Brief spoilers for Sunday’s Boardwalk Empire up next:
Between AMC’s Sunday finales and a large-ish print-magazine piece that I’ve been on deadline for, I didn’t get around to reviewing the very strong Boardwalk Empire …
Tuned InTelevision
Tuned InTelevision
Tuned InTelevision
The Morning After: Event Horizon
If you were wondering if The Event would be around long enough for you to commit to, good news—NBC picked the sci-fi serial up yesterday for a full season, along with Outsourced and Law & Order: Los Angeles. The Event has slumped seriously in the ratings since it debuted, but maybe NBC has decided it has room to grow—and, maybe …
Tuned In
Obama to Appear on Mythbusters, Bolster America's Giant-Mirror Capability
President Obama and Discovery Channel announced today that the chief executive will appear on the Dec. 8 episode of Mythbusters. And surprisingly, the myth being busted has nothing to do with either Islam or Kenyan birth certificates.
On the episode, Obama will ask Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman to test whether it was possible for the …
Tuned InTuned In
Mad Men Watch: Put a Ring on It
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, get out of the pool, turn on the TV in your hotel room and watch last night’s season finale of Mad Men.
We should not be surprised, in retrospect, to find Don Draper’s work and home …
Tuned InUncategorized
Rubicon Watch: I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, pop in an old Meet Me in St. Louis DVD and watch last night’s season finale of Rubicon.
“Do it. Do it.”
With those words, not so much encouraging as defiant, Rubicon ended its first season bringing Will face-to-face with the conspiracy behind the clover messages and the terror attack on …
Tuned InRemembrance
Barbara Billingsley Dies At 94
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is8jEXY1WjI]
Barbara Billingsley, best known as Cleaver family matriarch June in Leave It to Beaver, has died at age 94. Through June Cleaver, Billngsley created one of that handful of TV characters who we’ve come to know not just as people but as symbols of the ideas and social threads of an …
Tuned InUncategorized
Sanity and Qualms: Stewart, Colbert Merging D.C. Rallies
It’s been heavily foreshadowed for a while to anyone watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, but sure enough, on last night’s TDS we learned that Stephen Colbert didn’t get a permit (or “didn’t get a permit”) for his March to Keep Fear Alive counterpoint to Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity. So last night, overseen by the …
Tuned InUncategorized
Dead Tree Alert: Uncommon Law Wife
I’ve been writing a lot in this space lately about the disappointing fall broadcast lineup, and how the networks have all but given up launching challenging shows (particularly dramas), turning that job over to cable. (It’s worth noting, by the way, that however badly Lone Star flamed out, even the most successful of the network’s …
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30 Rock Watch: The Live of the Party
Spoilers for 30 Rock’s live episode coming up. I am typing this post LIVE, with no edits or backspacing to correct typos! You can’t prove that I didn’t!
30 Rock may be about a lot of things—work, politics, gender and race, snack foods—but at its most enjoyable it’s a TV show having fun with the idea of being a TV show. So “Live …
Tuned InNews Media
O'Reilly, View Hosts Throw Down on Set
Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly was a guest on The View today, and brought up the subject of, as he referred to it, “the mosque down here on 9/11.” As you might have guessed, he, Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar had a reasonable and good-natured discussion about sensitivity and civil liberties an angry, bleeped-out shouting match that resulted in …
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Modern Family Watch: Selected Shorts
There’s often less to say about a decently successful episode of a sitcom than a bad one, which is about where I stand on Modern Family’s “Strangers on a Treadmill.” Three of the four storylines hit (the miss being Jay’s quinceanara foul-up, which was pretty much one underdeveloped joke), and maybe the most noteworthy accomplishment of …
Tuned InTV Ratings
Which TV Viewers Should Count?
It’s a common and understandable myth that TV shows stay on the air by getting as many viewers as possible. They don’t. In commercial television, shows stay on the air by making money, something that relates to, but does not correlate directly to, getting as many viewers as possible. If you’re a network that airs commercials, you …
Caprica: Murders, Bombs, Betrayal – and the Slight Whiff of Desperation
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to notice the rather startling shift in tone and intensity of last night’s Caprica. All season long, the show has been trying to find a way to pull in bigger Battlestar Galactica-like ratings, even as some sci-fi pundits have mused that the show isn’t electric enough for their tastes. Now, full …