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TVWeek Says Time to Set Your DVRs Again for a Wonderfully Entertaining Courtroom Drama, Made By Otto Preminger. Why Moviegoers, Music Lovers and Design Freaks All Owe A Debt of Gratitude to Preminger

There was a time, when I was in college, when I flirted with the idea of becoming a lawyer. As far back as I can remember I’ve been a person who asks question and more questions and then even more…

Dec 22, 2012

Wildly Funny, But Never Common. Today’s TWeek Highly Recommended Movie on TV: A Romantic Comedy Filled With Deft Sardonic Humor — and a Touch of Clowning Slapstick

Quick — name the best Hollywood directors from the 1930s and 1940s. You’ll likely answer Wyler, Curtiz, Hawks, Capra, Cukor, Stevens, Hitchcock, Ford, Preminger. Some might include Lang and Mamoulian and a few other wonderful directors less well known by…

Dec 21, 2012

Anatomy of Reporting Mass Murder: Why Were We Told So Much Wrong Information During the Live Reporting Last Friday of the Killings in Newtown, Conn.? Should Reporters Have Done a Better Job?

[Updated 12/20/12 at 10:25 am, PT to correct the number of adults killed in Newtown by Adam Lanza on Dec. 14, 2012, not including his shooting himself.] Scott Pelley, the anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News,” who…

Dec 20, 2012

The Sports Move of the Century: The Jets Should Trade Tim Tebow to L.A. … But We Have No Pro Football Team Here in L.A., You Say. Well, Here’s the Plan …

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a column saying how exciting TV watching was each Sunday, thanks to Tim Tebow’s miracle success with the Denver Broncos. But with the hapless New York Jets refusing to play Tebow this season,…

Dec 10, 2012

Hey Jeff, Here’s How You Can Fix CNN, Part 2. This Time the Advice Comes From a Broadcaster in This Guest Commentary

[Note: This guest blog entry is written by Bill Bauman, who addresses his comments to new CNN boss Jeff Zucker. For many years Bauman was the GM of WESH, Hearst Television’s NBC affiliate serving Orlando, Fla. He retired five years…

Dec 7, 2012

Stars Come Out for CNN’s Tribute to Heroes — But the Focus Is on Everyday People Doing Extraordinary Things

It is an awards show where you hear some unusual words coming out of the winners’ mouths, as in, "It’s not about me." And therein lies the spirit of celebrating everyday people who are changing the world in the two-hour…

Dec 4, 2012

Hey Jeff, Here’s How You Can Fix CNN

One of the best analyses I’ve read about the appointment of Jeff Zucker as the new executive in charge of CNN was written by my good friend Brian Lowry. Lowry, Variety’s longtime TV critic, usually nails it, and he did yesterday as…

Nov 30, 2012

Why You’ll Watch Lifetime’s ‘Liz & Dick’ — Though It’s Another Lohan Train Wreck. And the Movie You Really Should Watch Today

Having watched “Liz & Dick” starring Lindsay Lohan (Lifetime, 9 p.m. ET, premiering tonight, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012), I think Los Angeles Times TV critic Mary McNamara gets it exactly right when she says what really works against this telefim…

Nov 25, 2012

Eddie Murphy Gets His Moment in the Spotlight

If you are expecting a Comedy Central-esque roast of Eddie Murphy in sister network Spike TV’s tribute to the comedy legend, you would be mistaken. What you will get in "Eddie Murphy: One Night Only,” airing tonight at 10 p.m….

Nov 14, 2012

The Most Outrageous Experiment Ever Conducted in the Movie Industry. Do Those Working in the Movies Know the Difference Between John Ford and Henry Ford? Should They?

[Note: It was 30 years ago this month that Film Comment magazine published this article, after I had submitted it to the magazine, unsolicited. It had taken me more than six months to conduct this experiment, which I think remains the most outrageous "test"…

Nov 13, 2012