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Open Mic

Series Presents a Groundbreaking — and Colorful — History of America

It was the Roaring ’20s as no one had ever before seen them — in living, nearly breathing, full-spectrum color. That footage of flappers and good time Charlie-types living it up in an era of newfound affluence and social and…

Jul 27, 2017

TV Documentary Revisits a Notorious Killing Spree

Forty years ago, it was a violent crime spree that not only terrorized the nation’s largest city but riveted the entire country, a murderous rampage by an elusive serial killer who came to be known as “Son of Sam.” Last…

Jul 24, 2017

Filmmaker on the ‘Agony and Ecstasy’ of New HBO Project

A kid from Compton and a Brooklyn boy. Exactly no one could have predicted that these two disparate childhoods in humble circumstances on opposite coasts would breed two of the most innovative men in the music industry — Andre Young…

Jul 7, 2017

Elizabeth Banks, Tracee Ellis Ross, Zoey Deutch and Dan Rather Among Recipients of 2017 Crystal + Lucy Awards

With “Wonder Woman” still lording over everything and everyone else at the box office, the timing could not have been more perfect for Women In Film’s 2017 Crystal + Lucy Awards, which honor femmes in filmmaking and television. But the…

Jun 16, 2017

Defining Television Through Quality Programming

Old TV shows not only don’t die anymore, they are often more appreciated now than they were during their original runs. That axiom came to vivid life with the reunion of the cast of Syfy’s “Battlestar Galactica” on the closing…

Jun 14, 2017

Wrapping Up Television’s Recent Upfront Presentations

Despite the intense focus on new ways of doing business in the digital era, the broadcast networks clearly have a case of Everything Old Is New Again. From reboots of “Roseanne” to “Dynasty,” “Will & Grace” to “S.W.A.T.,” and of…

May 23, 2017

CNN’s ‘Soundtracks’: History Brought to Life Through Music

September 11. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Stonewall riots. Music is a unique lens through which to view these and other highly examined, momentous events that have shaped world history over the past half a century….

Apr 20, 2017

Last Night Was a Surreal Experience in Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin Zone

Tuesday morning, when all that was known publicly was that Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai had pulled their ads from “The O’Reilly Factor,” I spoke to a high ranking executive at a top media agency who asked me not to use his…

Apr 8, 2017

CNN Tackles an ‘Unseen Enemy’

SARS. Zika. Ebola. Bird Flu. These are the names of recent disease pandemics that can inflict not only severe illness and death but also massive amounts of fear. And while it is incredibly difficult to watch the human suffering that…

Apr 7, 2017

‘The Great War’: Producer, Writer and Director Stephen Ives on the Moment When America Came of Age

Thousands upon thousands of women carrying protest signs march down Fifth Avenue in New York City. No, it’s not a scene from the nationwide protests that took place the day after the Trump inauguration in January. This women’s march is…

Apr 3, 2017