It’s not TV, it’s TV Barn, now with video!

Dawn Ostroff, the onetime chief programmer at Lifetime, must wish sometimes that she'd stayed in cable. By now she'd probably be in charge of the whole Lifetime empire and come into work every day to overnight ratings that look a...

MSNBC president Phil Griffin spoke with me earlier this week, a few hours after he was promoted to his new post (see my earlier story). Because of what the techies call a "catastrophic failure" of my hard drive (a strange...

In the overall scheme of things, the five-week lag between my profile of Rachel Maddow and the New York Times finally paying attention to her with a nice story today ... isn't really that long to wait. And I know...

Holy smokes, did USA TODAY today bury the lede. Inside a cover story on its Life section about Jay Leno's garage (three airplane hangars, actually) is this killer quote nine paragraphs in: **"I am definitely done next year -- with...

I think these might be the saddest words in the English language: "This is Howie Mandel's first Emmy nomination." This morning's announcement of the 60th Emmy nominees started with the big news but quickly moved on to the conventional. The...

**UPDATE:** Bill Oakley and Ken Keeler are the two writers who did not agree to the deal, say sources not named Nikki. This is an interesting development as up until now I've thought of Oakley and Josh Weinstein, who created...

No sooner did ABC entertainment chief Stephen McPherson open the floor for questions than "Tom Weinerman from the Sarasota Star-Herald Tribune" asked, "There are rumors that ABC is actively courting Jay Leno for 11:30. Is there any truth to those...

Phil Griffin, the smart, amiable longtime NBC news executive who has worked with Keith Olbermann off and on for more than 25 years and is his most outspoken champion in his current incarnation at MSNBC, takes over the whole network...

First, the JibJab — remember them? Take away the clever animation and this is just another dumb Mark Russell/Capitol Steps song parody. But it's really clever animation... JibJab - Time for Some Campaignin' And by the way, if you go...

The lightly distributed cable network owned by the National Football League said goodbye to potentially hundreds and hundreds of new female viewers by taking the safe route and picking Giants play-by-play announcer Bob Papa to call the handful of games...

These similarities between "Mad Men" and "The Sopranos" can get overworked. Sure, both shows were offered to HBO by David Chase. Both were immediately embraced by TV critics (who spent much of the off-season ginning up comparisons between the two)....

There was a TCA party for Fox and FX talent at the Santa Monica Pier last night. I interviewed "Shield" creator Shawn Ryan and various cast members for an upcoming piece. I got an update on "Dollhouse" from its lord...

I spoke with Baltimore broadcasting legend Steve Rouse, who was filling in for Shari Elliker on WBAL today. We talked about last night's Fox party, yesterday's Fox News panel, and how I was outfoxed by a certain music legend. WBAL...

"Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace, who cut short a vacation to pay tribute to Tony Snow on Sunday's show (my tribute to Tony), flew out here to TCA to play straight man on a panel that features "Outfoxed" villain...

Paul Harris had some consoling words for me this morning on WHAS Radio in Louisville, where he's been filling in. We talked about TV press tour and specifically, my light-rail wreck interview with Elvis Costello, which I blogged about earlier....

Yours truly was included in a five-member panel convened by the trade weekly _Broadcasting & Cable_ to talk about the upcoming television season and what each network's prospects are going into the strike-damaged season. The headline of the story, "If...

Great, I come out to the movie capital of North America and where is Jason Sudeikis showing off his new film? Back home, of course. **"The Rocker"** — in which Rainn Wilson (above) plays a drummer from the hair-band era...

The first time I spoke with Tony Snow, he was the newly-minted host of "Fox News Sunday," I was the newly-minted television critic of the Star, and KPHN afternoon host Mike Shanin was kind enough to invite me to stay...

The curator of "Independent Lens" and I had a lively chat this afternoon to discuss some of the films in the just-announced 2008-2009 schedule of TV's best, biggest and most diverse documentary lineup, including "Chicago 10" (pictured), "The Order of...

Today's podcast guest is the television critic of the San Francisco Chronicle and the popularizer of the unofficial motto of the Television Critics Association tour: "Death March with Cocktails." TVBarn_at_TCA_7_11_08.mp3

QUENTIN SCHAFFER, EVP FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS AT HBO: First off, I just want to say I feel every time we get together now, it's like an Agatha Christie mystery. It's wondering who is going to survive the year. Even money,...

Even if I had been given a few days' notice, as opposed to a few hours, that I had been granted an audience with the King, as in Elvis Costello, I'm not sure I would've had any easier time interviewing...

The view from my room ... no one can hear the haters scream. That's how bitchin' the sound system is here at TCA. Seriously, if you missed the last two days of navel-gazing commentary over whether two or more television...

When you leave so abruptly that you have no immediate plans but to live in the town you arrived in just three years earlier, and when, after you leave the building, reporters learn that actually, you'd been doing a great...

I arrived at TCA, the television critics' tour in L.A., just in time to meet one of this fall's TV stars who I think is gonna break out. Meet Georgia. She and 21 of her fellow fighting pit bulls —...

I have in front of me a copy of *The Murrow Boys,* the excellent book by Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson that tells the story of the birth of broadcast journalism, at CBS, in the runup to World War II....

Summer press tour comes with its annual rituals, some good, some not so good. One of these customs is the inevitable column or two about “TCA ain’t what it used to be.” This year we’ve been treated to an especially...

... and yes, I will be going. I leave Wednesday for two weeks in LA to cover the fall previews for cable and network television. I have added a new ticker to the sidebar, exclusively for TCA entries. If someone...

We've been conditioned to think that if you pull something off the web and use it, you're committing some sort of copyright infringement. But increasingly, the law is moving in exactly the opposite direction. Provided you are making a truly...

Chip Franklin and I talked about those shows and some other topics this morning on KOGO Radio in San Diego: KOGO - 7/7/2008 (MP3) **AUDIO'S UP:** I was Paul Harris's guest for the 10 a.m. hour as he filled in...

OK, so it would've been nice if that new retractable roof had been available to the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club this year. Still, at some point during the hour-and-a-half rain delay during the men's singles final at Wimbledon,...

Earlier this week, Paul Harris asked me if I'd like to join him for the 10 o'clock hour Monday morning on KMBZ, our news-talk station. He said he'd be filling in for Darla Jaye, the madwoman of mid-mornings. Well, turns...

When is it NOT a good year for The Shat? Tom O'Neil has done his usual crackerjack job of assembling the Top 10 lists that Emmy judges are currently mulling over before announcing the nominees later this month. More crucially,...

Kansas native Brian Schodorf was one of the very first people with a video camera let into Greensburg, Kansas, following the EF-5 tornado that wiped out 95 percent of the town last year. His documentary, **"Greensburg,"** is airing at 8...

At 9:58 p.m. last night, I got this email: **LIVE! Watch Severe Weather Coverage From KMBC** As Ernest Tubb would put it, thanks a lot. I had been spending the previous two hours getting this view of the severe weather...

Hundreds of fired-up "Jericho" fans with disposable income to spare 'bombarded the Hollywood Reporter mailroom with half a ton of expensive, mail-ordered nuts this week. And then they took out an ad in Variety. You know, I think THR probably...

I've said some nice things already about FSN's coverage of the Kansas City Royals broadcasts this year. I think everything I've mentioned is related to moves FSN made after taking over for the now-defunct RSTN. Coincidence? I think not.

To his credit, Time Warner Cable's Damon Porter spokesmanned up. He didn't sugar-coat the news. As much as I might gripe about having 44 channels taken off my TiVo — and having no access to the dozen new HD channels...

*The New York Times* is giving an early look at Zev Chafets' wonderful, fair-minded, up-to-the-second Sunday Magazine story about Rush Limbaugh, who just signed a career-defining deal with Clear Channel that should pay him $400 million to continue broadcasting through...

George Carlin's been dead more than a week, but I'm still thinking about the fact that we have this ridiculous indecency rule that some weeks it seems like is the FCC's only justification for its continued existence. Well, Paul Harris...

Mother, will you please stop interrupting me, I'm trying to tell you something! No, it's not called American Movie Classics anymore. I think you mean Turner Classics. Listen to me, Mother, I think I'm in great dan-- *** Charlie's Interesting...

Here we are, almost to the All-Star break, and my TiVo still insists that there's a Cardinals game on tonight. OK, maybe in the eastern half of the state, land of mass-produced beer and home to the "Farmer Wants a...

Courtesy of Ramsey Mohsen's tweetblog, I had a look at CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric's "exclusive behind the scenes" YouTube page. *(More compelling is Ramsey's new site, just launched. This downtown video he made is, I must say, stunning...

Hey, I was on WBAL Radio just this morning: WBAL_7-1-2008.mp3 (or subscribe) Now comes word that — probably not for the first time — Baltimore's news-talk blowtorch picked up two of the more prestigious trophies in reporting, named for Keith...

Buried in a recent log entry on Mark Pender's blog — he being the Kansas City native and trumpeter in the Max Weinberg 7 on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" — is this item: I've just achieved a goal of...

Recently, the Police played a sold-out show in our gleaming new Sprint Center arena. The warmup act was Elvis Costello. Think about that. Elvis warming up Sting. I can remember a time when that arrangement would have been absolutely unacceptable....

Late last year, when the writers' strike against the Hollywood studios had just started, I was talking on the record with my friend and WGA member Mark Evanier, of the amazing blog, and this veteran of at least five WGA...

Tireless Tony of TKC spotted that gem on the NBC Action News website. Tony says that he was trying extra hard today to make people angry ... but as usual he just made me laugh and think.

So I was on with Chip Franklin, as I am every Monday morning on San Diego's news-talk blowtorch: Download KOGO-6-30-2008.mp3 (or subscribe) And he asked me afterwards if I had ever seen "Corey vs. Corey," and I said I hadn't...

If you patted yourself on the back for discovering the joys of the CableCard — a device that allows you to watch digital cable without having to stick one more black box above, behind or below your TV set —...

Well, you can't fault one of the most chronicled fan campaigns in history for attempting an encore. I mean, you have to be a little nuts to want to spend your hard-earned money to bring back a TV show nobody...

"Ganja Queen" Fourth of July revelers aren't the only ones setting off fireworks, as an explosive documentary about marijuana and a new ABC Family drama about a pregnant teen also crackle.

Courtesy of Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar, the nicest picture of the Mirror Awards luncheon, as Rory O'Connor and I stood in our far corner of the Rainbow Room while the mucketeys dined behind us. While this was going on, somewhere...

The segment in question Perhaps you've been turning on your internal mute button every time you've heard mention of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and I could hardly blame you. For one thing, it seems like exactly the kind of...

**UPDATED** with more bullet points at the bottom. As the O'Reilly-Olbermann discussion we've been having proves, there are ratings and then there are ratings. And while I freely admit to big misgivings about television's overreliance on younger demographics — especially...

Premiere week may be dead at other networks, but it lives on at CBS, as sort of a reminder of simpler, happier, pre-blood-spatter days at Old Tiffany. Below is the fall schedule, which includes the noteworthy semi-apologetic statement down in...

This couldn't have anything to do with David Cook, could it?

Earlier today I got a press release from a right-wing group trying to link House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to efforts to revive the old FCC Fairness Doctrine. That smelled awfully fishy to me, because -- contrary to the hyperventilations of...

I finally brought my good camera to the Royals game on Tuesday (another win, raising my personal attendance record this season to 5-2). And thus I was able to capture, in all its big-screen glory, the nightly sing-along that plays...

In which a reader accuses a guy who watches TV for a living of being elitist.

At the end of John Heilemann's long, fair-minded and overdue assessment of how Hillary Clinton's star has risen in the past six months, even as her political fortunes have faded, there is this curious attempt to hand out blame for...

*"Factory" on Spike* Whether it winds up a hit or a box-office bust, the “Get Smart” movie has proved one thing to me: I am officially an old guy.

Rob Owen did not come from western Pennsylvania. I didn't see any *Seattle Times* badges in the Rainbow Room. So that left me pretty much the sole attending representative among the non-East Coast-based nominees for the second annual Mirror Awards...

Attended the taping of tonight's "Daily Show," and what a nice way they sent off George Carlin. "I'm getting awfully tired of people we need, leaving us," Jon Stewart said at the end of the show. When he announced Carlin's...

I have a pretty good sense that if "The Wire" had been set in Cleveland — as its creator David Simon was once threatening to do — then that city would've been the setting for "Hard Times at Douglass High,"...

Maybe he really did do too much cocaine and that's why he's not with us anymore. Whatever the reason, I could've done without the loss of George Carlin for a while. For one thing, his last HBO special was not...

Storm Clouds over New York City, 6/22/08 Originally uploaded by adrisbow ...and make of the stormy weather what you want, but I'm not touching that omen with a 10-foot pole. I'm here, as planned, for the second annual Mirror Awards...

Whenever one of these articles goes up about Keith Olbermann, I can always count on hearing from a small but relentless group of people across the country who are just driven crazy by any positive ink that MSNBC might get....

One of the valuable insights in the new book by Rory O'Connor and Aaron Cutler called Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio is how even the most loathsome right-wing talk show host, if he or she is popular, has...

Because I am piling up comments at TWO different websites, I am consolidating the story and comments at the Farewell blog.

You may have read something in the trades last week about trouble on the set of "Sit Down, Shut Up." Fox announced in March it had picked up a new animated TV comedy that features some of the funniest minds...

**Listen to me on WBAL Radio this morning, discussing the backlash to the coverage of Tim Russert's death.** Tim Russert's passing was unwanted and unfortunate, but in at least one respect its timing was impeccable. Russert had his fatal heart...

If you were watching the Ticker this weekend, you may have noticed another prominent passing in the broadcast world: **Charlie Jones,** the longtime voice of the American Football League, died at 77. The obit noted that Charlie had been with...

Mrs. TV Barn and I are heading off, as we have each of the last three years, for the Symphony in the Flint Hills, a lovely day of visiting the rolling prairie with the stocky hilltops of chert that define...

I just put up, for five minutes, a blog post about Keith Olbermann and my Sunday piece about Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. But I took it off in respect to Tim Russert, who died suddenly today while recording "Meet the...

This is odd....someone from the TV Squad website is complaining that NBC has no plans to rerun the first season of "Life," even though everyone reading the piece could easily watch the whole season on Hulu (or, last I checked,...

Time Warner contacted me so I could let everybody know that their Navigator boxes will be running without any problems by the end of the month. Kidding! But it's time to free up some new digital space, and I think...

JUST ADDED: Paul Harris and I talked about the dustup with O'Reilly, the future of televised poker and more. Get the podcast So Bill O'Reilly sent a video crew to a media reform conference in Minneapolis and came back with...

You'd think after doing this website/weblog/blog/content-management-system thing for 9+ years I would have learned a very simple lesson: People who read blogs don't read print stories slapped up on websites. Even if they're written by bloggers. I was reminded again...

After I wrote about KMBC-TV's "breaking news" coverage Tuesday night, John Landsberg of Bottom Line Communications sent along the rest of the story: An embarrassing moment when KMBC news anchor Larry Moore was pranked by a caller claiming to be...

UPDATE: After I wrote this, a reader sent footage of Larry Moore getting "Baba Booey'd" during Tuesday's live coverage. I am one of a breed that's not just dying, it's extinct: television critics who educated themselves in broadcast museums. While...

You'd think the prospect of Barack Obama moving into the White House would have progressive talk radio hosts salivating at a new boomlet in interest in what they have to say. The idea is floating out there, but Air America...

What do Montana and South Dakota have in common, besides their primary dates? This guy. WE tv has taken out a "For Your Consideration" ad in the trades touting "High School Confidential" for the Emmy Awards. We'll see, but as...

That will get better as we go along, I'm sure. But TV Barn is now, after several false starts, officially in the video age. If you're getting too much choppiness, try viewing it at the KansasCity.com video jukebox. Related story:...

The digital TV revolution raises some interesting issues, including some you may not have thought of. Which is why I brought them up this week on the radio. KCUR - Digital TV Pt. 1 - 5/27/2008 KCUR - Digital TV...

My stepfather, Bob Dorn, died this week after a long illness. I met Bob for the first time in the summer of 1974, when he was dating my mom. Over the next 34 years we would not exactly grow close,...

It has been a needlessly bruising week for MSNBC and its most popular anchor, Keith Olbermann. The usual suspects once again screamed about whether it was fair that Olbermann be allowed to attack President Bush on his show. What's different...

For whatever reason, I had to watch "Recount" like the rest of America did — when it aired, because HBO didn't get a screener to me, or it was intercepted and is selling on eBay right now, or something. Anyway,...

This entertaining interview podcast with Paul Shirley -- basketballer, author, cynic, Kansan -- accompanies my review of his book Can I Keep My Jersey? in Sunday's (May 25) Kansas City Star. Paul Shirley - Can I Keep My Jersey author...

KMBC AND KUDL ANNOUNCE CASTING CALL FOR THE NEW SEASON OF ‘THE BACHELOR’ This hit reality show is coming to Overland Park on MAY 28TH to find next season’s stars KANSAS CITY, MO (May 23, 2008) - The search is...

I hear that Certain Readers are a little cranky at picking up the Kansas City Star day after day and having the fresh-scrubbed face of "American Idol" David Cook and/or his fans, friends, family, former teachers and other acolytes stare...

Tell me if you've heard this before. A frontrunner seems virtually assured of victory early in the campaign, only to watch as a cool, confident newcomer steals the mantle away. Desperate to make changes, the new underdog banishes a meddlesome...

Amazing! DialIdol.com, the tracking service that measures busy signals from people who use their special speed-dialing software, is reporting a clear and unambiguous victory for our boy David Cook in "American Idol" final round voting. DialIdol began predicting "Idol" winners...

Niki Caputo Wilson writes: "I am a Ph.D student at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. I am writing my dissertation on 'The Sopranos'; the working title is A Multiperspectival Analysis of Gender and Ethnicity in 'The Sopranos.' A multiperspectival...

I'll be with Walt Bodine today at 10 a.m. Central on KCUR. No doubt we'll get right into David Cook, who looks to seal the deal tonight on "American Idol." We'll talk, too, about what kind of season "Idol" has...

I'll be shoveling copy all week long, so today's shorter blog posting is tantamount to taking a breather. First, I call your attention to the "Barnhart in print" zipper above, where you'll notice not one but two gun-jumping articles about...

My week-in-review piece is up: Kansas City Star | The fall TV previews, such as they were For whatever reason, the following pithy observations were cut from the story: In hindsight, the moguls should have put their negotiating prowess to...

And now for something a little lighter for your weekend enjoyment ... some harmless video chicanery, courtesy of the YouTubers. Freddy Rhoads, a KU student who goes to my church and has helped me with some of my fumbling documentary...

I don't usually dive into the deep end of the political pool, but a longtime reader of mine overheard me saying something on a podcast, probably with Chip Franklin (who's always provoking me to say something I'll regret later), about...

Well, regime change at the Kansas City Star seems to be complete for the next decade or so. By the time Mark Zieman retires as our publisher (he's the one on the left) and Mike Fannin takes his office, you'll...

My wife, Diane Eickhoff, has an op-ed piece in today's Kansas City Star reviewing one of the earlier chapters in American history that remind one that we have, unfortunately, been there and done that. It's about the little-known but hugely...

I always thought that there was something a little off about the whole Jay Leno narrative. You know how it goes: Funniest standup alive turns into atrocious laughmonger, purveyor of Dancing Itos and Jaywalking, pandering to the lowbrow tastes of...

In some ways, it's possible to measure the changes in the television world by what I don't do anymore. I don't go to trade events like NATPE or the Cable Show. I don't save shows to my DVD or TiVo...

Mark Bunker writes: "I don't know what came over me but I went to Ann Coulter's website just now and I spotted something in her bio I thought I'd share. Yes, it's TV related. That's why I'm pestering you. She...

Christian Finnegan is appearing this weekend at the Improv at the Majestic. I interviewed him recently about his pre-television origins; why "Best Week Ever" has a peculiar hold on viewers like me; why Colin Quinn might be the least appreciated...

UPDATE: The "Idol" finalist from Blue Springs will be making various media appearances throughout the day. This three-minute video from Thursday's Fox 4 morning news -- the top rated morning newscast in Kansas City -- shows what happens when you...

Remarkably little buzz seems to have been generated out of the dueling "gets" Sunday morning, Barack Obama appearing on "Meet the Press" and Hillary Clinton on "This Week." In fact, it's possible that when all's said and done, more press...

.....but that didn't stop Kansas City's four big TV stations from scrapping their Thursday night prime time lineups during a sweeps month in order to bring viewers their lookalike wall-to-wall coverage of the big windstorms. Here's the information I have...

Now that the video of Buzz Bissinger has been getting kicked around cyberspace for 48 hours or so, and everyone has had a chance to sleep on it ... what did it all mean? Richard Sandomir of the New York...

Lots of sports bloggers are weighing in this morning about the scene that unfolded Tuesday night on HBO between respected journalist (and author of Friday Night Lights) Buzz Bissinger and respected Deadspin editor Will Leitch. Here's the video. Most of...

Religion is much on the brain these days. As some of you know, a while ago I started editing the "Faith Walk" column that appears every Saturday in our pages. My predecessor, Bill Norton, did an all-call every year and...

It's that time of the month. I'm on with Walt Bodine today. And this time I mean it. Listen live or revisit this post for a link to the podcast. Just before that, I'll be calling in to Shari Elliker...

Carol Felsenthal is a Chicago-based journalist who first contacted me about three years ago, when she was working on a profile of Roger Ebert for Chicago magazine. I was impressed at the resulting piece, which pulled no punches and suggested...

On Friday I joined several other Kansas City Star columnists, including Mike Hendricks (to my right), Vern Barnet (to my left) and John Mark Eberhart (man in black), at an annual columnists panel convened for the AP English students at...

My Tuesday night appearance on Toronto's "The Agenda" is now online. And you get your pick of video or audio. Our panel begins about 15 minutes in. *** It's official: There's a new king of the hill on "American Idol,"...

J. Eggleston, who lives in rural Missouri and watches Kansas City TV stations, has a fascinating guest article in the New York Times "Freakonomics" blog. Over 220 days in 2007, Eggleston and his fifth-grade daughter took down the nightly forecasts...

Going to be on at 10 a.m. today (CT) with Walt Bodine and new cohost Gina Kaufmann (yes, it's a Star-Pitch summit meeting!). You can listen live here, or if iTunes isn't your bag, there are more options on the...

Some pretty good chatter,if I may say so myself, took place today with Shari Elliker of WBAL Radio and Paul Harris of HarrisOnline.com. In fact, I can practically guarantee when you're done listening you won't be saying, "Boy, I wish...

Interesting question came up today on our local newsradio station, KMBZ-AM (980), when I joined anchors Ellen Schenk and E.J. Becker to discuss local boy David Cook's emotional performance on "American Idol." David's very sick brother Adam Cook was in...

Sundance Channel is in town today to help throw a fundraiser for Greentown Greensburg this evening. Come by for quality eat and drink from some of our best local brands and see clips of "The Good Fight," which is a...

I've just watched the terrific "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" segment with Barack Obama talking about his love of basketball. And all I can say is: What the heck was ESPN thinking? Yesterday it was reported that the Worldwide Leader...

There are two ways to look at Wednesday night's debate on ABC. One is to say that George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson were atrocious, that they shamed themselves and their network by devoting all that time to red herrings, making...

Well, I wasn't expecting this: I asked Shari Elliker before our talk this morning on WBAL-AM what was on her mind and she said: David Cook's brother. If you haven't clicked the story on the Ticker, here it is. Adam...

I guess I'd be lying if I said I expected a strong, robust line of reasoning from the opponents to my story advocating Pam Ward as Your Next NFL Network play-by-play voice, but I must say the anti's are really...

Chip Franklin and I found ourselves in sharp ... agreement (surprise!) about the skeevy Dr. Phil paid-exclusivity deal that blew up in old Foghorn Leghorn's face this weekend. Also, Chip congratulated me a week late on the Jayhawks' win. >>...

Change is good, but in the case of this website, change has been overdue. I wasn't doing my part collecting and editing headlines for the TV Barn Ticker, and while Mark J. did an outstanding job — and he has...

So the inevitable has happened and Bryant Gumbel has parted ways with the NFL Network, whose ownership he ripped on his other TV gig, HBO's "Real Sports," one week before calling his first game for the network. WHen Gumbel bit...

It took a while, but the Kansas City Royals have finally entered the 21st century. Our young lineup of future stars is poised to help local fans forget the last bunch of future stars we squandered (Damon, Beltran, Dye, etc.)....

This is one of those moments in the calendar year I simply must stop giving “Independent Lens” dribs and drabs of bite-sized praise and devote an entire column to this feast of documentary wonder.

Daniel Pink is a classmate of mine from Northwestern. I've been looking forward to his newest book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, billed as the first American business book done entirely in manga. As if that weren't genre-twisting enough, Dan's...

The other day I was watching a newscast, I won't say what the call letters of the station I was watching were for Channel 9, but I was in a gym so the TV was on mute but the captions...

What do "Dexter," "30 Rock," an "Independent Lens" film, another "Independent Lens" film, and "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!" have in common? They've all been given broadcasting's most prestigious honor, the annual Peabody Award from the University of Georgia. Here's...

Of all the screeners that have crossed my desk of programs commemorating the upcoming 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., one caught my eye: a VH1 special, "The Night James Brown Saved Boston," airing this weekend...

Interesting ad from my Time Warner monthly promo "magazine" that was mailed to my home. Only one problem: "Survivor" doesn't air in HD. Never has and likely never will. So that's not going to be a very effective way to...

Two series return this week with fresh episodes for their faithful cliques of fans, who have proven twice again that buzz conquers all.

Perhaps The Tribune will update this story as the day goes on, but I am surprised that the sister company of WGN Radio had so little material ready for arguably the greatest broadcaster who ever graced the airwaves of that...

If you're one of the six million faithful who've tuned in to NBC's "Friday Night Lights," it's been quite the roller-coaster ride since the show signed off in early February. First you were told the show almost certainly was NOT...

"Web video can't do captions." Someone said that to me just last week, no doubt echoing an impression that is widely shared among users of web video. Problem is, as we see below, it just isn't true:

There's a signature moment at the end of the first part of “John Adams,” the new miniseries adaptation of David McCullough's bestselling biography that began last Sunday. The year is 1774 and Adams, played by Paul Giamatti, has just given...

Lily Tomlin, in a scene you won't see on HBO. Got the mailing from Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth today. Got the DVDs of "12 Miles of Bad Road" and the letter that reads, in part, Knowing HBO has never...

As I reported in today's Kansas City Star (hey, thanks for the above-the-fold, biz eds!), Newport Television is a going concern — finally. Eleven months after the deal to acquire TV stations in 24 markets was announced, and two months...

Did you miss my recent Q-and-A with Liz Craft and Sarah Fain of the Joss Whedon show "Dollhouse" for some lame reason like you live in Alaska? Well, we've got it on video, thanks to our friends at the Kansas...

UPDATE: It's fixed! That was quick. If you are a TiVo owner and Time Warner Cable Kansas City customer, then you have been having a bad week. First, the channel lineup changes that have been announced for weeks as happening...

We have two major sports museums in Kansas City. One is dedicated to the memory of those countless black athletes who were excluded from Major League Baseball in the first half of the 20th century. The other, just built next...

I've been asked to ask you to please take a few minutes this leisurely Friday and fill out a survey. A survey about blogs. Your name will be entered in a drawing but more importantly, YOU will be helping ME...

Courtesy of friend Tom Roche, this priceless typo from a new profile of TCM host Robert Osborne in the Atlanta Creative Loafing, proud new owner of the Chicago Reader. As Tom said, the writer of this piece (David Lee Simmons)...

Here I am last Thursday, yakking it up with Jack FM's morning man Bryan Truta and plugging my Women's Producers Club series at the liberry:

Here's my story — with links to TV Barn videos — about "High School Confidential," the amazing new eight-part documentary series starting tonight on WEtv. Click on "HIgh School Confidential" in the TV Barn Podcast bar (over there on the...

In case you didn't see this weekend's heavily redacted, utterly lame parody political ad on "SNL," here it is. If I'm in the Obama camp, I've got to be simultaneously pleased that these bits are getting lamer by the week,...

David Hiltbrand of the Philly Inquirer emailed me last week asking for my thoughts about the finale of "The Wire." (Previously on TV Barn, I interviewed David Simon about all the attention the show was getting from journalists this season....

Tonight: “Canterbury's Law” sounds like the name of a '70s show, but from the opening scene it's clear this legal drama is free of the latent sexism that marked the decade of “Police Woman” and “Get Christie Love.” Julianna Margulies,...

I've actually stopped the TiVo to re-watch this promo — something about the big windup key, I think, tickles my fancy — so it was nice to see MSNBC winning a CINE special jury prize for it last week:

The creator of "The Wire" called during a lunch break this week from the post-production facility where he and Ed Burns are finishing their HBO Iraq War miniseries "Generation Kill," currently scheduled to air in July. My call was instigated...

Not sure if it was something I said, but in answer to Julie Turner Ruskin and other readers ... Being a political junky, and a regular watcher of MSNBC, I was glad to have the information you posted in your...

I didn't go to an East Coast prep school. I went to Northwestern and I took Greek my freshman year, in large part, because that's what they wrote the New Testament in. Nonetheless, I find myself in solidarity with many...

Bad lighting, a crowd of zombies behind her, the always unfortunate satellite bounce and a voice that sounds like it's gone into overtime ... I understand what Sen. Clinton was trying to do here. If she's to keep this campaign...

... but don't come here looking for spoilers. I will say, however, that the 90-minute wrapup movie (it kind of felt like that) brings the five-year viewing experience to a most satisfying conclusion, though not without one or two major...

Time Warner Cable continues moving chairs -- a less prosaic way of saying “freeing up bandwidth” -- to create additional space for future bandwidth hogs, namely more HDTV channels.

Since I only read the Romenesko blogs about caffeine and idiots, I missed the item about my pal Roger Catlin, TV critic at the Hartford Courant, being offered a buyout. (I couldn't resist posting this screenshot of his blog, with...

I knew it wouldn't take long for Sarah Fain and Liz Craft, the Pembroke Hill grads who created "Women's Murder Club" for ABC, to find new employment inside the sprawling Twentieth TV complex. Craft and Fain, who have a long-term...

Here it is, your chance to get up close with three women who helping reshape the face of television. Writers Sarah Fain and Liz Craft and filmmaker Sharon Liese -- who put four years into creating a WE documentary series...

The top image is what Greensburg, Kansas, looked like after a F5 tornado wiped out 90 percent of the city's structures. The bottom image is what a Kansas City architecture firm that specializes in "green" design envisions for the future...

When they announced Jon Stewart would host the Academy Awards for the second time in three years, some of us wondered what Jimmy Kimmel had done to so terribly offend ABC. Read the rest at: www.kansascity.com | 02/24/2008 | Second...

On Oscars night Spike TV is airing “Urban Justice,” a 2007 direct-to-video fight-fest starring Steven Seagal as a violent man out for revenge after his son is killed. The once-bankable star hasn't had a movie released in theaters in half...

Those darned kids at the Pitch. One day they're superimposing yours truly into a homoerotic Olan Mills photo, the next day they're springing a Quraishi on Quraishi's boss! Pretty funny, though. Say, has anyone heard from Sam Zeff lately? Who's...

Turns out Kansas City's and Topeka's ABC affiliates won't have to fork over that stupid penalty for airing a bare bottom during "NYPD Blue" — and if you're like me you're asking, "WHICH bare bottom on 'NYPD Blue'?" But let's...

Not using HDTV Eleven years and one month ago, I wrote my first Sunday feature for this newspaper, about an exciting new technology that would soon be sweeping the nation called digital television. Well, DTV is here, but we're still...

More photos (if you dare) As I reported in today's Kansas City Star, ABC's Brian Ross is going behind-the-scenes to examine the somewhat shady and undeniably gruesome work of molding dead bodies into wildly popular museum exhibits. It's a timely...

Winners (top) and losers (bottom) Television and movie writers are expected back at work Wednesday as the three-and-a-half-month work stoppage comes to an end, pending the (likely) ratification of a new three-year deal with the companies that run Hollywood. The...

Of all the reasons that CBS executives gave last summer for reversing their decision to cancel “Jericho,” one they didn't give seems in hindsight the most obvious: strike insurance.

Tonight Dan Verbeck will go to bed at 5 p.m., or try to anyway. He will rise shortly after 11, along with the rest of the third-shifters and any zombies lurking around area graveyards. And then, for the last time,...

UPDATE: Ex-FCC commish Nick Johnson weighs in on my piece in Letters. I mentioned on some radio show or another yesterday — I did four, including a sound bite for "Marketplace" — that in my 11 years on the television...

Last year while I was visiting Chicago, Mo Ryan told me she had tickets to see watch Rick Cleveland, a scribe for “Six Feet Under” and “The West Wing” (he shared the show's only writing Emmy with this guy), workshopping...

(UPDATE: An even worser worst-of-show is at the end of the story.) In a month when unscripted TV is going to rule — whether we like it or not, thanks to the inability of the networks to resolve the three-month-old...

Hosea Chanchez was in town recently. The star of the CW sitcom "The Game" presented an award at the annual Negro Leagues Hall of Fame banquet. Tonight, his show airs its final fresh episode before going into repeats. (As with...

"Jericho" This is one of the freakiest Februarys in memory, and the business about 29 days is the least of it. The orbits of Super Tuesday and Super Sunday are so close that Fox is handing three hours of pre-game...

If it wasn't perfectly obvious from yesterday's dual withdrawals of Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards from the presidential race, it came into frame — literally — last night when Mitt Romney and John McCain were seated next to each other...

See that milk carton over my shoulder? It's a tchotchke from Morgan Spurlock's new movie, "Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?" Photos.

Thanks for the collage, mate! The 14th annual SAG Awards, a ceremony known, if it is known at all, for mimicking the Oscars more than predicting them, lavished doorstops on “The Sopranos” and “30 Rock” while showering hosannas on its...

Thanks sgetgood PARK CITY, UTAH — I don’t think it’s any accident that the films embraced by audiences at this year’s 2008 Sundance Film Festival weren’t the usual quirky comedies and dysfunctional relationship dramas, but rather those formerly humble vessels...

Rear-window view. “Sunshine Cleaning” PARK CITY, UTAH -- An old-timer, by which I mean someone five years older than me, was telling me the other day how the Sundance Film Festival used to be 10 days of nonstop movie premieres...

Waiting to get in to the Hungry Moose on Main St. (courtesy Cheezorg) “Trouble the Water” PARK CITY, UTAH — As anyone who has ever studied Eddie Murphy’s entourage knows, show business can be a family affair. What’s fun about...

“Madame Tutli-Putli” “I Met the Walrus” I've already covered one of the three selections at this year's Sundance Film Festival nominated today for Academy Awards — that would be "La Corona," which I featured in my first (and so far...

We've got snow! (thanks to PATM) A Sundance goer posted her to-view list. PARK CITY, UTAH -- I'd already left O'Shucks bar on Thursday by the time Colin Farrell and his posse got around to crashing it. And Morgan Spurlock...

“Bigger, Stronger, Faster*” For those of you who came here expecting to see some of my exciting videos from Sundance .... well, keep those expectations warm. Video's been shot, but once again I forgot to pack a FireWire cable, and...

When NBC finally gave up on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” its most heavily promoted new show of last season, I heard from two groups of people. One group blamed the network for bailing on Aaron Sorkin's smart and...

"Breaking Bad" (with Bryan Cranston, above) and "Everything's Cool" lead this week's picks.

"The Linguists" "Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)" Well, it's late, I've seen seven feature films (all documentaries) in two days, plus four short films. I haven't seen either of the films being promoted by a picture of a pale white woman breastfeeding...

PARK CITY, UTAH — There is a Sundance Film Festival that is formed in our minds by journalists who always seem to write the same story every year. It is the Sundance that Hollywood flies in for. It’s the one...

No TV critics' tour this January? No problem! For the first time in five years, I've got the time — and the budget — to attend the nation's premiere documentary film festival in Park City, Utah. I'll be posting daily...

On Monday, the creator and executive producer of "The Shield," and member of the Writers Guild of America's negotiating strike team, called to talk about the 11-weeks-on writers' strike. Among the highlights, Ryan knocked down reports that "The Shield's" final...

With the arrival of "American Gladiators" and "American Idol," I think we can safely declare this season of scripted television officially on life support. So, in the meantime, I've chosen some TV-related books and DVDs, just out or coming out,...

There can be no doubt that the most overlooked and underappreciated TV program of 2007 was the HBO Films production "Longford," starring Jim Broadbent as an eccentric but highly conscientious member of the British House of Lords in the 1960s...

Jeff Evans, KCPT's VP of broadcasting and technology, just checked in with me to explain why viewers with no cable have gotten no public television since this time on Friday. "We have a redundant analog transmitter — two tubes," Evans...

Late night TV returned to a new normal Monday, as the last two talk shows shuttered by the ongoing writers' strike resumed production.

So you've heard all these great things about HBO's "The Wire," but you've also heard that you need three weeks on the couch, studying in Zapruder detail the DVDs for the show's first four seasons. That's nonsense. Skip to the...

Paul Harris and I had a lively 17-minute discussion on KMOX today. I recommend you give it a listen. As you may know if you are a reader of strike blogs, there is some question whether Jay Leno should even...

ALSO BY ME: Leno rises to occasion, Huckabee doesn't They all talked about beards. Conan had a beard. So did Dave. Craig Ferguson pasted on a fake one for an opening sketch, then made a joke in his monologue about...

It is a fine line, protesting the site of a TV show whose host belongs to your union and has been vocal in his support of your goals. So, in this freshly-snapped picture from today's rally at NBC Burbank, we...

Long before a strike was announced, TV's Craig Ferguson was booked as a standup comedy act at Kansas City's Uptown Theater. He spoke with me last month about how his gig differs from the one on CBS, and how's it...

Two recent documentaries filmed around here, both airing on national TV this week, shine a light in a couple of little-seen corners of Christianity. Given intimate access to movements that are often associated with intolerance and even bigotry, these filmmakers...

Jim Broadbent in "Longford" In alphabetical order: Al Jazeera English Andy Barker, P.I. (the first five episodes) Bad Blood Chuck Damages Independent Lens Jonestown Kansas to Kandahar Longford Mad Men Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project Sin City Law Torchwood...

1. Writers' strike shuts down the season. The final two months of 2007 saw TV and movie soundstages go dark in Hollywood and New York as 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America declared, "Pencils Down!" The strike immediately...

Nice job there by Oak Hill Capital Partners, the private-equity firm, waiting until Saturday of Christmas weekend to drop this bit of news on Kansas City — Fox 4 is a Fox-owned-and-operated station no longer. Local TV, the station group...

The host of the "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" called in to help promote his standup performance in January in Kansas City. He said it's the first time he's talked to a media type person since the Writers Guild...

(UPDATE: Olbermann story pushed back to Dec. 28.) My postings from NYC are starting to get out of hand. So for the sake of convenience — not to mention self-promotion — here's a handy guide to my 48 hours in...

Steven R. Schirripa — best known as Uncle Junior's model-train-loving handler Bobby Bacala on "The Sopranos" — joined the picket line of the WGA-East for the first time last week, during a sleety snowy day in New York's Times Square,...

Eric Stangel and Justin Stangel, brothers and co-head writers for "Late Show with David Letterman," took time out from being pelted by sleet, snow and rain last week to talk to me at the WGA-East picket outside Viacom headquarters.

(Pictured above: Me and "Late Show" co-head writer Justin Stangel. That's my video camera in the plastic bag, keeping dry. Video will be up later. The strike button was to keep my business card pinned to my coat; nothing else...

After I let Mother Nature have at me most of Thursday morning, I went back to where I was staying, changed clothes, and went to the shiny new New York Times building to meet up with Brian Stelter (above), the...

All I know about Sherrie Brown is what I read in the press release, on the jump. My first thought is that someone from Oklahoma City is coming in to make Channel 9 more competitive in weather. My second thought...

New York City (seen here this morning) looks innocuous enough right now, but the forecast calls for snow and sleet and subfreezing temperatures as another day of picketing for WGA-East writers begins. They — and I — will be at...

Today, the industry publication CableFAX named its 100 movers and shakers of 2007. High atop the list was John Malone, the billionaire who buys and sells cable systems like he's in a fantasy league. Down towards the bottom were CableFAX's...

Maybe if I weren't married to someone who does this very thing I'm about to describe, I'd have a hard time buying it, too, but here's the concept: An historical figure answers questions posed by a present-day interviewer as well...

... but TV critics' tour has been cancelled anyway. More later. Previously: Will strike scuttle press tour?

“Life on Mars,” the brilliant British mystery about a detective who is hit by a car and wakes up in 1973, returns for its second (and final) season with two new episodes beginning at 7 p.m. on BBC America. You...

It's been a rough year for customers of Time Warner Cable, Kansas City's leading cable provider and possibly the leader in TV-related headaches. Time Warner would like to apologize for that, and we would like to accept its apology --...

Last winter I sat in a chilly old movie house with 300 other people and watched one of the most extraordinary documentary films I've ever seen. "Fall from Grace," shot by a KU student, chronicles life inside the Fred Phelps...

This president doesn't hold many televised press conferences, so when he decides to hold one during the day, I like to check in and see if those TV stations that are constantly promoting themselves as Your News Leaders are, well,...

Hear a six-minute clip of Imus' show Monday Don Imus was back on the air Monday, 234 days after he was fired by CBS and MSNBC for his remarks about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. And while much of...

When did I send that email? Here it is — March 2005, nearly three years ago, asking if Frederick Wiseman, the most artful documentarian of our time, was ever going to release his films on DVD. At the time you...

"No one should be under any illusion that Clear Channel's sale of its 35 full-power television stations strikes a blow for de-consolidation," thundered FCC commissioner Michael J. Copps in his dissent to the approval of the sale of those CCTV...

The Rickles renaissance continues with a terrific new documentary, "Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project," which has its television premiere at 7 CT tonight on HBO.

As we have learned from the current writers' strike, making moral choices in a less-than-life-and-death situation is really not as hard as it looks. Yes, it is true that a lot of millionaires are out on the picket lines fighting...

This just in: The NBC late night program "LaterLast Call with Carson Daly" is going to defy the strike and go back into production next week without writers. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Well, actually I've got it narrowed...

Have you heard about the new TV show based on characters in a TV commercial? It's a trick question. There are actually two such shows this fall -- but you probably haven't heard of "Nimrod Nation" until now because it's...

Wow — I have to say I'm glad a few talented people are using their time off to produce videos like this one for the Writers' Guild of America. This video, made at the November 20 rally in Hollywood, is...

The service employees' union — which has taken L.A. by storm in recent years and is considered one of the recent success stories in the labor movement — joined the WGA on the pickets today. Kinda like having Oprah endorse...

“Ours to Give: The Long Legacy of an American Family,” a new 26-minute documentary about the overlooked Long family of Kansas City, is too short -- and that is unfortunately not a compliment.

PODCAST: David Rips on streaming TV shows EXTRA: Interview with Craft and Fain about "Women's Murder Club" and the strike's effect As week two of the Writers Guild of America strike came to a close, spirits remained high among TV...

“Meet the Press,” TV's longest-running public affairs program, is 60 years old this month. But ask its current moderator, Tim Russert, how much has changed since 1947, and he'll tell you of sitting down with one of the show's creators,...

Because You People keep sending me links to this YouTube video, I will post it -- AGAIN. This thing was on the Ticker days ago, folks. I posted it when there were 500 views. Now there are 90,000 on this...

Among the many changes announced in this press release issued Tuesday by Kansas City's NBC affiliate, one is not — and it's the saddest. "Kansas City Live," one of those little-shows-that-could, couldn't survive a change in management and has been...

Kids. One day, it seems, you're wiping their butts for the 4,000th time -- the next day they've joined the strike action against unfair practices by corporate media to deny their daddy of his rightfully earned digital distribution residuals.

You may have read in the trades last week that the big networks want out of January TV critics' tour because of the strike. As they see it, there will be no news for the press if CBS and ABC...

To see a slideshow of Brian Hall's holiday cards, click here.

Either someone reads TV Barn or that was an incredibly obvious joke (OK, it was the latter). But it was the perfect sign to sport at today's Fox rally. I've had a number of interesting talks today with people both...

It was only a matter of time before we saw a flood of unscripted TV show proposals, offering to fill the void left by the sudden shortage in scripts. Behold what arrived moments ago in my fax machine: a proposal...

Last April, as Don Imus's career seemed to be going down in flames, his high-powered friends suddenly fell mute. But Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, from Imus's home port of WFAN Radio, had his back. Russo went on the air and...

Like you, I've been hearing from observers of the writers' strike who have put a pox on both houses. As in: Yes, the producers are being tight with their money, but the writers are too belligerent. Or: Yes, Nick Counter...

Honestly, could the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have found a worse spokesman than Nick Counter (the guy in the interview chair at left)? Read this Q-and-A with James Hibberd, in which Hibberd basically catches him in a...

Thousands of TV and movie script writers put down their keyboards and picked up signs Monday, as the Writers Guild of America staged its first strike since 1988. Casualties followed swiftly: “The Tonight Show” and other late-night talk shows went...

I hope you enjoyed Brian Williams' unsurprisingly terrific turn as host of "Saturday Night Live." (Click above for a taste.) It's the last bit of live, topical entertainment you're going to see for a while. The writers strike began at...

(Above: A short video demo by yours truly.) Two months ago I was standing in a midtown Verizon Wireless store when my friend Greg Maupins said to me, “A TV critic's got to have a cell phone with TV on...

As we await what seems like an inevitable vote by the Writers Guild of America to strike later today, it's worth remembering that more is at stake here than some Hollywood screenwriter's second home. The above video is an entertaining...

WDAF, Fox 4, walked home with seven nine regional Emmys at the ceremonies in St. Louis Oct. 20, but NBC Action News, KMBC-9 and other local stations also one-upped their cross-state rivals, winning important categories all night long. Also, KCUR's...

Democrats in Oregon got a rude awakening this week when they discovered that Comcast had yanked MSNBC from their cable systems. And they're not alone; the home of Keith Olbermann has been vanishing off basic cable grids across the land....

Four years and a hundred makeovers later, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" quietly calls it a series with a finale airing at 8 tonight on Bravo.

This caught my editor Ward Triplett's eye: Garth Brooks is scheduled to appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" next Monday, Nov. 5 — but hold on, he's scheduled to perform the first of nine shows in Kansas City's...

(Above: Season 5 preview.) When we last left the good doctors of FX's sexy-squirmy “Nip/Tuck,” they had moved their plastic surgery practice from L.A. to Miami from Miami to L.A. and were waiting for their first customer to walk through...

OK, I thought it was weird enough for a PBS "Nature" program about the disappearing North American honeybees to be running the exact same day AND HOUR, in some markets, as a "60 Minutes" segment on CBS about the disappearing...

He's not just the host of "The Price Is Right," Drew Carey is the star. And in his own understated way, Cleveland's finest is proving to be the replacement for Bob Barker that many of us hoped he would.

It's always fun to find the new edition of Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh's Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows crammed into your mailbox. It only happens twice a decade, and it may not happen ever again....

First, let's get over the fantasy that "The Daily Show" is not a news program. The nation's TV critics gave it a TCA award for news in 2004, and our decision was controversial then (Andy Heyward, then the head of...

(Above: The gorgeous women keep throwing themselves at Chuck. And he keeps saying no! Click the pic for a two-minute recap of last week's ep.) This was one of those fall premiere seasons when no new network show leaped off...

Reading yesterday's New York Times story on Jerry Seinfeld made me aware of how much practice it takes to be a comedian, to be likable and at the same time be true to yourself — which in the case of...

(Above: KMBC-9's very first "FirstNews," from 1988, wasn't much of a high-stakes affair. KMBC-9 will be joining other Hearst-Argyle stations with its own YouTube space. Official launch, I'm told, is Wednesday.) Last night, if all went according to plan, Kris...

We waited until the 11th hour to declare a winner of this week's competition, but our patience was rewarded as two wonderfully weird letters arrived this afternoon.

Well, at least I never saw it before. While en route to looking up other things (as Sydney J. Harris used to say), I found this rare 60-second "Cops" spoof commercial for burger chain Jack in the Box. Those stores...

(Above: A 10-minute catcher-upper on the season of "Damages." For a slightly less frenetic version, a 12-hour marathon begins at 7 a.m. CT Saturday on FX.) Two years ago, FX took a huge gamble by staging a war drama set...

When it comes to adapting British TV shows for American tastes, there seems to be no middle ground. Either the de-Anglified version is brilliant (“Sanford & Son,” “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” “The Office”) or it stinks (“The Weakest...

I'll have to do it either Thursday or Friday. Right now I'm up to my neck doing this weird "writing" thing.

What was TV Guide thinking? Next week's issue, which has already started to arrive in subscribers' mailboxes, reveals a crucial "Grey's Anatomy" development right on the cover! (Revealed below.)

A funny thing happened en route to season six of “Independent Lens,” the PBS film series that is the largest and most diverse of its kind on American TV. (Above, a 3-minute preview of the upcoming s6, which begins Tuesday...

In a television season filled with everyday superheroes, Samantha Newly may have the most unusual superpower of all: She can completely forget her past.

Two Missouri brothers, who staged their own daring escape from a brutal prison in the 1960s, think the Fox show "Prison Break" bore too strong a resemblance to a Hollywood treatment of their own story, so they sued the network...

We're getting stoked for the season finale of "Mad Men" around here — not that I have to wait a moment longer to watch it, AMC sent me a screener, but I'm putting off watching it as long as possible...

I have no idea if this new TV series — debuting 9 p.m. ET Friday on ABC — bears any resemblance to the popular James Patterson crime novel series with the same name. I tried reading a couple of those...

I'm busy writing myself into next week, and you're busy catching up with all the premieres you DVR'd, so allow me to talk about something not airing until NEXT Tuesday. The PBS documentary series "Independent Lens" kicks off its sixth...

TBS, as baseball fans know, owns the rights to the early preseason rounds of the MLB playoffs. I've even heard a rumor that TBS is carrying the games in high definition, though Time Warner Cable hotly denies that. Oops —...

I wasn't planning on working this weekend. I've enjoyed my week off and planned to do so right up to Monday morning. But when I found myself in Wichita Saturday as the only newspaper journalist in attendance at the Kansas...

On this week's premiere episode of “Wired Science,” Adam Rogers considers the humble chemistry set. Once found in millions of American kids' homes, these kits, with their tiny glass bottles filled with surprisingly dangerous potions, are now mostly found in...

The best and most diverse documentary series on TV returns for a sixth season this fall, and TV Barn got to see the lineup of 34 movies chosen by ITVS and PBS prior to the release of the schedule. Hear...

First of all, the good news for all Kansas City: John Lehr is not attached to "Cavemen."

Yes, I know "TMZ" has been on the air for a while — it took me this long to screw up the courage to tell people I actually like it.

Chip Franklin has shifted coasts, and I now join him at 9 a.m. ET (not 8) on KOGO-AM in beautiful San Diego. Chip has a podcast page but you'll only hear the "See It/Skip It" portion of the broadcast if...

Just one network TV show premieres tonight, but most of your weekend favorites will be returning.

Four new shows, only one of which got my attention out of the gate, debut on the networks tonight.

I think I've diagnosed an ailment in the new season of TV's top medical drama. Hopefully it's a temporary condition. Watch the video. Also, I reviewed tonight's debuts of "Reaper," my favorite new fall network show, and "Cane," not my...

Fox threw an "Eco-Casino Party" last night in Hollywood, "sponsored by Cisco and benefiting Habitat for Humanity, The Nature Conservancy and Earth Share." And here is Kiefer Sutherland, not yet showing the effects of being overserved which would result in...

I talked with the co-host of 'Ebert & Roeper' about his new Starz film hosting gig, his take on the Jesse James film the "thumbs down" controversy and Roger Ebert's absence from the show. Watch the video. Also I wrote...

The fall television season begins tonight, both with a “Bang” and a cha-cha-cha. In addition to the biggest “Dancing with the Stars” yet, two new shows will be sandwiching “Heroes” on NBC and yet another sitcom will joining the CBS...

What a night Mike Riggs had. The Garnett, Kansas, restaurant owner and midlife graduate student had just walked out of a grueling evening class in research methodology, feeling great because his three-person team — which just happened to include Mrs....

If the fall TV season were a movie, we would say it's getting a slow rollout. This week the Fox network jumped the gun on everyone else, using the Emmys to rush out its new shows. The executives at Fox...

Because CBS wouldn't send TV critics advance copies of its most talked-about new show, "Kid Nation," I couldn't review it until now. (I did, however, rave about another reality show with the initials "KN." Read my review.) Watch my video...

The changes Ken Burns was forced to make to his World War II epic only made it better. Watch the video My critical review of "The War" appeared in Sunday's Kansas City Star. Read the piece. And you can also...

Here we look at the blind spot of the new Ken Burns World War II epic: its complete oversight of Latinos who fought in the war, and how it was partially corrected. Watch the video. My critical review of "The...

My weeklong video preview of Ken Burns' 15-hour documentary about World War II continues with a look at the role of race in the war and "The War." View the video here. My critical review of "The War" appeared in...

Ricky Gervais — played here by Steve Carell — took the Emmy for best actor in a comedy. Carell's substitution for the missing Gervais was one of the few genuinely hilarious moments in a three-plus-hour telecast that was one of...

All week long I'll be looking at aspects of the PBS filmmaker's 15-hour documentary in a series of videos. Here's part one. In addition, I wrote a long critical piece on "The War" in the Kansas City Star. View Part...

Today I received yet another email with the patronizing sig line please consider the environment before printing this email Now, I recycle my weight every month in newsprint, paper and cardboard (mostly from press kits), cans, bottles, plastics, batteries, even...

Podcast: Conversation with the creators of "Sin City Law" Even before “The Staircase” came along, I never believed in the clean, compartmentalized justic