When looking at the new TV series Smash, I tried mightily to keep Glee in mind. Glee, after all, is the gold (and gold-generating) standard for music-based dramatic programming, having spawned not only a hit show but CDs, downloads, DVDs, concert tours and a big-screen movie. I was very enthusiastic about the Glee pilot, which…
New releases on DVD, Blu-ray
Productions coming to DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday include: Blu-ray — A Star Is Born (Judy Garland); CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Grave Danger (Quentin Tarantino episode); Dangerous Liaisons; Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat (Jim Carrey); and Love Story. Titles below with an asterisk are also being released on Blu-ray. Movies — A Very…
“Downton Abbey,” more on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday
The drama series Downton Abbey has become a public-television phenomenon, recalling the days when shows like Brideshead Revisited and Upstairs Downstairs would be buzzed about by viewers who otherwise paid little attention to public broadcasting. Downton, which owes more than a little to Upstairs Downstairs in its storytelling, has a seductive blend of melodrama and…
Television picks for the week of Feb. 5-11
‘Soul Train’ host Don Cornelius dead of suicide
LOS ANGELES: Don Cornelius, the silken-voiced host of TV’s Soul Train who helped break down racial barriers and broaden the reach of black culture with funky music, groovy dance steps and cutting-edge style, died early Wednesday of an apparent suicide. He was 75. Police responding to a report of a shooting found Cornelius at his…
Local history: Quaker Oats prize creates Yukon land rush in 1955
Around the remote: Television picks for the week of Jan. 29-Feb. 4
By Chuck Barney Contra Costa Times Don’t miss: As the Super Bowl approaches, Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores the growing concern over football-related concussions and brain injuries in the revealing documentary Big Hits, Broken Dreams. Gupta, a neurosurgeon, spent the 2011 season with a Greenville, N.C., high school team still shaken by the 2008 death of…
Around the remote: Television picks for the week of Jan. 22-28
Don’t miss: So much for Jack Bauer. Kiefer Sutherland returns to television in Touch, playing a man dramatically different from the amped-up federal agent he embodied for eight years in 24. Now, Sutherland is Martin Bohm, a widower and single father exasperated by an inability to connect with his 11-year-old mute son (David Mazouz). But…
The HeldenFiles — Jan. 19
Remembering Etta. The great singer Etta James has died, although her rendition of At Last will live as long as there is romance in the air. I saw her perform at Cleveland’s Palace Theatre in 1997 as part of the Tri-C Jazz Festival, with Cleveland singing legend Jimmy Scott in the audience. It’s still a…
Mailbag: French singer in ad, ‘Walking Dead’ returns, new Louis-Dreyfus series coming
Mailbag: French Singer in Ad, “Walking Dead” Returns, New Louis-Dreyfus Series Coming
Golden Globes seen by almost 17 million viewers
NEW YORK: The Nielsen Co. says Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony was seen by 16.8 million TV viewers. It beat all network competition in its time period but dipped slightly from last year’s audience for the film and TV awards show.
Rich Heldenfels: Growing up in the era of ‘Hair’
January 15, 2012 1 Comment Filed under: Featured, Featured 2, On Screen, Rich Heldenfels, Television
It was around 1968 that my high school’s principal gave me a solemn look one afternoon and said, without elaboration, “Get a haircut.”