Television

Film critic Bill Van Wert joins the show with a review of the film "Rockers."

Actress Mary Stuart has starred as "Joanne" on the television soap opera "Search For Tomorrow" since 1951. Stuart's autobiography is titled "Both of Me." Stuart joins the show to discuss her career and life.

Media consultant Elliott Curson helped shape the public persona of President Ronald Reagan through television advertising. He discusses his opinions of other political campaigns.

The actor portrays Jonestown leader Jim Jones in a new television movie about the infamous mass suicide. Boothe talks about the difficulties of making the film, as well as the research that went his portrayal of the cult leader.

Documentary filmmaker Robert Drew has revolutionized the genre by dispensing with narrators and adopting a more dramatic, theatrical approach. His best known movie, Primary, follows the presidential run of John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.

Scholar and writer Erik Barnouw discusses how advertising and demographic targeting has influenced television programming.

Billy Crystal is a comedian currently enjoying success on television. He also grew up around jazz musicians due to his father's business; Billie Holliday was his sometime-babysitter. Crystal joins the show to discuss his career and jazz memories. (INTERVIEW WITH DAVID KARPOFF)

Garrett Brown invented the Steadicam, a technological innovation which earned him an Oscar. He tells Terry Gross about its effect on cinematography as well as his brief tenure in the folk band Brown and Dana, and his career in advertising.

T.V. critic David Bianculli gives his analysis of "Dateline NBC," the new newsmagazine show hosted by Jane Pauley.

John Powers reviews "Kleo," the new Netflix series about a young woman who's an East German assassin as communism is collapsing in the late '80s.

Tim McGraw has been one of the biggest stars in country music for years, but lately it's an acting role that's getting a lot of attention. He's currently starring with his wife, singer Faith Hill, in the Paramount+ Western TV series 1883.

Movie star Al Pacino came to TV 15 years ago, delivering a marvelous performance as Roy Cohn in HBO's brilliant adaptation of Angels in America. Since then, every time Pacino has returned to TV, he has played real-life, controversial men: assisted-suicide proponent Jack Kevorkian in You Don't Know Jack and music producer Phil Spector in the TV movie Phil Spector.

Stewart's back as Jean-Luc Picard in season 2 of the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard. "I am not averse to risk-taking and I don't judge myself," he says. Originally broadcast July 2, 2020.

In the new sitcom Abbott Elementary, Quinta Brunson stars as a rookie second grade teacher in an under-resourced, majority Black public elementary school in Philadelphia.

In the Apple TV+ sci-fi drama, now in its second season, Scott plays a man who has a chip implanted in his brain that allows him to sever his work and home lives. Originally broadcast April 6, 2022.

TV critic DAVID BIANCULLI reviews “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” a new eight-part TV series on Apple TV, based on the 2024 novel by Rufi Thorpe. It stars Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Nick Offerman.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Groban and Meryl Streep are just a few of the artists featured in Take Me to the World, a tribute to the iconic Broadway composer and lyricist.

Trebek, who died Nov. 8, started hosting the quiz show in 1984 and went on to earn the Guinness World Record for most game show episodes hosted by the same presenter. Originally broadcast in 1987.

The original series, which debuted in 1990, leaned heavily on current news stories. The new show does the same. Its debut episode centers on the crimes of a TV personality reminiscent of Bill Cosby.

The comic, who plays a rodeo clown in his new FX comedy series, says he is "not creeped out by clowns." Galifianakis is also the creator of the Emmy Award-winning web comedy series Between Two Ferns.