David Bianculli
David Bianculli is a guest host and TV critic on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. A contributor to the show since its inception, he has been a TV critic since 1975.
From 1993 to 2007, Bianculli was a TV critic for the New York Daily News.
Bianculli has written four books: The Platinum Age Of Television: From I Love Lucy to The Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific (2016); Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 2009); Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously (1992); and Dictionary of Teleliteracy (1996).
A professor of TV and film at Rowan University, Bianculli is also the founder and editor of the website, TVWorthWatching.com.
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Critic David Bianculli highlights two new TV dramas: an HBO film starring Al Pacino as Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, and an eight-part BBC America series about a sociopathic killer.
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The HBO miniseries starring Frances McDormand is based on a collection of stories about residents in a small town in Maine. It's about family, friends and the tenuous relationships that make up life.
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Critic David Bianculli remembers watching the original news coverage of Kennedy's assassination — four days of unprecedented television — when he was 10 years old.
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Joss Whedon's new television show, Dollhouse, follows a group of young women and men who have volunteered to have their personalities and memories erased.
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Actor Bryan Cranston recently won the Emmy for outstanding actor in a drama series for his performance in the AMC's Breaking Bad. Cranston plays a high-school chemistry teacher who begins producing crystal meth after being diagnosed with cancer.
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In his new biography, Kirby: King of Comics, TV and comics writer Mark Evanier details the life and career of noted comic artist Jack Kirby, the co-creator of the Marvel Comics characters the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and X-Men.
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Musicians Stew and Heidi Rodewald speak with Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli. They're the founders of a band they call The Negro Problem. Their new Broadway musical, Passing Strange, is an autobiographical look at Stew's journey through music.
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Fresh Air's TV critic David Bianculli discusses the long-term effects of the four-month-long writers' strike, and--more immediately--when we can expect new episodes of our favorite shows to return to the air.
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Henry Winkler plays a doctor on the new CBS sitcom Out of Practice, which premiered last month and can be seen Mondays at 9:30 p.m. Winkler also spent two seasons playing a lawyer on the TV series Arrested Development.
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TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new political mock documentary series, Tanner on Tanner. The four-part political satire was written by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau and directed by Robert Altman. It airs Tuesdays in October on the Sundance Channel.