I’ve always worried that something was missing from my small-town education.
Now I know: Our teachers never told us about the Revolutionary War’s airport battles.
Donald Trump did. Reading his 4th of July address from a Teleprompter, he praised our revolutionary soldiers: “Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over airports.” Read more…
The first things you notice about Canada are the gas prices.
Signs list them as low as $1.05 a gallon. There must be a catch
.There is, actually. Canadians (two typical ones are shown here) use teeny gallons – ones so small that you almost need four of them to make a real gallon. Read more…
You might remember cowboys.
They used to be big in the movies. And on TV. And, perhaps, in our daydreams.
“Bonanza” ran 14 seasons; “Gunsmoke” ran 20, a record for a drama. In the fall of 1959, the three networks had 23 cowboy shows, from Bret Maverick and Bat Masterson to “Have Gun, Will Travel.”
And now? There are just two major ones, both confined to cable, and they’re at turning points: Read more…
He had the loudest voice, the bulkiest body, the most relentless mind.
It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that Roger Ailes dominated television … then dominated American life.
Now a powerhouse Showtime mini-series — “The Loudest Voice” – captures that. Russell Crowe vividly depicts the late Ailes as a man of volume and venom and (when needed) subtlety. Read more…
If memory serves, TV is supposed to have summer doldrums.
Or not. On Tuesday (June 18), there’s a surprising burst of great moments. Read more…
The trouble with English cops – at least, the TV ones – is they’re so unrelentingly cooperative.
They work together, pay attention, stay flexible. That’s fine for some things – solving crimes, for instance – but not for making an American-style cop show
.Fortunately, “Endeavour” — the mystery series on PBS’ “Masterpiece” — has figured that out. The new season, which starts Sunday (June 16), stirs things up. Read more…
The Tony telecast had been on for, maybe, three seconds when James Corden reminded us why we were watching.Yes, TV is in a new golden age. Still, nothing matches the explosive fun of live entertainment.Corden managed to say this in full-scale song-and-dance. He had another number, mid-show, that again proved there are an awful lot of clever lyricists out there. Let’s start there: Read more…
As “Krypton” opens its second season, two reactions emerge — “wow!!” and “whaaa…?”
The first is a good thing. This series is visually impressive, giving us all the sci-fi splendor we expect from DC (which produced this) or Marvel.
The other is not as good. At times, “Krypton” simply tries too hard. It loads us up with time-travel and multiple dimensions … so many that we feel like we need an Encyclopedia of Geek to understand it all.. Read more…
On Sunday (June 9), James Corden will be back where he belongs – hosting the Tony Awards
.He did it in 2016, on one of the most memorable nights in TV history. But let me back up for a minute: Read more…
In “Saving Private Ryan” (shown here), D-Day filled 21 minutes; in “The Longest Day,” it filled three hours.Still, these movies – separated by 36 years and huge leaps in cinema – had the same effect: They showed the horror and triumph of the day that marked the beginning of the end of Europe’s nightmare.As Thursday’s milestone — the 75th anniversary of D-Day – nears, we can see both on cable. Here’s a sampling: Read more…
