How do you launch 90 minute of live television comedy less than 36 hours after one of the most awful crimes in American history?  SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE tried to finesse the moment by starting its telecast tonight with a children’s choir singing “Silent Night,” but there was nevertheless some unavoidable awkwardness when the show […]

> Possibly because the Golden Globes take place in much less proximity to the Emmys than they do to the Oscars, and thus aren’t the crucial part of network gamesplaying that they are for the movie studios, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s TV awards have always tended to be more adventurous and genuine than the […]

  If tonight’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE didn’t have much to recommend it–and it didn’t–blame can’t be put on its very busy host and musical guest Bruno Mars.  Mars did everything that was asked of him, and actually supplied the episode’s highlight, a rapid-fire series of musical impersonations (in the framework of a Pandora Radio sketch) […]

  It took me just under 6 weeks to get through the 13 hours of HOUSE OF CARDS, the first original Netflix series.  That’s a little less than half the time a regular weekly run would have taken, although nowhere near the weekend binge-viewing that some were planning when all the episodes of Season 1 […]

  For the most part, the cast, writers and even the crew of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE seemed to have taken off for their holiday break a week early, leaving the worst episode of the season (so far) behind.  The only saving graces:  New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and, of all things, the second consecutive funny […]

    NASHVILLE:  Wednesday 10PM on ABC   WHAT IT’S SAYING:  Good old girls tusslin’ and singin’ in the world of country music.

> In these heady moments after the NY Giants’ triumphant victory over the New England Patriots (I’d say “Sorry, New England fans,” but I wouldn’t mean it), let’s take a moment to look at the other major event of the evening:  the ads for upcoming movies.  (Mitch Metcalf will offer a separate take on NBC’s […]

  It was perfectly appropriate to dread the news that an athlete was hosting SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE–the show’s history abounds with deadly sports hosts like Michael Phelps and Tom Brady.  And in case that wasn’t enough pressure for tonight’s host Eli Manning, one of the rare exceptions to the rule was his own brother Peyton, […]