Critic David Bianculli reviews three DVD box sets from different eras of television: Mr. Peepers, which starred Wally Cox as a high school science teacher, ran on NBC from 1952-1956; interviews from The Merv Griffin Show(1965-1986); and the fifth season package of HBO's Six Feet Under, which completed its run last year.
William Gottlieb died of a stroke last Sunday at the age of 89. In the '40s, Gottlieb learned photography and took hundreds of shots of the jazz greats of the time. Many of those shots are now well known through album covers, books, and posters. 200 of those photos appear in Gottlieb's book, The Golden Age of Jazz.
Film critic David Edelstein reviews United 93, the dramatized version of events on the plane that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after being hijacked Sept. 11. Learning that other planes had been flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, passengers fought back for control of the plane.
Jeff Goldblum recently returned to his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pa., to star alongside his new girlfriend in a two-week run of The Music Man. Directors Chris Bradley and Kyle LaBrache filmed Goldblum's escape from celebrity, resulting in a genre-bending documentary with appearances by Ed Begley, Jr., Illeana Douglas and Moby. Goldblum talks about Pittsburgh, which he produced.
Recent controversies such as Google's business in China and the U.S. government's role in policing eBay transactions have put a spotlight on the intersection between governments and the Internet. Legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu address the issue in their new book, Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World.
Religion scholar Bart D. Ehrman, who chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, talks about his new book, Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend.
Bruce Springsteen's new album is a departure for him. We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions features Springsteen singing folk songs made famous by Pete Seeger.
Director Paul Weitz's new film, American Dreamz, satirizes American Idol and stars Dennis Quaid as a dimwitted U.S. president who goes on the show in an effort to save his falling approval ratings. Weitz's other films include American Pie and About a Boy.
Psychologist and family therapist Dr. Dan Gottlieb's new book Letters to Sam is a collection of lessons on life he wrote to his grandson. Two decades ago, Gottlieb became a quadriplegic in an automobile accident. His grandson is autistic, and the letters have lessons about what it's like to be different.
Craig Ferguson hosts CBS's Late Late Show, which should give him a fairly good vantage point from which to poke fun at pop culture and the entertainment industry. He has pounced on the opportunity with his novel, Between the Bridge and the River.
Filmmaker Liz Mermin's new documentary, The Beauty Academy of Kabul, is about a group of American hairdressers who open a beauty school in Afghanistan to teach local women how to cut hair and apply make-up, thus making them financially independent.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead looks at the work of jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. This week, Monk received a special posthumous citation from the Pulitzer Prize committee for "a body of distinguished and innovative musical composition that has had a significant and enduring impact on the evolution of jazz."
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Poem That Changed America: 'Howl' Fifty Years Later, a collection of essays by writers about their first encounters with the famous poem by Allen Ginsberg.
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) talks about his new book, America Back on Track. In the book, Sen. Kennedy identifies what he sees as key challenges facing the United States now, and offers possible solutions.
Judges for the Pulitzer Prize Monday cited The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Mike Luckovich "for his powerful cartoons on an array of issues, drawn with a simple but piercing style." It's a second prize for Luckovich, who was also honored in 1995.
Nicholas Wade, science reporter for The New York Times, examines what we've learned about our human ancestors using the latest techniques in DNA analysis in his new book, Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors.
Catherine Keener recently won a second Oscar nomination for her performance in Capote and appeared in the popular comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Now, she stars in Friends with Money, her third collaboration with writer-director Nicole Holofcener.
British actress Helen Mirren, perhaps best known for her long-running role as Det. Supt. Jane Tennison on TV's Prime Suspect, has had two quite closely related roles recently. She plays Elizabeth I in a new HBO four-part miniseries premiering April 22; then she appears as Elizabeth II in The Queen, a film from Stephen Frears.
When journalist Pete Earley's son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, it sent him on an effort not only to get his son properly diagnosed and treated, but to understand the nation's mental health system. Earley's book about the experience is Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness.
Dr. E. Fuller Torrey is a research psychiatrist specializing in schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness. He has authored many books on the subject of mental illness and is president of the Treatment Advocacy Center, as well as associate director for laboratory research at the Stanley Medical Research Institute.
