Nicholas Penny, the recently appointed director of the National Gallery in London, said last week that he wants his museum to move away from blockbuster exhibitions that bring in crowds, but at the cost of going back again and again to names we already know. He wants to focus on shows that bring to light neglected figures like the …
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Dead Tree Alert: Hillary's SNL Strategy
My column in the print TIME this week is pretty much a polished-up version of this earlier post on Hillary and SNL, more or less. (Less, actually: it’s 50% shorter and, therefore, 50% better.) But if you haven’t read it yet—then it’s new to you!
You always risk sounding a little ridiculous writing about things like Tina Fey’s sketch …
More on the Guggenheim Job Search
In today’s New York Sun, Kate Taylor has a round up of the most-mentioned candidates to succeed Tom Krens at the Guggenheim. As I mentioned yesterday, LACMA’s Michael Govan is much mentioned among the mentioners. And Ann Philbin, director of the Hammer In L.A., who I thought I was being original in suggesting for “the short list”, …
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Scrubs: The JAG of 2008
Scant hours after the news that quarterlife would move from NBC to Bravo (and that, scant hours after the news that NBC canceled quarterlife) comes word that Scrubs is being saved–by moving to ABC. It’s still rare for a show to migrate among major networks: JAG went from NBC to CBS, and long before, Taxi picked up extra life by going …
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The Morning After: Idol Free to Defile Beatles!
It’s funny; the other night Mrs. Tuned In and I were watching ’70s night on American Idol and saying how cool it would be if someone picked a Todd Rundgren or Carole King song. We had to wait for the elimination-night medley, but we got both I Saw the Light and The Earth Move.
And then the bloodletting began. Beware! Spoilage lieth …
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Lostwatch: Groundhog Day on Christmas Eve
A changed Desmond arrives on Not Penny’s Boat. / ABC: MARIO PEREZ
SPOILER ALERT: Before read this post, set your device to 2.342, set the oscillator to 11 Hz, and watch last night’s Lost.
How badly is my mind blown? There’s a little rivulet of blood running out of my nose. Excuse me. I need to call my constant.
OK. When I take notes …
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Housekeeping: When Do You Like Your Lostwatch?
A quick question to anyone here reading the blog at this hour: are you checking Tuned In wondering when the hell I’m going to post Lostwatch? Because here’s the thing, I already wrote it. Sometimes I write it up as soon as I watch, sometimes the next morning. But even when I write it immediately after the show, I generally schedule it to …
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quarterlife Day Continues! It's Off to Bravo
So there was this show, quarterlife. It started as a pilot on ABC. Then it got made on the Web. Then NBC bought it. Then it aired it, Tuesday night, and 3.1 million people watched. Then it got canceled. And now comes word that NBC’s corporate sibling Bravo is picking up up the series instead.
I’m looking on my watch… that was, like …
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quarterlife canceled after onesixthofitsrun
That was quick. After pulling just over 3 million viewers in its initial runs, quarterlife is no more at NBC. The network pulled it after just one of the six episodes ordered, tying it with Emily’s Reasons Why Not as the shortest-lived network series ever.
Producer Marshall Herskovitz quickly issued a statement vowing to carry on:
I am
…
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quarterlife and What the Strike Did(n't) for TV
I’ve heard a lot of excuses for failed TV series in my day as a critic. Usually they involve blaming the network, which is a good move because, hey, even people who love TV hate networks! The network didn’t promote us enough. They gave us a crappy time slot. They moved us to too many different time slots. They watered down our ideas. …
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William F. Buckley
I was on deadline most of the day yesterday, so I didn’t get around to noting the passing of Buckley, who–as Richard Corliss writes here–was as important a TV figure as he was a political and publishing one. Buckley was both a living anachronism and a man ahead of his time, as Richard points out; he exuded an old-fashioned WASPishness …
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The Morning After: I Was a Willow Last Night in My Dream
Smithson goes crazy on Crazy on You. / Frank Micelotta / Getty for Fox
I was the youngest child in my family, with siblings nine to fourteen years older than me. (Yes, I was an accident.) What happens when you grow up with older sibs is that you end up having the pop cultural references of someone much older. I think I’ve mentioned …
Tom Krens Leaves the Guggenheim
Tom Krens, the man behind the McGuggenheim, the museum as global franchise, is moving on. The Guggenheim board announced yesterday that Krens would retire later this year as director of the Guggenheim Foundation, a title he took on three years ago after he stepped aside as director of the museum. That job then went to Lisa Dennison, …