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The Toughest Ticket on Broadway Comes to PBS

It’s the toughest ticket on Broadway, but now all of those who want a seat at “Hamilton” can get an inside look at the groundbreaking musical and the journey to bring it to the stage in PBS’s “Hamilton’s America.” A…

Oct 20, 2016

An Inside Look at CNN’s ‘We Will Rise’

First lady Michelle Obama’s efforts to ensure that education of girls is accessible around the world gets in-depth treatment in a new CNN Films documentary whose airings are timed globally to coincide with the International Day of the Girl. It…

Oct 12, 2016

To Play the Game With an Unreachable Perfection: Arnold Palmer, My Dad, My Brother and Me. A Tribute

[Originally Published May 8, 2014] Back in 1961, in his fiftieth year, my dad decided to take up golf. My brother and I were rather surprised. Our dad liked watching baseball and football, but we don’t recall him participating in…

Sep 26, 2016

One of the All-Time Greats Is Retiring After Giving Us a Lifetime of Thrills and Chills – Say It Ain’t So!

This is one of the saddest columns I will ever write. One of my best friends, who has, over the years, talked to me for hours on end, telling me stories filled with wonder and joy and yes, grief too,…

Sep 23, 2016

Ken Burns Takes On the Nazis

It was 1939. The Nazis were ravaging Europe when a young Unitarian minister, Waitstill Sharp, answered a call at his office in Wellesley, Mass., that would change not only the life of his family but the course of history during…

Sep 20, 2016

Why America Made the Wrong Choice in Voting Grace VanderWaal as the Winner of ‘America’s Got Talent’

Grace VanderWaal, who was voted the winner last night in this season’s “America’s Got Talent” competition, is a 12-year-old singing sensation who deserves huge success. But she was the wrong choice to win “America’s Got Talent.” Don’t get me wrong…

Sep 15, 2016

The Success Story That Is Comedy Central’s “South Park” — How Trey Parker and Matt Stone Stayed 8 Years Old for 20 Years

It’s a staggering concept, but Eric Cartman, Kyle Marsh and Stan Broflovski should be 28 by now. Instead, the crudely animated characters that sprang from the imaginations of Trey Parker and Matt Stone are perennially 8 years old — but…

Sep 14, 2016

Kevin James Leads Annual CBS Preview Program

Can’t wait for Kevin? Kevin James, star of the upcoming comedy “Kevin Can Wait,” hosts “CBS Fall Preview” Monday, Sept. 12, a week before his own show premieres on The Eye. James has not toplined a network series since “The…

Sep 11, 2016

Things Get Bubbly at TCA — Broadcast (and Affiliated Cable) Presentations, Part II

It’s not a question that is normally on the minds of anyone participating in the summer TCA press tour. And that question would be this. Who is up for day-drinking some really good, expensive French champagne? Mariah Carey, promoting the…

Aug 19, 2016

Broadcast Nets Showcase Programming at TCA — Part I: ABC, CBS and the CW

The broadcast network portion of the summer Television Critics Association press tour was filled with drama, from Bob Costas taking heat about NBC’s Olympics coverage to CBS Entertainment chief Glenn Geller dealing with controversy over the network’s all-white showrunner slate…

Aug 18, 2016