days ago

Housekeeping: When Do You Like Your Lostwatch?

By James Poniewozik

A quick question to anyone here reading the blog at this hour: are you checking Tuned In wondering when the hell I’m going to post Lostwatch? Because here’s the thing, I already wrote it. Sometimes I write it up as soon as I watch, sometimes the next morning. But even when I write it immediately [...]

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Tuned In+1446 days ago

quarterlife Day Continues! It's Off to Bravo

By James Poniewozik

So there was this show, quarterlife. It started as a pilot on ABC. Then it got made on the Web. Then NBC bought it. Then it aired it, Tuesday night, and 3.1 million people watched. Then it got canceled. And now comes word that NBC’s corporate sibling Bravo is picking up up the series instead. [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1446 days ago

quarterlife canceled after onesixthofitsrun

By James Poniewozik

That was quick. After pulling just over 3 million viewers in its initial runs, quarterlife is no more at NBC. The network pulled it after just one of the six episodes ordered, tying it with Emily’s Reasons Why Not as the shortest-lived network series ever. Producer Marshall Herskovitz quickly issued a statement vowing to carry [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1446 days ago

quarterlife and What the Strike Did(n't) for TV

By James Poniewozik

I’ve heard a lot of excuses for failed TV series in my day as a critic. Usually they involve blaming the network, which is a good move because, hey, even people who love TV hate networks! The network didn’t promote us enough. They gave us a crappy time slot. They moved us to too many [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1446 days ago

William F. Buckley

By James Poniewozik

I was on deadline most of the day yesterday, so I didn’t get around to noting the passing of Buckley, who–as Richard Corliss writes here–was as important a TV figure as he was a political and publishing one. Buckley was both a living anachronism and a man ahead of his time, as Richard points out; [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1446 days ago

The Morning After: I Was a Willow Last Night in My Dream

By James Poniewozik

Smithson goes crazy on Crazy on You. / Frank Micelotta / Getty for Fox I was the youngest child in my family, with siblings nine to fourteen years older than me. (Yes, I was an accident.) What happens when you grow up with older sibs is that you end up having the pop cultural references [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1447 days ago

Corporate Press Release Theater: If Only Barack and Hillary Sang

By James Poniewozik

One hitch in the theory that the media are in cahoots to get Hillary out of the race—ratings numbers like these, from MSNBC: MSNBC’s telecast of last night’s Democratic candidates debate drew 7.8 million viewers (9-10:36 p.m. ET), becoming the most watched broadcast in the eleven year history of the network, according to Nielsen Media [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1447 days ago

Building the Ultimate Reality Show

By James Poniewozik

The other day I got a DVD screener for The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom, a reality show (hosted by Growing Pains’ Tracey Gold) in which women who have put careers on hold or given them up to stay at home get a chance to spend a week working at their would-have-been careers. It’s [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1447 days ago

Live from New York Ohio: Hillary's SNL Defense

By James Poniewozik

Anyone who believes that corporate synergy does not work in TV should watch last night’s Democratic debate in Ohio. There we saw Hillary Clinton using one NBC Universal property (Saturday Night Live) to attack another NBC Universal property (MSNBC, the debate host) for its treatment of her. Fielding a question about NAFTA, Hillary–whose aides and [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1447 days ago

The Morning After: I Just Want to Be Your Everything

By James Poniewozik

Don’t retire this Castro yet. / FOX I’m divvying up this week’s American Idol semifinal coverage with time.com editor / music critic Josh Tyrangiel, and his reviews of Tuesday’s boys’ night ’70s sing-off should be up any… second… now. (Whoa! There it is already.) If you ask me, Josh got the lucky half of the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1448 days ago

TV Tonight: quarterlife Jumps Screens

By James Poniewozik

Scott Michael Foster and Kevin Christy do whatever it is those kids nowadays do with the computer machines. / NBC Photo: Elisabeth Caren There is a generational war going on in your living room. In the one corner, your computer, that hot new property, what with its multitasking and IM abbreviations and viral videos, basks [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1448 days ago

Hey, Ferret Face! What's Your Favorite TV Insult?

By James Poniewozik

Britain’s Radio Times (via the BBC), has performed a truly valuable service to mankind: chronicled the 25 greatest TV insults of all time. The list is understandably Brit-heavy–lots of references to knickers and such–but there are a few American shows represented. (How do you pick just one insult from Cheers’ Carla or Scrubs’ Dr. Cox?) [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1448 days ago

The Morning After: Raisin D'Etre

By James Poniewozik

Audra McDonald, Rashad and Sanaa Lathan. / ABC I forgot to link earlier to my brief review of ABC’s A Raisin in the Sun, so i figured I’d open up this thread to any comments on it. I think P. Diddy (sorry, Sean Combs) has gotten a lot of credit for being better than you’d [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1449 days ago

Tina Fey Vs. Liz Lemon on Hillary

By James Poniewozik

A while ago, in a story about feminism and TV, I quoted the 30 Rock episode in which Liz Lemon says that, in the upcoming election, there’s an 80 percent chance that she will tell her friends she’s voting for Barack Obama but will secretly vote for John McCain. It turns out, though, that Tina [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1449 days ago

Wire Watch: No Country for Old Men

By James Poniewozik

Michael K. Williams as Omar. / HBO: Nicole Rivellli SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this edition of Wire Watch, rent a car at Enterprise, use the GPS to find your way home, and watch last night’s Wire. In The Wire, individuals struggle valiantly against systems, but eventually the systems win. They grind you down, overpower [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1449 days ago

Oscars Defeat Jon Stewart

By James Poniewozik

The writers’ strike is over, right? That’s what I’m reading in the papers, and Jon Stewart made his first joke of the night about it. But if you expected the Bruce-Vilanchists of Hollywood to storm back and prove their importance by whipping up a barnburner of an Academy Awards in the couple weeks since the [...]