Once Keith Olbermann worked for MSNBC. Then he left amid a feud with his bosses. Then he signed up to remake Current TV’s news operation. Then he got embroiled in a feud with his bosses (despite ostensibly being one of them). Now, eight months and change later, late on a Friday afternoon Current announced that Olbermann is leaving the …
Dead Tree Alert: Veep, Women in Power and Game of Thrones’ Clash of Queens
In the current print edition of TIME magazine, my new column (subscription required) is about how–while women candidates may not be as prominent in 2012 as in 2008–TV has become chock-full of women exercising political power. I …
Talking TV on the Radio: Primetime and the Recession (and/or Recovery)
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post here about how, whatever signs of economic rebound are going on in the actual economy, TV shows were still talking about economic bad times and probably will be for a while. Kurt Andersen, a …
Did American Idol Trade More Talent for Less Excitement?
I haven’t been doing week-by-week writeups of American Idol performances this season, which I thought might give me the perspective to see the forest of the season without getting lost in the trees of the individual song …
Hummus-Aisle Intifada! The Daily Show Comes to My Neighborhood
Ah, those cut-ups at The Daily Show! They’re so delightful and on target–when they’re mocking and ridiculing people who are not you, who do things that you don’t do, and believe things that you do not personally believe! But is Jon Stewart’s satire as funny-because-it’s-true when it comes to your own neighborhood?
A confession: I am …
Jimmy Kimmel to Host, and Hopefully Roast, Emmys
One of my favorite part of upfronts week in recent years has been Jimmy Kimmel‘s monologue at the annual ABC fall-season presentation, in which he roasts celebrities (on Charlie Sheen’s comeback: “Tiger Woods must feel like a …
Mad Men‘s Return: Surprise!
NOTE: Because AMC is not sending out advance screeners of Mad Men this season, I won’t be doing postairing reviews of each episode — the show needs time to be reviewed right, and I’m too often on deadline for magazine pieces …
TV Weekend: Mad Men Returns, A Nation’s DVRs Feel the Strain
Once upon a time, Sunday was a nice evening to relax and take in a good show or two before the work week began. Now it’s more like a job in itself, even if you don’t watch TV for a living.
Geraldo Rivera Opens Hoodie, Inserts Foot in Mouth
So there’s a heartbreaking, controversial public story and Geraldo Rivera made a stupid, insensitive comment about it. Which is good reason not to write about it; it’s dog bites man. Rivera doesn’t deserve the attention for saying, as he did on Fox and Friends today, that Trayvon Martin’s hoodie “is as much responsible for Trayvon …
Smash Gets an Encore. Its Creator Doesn’t. Can the Show Change Its Tune?
I would not have been surprised to hear that NBC musical Smash had been picked up for a second season; it’s ratings have not been great, but in NBC-land “not great” is cause for a tickertape parade these days. I also would not …
The Morning After: Handyman Special
The “hangout comedy” is becoming a common enough fixture on TV these days that we should probably come up with a working definition of it. Broadly speaking, I think of it as a laid-back comedy about adult friendships—sometimes …
Did I Just Say That Out Loud? Romney Adviser’s Unerasable Etch-a-Sketch Comment
The Mitt Romney presidential campaign has been unusually full of sitcom analogies this election season. Earlier, Romney compared opponent Newt Gingrich to Lucy in the candy factory from I Love Lucy, and characterized Gingrich as “zany,” a la a sitcom neighbor. In a recent debate, Romney alluded to the wisdom of Seinfeld’s George …
New Girl Gets It Together
Since having the best comedy pilot of the fall season, New Girl has been one of those shows that I’ve liked… but. But Jess was irritating. But the show was too forcefully trying to make us love Zooey Deschanel’s naif cuteness. …