Sunday TV: The Oscars and All That
With Seth MacFarlane at the helm, so much can go wrong at The 85th Academy Awards (ABC, 8:30 p.m.). But it will survive potty-mouthed gibes from talking teddybears or cartoon…
Falling for a ‘House of Cards’
I became a Netflix subscriber more than a year ago, when I wanted to check out their first original series. "Lillihammer" starred Steven Van Zandt in pretty much the same…
Saturday TV: Independent Spirit Awards and Other Lesser Movies
In the film awards world, I tend to think there's way too much attention paid to the Oscars and not enough to the Film Independent Spirit Awards (IFC, 10 p.m.).…
Jonathan Richman at the 9:30 Club
Jonathan Richman shows are kind of wistful serenades, instructional advisories, mini-Flamenco workouts with spontaneous dance breaks and eventually, welcoming multilingual pleas to join in the party. In fact, Richman may be…
Friday TV: Rockin’ with Sister Rosetta Tharpe
The biggest wedding ever held in Washington D.C. -- bigger than those for any official or cult leader -- was likely one fifty years ago in old Griffith Stadium. There,…
Also On Friday: ‘CSI: NY’ Finale, ‘Out There’
The latest coming of age cartoon, following FX's "Unsupervised" and MTV's periodically revived "Beavis and Butt-head," is "Out There" (IFC, 10:30 p.m.). Based on the rural Nebraska adolescence of creator…
Thursday TV: Another Cable Clip Show
Television is having a tough time keeping up with YouTube when it comes to quick, fastmoving entertainment. So it's tried to co-op it any way it can, thorugh shows like…
‘Sudden Death’ for ‘Idol’ Survivors in Vegas
I know they want to jazz "American Idol" up a little bit in a season of sagging ratings, but who would expect Ryan Seacrest to begin by saying: "THIS is…
Wednesday TV: Katie’s Oscar Special, ‘Idol’ in Vegas, Brit Awards
With Barbara Walters suffering chicken pox, it's time for another former morning anchor to take over the annual Academy Award special. "20/20: Mad About Oscar with Katie Couric" (ABC, 10…
Buddy & Jim at the Birchmere
Buddy Miller is featured prominently on TV these days, but you have to look hard to find him. He produced or co-produced much of the musical songs on "Nashville," and…