Let’s Welcome HBO’s ‘The Newsroom’
That Shakespeare! So talky! So much speechifying! Why must Laertes lecture so much? No one will mistake the bard for Aaron Sorkin, the brainy TV writer who gave us “The…
Also on Sunday: MacLaine Honored, Reality ‘Escape’
Once she was Irma La Douce; soon she’ll be grandmama on “Downton Abbey.’ Shirley MacLaine is feted by Meryl Streep on “The AFI Life Achievement Award 2012” (TV Land, 9…
An Emmy for Elmo, Others
Elmo won an Emmy Saturday, as Kevin Clash won best performer in a children’s program for his work on “Sesame Street.” Also at the Daytime Emmy Awards at the Beverly…
Saturday TV: Dillahunt Goes Online, Daytime Emmys
Before he became famous for his comic turns on “Raising Hope,” Garret Dillahunt was a strong all-purpose actor who managed the feat of having two roles in “Deadwood,” among other…
Friday TV: A Mistress and Other Newsmagazines
Rielle Hunter, John Edwards’ mistress, is back in the spotlight promoting a new book, titled "What Really Happened," with a slew of interviews, including one tonight with Chris Cuomo on…
Thursday TV: ‘Reincarnation’ Amid Reruns
All Yeshi Norbu wanted was a normal life. Born in Italy and raised in the West he couldn’t quite cut off ties with his past in Tibet, where his father…
BBC’s ‘Inside Men’ Absorbing Fare
It officially becomes summer tonight, at a time when TV is a forlorn landscape of reality programming and reruns. There's a cool, gripping drama starting tonight, though on BBC America…
Also On Wednesday: New ‘Baby Daddy,’ ‘Futurama’
The first of what will be a few sitcoms about the outlandish idea that men takes care of infants, “Baby Daddy” (ABC Family, 8:30 p.m.), is more directly based on…
Talking Reality Treasures with Beers
Some pretty high-powered TV writers were gathered yesterday for a taped panel on reality television. Damian Holbrook, the TV Guide senior writer; Andy Dehnart, my friend behind the indispensible RealityBlurred.com…
A Response to Redneck TV
My story in the Washington Post on the rise of Redneck and Hillbilly-themed shows on cable has drawn a lengthy response from a reader in Buford, Ga., whose argument may…