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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Find everything our critics loved this year, all in one place: Maureen Corrigan's book list, movie pairings from Justin Chang, music recommended by Ken Tucker and David Bianculli's must-see TV list.
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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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Fred Rogers debuted on national public television in 1968 and quickly became known for his deliberate manner of relating to children. "Every one of us longs to be in touch with honesty," he once said.
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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.