Tuned In
Tuned In+1384 days ago

More On That Controversial Woman in Vanity Fair, and That High-Priced Female Anchor

By James Poniewozik

I am referring, of course to Barbara Walters. The Miley Cyrus issue of Vanity Fair excerpts Walters’ upcoming memoir, Audition, in which—even as Katie Couric runs into more ratings trouble at CBS—she recalls being dismissed as the first female evening news anchor, with a giant-for-the-time salary and a none-too-happy male co-anchor: The press was relentless [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1384 days ago

TV Tonight: Odd Couples

By James Poniewozik

GREG GAYNE/THE CW On The CW, the debut of Farmer Wants a Wife, in which Matt, a 29-year-old Missouri country boy with a promising future as an underwear model, tries to find a match from among ten city women. On Fox News, Hillary Clinton makes her first appearance on The O’Reilly Factor. Expect contrived drama, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1384 days ago

Upfront, Downscale: Can You Run a Network Without Those Little Chicken Kebabs?

By James Poniewozik

TV’s annual May “upfront” presentations—in which the big broadcast networks announce their fall programming for advertisers—are coming up in two weeks, but word is they’ll be different this year. For starters, there will be less schedule to announce: NBC made its fall presentation early this month, while the writers’ strike aftermath has affected fall development [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1384 days ago

Outsourcing Disney's Teensploitation

By James Poniewozik

I’m on deadline this morning, working on a (thankfully brief) piece about l’affaire Montana for the print Time. In the meantime, and on a related note, you might want to check out this story in Slate. Even as Disney was outraged over Miley Cyrus’ photos on this side of the Pacific, across the waves in [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1384 days ago

The Morning After: Shine On, You Crazy Diamond

By James Poniewozik

Jason Castro performs… from the future! / Frank Micelotta / FOX My reviews of last night’s American Idol, Neil Diamond Night edition, are up at time.com. As you know if you watched, however, all 10 performances were outdone by Paula’s strange episode in the middle of the show, in which she began critiquing Jason Castro’s [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1385 days ago

TV Tonight: Rich, But Such Small Portions

By James Poniewozik

A quick reminder that tonight is The Riches‘ season finale. Or maybe a better term than “finale” is “the last episode they were able to finish, thanks to the strike.” Like AMC’s Breaking Bad, The Riches had its season order arbitrarily cut, to seven episodes. (This is the one episode of season 2 I haven’t [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1385 days ago

The Jimi Hendrix Sexperience

By James Poniewozik

Is it because I’m too busy digging through a week’s worth of mail, in order to see my office floor again, to write an original post? Is it the irrestistable lure of getting Tuned In to show up on Google searches for “Jimi Hendrix sex tape”? Is it part of my business plan to diversify [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1385 days ago

Is Hillary Right About the Debates?

By James Poniewozik

A week before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, the Hillary Clinton campaign is asking for another debate. But this time a different kind of debate: In the spirit of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, we make this proposal: Senator Clinton and Senator Obama will participate in a 90-minute debate in an open public forum. Just the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1385 days ago

The Morning After: Get Your Goat

By James Poniewozik

Harris as Founding Bro. Take that, John Adams! / Sonja Flemming/CBS SPOILER ALERT: Be certain to watch last night’s How I Met Your Mother before reading this post, or I’m pretty sure we’ll be at war with Portugal.

Tuned In
Tuned In+1386 days ago

TV Tonight: The Floating Soap Opera

By James Poniewozik

On duty in the Persian Gulf. / PBS This week, PBS is airing what—if it had run it one hour a week like most networks do—would be called a reality or documentary series, Carrier, about life on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. Instead, airing two hours a night for five nights most places (check local [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1386 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: The Unbearable White-Maleness of News Anchoring

By James Poniewozik

In the current issue of the magazine, my column is about the contrast pointed up by the current election, and by Katie Couric’s reportedly impending departure from CBS News: the presidential field is more diverse than the people—or at least the marquee news anchors and primetime cable hosts—covering it and asking the questions at the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1386 days ago

Did Hannah Jump or Was She Pushed?

By James Poniewozik

In a move that shocked parents and the Disney corporation’s accountants, teen star Miley Cyrus, a.k.a. Hannah Montana, has posed seminude for Vanity Fair’s June issue. In the photo, by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, Cyrus appears bare-backed, with a blanket clutched to her chest. (No actual Montanas were exposed.) In the article—and in Vanity Fair’s [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1386 days ago

BSG Watch: Nobody's Perfect

By James Poniewozik

SCI FI Channel Photo: Carole Segal SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, gather a group of no more than twelve associates and watch Friday’s Battlestar Galactica. If you assume, and it seems pretty hard not to, that Battlestar Galactica was among other things an echo of America after 9/11, then what’s going on now [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1386 days ago

The Morning After: We're Back!

By James Poniewozik

Sergei Bachlakov/ The CW I’m back from hiatus, as is much of the primetime TV schedule. Last night I caught my first episode of Aliens in America in several weeks. The show remains my favorite new sitcom of this season, and the episode—in which the Tolchuks befriend a convicted sex offender (so convicted for sleeping [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1389 days ago

Lostwatch: A Game of Risk

By James Poniewozik

Australia’s the key to the whole game. / ABC SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, take the keyed-access elevator to the penthouse and watch Lost.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1389 days ago

The Morning After, Robo-Edition: Open Topic

By James Poniewozik

This is Robo-James. The Morning After is the thread in which all humans may discuss recent television transmissions in the absence of Flesh James. Suggestions this morning—free for all! NBC’s Thursday night comedies. ABC’s Thursday-night dramedies. Save your comments on Lost, however, as Flesh James has promised to prepare a Lostwatch post, if his meat-body [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1390 days ago

Vacation Robo-Post: What TV Show Should Become a Movie?

By James Poniewozik

A vacation or two ago, I believe I robo-asked you which movie you’d like to see adapted to a TV show; this time I’m reversing it. There’s the reconception movie, in which a series like The Brady Bunch (or the forthcoming Get Smart) gets updated for a new generation. (Actually, I’m not sure Get Smart [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1390 days ago

The Morning After, Robo-Edition: American Idol Elimination

By James Poniewozik

This is Robo-James. The Morning After is the thread in which all humans may discuss recent television transmissions in the absence of Flesh James. Today’s suggestion: The American Idol elimination! Did you experience pain in your primitive emotions? Did you vote? Robo-James suggests that you not bother. Robo-James knows a robot at Diebold who is [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1391 days ago

Vacation Robo-Post: What's Your Make or Break TV Show?

By James Poniewozik

A little explanation: this is not necessarily your favorite TV show. This is the TV show that, for some reaason, connects with you on a deep personal level, the show that gets you—the show, therefore, that you can use as a litmus test in determining your personal relations. If another person does not like this [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1391 days ago

The Morning After, Robo-Edition: American Idol

By James Poniewozik

This is Robo-James. The Morning After is the thread in which all humans may discuss recent television transmissions in the absence of Flesh James. Today’s suggestion: American Idol! Which human’s cacophonous expulsion of air through its flesh-larynx did you find least objectionable? Robo-James believes season has gone downhill since David C. stopped using the vocoder. [...]