http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/ The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning critic blogs at TVWeek.com with wit, humor and strong opinion. en Copyright 2008 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:11:24 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Why is Ralph Nader running for president again? Critics of his bid for the ballot in 2000 complain that all he did was steal votes from Al Gore, and in such a close election, that could have made the decisive http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2008/03/see-ralphie-run.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2008/03/see-ralphie-run.php Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:11:24 -0800 Of all cable and broadcast networks, Turner Classic Movies is the least offensive when it comes to slapping supers all over the screen—promos and logos and “Hi, Mom” and all that other crappy clutter. This is one network that tries http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2008/02/when-good-networks-do-bad-thin.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2008/02/when-good-networks-do-bad-thin.php Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:47:16 -0800 Bad media drives out good; cheap cracks get more attention than serious discussion. “You can’t jump out of a cake on fire every day of the week,” Phil Donahue once said in assessing what he considered the limited staying power http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2008/01/cheap-shots-cheapen-airwaves.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2008/01/cheap-shots-cheapen-airwaves.php Print Edition Sun, 27 Jan 2008 21:00:00 -0800 Marie Osmond seems 50 times more lovable than ever in the wake of her dizzy spell and collapse on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” Monday night. Network executives may be saying “this is why we shouldn’t go live” with such http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/10/faint-praise.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/10/faint-praise.php ABC Dancing With the Stars Wed, 24 Oct 2007 10:21:38 -0800 Sad to say, Americans are becoming so accustomed to bleeped material on television that it's hard to get a decent ruckus raised even if the bleeping is done by virtual government mandate. That's right: When Fox bleeped Sally Field during http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/09/free-speech-not-at-emmys.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/09/free-speech-not-at-emmys.php Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:00:05 -0800 Some people can give a good time merely by having a good time -- or appearing to. Merv Griffin had that ability. He seemed to take tremendous delight in whatever he did, and in doing it well, and those qualities http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/08/merv-griffin-took-delight-in-w.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/08/merv-griffin-took-delight-in-w.php Merv Griffin Print Edition Sun, 19 Aug 2007 21:00:00 -0800 http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/08/the-quality-of-mercy.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/08/the-quality-of-mercy.php Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:26:59 -0800 http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/07/doublebreasted-dave.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/07/doublebreasted-dave.php Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:21:42 -0800 Maybe this has become a common practice – I know it’s been done before – but the latest example seems so graphically a sign of the times, and of the practical realities of business, that it stands out on the http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/07/busy-signal.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/07/busy-signal.php Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:23:15 -0800 That 10 seconds of black that threw everyone for a loop at the end of the “Sopranos” finale on HBO—and had millions of people thinking, “The cable went out”—might have been as much as THREE MINUTES of black if auteur http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/06/ten-seconds-that-shook-the-nat.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/06/ten-seconds-that-shook-the-nat.php Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:33:41 -0800 Hooray, it's over. Boo-hoo, I miss it. "American Idol" has wrapped up another season, its musical numbers now over and its Nielsen numbers down significantly but not catastrophically from last year. But the show is still a phenomenon: Who'd have http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/05/amateur-tv-enough-already.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/05/amateur-tv-enough-already.php Sun, 27 May 2007 21:51:55 -0800 Thanks to those who commented, even those who did it insultingly, but this blog was correct in its original report: Tony Soprano shouted "I GET IT" and not "I DID IT" at the end of last week's Sopranos episode. http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/05/to-our-millions-of-readers.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/05/to-our-millions-of-readers.php Sat, 19 May 2007 13:43:44 -0800 HBO, which had a major embarrassment recently (with prez Chris Albrecht stepping down after a domestic-violence incident in Las Vegas), had a minor but curious one Sunday night, at the conclusion of “The Sopranos” and of “Entourage,” which follows http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/05/i-get-it.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/05/i-get-it.php Mon, 14 May 2007 14:03:37 -0800 When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, as a critic often feels he is, there can still be compensations. This old scribe, having written on many more than one occasion a piece that was all but universally derided http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/04/jack-valenti-a-gentleman-and-a.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/04/jack-valenti-a-gentleman-and-a.php Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:49:06 -0800 A friend has alerted me to a “20 questions” (or maybe 10) interview with Chevy Chase in the current Time magazine by way of plugging Chase’s new book “I’m Chevy Chase, and You’re Not.” Chase, a genuinely talented comic http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/04/cutting-to-the-chase.php http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tom-shales/2007/04/cutting-to-the-chase.php Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:23:08 -0800