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Comedy

“The Office” and “Two and a Half Men”: I wish I knew how to quit you

One of the most difficult decisions to make as a TV viewer is knowing when to say farewell to a series you have been faithful to over the years. I’ve already said my goodbyes to 30 Rock, and I’m very close to pulling the plug on The Office and Two and a Half Men. Severing ties with a sitcom or drama you were at one time very attached to is never easy, and it’s something I don’t take lightly. In fact, to a fault, I probably stick around much longer than I probably should. I try to convince myself that […]

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Commentary

Media responsible for anointing, crucifying Tim Tebow

Can we please call a timeout on all of the Tim Tebow coverage?  Seriously, has there ever been a more over-publicized figure in all of sports? Many people love him, many people hate him; but the one thing we know is that the media really loves to cover him. Controversy sells, and Tebow certainly brings that to the table. What makes him different from almost every other athlete who is covered ad nauseam on ESPN and every other medium, though, is that he really did nothing wrong to warrant this amount of good or bad coverage. He didn’t drink and drive; he […]

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Commentary

Rosie O’Donnell’s canceled show on OWN reignites Trump feud

Just when you thought the greatest feud ever witnessed on television was long over, Donald Trump jump-started it today by gleefully pouncing on the news that Rosie O’Donnell’s daily talk show on OWN was being canceled by Oprah Winfrey. The Rosie Show seemed doomed from the start when it debuted less than a year ago to 500,000 viewers — a far cry from the huge ratings she used to get with her previously syndicated show. Despite a complete overhaul with a more intimate set, the number of viewers plunged by more than half before Winfrey had no choice but to […]

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Commentary

AMC’s “The Godfather” 40-year celebration got us thinking

It’s almost hard to believe. Four decades have passed since Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather first hit screens, and people are still talking — and writing — about it. The film is being released into select theaters again for its 40th anniversary, but this week, AMC has been celebrating early, airing the films in the trilogy, and this Saturday will air the “chronological” edit of the Corleone family saga, with the three films reconfigured to tell the whole story in one sweeping presentation. Stacey, we’ve had a lot of conversations about The Godfather films, as well […]

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Commentary

U.S. vs. British TV: Jason Isaacs and Joanne Froggatt discuss

It’s a common discussion in my world. People get started discussing the quality of British television based on what they see on PBS, and pretty soon comparisons are being bandied about between Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Downton Abbey, trying to make the case for one being better than the other. (I’ll leave it up to you to determine which.) It’s true that PBS imports a lot of good stuff for us over here, and that by now most avid television viewers have at least some idea that quite a few of the more innovative shows we’ve enjoyed here […]

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Awards Shows

“Red State” leads Movieguide’s list of Most “Unbearable” Movies of 2011

Those radical Hollywood elites were at it again in full force in 2011! At least, that’s the takeaway I got from an email I received yesterday on behalf of Movieguide®, a publication of Good News Communications, Inc. and the Christian Film & Television Commission ministry. In the email, the publication announced its picks for the worst movies of 2011, including a list of the 20 Most Unbearable Movies of 2011, also known as the Rotten Banana Awards. What set this list apart to me was the interesting — and, in some cases, very detailed — names of the Rotten Banana […]

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Commentary

ESPN makes right call in benching Ron Jaworski on “Monday Night Football”

Click here to get a FREE printable 2012 NFL TV Schedule! I really enjoyed watching Ron Jaworski when he played quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. I have always appreciated his in-depth film breakdown and expert commentary on various ESPN studio shows. But I couldn’t stand him on Monday Night Football, and I couldn’t be happier that he has been removed from the broadcast. There’s no analyst in the industry who can break down film like “Jaws.” He has this rare ability to address the football expert and novice simultaneously without speaking up to one or talking down to the other. […]

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Commentary

As Barbara Walters names her 10 most fascinating people, we name some of our least

By Tom Comi Follow @ChannelGuide While I am looking forward to tonight’s ABC special Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of the Year (9:30pm ET), it dawned on me that nobody ever puts out a list of the least fascinating personalities or characters on TV. Sure, Walters always includes some controversial folks on her annual list, which this year includes the Kardashian family, Donald Trump, Simon Cowell, Modern Family stars Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet, baseball star Derek Jeter, singer Katy Perry and Pippa Middleton (Britain’s most famous bachelorette). It’s a nice list, but it’s a little […]

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Commentary

Twitter-feed ghosts of TV series past

By Jeff Pfeiffer Follow @ChannelGuideJP This morning, while perusing my Twitter feed, I happened to glance over at the “Who to Follow” suggestions off to the side and noticed that the Twitter feed for NBC’s Free Agents was among the recommendations. I found this odd, since the show had been canceled last week. Why would I want to follow a feed that likely will not be updated, and which probably should be deleted at this point? I remembered a similar experience I had in seeing that the Twitter feed for FOX’s Lone Star — a show we really liked last […]

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Commentary

Washington vs. New York: More than a football game

Far too often sports fans over-emphasize the meaning of a football game, but Sunday’s featured game on FOX (4:15pm ET) between the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants has much greater significance than just another contest between two heated division rivals. Sunday will mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, and no two areas felt more connected that fateful day than New York City and our nation’s capital. It’s no coincidence the NFL scheduled this game on this date, and its symbolism is not lost on residents of either region. I live in […]