Television

Fresh Air's TV critic rounds up the hottest and the hottest of the year that was. Worth watching? A BBC America import about a choir director teaching people to sing. Jersey Shore? Makes Bianculli want to shower.

After a lengthy hiatus, Conan O'Brien made his return to TV last night as the host of Conan, his new talk show on TBS. David Bianculli says that a guy who had months to prepare should have had a better and funnier opening night.

In HBO's In Treatment, Gabriel Byrne stars as a psychotherapist who is working through some serious issues of his own. Executive producers and writers Anya Epstein and Dan Futterman discuss the show's third season.

On Halloween, a new show about a sudden infestation of zombies premieres on AMC. TV critic David Bianculli says the spooky series works because it's "beautiful and foreboding all at once."

Evening Primrose, Stephen Sondheim's made-for-TV musical about a poet and the girl he discovers living after hours in a department store hasn't been been televised since its 1966 premiere. David Bianculli says the musical, out Tuesday on DVD for the first time, showcases Sondheim's "early brilliance."

On Oct. 24, a TV drama featuring a modernized Sherlock Holmes is set to debut on the PBS series Masterpiece Mystery. David Bianculli says the newest incarnation of the iconic detective is "terrific and inspired."

After starring in movies like Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited, Jason Schwartzman decided to move to TV. He talks about playing a novelist moonlighting as a private detective on HBO's Bored to Death -- and details what it was like to work with Wes Anderson on several films.

But the article does. TV critic David Bianculli shares his thoughts on the season finales of AMC's Mad Men and Rubicon -- and wonders whether he should be talking about this at all. Obviously: Spoilers ahead.

David Bianculli laments the silence that greeted the golden anniversaries of classic shows such as My Three Sons and The Andy Griffith Show -- and wonders why TV doesn't have an equivalent to Turner Classic Movies.

In an interview with Terry Gross, taped in front of a live audience in New York City, the Daily Show host deconstructs his upcoming "Rally to Restore Sanity" on the National Mall and explains how The Daily Show comes up with material.