OK, I know I keep lobbying for all award show to have hosts. The hostless years of the Oscars were borderline dreadful.
But after the Golden Globes (shown here), I realize I should have been more specifics. Shows should:
1) Choose a funny host; and
2) Give him or her time to think of something humorous. Read more…
The next couple Sundays will be award-show days.
It will be the Golden Globes (8-11 p.m. ET, CBS) on Jan. 7 and Critics Choice (7-10 p.m., CW) on Jan. 14. We’ll end up hearing a lot aboug “Barbie” (shown here); we’ll also get an idea of movies to catch up on.
The shows do have other things to offer: There’s humor from the hosts – Jo Koy for the Globes, Chelsea Handler for the Critics Choice. The Globes also have a full set of TV categories. Still, the important thing may be telling us which movies to look for, pror to the Academy Award nominations (Jan. 23) and ceremony (March 10). Read more…
For TV, this is the post-strike time when dramas gradually return.
A few arrive soon; NBC has “La Brea” on Jan. 9 and the Chicago shows on Jan. 17. Others will be much later — “Grey’s Anatomy,” March 14;“9-1-1: Lone Star” next fall.
But for viewers in a real hurry, there’s PBS. In one burst Sunday (Jan. 7), it has two season-openers (“Miss Scarlet and the Duke” and “All Creatures Great and Small”) and a series debut (“Funny Woman,” shown here).
As it happens, all three improve as their six-Sunday season advances. “Miss Scarlet” starts quite poorly, then rights itself. “Funny Woman” goes from OK to quite good. “All Creatures” starts at very good … then gets even better. Let’s look: Read more…
It seems logical that we celebrate these two great lives in the same month.
Norman Lear died Dec. 5 at 101; Tommy Smothers died Dec. 26 at 86. Together, they nudged TV into the modern era.
Both were on CBS, the leading network. Both created shows that were younger and sharper. Both battled censors; Smothers (shown here, right, with his brother Dick) lost, Lear won, viewers won.
There’s more to it than that, though. These guys did much more than fight censors and tip windmills; they made shows that were innovative and funny. If you had stripped out every controversial moment, “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” and “All in the Family” would still have been TV gems. Read more…
For TV viewers, the long wait is now ending … slowly. Networks are getting their post-strike seasons in place.
NBC is doing it quite quickly — two comedies (“Extended Family” and “Night Court,” shown here) on Dec. 23, the return of “Transplant” on Dec. 28, then an “America’s Got Talent” spin-off and the “Magnum” finale the next week.
CBS is in less of a hurry; it will start almost everything in the week after it airs the Feb. 11 Super Bowl. Others are in between, with arrivals ranging from early January to mid-March.
Here’s an updated, chronological list, followed by an alphabetical one. Read more…
When “Patton” arrived in 1970, filmgoers were fascinated.
Here was the rare movie biography that captured someone’s real depth. There were parts of Gen. George Patton we could love or hate, envy or pity. He was – like many people, especially those at the top – a complicated human being.
“Patton” was rewarded with seven Academy Awards, including best picture, screenplay (co-written by Francis Coppola) and actor. Now the same thing might happen to “Maestro,” which arrived Wednesday on Netflix, after a brief run in theaters. Read more…
Wrapping up its six-season run, “The Crown” (shown here) showed how good long-form TV can be.
Writer-producr Peter Morgan had already mastered the short take: His Oscar-nominated “The Queen” (2006) was a brilliant visit to a brief, befuddling time after Diana’s death.
Then he took the big sweep: In seven years, six seasons and 60 episodes, he viewed the first 54 years of Elizabeth II’s reign.
The story ended with Charles’ wedding in 2005, with his mom ready for 17 more years. Getting to that point was fascinating, in the six episodes that arrived Thursday (Dec. 14). Read more…
As Christmas nears, networks have made a few additions, subtractions and schedule-flips.
ABC added “The Sound of Music” (shown here) for Dec. 17 and gave it the full Sunday-night landscape, from 7-11 p.m. CW added an extra night of “The Chosen,” nudging “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” to Dec. 22. And the Turner networks (TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies) made several swithes.
With that in mine, here’s an updated round-up for Dec. 14-24. (For general reference, the original list still exists, under “stories.”)
This skips most Christmas episodes of regular shows and (with a few exceptions) reruns of TV movies. For theatrical films, it includes the eternal ones and skips the rest. Also, it barely scratches the vast resources of streaming networks; check your streamer for details. Here we go: Read more…
(This is an updated list, adding the schedule announced – see separate story – by Read more…
When the big networks return to full-budget, scripted shows, the CW will stand fast.
It will have the same sort of shows it (and others) settled for during the strikes. There will be lots a non-fiction, plus Canadian shows (including “Children Ruin Everything,” shown here) and a movie night.
For years, the CW had youthful shows — often high-octane, superhero ones. But 15 months ago, it got a new owner with plans to lower the costs; then the strikes saw all the networks trying that. Read more…
