Television

TV critic David Bianculli previews new programs on the Warner Bros. (WB) and Paramount (UPN) networks. He says they're strategies to attract viewers can't succeed with bad shows.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews "Debt" the new cable game show. He thought it wasn't worth writing about until it started gaining an audience.

In the 1950s, Gelbart he was part of a team of television writers that included Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and others who wrote for Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour." Gelbart went on to develop and write for the television version of "M*A*S*H. Also, he wrote the screenplays for "Oh, God!" and "Tootsie," and the stage play for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" There's a new PBS special about Sid Caesar's comedy team, "Caesar's Writers."

TV critic David Bianculli reviews this week's edition of the PBS summer series "P.O.V."

TV critic David Bianculli assesses the nationalistic coverage of this year's Olympics on television, which went against the Games' international spirit.

TV critic reviews MSNBC--NBC's new cable news channel made with Microsoft.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new three part series on PBS, "Signal to Noise: Life with Television." It's the kind of thing that should have excited him -- but ultimately made him ill.

Fresh Air's TV critic, David Bianculli. His new book is "The Dictionary of Teleliteracy: Television's 500 Biggest Hits, Misses, and Events" (Continuum). It explores the shows and events that have had the biggest impact--good and bad--on American culture. From the funeral of JFK to Hee Haw, the book provides background and context for the America's most memorable TV moments. Bianculli also reviews television for the New York Daily News.

Fresh Air's television critic, David Bianculli, reviews the final works of British TV producer Dennis Potter.

Host of Comedy Central's "Politically Incorrect," Bill Maher. The former stand-up comic's new book is "Does Anybody Have a Problem With That: Politically Incorrect's Greatest Hits," (Villard) With panelists of diverse ideologies (Patty Hearst to Al Sharpton to G. Gordon Liddy...) and sometimes explosive conflicts, the show has been described as "the McLaughlin Group on acid." Beginning in January, "Politically Incorrect" will air right after Nightline on ABC.