Tuned In
Tuned In+Movies | 1354 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: Sex Sex Sex!

By James Poniewozik

In this week’s print Time, I joined in the summer arts preview, which you might recognize as pretty much the summer arts preview that ran on time.com. In addition, I reviewed the Sex and the City movie, filling in for Time movie critic Richard Corliss, who was in Cannes when the review needed to close [...]

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Tuned In+Remembrance | 1354 days ago

Harvey Korman, 1927-2008

By James Poniewozik

Harvey Korman, the comic actor best known for his appearances on The Carol Burnett Show and Mel Brooks’ movies (for instance, as the tightly wound Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles), died yesterday. On the Burnett show, my earliest memory of him, he was one of TV’s all-time great supporting comics, pulling off multiple roles with [...]

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Tuned In+1354 days ago

Lostwatch: We Gotta Get the Band Back Together

By James Poniewozik

…and baby makes six. / MARIO PEREZ/ABC SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, why don’t you watch this very informative video that’ll answer some of your questions, and I’ll take care of some business.

Tuned In
Tuned In+1355 days ago

New Series to Keep Homeland Security Secure from Bad Press

By James Poniewozik

According to the Hollywood Reporter, ABC has a deal to produce an 11-episode series about homeland security agents who patrol airports, shorelines and borders. DHS has to be a little nervous about that, right? After all, the department hasn’t gotten the greatest press in the past few years, and there have been news investigations that [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1355 days ago

Happy Last Lost Day!

By James Poniewozik

Jack goes with his (appendicitis-ravaged) gut. / MARIO PEREZ/ABC I don’t have a discussion topic for you. Except for this one: LostLostLostLostLost! OMG Lost finale I can’t stand it! Anyway, if you’re like me, you need some sort of outlet for your nervous Lost energy today, so consider this a warmup area for tonight, to [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1355 days ago

Why the Web is Better Than Print

By James Poniewozik

A little something I found en route to looking up something else. There’s an article in the print New York Times today headlined Monkeys Think, Moving Artificial Arm as Own Eh. I might read that article, or I might not. The online headline for the same story, though? Monkeys Control Robot Arm With Their Thoughts [...]

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Tuned In+1355 days ago

Broadcast Television, R.I.P.

By James Poniewozik

Last fall, when the TV industry was on the verge of the writers’ strike, there was a lot of debate over whether the strike’s effects on ratings would be fleeting, or if viewers would disappear for good. We may not have a definitive answer yet, but there are definite signs—namely, ratings figures—and they don’t look [...]

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Tuned In+Advertising | 1355 days ago

Dunkin Donuts Saves World from Rachael Ray's Terrorist Paisley Scarf

By James Poniewozik

From the Boston Globe via The Huffington Post comes word that Dunkin Donuts has pulled a commercial starring Rachael Ray over complaints that Ray’s neckwear was hostile to the state of Israel. The ad, in which Ray wears what Dunkin describes as “a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design,” came under fire from conservative [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1355 days ago

Mad Men Sets Return Date

By James Poniewozik

According to AMC’s PR department, today the network is announcing the official premiere date for season 2 of Mad Men: Sunday, July 27 at 10 p.m. E.T. Yes, Mad Men will be on Sundays now, so you can turn it on and pretend that HBO is running original series once again. (Actually, it should make [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1355 days ago

The Morning After: Discovery Home Gets Ready to Die

By James Poniewozik

In six days, Discovery Home ceases to exist, or, to put it more positively, is reborn as Discovery’s enviro-themed Planet Green channel. It’s a little sad. I always had a soft spot for Discovery Home; for one thing, it was the home to the now-defunct Cookin’ in Brooklyn, restaurateur Alan Harding’s offbeat food show based [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1356 days ago

Maureen Ryan Is the Boss of Your Tivo

By James Poniewozik

Have you ever known a TV critic you’ve agreed with? Really agreed with? Agreed with so much that you come to rely on her and hang on her every recommendation? Agreed with so much that you’ve fantasized: “Ah, if only I could have her brain removed from her head and implanted in an electronic device [...]

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Tuned In+News Media | 1356 days ago

You Know You're a Wussy Press Corps When…

By James Poniewozik

…the former White House Press Secretary says you were too easy on him. The upcoming memoir from Scott McClellan is already getting heavy attention for its scathing criticism of a Bush administration that he says was deliberately deceptive and self-deceiving in—among other things—launching the war in Iraq and in mishandling Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. But McClellan [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1356 days ago

Lost Day Minus One: Excess Freight

By James Poniewozik

Happy Day Before Lost Day! Consider this a thread for any theories, thoughts, restless anticipation, etc. , but I thought I’d kick off discussion with a question that’s bugging me as we go forward to the finale: What becomes of the four Freighties? The stories of Daniel, Miles, Charlotte and Frank hardly seem finished, and [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1356 days ago

The Morning After: Summer Programming

By James Poniewozik

I started doing these Morning After posts last fall as a way of dealing with the rush of new programming: it was a way to slap up a quick post for discussion of shows that aired the night before but that I hadn’t had time to write full-fledged posts about. We’re starting the summer now, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1357 days ago

Corporate Press Release Theater: CW's Outsourced Sunday

By James Poniewozik

One more bit of post-upfront fall-schedule news: The CW has announced its Sunday-night lineup, which it contracted out to studio Media Rights Capital. On tap, dirty jobs, family comedy—and a whole lot of product integration:

Tuned In
Tuned In+News Media | 1357 days ago

Pro-Obama Bias Hurting Obama?

By James Poniewozik

While we’re talking about MSNBC, at The New Republic, Obama supporter Isaac Chotiner argues that not only is MSNBC biased toward his candidate, but that that bias has actually harmed Obama: …by mocking Clinton’s decision to stay in the race, Olbermann has only bolstered her argument that “the boys” are trying to push her out. [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1357 days ago

The Best Damn Food Show Period

By James Poniewozik

TRAVEL CHANNEL The other day while writing up last week’s Top Chef, I lamented that the show hadn’t found a way to get Anthony Bourdain on every week. It later occurred to me that I should have mentioned, for those of you who didn’t know, that you can get a more regular fix of Bourdain, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1357 days ago

Keith Olbermann Blows Last Remaining Gasket

By James Poniewozik

So while we were away, Sen. Hillary Clinton apparently made an ill-advised reference to the RFK assassination (and the June timing thereof) by way of explaining her continuing run in the Democratic primary. And apparently Keith Olbermann had a thing or two to say about it: The substance (or lack thereof) of the controversy notwithstanding—big [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1357 days ago

The Morning After: Picking Up Where We Left Off

By James Poniewozik

The long holiday weekend is over, so what better way to ease back into blogging than by posting on the exact same subject I last posted on three days ago? Feel free to post any impressions of the big Memorial Day weekend TV events, HBO’s Recount or A&E’s The Andromeda Strain. Or use this as [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1361 days ago

TV Weekend: Votes 'n' Viruses

By James Poniewozik

Back when I did a column on HBO’s Recount, I thought, and may have made the mistake of saying in public, that I would give the movie a longer review-review when it was about to come out. Well, here we are, it’s the Friday before Memorial Day, I’m finishing up something for the magazine, it’s [...]