Tasked with taking a headline from The New York Times and making a piece of art from it, the Work of Art contestants created some of their best and worst work to date, but the subhead that lingers over this season remains “Is this a vital reality show?” READ FULL STORY »
The Republican debate televised on CNBC on Wednesday night featured eight candidates engaged in an economics-themed tussle that will probably be overshadowed in the media by a Rick Perry gaffe and Herman Cain on the sexual-harassment defense. It took a mere 20 minutes for one of the questioners, Maria Bartiromo, to ask Cain about his extra-economic troubles. There were boos from the Michigan audience when she did, and cheers when the questioning was steered back to the issues. READ FULL STORY »
The 45th Country Music Association Awards have turned into one of the most dependably entertaining awards shows of any sort on television. Wednesday night’s host combination of Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood have become a comfortable comedy team. When they began the evening with jokes about Hank Williams Jr.’s perceived Obama/Hitler comparison — the Fox News appearance that got him punted out of prime-time football — and Hank himself joined them on stage, the trio got a standing ovation of hearty laughs. Herman Cain, take note: That’s one way to defuse a scandal. READ FULL STORY »
This week, Sons of Anarchy addressed some of the aspects of the motorcycle-gang life that have most frequently prevented me from completely buying into this very good series. (And yes, I wrote “gang,” not “club,” the Sons’ preferred-or-we’ll-bash-your-skull-in term.) No coincidence: I thought this week’s SOA, titled “Hands,” was the best episode of a very strong season. READ FULL STORY »
Don’t know if you’ve been following Darrell Hammond as he tours to promote his new book God, If You’re Not Up There, I’m F—ed, but he’s been giving some eye- and ear-opening interviews. The former Saturday Night Live cast member was interviewed yesterday by Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, and had to stop at various moments to collect himself, brought to tears at recounting the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother, his compulsive cutting, and the humane treatment he received from Lorne Michaels and SNL. READ FULL STORY »
The second week of Rock Center with Brian Williams found the news magazine pursuing its mixture of wildly diverse stories, any one of which could have used a lot more time and a lot more reporting. Yet the host undercut his own enterprise by appearing most eager of all to conduct his in-studio interview with Tina Fey. READ FULL STORY »
Imagine my surprise last Friday when I turned on my favorite guilty pleasure — Fox News’ The Five, its five-person, 5 p.m. five-days-a-week replacement for the full-fathom-five insanity of Glenn Beck — and saw little ol’ me getting slammed by the panel. There on screen was the cover of the new Muppetastic Entertainment Weekly alongside a pic of my ugly mug, as one of the Five, Greg Gutfeld, criticized me for my review suggesting that last week’s South Park was slightly weaker than some of its recent, sterling efforts. READ FULL STORY »
The latest AMC project to come down a now-literal track is Hell on Wheels, which premiered Sunday night with a pilot episode that attempted once again to jump-start a revival of that fundamental but faded TV genre, the Western. Alas, this post-Civil War saga, about the railroading of America starring Anson Mount as a vengeful Confederate Man In Black, lacked narrative steam. READ FULL STORY »
This week’s The Good Wife offered up a fine confrontation between two familiar faces: Josh Charles’ Will and Chris Noth’s Peter went toe-to-toe over Alicia a legal dispute. But two other faces brought us bigger smiles this week: Bob Balaban as a punctilious Treasury Department official, and True Blood‘s Carrie Preston as Alicia’s slyly dithering lawyer. READ FULL STORY »
Andy Rooney, who became famous delivering his “A Few Minutes With… ” segments on 60 Minutes, has died. He was 92 years old. Rooney won five Emmy Awards, including a 2003 “Lifetime Achievement” Emmy; his first was for writing the 1968 CBS News documentary Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed.
The most highly visible link to the first generation of TV personalities — he wrote for anchors, reporters, and entertainers — Rooney was a lot more than the “cranky,” “Did you ever notice FILL IN BLANK?” guy that too many people ridiculed. 
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