Mrs. Bundy
For the mother of a serial killer, a chance to connect with victims on live TV offers a shot at redemption.
Television
A collection of 88 issues
Our Imaginary Brother Only Watches PBS
How one family schemed to be the best TV-watchers in America.
Brush With Greatness
The TV trope where one character sees another character naked allows audiences to be pervy without taking responsibility. Only “The Simpsons” gets it right.
Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy
Before he was America's favorite philosopher comic, he was just another comedian out on tour. And she was the journalist he wanted to meet.
My Date With Don Draper
The TV series Mad Men is set to begin its final season. Finally we’ll know how many women—and how much Proust—it takes to make Don Draper happy.
The Accidental Actor
Stumbling onto a movie set in Los Angeles—and then staying there for as long as humanly possible—offers lessons in acting and reality.
HBO’s Treme Corners You at a Party
When art is staring you in the face, you can’t look away.
The Apocalypse Will Be Televised
When the world ends, CNN won’t be the only channel with a doomsday video ready for broadcast.
My Top One Lists
Because the blinders were on last year, a 2015 resolution to become more culturally aware: to read more books, watch more movies, and listen to more albums.
The Pitch
Idea for a television show: a teenager has the power to turn fantasy into reality—but she doesn’t know it. It's “Amelia Bedelia” meets “Quantum Leap.”
Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar
In the city of Irvine, in the county of Orange, in the state of California during a season of sports, sometimes America reaches maximum volume.
The Mall of the Wild
Even cable series must adapt to survive. Possible spinoffs of “Naked and Afraid” explore charted territory.
League Loves All Women
For decades, the NFL has been supported by ads that degrade women. But something changed in 2013—and it’s got everything to do with concussions. Prepare for the battle of mama-friendly beer spots.
The Cause of All the Commotion
This Saturday, the 2013 hurricane season will end—and with it, possibly, New York City’s final hurricane-less year.
Adjusting the Picture
Some of the best TV shows these days, whether we’re watching them on television sets or online, are being compared to novels—and even sonnets. A chat with some of the leading thinkers in TV writing to find out what comes next.
From Here You Can See Everything
Our current era of on-demand television series does more than facilitate binge-watching—it encourages it. David Foster Wallace already told us what happens next.
I Shall Be Heard
Andy Kaufman performed for more than just laughs—in fact, his goal often seemed to be something entirely different. A budding comic chases Andy’s ineffable comedy.
When Writers Sing
Sometimes covers of songs can feel more genuine than the original recorded versions. At a time when “Glee” is under fire for stealing covers and Justin Bieber is covering himself, one author tries his hand at covering a fictional musician from his new novel.
Mea Culpa, Oprah
Ever since Lance Armstrong told Oprah about his persistent doping, lying, and just plain being mean, celebrities are lining up for their own public confessions. Starting with “Breaking Bad’s” Walter White.
The Year That Was and Wasn’t
We gathered writers and thinkers to consider everything that happened over the past 12 months and asked them: What were the most important events of 2012—and what were the least?
The Perfect Forecast
Predicting the weather is an incredibly complicated task. Stopping it altogether is even more difficult—but that doesn't mean scientists aren't trying. Obsession, cloud seeding, and very powerful storms.
Submerged
Every four years, the world rediscovers swimming—that pleasant recreation turned into a furious race of hulks. But not everyone watches simply as a fan. The former competitive swimmer is never fully a land-bound mammal.
Doomsday Slackers
We open the bunker on doomsayers preparing for the end of civilization—but not all them will survive the first hour of armageddon.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Before the internet, before Facebook, before Twitter, a group of British documentary filmmakers launched what has become the grand-daddy of reality television. What can Seven Up! tell us about our own experiences in the (self-induced) spotlight?
Humans Playing Humans
As “Mad Men” enters its much-anticipated fifth season, the New York psychotherapist who consulted on the show’s development explains why its characters and storylines feel so ineffably real.
Life After Long-Term Unemployment
You wanted it. You were willing to give up BBC dramas for it. Now it’s time to readjust to the working life. Welcome back.
The Year That Wasn't
As much as 2011 was filled with noteworthy events, it was also littered with meaninglessly overhyped blips that, try as we might, we shouldn't forget. We asked our group of writers and thinkers: What was the least important event of 2011?
The Procreant Urge
Ted Williams’s last game for the Red Sox was almost a flop. But it provided fuel for one of the best sports essays of all time—until the author started tinkering. On baseball, “The Simpsons,” and the creative impulse to never stop.
What's On?
With more than 70 TV show premieres this fall, who has time to watch them all? Or even know what any of them are about? With no prior knowledge of the shows' premises, here are some guesses.
John Banville
Booker Prize-winner John Banville discusses writing crime novels under a pseudonym, hanging around with authors who own multiple homes, and why literature takes longer to produce than pulp.
Situation: Comedy
Language students rely on local television shows for vocabulary and instruction. But not all Three’s Company remakes should be trusted. Surveying Israeli TV from Orthodox Jewish sitcoms to comedy that equally offends Jews, Arabs, and sheep.
Tallahassle
Florida is America’s most-abused state, and Tallahassee its biggest target for bi-coastal writers who pick low-hanging fruit—rednecks, old people—and wouldn’t know an alligator from their elbow. The slander has gone far enough. On behalf of every Tallahussey and T-Town man, let the corrections begin
Sorry About Your Generation
Fact: Today’s young women are scared to commit because Mel Gibson may attack them. Fact: Today’s mothers should keep their opinions to themselves.
What Is a Career Move
Following his triumphant appearance on Jeopardy, IBM's Watson supercomputer strikes a deal to replace Charlie Sheen on CBS's hit comedy Two and a Half Men.
Sexy Singing Vampires of the 1960s
Pop culture is fizzy. Mainstream TV is where the fizz goes flat. A preview of the networks' forthcoming dramas based on trendy Twitter feeds.
Movement for a Standstill
Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity is bad for America, except for the America that buys or sells advertising time on Comedy Central.
We Three Kings of HGH Are
For many sports fans, steroids ruined professional baseball. Luckily, Roger Clemens is pitching a cream-and-clear sitcom to cure their blues.
Misperception
Overly dramatic portrayals of drowning in movies and TV spread deadly disinformation. This and other tropes show that if you believe everything you see, it could kill you.
The Rough Cut
When you share your life with a reality TV editor, you learn that reality often winds up on the cutting-room floor.
Justice With a Tagline
When your publisher won't pay you for translating a popular German guide to anal sex, don't take the law into your own hands--take 'em to court. But which one?
About Time
Britain’s national superhero has alternately worn a scarf, a leather jacket, and lots of question marks. No longer.
A Nature Documentary: The Post-Screening Q&A
The film lays bare all the raw intensity of the subject matter, holding back nothing. But some may wonder: What’s the lion’s motivation?
And Now a Few Minutes With Andy Rooney’s Homo Erectus Ancestor
What the kids call “Acheulean,” others call pretentious nonsense. And what’s up with fire?
My First Sonogram
A television news report begets a routine doctor’s appointment begets a personal health scare.
Not Everyone "Got" It
In the early days of The Muppet Show, the famous bonhomie between celebrities and their Muppet co-stars wasn't there yet. Here are the encounters that didn't make a rainbow connection.
Letters to a Young Lawrence Welk
Before he became famous, Lawrence Welk was just another hoofer working for tips. Then he reached out to Rainer Maria Rilke.
An Evening With the Twelve Colonies
On Tuesday, post-apocalyptic refugees from Battlestar Galactica--which airs its final episode tonight--spent an evening at the U.N. swapping war stories with rights activists. It was a convincing trailer, even for the uninitiated.
Drink Your Meds
The impulse to weigh decisions with coffee spoons can seem charmingly eccentric on TV. But real-life obsessive compulsive disorder is no fun, what with the imminent death and all.
***Spoilers*** ***Spoilers*** ***Spoilers***
Spoilers online and IRL are plentiful, rendering those who wish to remain unaware on high alert at all times. A look at the many ways spoilers spoil everything (spoilers ahead).
A Survivor's Journal
America weathered Y2K, Viagra junk mails, and Web 2.0. But will it survive the next technological crisis threatening civilization?
Food Network Kicks Its Programming Up a Notch
An adventurous new show proves you can’t boost your ratings without breaking a few eggs.
Letter From Hollywood
Striking TV and film writers should be shutting down the industry, right? Not so fast. Hollywood has a plan for a new kind of synergy, and now that the writers are out of the way, it’s showtime.
America’s Next Top Model Democracy
The winning country receives billions in government contracts and becomes the show's next host. Who will it be?
Television: How Novel
People who hate television love to talk about it, not realizing they could be spending their time improving their minds--with novelizations. The best of the oeuvre, with and without Steve Urkel.
The Adventure of the Missing Stocking
The writers of the television series “Lost” take time out of their busy schedules to write this pastiche—the latest chapter in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Run for the Hills
The world MTV depicts is anything but real. But we don't watch to escape, we watch because we can't look away.
Betting Wrong
Session after session, congressional battles have us rooting for one side or the other. But it's not easy to tell who the good (and bad) guys are. A theory by way of He-Man and the Masters of the United States Congress.
Longing for the Sad Bastards
When did our angst-driven movie men get all tangled up in their apron strings? A screen history of damaged males.
But I Play One on TV
Saving lives is hard enough—what medical professional has time for significant romantic moments in the supplies closet? A lifetime of TV role models.
Drumroll Please
A million-plus viewers will tune tonight to watch costumed young people dance with fake weapons and play bugle—and that’s just the fans already in the know. America, you live in a drum corps world, you just don’t know it yet.
News Gone Wild
Pop quiz for the journalism students in the audience: What's an editor to do when her reporter is assaulted and the attacker, whom the reporter strikes back, turns out to be the story's subject?
God or No God
Is that a benevolent deity inside your briefcase or is Loki just happy to see you? Introducing the game show that's got Americans clutching their prayer books: It's God or No God with Howie Mandel! Atheists, watch out!
The Weathermen
Why are so many news shows so dully casted--except for the flamboyantly named superhero in front of the blue screen? The top 10 best-named weathermen currently rescuing the news.
To Live and Love in Beautiful Alabama
Erik Estrada wants us to buy land, Ron Popeil wants us to shoot our salad. Promising a better life—free of ills financial and otherwise—when infomercials air on a Sunday morning, the effect can be downright spiritual.
The Cast of Blossom vs. Wu-Tang Clan
It's true that this year's South by Southwest music festival brought a number of unlikely musical pairings to the stage. Few were as unlikely as Joey Lawrence and Raekwon. (Whoa!)
Big in Finland
Conan O'Brien's recent comedy bits about Finland earned him that country's adulation; his trip there for a one-hour special--airing tonight--sealed the deal. What the unlikely matchup means for one writer's family.
Heeding the Lamplighter's Whistle
He's gone. He's been gone for some time. I'd still come running, though, at the very first note. Just one little round of the Masterpiece Theatre theme, and I'm all his, that little gas-lighting corporate mascot.
Girlfriends
Girlfriends, on UPN, could have been another empty yuppie comedy, a black woman's Sex in the City. Instead, the sitcom about four female black professionals in L.A. is witty, smart and original, and it plays with race and class without relying on dry stereotypes. Luckily, the show
I'm Your Biggest Fan
There are many reasons to pepper a celebrity with fan mail: admiration, a sense of kinship, obsession, even boredom. Any are acceptable and all are believable—until you try to explain your motives to others.
Raise the Woof
While Super Bowl XL was being beamed into taverns across Manhattan, bars showing Puppy Bowl II were a lot harder to come by.
One Possible Outcome of Super Bowl XL
The predictions have been made, the spreads have been laid. So who will reign supreme on Sunday? Anything is possible.
House
As an occasional TV viewer, far be it from me to question the apparently immense popularity of Fox Network's 24, though how anyone can take Kiefer Sutherland's arboreal acting style seriously does perplex me. The network in question makes it up to me with its well-written
Epitafios
The 13-part series Epitafios was originally produced for HBO Latin America and currently is running on HBO's farm channel, HBO Signature, apparently because Cathouse fans can't handle the subtitles. Intense, gruesome, sophisticated, smart; it's a poor choice for children or for those who like
The Omarosa Experiment
Reality TV isn’t for the weak of ego, or the merely normal; to succeed, you must be “super-normal.” Talking to some of the industry’s most infamous offspring about their lives after the show—and the psychologists who were responsible for vetting them in the first place.
If on a Winter's Night, Dave Coulier
For those who knew the wacky shirts were actually a comedian's armor. For those with an answering machine message that said "Hi dee ho!" For those who've ever been lost out there and all alone. Excerpts from the forthcoming Dave Coulier fan fiction anthology.
Reality Check
When a critic slams Bravo's new take on Battle of the Network Stars, our writer remembers what made the first one worth a do-over. As it turns out, while the show could be remade, it could hardly be revived.
Battlestar Galactica
And so the learner becomes the master. In 1978 the original Battlestar Galactica was one of many space operas riding the coattails of Star Wars' success; in 2003 the Sci-Fi Channel aired a three-hour "reimagined" Battlestar Galactica mini-series with more drama, excitement, and pathos than all three
A Different World
Season one of “The Cosby Show” if Cliff Huxtable habitually drugged and subsequently fondled select bit players.
Questions Frequently Asked About TiVo, Answered by Someone Who Loves TiVo Too Much
What's that? You still don't have a TiVo? Ahh, you must have some questions about the technology before you take the plunge.
Reading With the Enemy
Looking for a challenge and a little affirmation, our writer tests his die-hard liberal beliefs and goes on an all-conservative-media diet for one month. Life on the Right side of the dial doesn’t turn out the way he expected.
TiVo’d
Technology can be a scary thing, in the wrong hands. Luckily, there’s help. A visit with an analyst about a personal video problem.
75,000,000 Toddlers Can't Be Wrong
Steve Burns, the former host of Nickleodeon's kids show Blue's Clues, has embarked on a new career path: musician.
Super Bowl Ads: A Postmortem
It’s been popular for years to say Super Bowl ads are more entertaining than the game, and the ad industry started the rumor. Unfortunately, the ad industry is prone to lying.
Rivalry Day
Harvard-ers and Yalies may not mix well, but ask a Buckeye what he thinks of someone from Michigan, and he'll start building the effigy. A long day on the couch watching the seismic clashes of college football.
Ads Are Stupid
A purple thing with eyes will make you buy cheeseburgers. Shaking rumps will make you buy beer. Bears are supposed to do something too.
Saturday Night Fever
“Saturday Night Live” has never been a gender-balanced show, just as it’s never been consistently funny. These days, things are starting to change.
Dude, You’re Getting a Dell and Other Success Stories
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an actor not in possession of a private fortune must be in want of a commercial. Lessons learned on how to win the audition.
Casual Fan Fiction
A story based on characters in the popular NBC drama The West Wing written by a guy who usually runs the vacuum between Ed and Law & Order.