This is Robo-James. The Morning After is a daily post in which humans can discuss the previous night’s television transmissions. Discuss, humans, discuss! Type on the clumsy keyboard interface with your puny flesh-hands!
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Mad Men Watch: I Went to a Garden Party
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, grab your copy of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and watch last night’s Mad Men.
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Programming Note
OK, I know what you’re thinking: Didn’t Poniewozik just go on vacation? And you’re right, I did, although in my defense, I don’t actually take real vacations, because TV criticism is not a real job.
Normally in August I take off two weeks in a row; this year I had to reschedule one week because of an assignment, which is why I’m …
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Leno Loads Up on Stars, Just in Case
If you talk to people connected with The Jay Leno Show, they’ll tell you the new show will have more comedy and fewer guests, because viewers tune out the interviews in the second half of The Tonight Show. Leno often says that, in this celeb-saturated era, only a handful of guests really draw viewers anyway.
People connected with Conan …
Prince Charles vs. the Architects, Again
All this year Prince Charles has been stepping up his war on modern architecture, a scuffle that started 25 years ago when he forced through changes on the planned addition to the National Gallery in London. This year he managed to squash a modern apartment development from the office of Richard Rogers by writing a letter to the royal …
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The Morning After: Top Chef and Gay Marriage
We’re into the fall-screener time of year, when the growing pile of shows-that-will-be-on-a-month-from-now is taking precedence over stuff-that-is-actually-on-TV-now. (HBO, for instance, just sent six episodes of Bored to Death, the Jason Schwarzman screwball-noir comedy, which after an iffy pilot is getting funnier by the episode.) So …
Top 10 Disappointing Blockbusters
As the summer movie season winds down, TIME takes a look at some of the biggest flops in box-office history.
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…And Now Conan Beats Dave (Among Youngsters) Without Showing Up
The late-night ratings for the week before last showed that a week of David Letterman reruns had beaten Conan O’Brien originals in total viewers, although the Conan originals still won in various categories of younger viewers. Last week, Conan was in reruns and Dave was in originals and… pretty much exactly the same thing happened: …
The Show Must Go On
Last week I posted about the prospect that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art might end its more than 40-year-old weekend film program and why that would be a bad idea. LACMA Director Michael Govan has said that he planned to “suspend” the program in October because it had suffered a budget shortfall of about $1 million over the …
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Hope Davis, on Not Poehler-izing Hillary
Hope Davis as Hillary Clinton, in the upcoming HBO film The Special Relationship, is one of the more inspired casting picks I’ve heard in a while. (The “special relationship,” by the way, is not that between Bill and Hillary—or Bill and any other woman—but Bill and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.) Davis, besides being simply a …
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Who Cares About a Melrose Place Remake?
As the New York Times told us yesterday, only the olds use Twitter. Readers of Tuned In are uniformly young and beautiful, and so you have no idea that, over on Twitter, some of us elderly TV critics—breathing the stench of the grave with every tweet—have been debating how the new CW remake stands up to the original that aired on …
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Whedonverse, BSGverse Continue to Merge
It still seems strange to be writing an item on Dollhouse’s season 2, considering how unlikely the prospect seemed when season 1 ended. But TV Guide has a preview article, including news of yet more crossover to Dollhouse from the exiles of Battlestar Galactica. Joining BSG’s Tahmoh Penikett will be Jamie Bamber (Apollo) and Michael …
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Fox News on Kennedy: Short Shrift, or Right Coverage for Wrong Reasons?
When news of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s death broke this morning, cable news kicked into full coverage mode. CNN brought on Paul Begala and others to remember the Senator’s political career. MSNBC’s Morning Joe had public and personal reminiscences of the politician and his legacy. And Fox & Friends had… a Law & Order: SVU fan who helped …