While I shiver at my desk and another snowstorm practices on the South before heading up the East Coast, my TV critic brethren are still sitting through hours of TV executive presentations at the TCA press tour. Who has it worse? You be the judge! Over the weekend, the people-who-write-about-TV heard from the remaining cable …
The Morning After: Walk of Shame
As I wrote in my roundup Friday, it was a big weekend for midseason TV debuts, and it was all I could do to keep up. If any Tuned Inlanders caught Bob’s Burgers (for which I’m optimistic, with reservations), Episodes (mixed, but improves as it goes on), Downton Abbey (looks great but have yet to finish) or The Cape (don’t say I didn’t …
Did Extreme Talk Pull The Trigger? Wrong Question
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One of my first reactions to the sickening shooting in Arizona, and to the charge that it resulted from violent imagery from politicians and media figures: the Rally for Sanity is suddenly not looking so wishy-washy and irrelevant for focusing on the tone of politics.
One of my next …
Remembering Anne Francis (1930-2011)
Francis died Sunday, Jan. 2, of pancreatic cancer at a rest home in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was 80.
TV Weekend: Burgers and Sides
This weekend, midseason-debut frenzy kicks into high gear, with several new shows debuting on Sunday alone. I’m on deadline for the print magazine, as well as trying to get some work done in advance before taking some time for personal business next week, so I don’t have time to review any of them at length. But here are some capsule …
TCA Roundup: Oprah Speaks. And Speaks…
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The cable portion of the Television Critics’ Association winter press tour has begun in Los Angeles. As appealing as Southern California—or even the inside of a hotel conference room—sounds from Brooklyn right now, I am not attending, for reasons personal and professional. But here
…
Dead Tree Alert: Citizens Band
My latest column in the print TIME magazine, is a bit of a what-I-did-on-my-winter-vacation essay: trying to figure out how or if I could drive home from Michigan to poorly-plowed Brooklyn after the blizzard, I turned to Twitter to get extreme micronews about the block-by-block situation on the ground. My conclusion? The old insult …
The Hunger Games Reaches Another Milestone: Top 10 Censored Books
This week, the trilogy climbed the American Library Association’s most “challenged” works list. TIME looked at other bowdlerized books.
The Case Against Chasing Scoops
William M. Daley is reportedly going to become the next White House chief of staff. I know that because I just read the report in the New York Times, and have seen “BREAKING” announcements from various outlets on Twitter, and have seen numerous reports to that effect for the last few days.
Now some news organization has bragging rights …
We're Here, We Tear, Get Used to It; or, Let John Boehner Cry in Peace
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“Crying: Acceptable at funerals and the Grand Canyon.” —Ron Swanson, from a coming episode of Parks and Recreation
Memo to pundits, comedians and political reporters who are not quite comedians: Yes, John Boehner cries. A lot. We get it. It made news when the new Speaker of the …
Modern Family Watch: Just Like Riding a Bicycle
“Slow Down Your Neighbors” was a little like a first bicycle ride: it started off shaky, I didn’t expect it to succeed, and yet at some point, without my quite noticing it at the time, it steadied itself and rolled to a satisfying ending. It wasn’t the best of Modern Family episodes by a stretch, and the fairly separate parts didn’t …
(Viral) Video Makes Homeless Man a Radio Star
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Days ago, Ted Williams was another homeless man on the streets of America with a hard luck story. Trained as a radio announcer, he was asking for change at a freeway exit in Columbus, Ohio, with a handmade sign boasting of his golden radio voice. A reporter and videographer for the …
The Winner of the Leno-Letterman War Is… Nightline?
We’re coming up on the first anniversary of the Jaypocalypse, which I know brings up a lot of fond memories for all of us. So The Live Feed has checked in to see where the late-night ratings have settled in after the dust cleared, and it turns out that the leader in the fourth quarter of last year was: Nightline, ABC’s late-night news …