Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1378 days ago

Top Terror Leader Dishes in Web Chat!

By James Poniewozik

OK, this is not exactly TV-related, but it is fascinating nonetheless. Al Qaida’s number 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has posted answers to questions solicited on jihadist websites early this year and last year. Bin Laden’s deputy responded to often-hostile questions on subjects ranging from the killing of Muslim innocents to Al Qaida’s action (or lack thereof) [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1378 days ago

The Morning After: Goodbye, Geraldine Ferrar-bro

By James Poniewozik

If How I Met Your Mother is the Lost of sitcoms, and it is, then there must sometimes be storylines in which the main characters are separated by circumstances. If How I Met Your Mother is the Lost of sitcoms, and it is, then there must sometimes be episodes that mainly serve to set the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1379 days ago

TV Tonight: Party Like It's 1988

By James Poniewozik

There’s been plenty of debate in the political media lately about whether or not this election is likely to be—or already is—a rerun of 1988. (I.e., culture warring, flag burning, Willie Horton ads, etc.) If you want to relive the actual election of ’88 for comparison purposes, you might want to watch PBS’s American Experience: [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1379 days ago

Not All the Bad News is for Katie

By James Poniewozik

There’s been a lot of attention, here and elsewhere, about the poor ratings and dismal prospects of the CBS Evening News and Katie Couric. But before we pin all the problems of TV news on Katie, it’s worth noting that the numbers are bad, and getting worse, for all three networks collectively. Advertising Age surveys [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1379 days ago

Andersen on the Media on Obama

By James Poniewozik

New York magazine columnist Kurt Andersen (who is like me a declared Obama voter) has had some great observations all this election season on the Democratic primary and how it reflects American culture. He has a new column this week about the “elitism” issue, in which he argues, among other points: Certain journalistic stars these [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1379 days ago

The Morning After: HD D.V.M.

By James Poniewozik

My local cable despot, Time Warner, recently added a slew of new high-definition channels to the cable package here in Brooklyn, which means that I’ve been spending more time than usual surfing the higher digits of my cable dial. Let me tell you: until you have watched The Weather Channel in high definition, my friend, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1379 days ago

BSG Watch: All Your Baseship Are Belong to Us

By James Poniewozik

SCI FI Channel Photo: Carole Segal SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, shave your head to indicate your deep emotional turmoil and watch the most recent Battlestar Galactica.

Tuned In
Tuned In+1382 days ago

TV Weekend: Man + Camera Crew + Room Service vs. Wild

By James Poniewozik

Discovery Channel’s Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls returns tonight, continuing season 2, which began airing episodes last fall. The controversy last year, in which it was discovered that Grylls occasionally stayed at resorts and had assistance from the crew accompanying him, did not finish off the show, whose premise is that Grylls travels to [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1382 days ago

My Last Miley Post, I Promise, I Think

By James Poniewozik

Regular commenter shara says lays down some common sense in the previous thread on the Miley Cyrus brouhaha: If the parents of little kids are upset, then that’s their business I guess, but they can’t expect a young woman to not grow up just because they want a kid-friendly icon or role model. She plays [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1382 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: Montana or Molehill?

By James Poniewozik

In this week’s Time, it fell to me to write The Moment—the mini-column that opens the magazine—on Miley Cyrus. Think of it as a last-minute asterisk on her Time 100 entry, written before the Vanity Fair incident, by the frighteningly prescient Donny Osmond (“Miley’s fans are not thinking about the fact that she will grow [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1382 days ago

The Morning After: Step into My Office, Baby

By James Poniewozik

Stanley (Leslie David Baker) steps out from behind his crossword. / NBC Photo: Chris Haston Another strong post-strike episode of The Office, which seems to have rediscovered its balance between comedy and drama, while toning down the zaniness of some of this season’s early episodes and dialing up the humor of awkwardness. The workplace comedy [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1382 days ago

Lostwatch: Ghost Story

By James Poniewozik

So this guy says to his doctor, “Doc, it hurts when I go like this.” / ABC SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, get a prescription for sleeping pills, crack open a beer and watch last night’s Lost.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1383 days ago

First the Dodgers, Now Project Runway

By James Poniewozik

First Project Runway moved from Bravo to Lifetime. I was fine with that. Now comes word (from EW via tvtattle) that Runway is moving from New York City to Los Angeles, at least for a good chunk of season 6. Oh, no they dih-n’t. Oh NO they DIH-n’t. Look, I’m sure they have plenty of [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1383 days ago

Will the Last Person to Watch Television Please Turn Off the Set?

By James Poniewozik

Working on a print piece again, so the blogging may be a bit scanty today too. (Writing about TV, you learn in this job, tends to get in the way of actually watching TV, much less blogging about it.) According to the New York Times, however, this is probably not a big deal, because it [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1383 days ago

Solid as Iraq

By James Poniewozik

You’ll probably be seeing a lot about this anniversary in the news today. But whatever implications it had for national security, our faith in government and the current political situation, let us also not forget how it made possible TV’s greatest extended satire about Iraq, right down to the hubris and the daddy issues:

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1383 days ago

The Morning After: Paula's Damage Control

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers on the American Idol elimination—and the latest on Paulagate—coming up… after the break!