Tuned In
Tuned In+Remembrance | 1330 days ago

George Carlin, 1937-2008

By James Poniewozik

Though he wasn’t mainly known as a TV personality per se, he is forever known for Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV (a routine which, ironically, was itself cited in a Supreme Court ruling on what you could and couldn’t say on broadcast TV). Putting his civil and linguistic libertarianism at the center [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1333 days ago

TV Weekend: OMG JONAS AGAIN

By James Poniewozik

DISNEY CHANNEL Also in this week’s Time, I have a quick-blurb review of The Jonas Brothers’ Camp Rock, which premieres tonight on Disney Channel: The Jonas Brothers — those three words being all the review the tween audience needs — get a feature that might as well be titled High School Musical 2 II. (Summer [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Movies | 1333 days ago

Myers' Guru Transcends Mere Unfunniness

By James Poniewozik

Except for the fact that Mike Myers was once on SNL, this has no real connection to TV. But A.O. Scott’s review of The Love Guru has a line so good that I cannot let it go unnoted: To say that the movie is not funny is merely to affirm the obvious. The word “unfunny” [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+News Media | 1333 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: The Beltway Vs. The Blogs

By James Poniewozik

My latest Tuned In column in Time arose from some conversations I’d been having lately with colleagues about how much influence new media (blogs, online news, YouTube, etc.) is having in this year’s election coverage as opposed to old media (newspapers, TV news, Time magazine, etc.). This issue has come up in every election since [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1333 days ago

The Morning After: Thursday Replacements

By James Poniewozik

Most of us probably feel summer rerun season less than we used to, what with the amount of original cable programming, So You Think You Can Dance, the wide variety of Internet porn available nowadays, etc. But the regular season makes its absence most deeply felt on Thursday, normally the night of the highest average [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1334 days ago

Strike Watch: The "Fall" "TV" "Schedule"

By James Poniewozik

The talk about a possible Screen Actors’ Guild strike if no contract is reached by the June 30 expiration is turning more serious. Reuters reports that the SAG may vote to authorize a strike if the contract expires, and adds that the networks “are quietly considering a postponement of the traditional September launch of the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1334 days ago

Lost Discussion Group: Wheel of Fortune

By James Poniewozik

So I’ve had a couple weeks to digest the finale now, and I’ve got to be honest with you: I’m not sure I’m liking the frozen donkey wheel. Not the “frozen donkey wheel” in the metaphorical sense, as the code for the surprises in the season finale. I mean the wheel itself, which was in [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1334 days ago

Matthew Perry, the 21st-Century Dabney Coleman

By James Poniewozik

The former Friends star continues his de-Chandlerification, striking a deal to star in a new series from Peter Tolan (Rescue Me). In Showtime’s The End of Steve, Perry will play an afternoon talk-show host in Rochester, New York, who’s foul-mouthed offstage and desperate to get out of town to a bigger city. Plus: Perry deserves [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1334 days ago

The Morning After: Texas Tea

By James Poniewozik

The Thom Beers empire added to its library of blue-collar reality shows (Ice Road Truckers, Deadliest Catch) the new TruTV series Black Gold, about roughnecks drilling for oil. (Which I’m told is worth something nowadays.) I wrote about the show in a column about the blue-collar genre a month ago, but it’s been so long [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1335 days ago

Corporate Press Release Theater: MTM to Turn the Lipstick Jungle on With Her Smile

By James Poniewozik

Ever wonder what it would have been like if Mary Richards had had a daughter, then returned years later to tell her cautionary tales about trying to raise kids while wrangling Ted Baxter? Well, wonder no more! Mary Tyler Moore is returning to TV, with a recurring role on… Lipstick Jungle.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1335 days ago

Michelle Obama on The View: Putting Her Heart on Her Sleeve (or Lack Thereof)

By James Poniewozik

Obama, with Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s assistance, makes the fist bump safe for Middle America. / ABC The Michelle Obama image-enhancement tour kicked seriously into gear today. Facing Internet smears, “baby mama” snarks, “terrorist fist jab” references and opposition attacks that have cast her as basically Angela Davis in a sleeveless dress, the would-be First Lady is [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1335 days ago

Test Pilot: Project Gary

By James Poniewozik

Mohr (left, with King) has quite a Project cut out for him. / Monty Brinton/CBS Test Pilot is a semiregular feature sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next fall’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots can be rewritten, recast and retooled before airing, and the shows that eventually get on the air [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1335 days ago

The Morning After: America Once Had Talent

By James Poniewozik

The first summer it was on the air, NBC’s America’s Got Talent was an amusing diversion. The next, it was a forgettable holdover. Now, it just seems like a cruel, sarcastically named taunt. OK, NBC, we get it—we get it! America does not in fact have talent! Do you need to keep rubbing our noses [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+1336 days ago

TV Tonight: OMG JONAS JONAS JONAS

By James Poniewozik

There is no escape. / ABC/DISNEY CHANNEL All parents of American tween-aged children, unless they are totally uncool and unfair and hate their kids, have seen to it that they have access to Disney Channel On Demand. (The fact that your cable company doesn’t offer it is no excuse! You could have moved! I never [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+News Media | 1336 days ago

Russert: The Backlash to the Backlash Begins

By James Poniewozik

Today’s Romenesko has several links to writers debating whether Tim Russert’s death was overcovered, leading with Slate’s Jack Shafer, who writes: Did the grievers really think Russert was so important, so vital to the nation’s course, and such an elevated human being that he deserved hour upon hour of tribute? I wonder whether any of [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1336 days ago

A Knight's Tale: Fear and Teething at Backyardigans Live

By James Poniewozik

The cast of Tale of the Mighty Knights, sadly overlooked by the Tony Awards. / Nick Jr. Despite having been the father of American children for nearly seven years, I had somehow managed to escape that singular phenomenon known as the adapted-from-a-TV-cartoon stage show. That streak ended when I was offered tickets to take the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1336 days ago

The Morning After: Sex vs. Drugs

By James Poniewozik

Monty Brinton/Showtime Showtime debuted its summer Monday comedy block last night, with Weeds leading into Secret Diary of a Call Girl. I’m curious what you thought, particularly of the British high-priced-hooker comedy. Is it the next Sex and the City? The next Red Shoe Diaries? Or is it not worth the price tag?

Tuned In
Tuned In+1337 days ago

The CBS Evening News with… Keith Olbermann?

By James Poniewozik

The New Yorker has a long and worthwhile profile of MSNBC host Keith Olbermann. (Beauty quote: why did he tell President Bush to “shut the hell up” in a special comment this year? “Because I can’t say, ‘Shut the f___ up,’ that’s why, frankly.”) But the nugget of nuggets is that CBS interviewed him as [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1337 days ago

BSG Watch: …But My City Was Gone

By James Poniewozik

Starbuck realizes that her Viper is trying to tell her something. / SCI FI Channel Photo: Carole Segal SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, hop into your bomb shelter and watch the 2008 finale episode of Battlestar Galactica.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1337 days ago

The Morning After: Tony! Tony! Tony!

By James Poniewozik

Every once in a while there’s some hand-wringing over the future of the Tony Awards as a TV event, because fewer people are watching it. I’ve always wondered why as many people watch it as do. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy a good August: Osage County joke as good as the next guy who’s, [...]