The Occupy Wall Street movement did not give advance notice to network-TV development executives. So it was probably coincidence, or the work of the zeitgeist, that put on the air this fall shows like Revenge and 2 Broke Girls, …
TV Tonight: Portlandia Returns… And They Have a Plan!
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Tonight on IFC, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein’s artisanal small-batch sketch comedy, Portlandia, …
TCA Roundup: Critics Migrate Back to Pasadena, Romney Battles Big Bird
The Television Critics Association press tour got under way in Pasadena yesterday, kicking off nearly two weeks of presentations from broadcast and cable networks about their upcoming midseason shows. I’m not going this year—what? and leave Brooklyn in January?—but I’ll be reblogging highlights from the coverage of my various …
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before: Olbermann At Odds With His Network
It seems like barely a year ago, because it was, that Keith Olbermann left MSNBC after a series of feuds with management involving everything from political donations to behind-the-scenes personality clashes. Olbermann quickly …
BREAKING: Donald Trump Announces… Celebrity Apprentice Cast
I know that the NBC publicity department exists to draw attention for NBC’s shows, not for Donald Trump’s political aspirations. I know that the fact that NBC announced the cast of the next Celebrity Apprentice, debuting next …
Standing 8 Count: Romney Squeaker Tests the Media’s Math Skills
Eight people in Iowa are the most important figures in American politics this morning, and I don’t mean the ones who are running for President. The eight folks who provided Mitt Romney’s margin of victory in the Iowa caucus—apparently in somewhere Clinton County (above)—may not have settled the Republican race, but they made for a …
Work It: Say No to the Dress
You do not need me to tell you that Work It, ABC’s new sitcom in which two unemployed, burly men squeeze themselves into women’s clothing to get jobs as pharmaceutical representatives, is a dumb TV show. The question is: is it …
Vacation Robo-Post: What TV Are You Looking Forward to in 2012?
Speaking of vacation binge-viewing–I’m writing this in advance to auto-post while I’m away, so just take my word for it that I recently put up a post on vacation binge-viewing–my holidays are a time when I’m consuming a lot of midseason TV along with my egg nog. Around this time last year, I was about to screen the full season of FX’s …
Vacation Robo-Post: Your Vacation Binge Viewing
More and more often, when I’m talking to someone about a TV show I follow–which I do a lot, because I am very boring and have little other frame of reference–they’ll say that they haven’t watched it yet, but are soon going to …
Vacation Robo-Post: The Worst TV Shows of 2011
At the end of the year, we pause to honor the accomplishments of the creative, talented individuals whose efforts fill our calendar with thrills and laughter. Which gets pretty boring after a while! So let’s end 2011 by …
Vacation Robo-Post: The 2011 Cincy Awards
Two years ago at Tuned In, I invented a new kind of TV award, or perhaps “award.” Like a lot of critics, I always list the best shows of the year, and the worst. But that inevitably leaves out a certain, often more …
Programming Note: Dashing Through the Snow Edition
It’s that time of year, when the Tuned In family overpacks the Tuned Inmobile, heads out to the Tuned In homeland in Michigan, and prays that a blizzard does not immobilize New York City again just before we return. I’ll be away …
American Horror Story Finale: They Really Are a Screa-um, the Harmon Family!
Spoilers for the season finale of American Horror Story below:
If there is one thing I would not have predicted of American Horror Story when it began, it was that it would end up the season so straightforward and sensible. …