Author Archives: Roger Catlin

Saturday TV: Gregg Toland’s Eye, Mick on ‘SNL’

By Roger Catlin | Published: May 18, 2012
The luxurious black and white cinematography of Gregg Toland is featured tonight on Turner Classic Movies, starting with the movie that won him an Oscar, the 1939 “Wuthering Heights” (TCM, 8 p.m.), pictured right. It’s followed by 1940’s “The Long Voyage Home” (TCM, 10 p.m.), Jane Russell in Howard Hughes’ 1943 “The Outlaw” (midnight), John [...]
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Friday TV: Shakespearian Opera, ‘Supernatural’ Finale

By Roger Catlin | Published: May 18, 2012
The great thing about the Met Live in HD series, that brings live broadcasts of opera to 1,700 theaters around the world, is that the performances usually end up on TV a few months later. That’s the case with “The Enchanted Island” a world premiere opera tonight on “Great Performances at the Met” (PBS, 9 [...]
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Donna Summer, 1948-2012

By Roger Catlin | Published: May 18, 2012
There were a lot of disco divas back in the day, but only one disco queen. But more than that, Donna Summer, who died Thursday at age 63, was an artist. Her electronic experiments with Georgio Moroder were nothing less than art rock – but that rare kind that also sold a lot, and helped [...]
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Unjust Ouster on ‘Idol’ Semifinals

By Roger Catlin | Published: May 17, 2012
Of the performances by the three remaining semifinalists on “American Idol” this week, judges had some minor complaints about only two of them – one or two of their three songs each weren’t big enough, or didn’t have enough “wow” moments, or were just OK. With a strong, gospel-fueled soul voice, only Joshua Ledet escaped [...]
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Five Dramas Coming from The CW

By Roger Catlin | Published: May 17, 2012
The CW announced five new dramas for its 2012-2013 schedule Thursday and unlike all the other broadcast networks that preceded them in the week of upfront presentations, no comedies. But The CW has never been big on comedies. The additional shows require a little shuffling with that they’re returning, with “90210” moving to Mondays and [...]
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Thursday TV: Fighting Power and Finales

By Roger Catlin | Published: May 17, 2012
Empowering and inspiring, the Mexican American Studies Program in Tuscon obliterated dropout rates. While nationally, 48 percent of Mexican American students drop out, 98 percent of the program’s students graduated and 85 percent went on to college. Still, in a state where it was becoming legal to detain people based on racial profiling, the program [...]
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VH1′s Sons of ‘Mob Wives’

By Roger Catlin | Published: May 17, 2012
“Mob Wives” is starting to have some payoff on VH1, which announced a programming schedule offering a couple of spinoffs. A spinoff of the New York series will move to the land of Al Capone in “Mob Wives Chicago,” premiering June 10. Then there’s “Big Ang,” which is not an abbreviated version of “The Big [...]
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Just Four New Fall Shows from CBS

By Roger Catlin | Published: May 16, 2012
Touting another successful primetime season, CBS announced just four new series for its fall season, only one of them a comedy, at a time when other networks have been loading up their schedules with sitcoms. It’s keeping 19 of its shows, but moving some around – “2 Broke Girls” to Mondays at 9 p.m., “Two [...]
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Wednesday TV: Koalas and Finales

By Roger Catlin | Published: May 16, 2012
They may make cute stuffed animals, but koalas are mean little things who bark and fight about mating and are now invading the suburbs of Brisbane. With all the males going after the females, it can get awfully noisy. The researchers who are “Cracking the Koala Code” as the title of this special on “Nature” [...]
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Menounos Out on ‘Dancing with Stars’

By Roger Catlin | Published: May 15, 2012
Maria Menounos entered the semifinals results show of “Dancing with the Stars” Tuesday with the highest score of the week including her second perfect 30. But the “Extra” host didn’t earn quite as many votes from viewers, which meant she was cut just before next week’s finals. The show’s mirror ball trophy will go to [...]
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