Recent TV Columns

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Friday, November 20 2009

We All Know the Way to Sesame Street

By Michael Brett

In the 2008 presidential election, America crossed the Henson Point -- the point where we are a post-Baby Boomer society. The Rockist calls for a champagne toast.

(more The Rockist)

Friday, November 13 2009

Does Late Night TV Still Matter? Part 3

By Michael Brett

In the third part of his never-ending odyssey of late-night talkers, the Rockist endures Kimmel and bits.

(more The Rockist)

Thursday, November 12 2009

The Prisoner: ‘Fall Out’

By Kit MacFarlane

The Prisoner's unapologetic payoff of surrealism and absurdism heads into that artistic realm where meaning is defined more by resonance than by immediately identifiable relevance.

(more Retro Remote)

Wednesday, November 11 2009

So You Think You Can Make Me Like Dance?

By Ben Rubenstein

Rubenstein views dance much like his girlfriend watches a baseball game; the subtleties are lost on him.

(more Mixtape Confessions)

Wednesday, October 28 2009

A Ghost Story of Dubious Origins

By Jennifer Makowsky

No matter the vercity of the tale, The Haunting in Connecticut has just enough creep quotient to keep me engaged, especially since I grew up a few miles from the house.

(more The Box Office Belletrist)

Friday, October 9 2009

Does Late Night TV Still Matter? Part 2

By Michael Brett

Jimmy Fallon's Late Night will be a much more goofy, pop-culture centric, spontaneous affair than either his predecessors.

(more The Rockist)

Wednesday, September 23 2009

The Frontier Doctor’s Fancy ‘Queen of the Cimarron’

By Kit MacFarlane

Frontier Doctor's church-prescribing gumdrop-toting hero comes face to face with the unthinkable: a tough-talkin' hard-done bad-girl with money on her mind (gulp).

(more Retro Remote)

Thursday, September 10 2009

Does Late Night TV Still Matter? Part 1

By Michael Brett

With the greatest shake-up in network late-night television since King Carson left his throne, now is a perfect time to ponder where late-night television is today.

(more The Rockist)

Thursday, August 27 2009

All in the Family: Gloria Sings the Blues

By Kit MacFarlane

Where a thousand stone-faced social dramas have despaired over the decay of interpersonal relations and marital unity, this is the interpersonal angst of an Ingmar Bergman movie saved by a sitcom ending and a live studio audience.

(more Retro Remote)

Monday, August 24 2009

Emmy Nominations / Emmy Abominations

By Matt Mazur

And the nominees for Best 'White' Actress on Television are… the exact same group of women who are nominated every single year by the unimaginative voting bloc.

(more Suffragette City)

Tuesday, July 21 2009

In the Wrestling Ring with Ric Flair, Where ‘Evil is the Natural Climate’

By Kit MacFarlane

Ric Flair epitomizes Roland Barthes' 'perfect bastard', adopting a cowardly and devious state of jerkdom, elevating his coarse existence into some quasi-mythological state of being.

(more Retro Remote)

Thursday, June 18 2009

‘Have Gun - Will Travel’: Return to Fort Benjamin

By Kit MacFarlane

With attempted justifications of military torture on our minds, Retro Remote heads back to the '50s TV Western to find a surprisingly tough moral stance on the U.S. military's destruction of human dignity and dehumanisation of 'enemy combatants'.

(more Retro Remote)

Sunday, June 7 2009

Footnotes in the Great Book of Gummi

By Monte Williams

Still cute, funny and entertaining, Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears holds up remarkably well on every level.

(more Lowbrow Literati)

Wednesday, May 27 2009

In Treatment: Fantasy Therapy for All

By Meta Wagner

Explorations of the outer limits of the patient/ therapist relationship titillate viewers with the possibilities of what could happen.

(more Vox Pop)

Tuesday, May 19 2009

Thank the Lord for Marty Stuart and his Mullet

By Juli Thanki

What better way to soothe modern worries than by taking in classic country music with a side of hillbilly humor?

(more Torch & Twang)

Friday, May 8 2009

Gidget’s ‘Dear Diary—et al.’ – and All that May Imply

By Kit MacFarlane

As things start getting a little steamy, Retro Remote 'sinks into nothingness' trying to mix Gidget and some serious film theory.

(more Retro Remote)

Thursday, April 30 2009

Missing the Boat while ‘Fishing with John’ (Lurie)

By Chris Justice

Imagine a 'Seinfeld' episode on a boat with rods in Jerry and Kramer’s hands … you get the picture.

(more The Tackle Box)

Friday, April 17 2009

‘Grey Gardens’: Where Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange Bloom

By Matt Mazur

HBO’s dedication to quality parts for women gallantly shows through and has even changed the landscape of television as we know it.

(more Suffragette City)

Monday, April 13 2009

T.I.‘s Winding Road to Redemption

By Quentin B. Huff

The road to Grammy-winning rap star Clifford "T.I." Harris, Jr.'s positive outcome may be paved with good intentions, but self-interest fuels the journey.

(more Busted Headphones)

Tuesday, March 17 2009

I Can Almost Taste It

By Meta Wagner

For someone who wouldn’t know my mortars from my pestles, I seem to spend an awful lot of time observing chefs in action.

(more Vox Pop)

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