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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Season 12 opens with Larry stuck with two women he can't eject from his life. As in its previous seasons, HBO's Curb offers a delicate combination of intricate structure and freewheeling improv.
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The new eight-part FX series tells a compelling story with a powerhouse cast. Tom Hollander and Naomi Watts star in the show, which is way more than just "the original Real Housewives." -
This new Apple TV+ miniseries about Word War II bomber pilots captures one thrilling airborne mission after another — but also finds drama in briefing rooms, barracks and German POW camps. -
Tony Soprano was far from the typical protagonist of a TV drama. He wasn't just flawed; at times, he was utterly amoral. But audiences stayed with him — right up until the series' perfect ending.
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Clive Owen stars as Monsieur Spade in an AMC series that finds the Maltese Falcon detective living in a small village in the South of France — until danger, and death, manage to find him again.
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Jodie Foster and Kali Reis play bickering cops searching for a missing crew of Arctic scientists in the fourth season of the creepy and haunting HBO series. -
Tom Smothers, who died Dec. 26, was one half of the comedy duo The Smothers Brothers. We listen back to an interview with Tom and Dick Smothers from 1985, and an interview with just Tom in 1997.
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Braugher, who died Dec. 11, trained at Julliard and performed in many Shakespeare productions. He won Emmy Awards for Homicide: Life on the Street and Thief. Originally broadcast in 1995 and 2006.
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Critic David Bianculli acknowledges that his year-end list of TV favorites is hardly all-inclusive. Nevertheless, here's what he enjoyed watching, including Beckham, The Bear and Black Mirror.
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Lear, who died Dec. 5, used humor to address racism and politics. Terry Gross spoke with Lear in 2014; Good Times actor Esther Rolle in 1983; and All in the Family director John Rich in 2006.
