David Bianculli
David Bianculli is a guest host and TV critic on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. A contributor to the show since its inception, he has been a TV critic since 1975.
From 1993 to 2007, Bianculli was a TV critic for the New York Daily News.
Bianculli has written four books: The Platinum Age Of Television: From I Love Lucy to The Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific (2016); Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 2009); Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously (1992); and Dictionary of Teleliteracy (1996).
A professor of TV and film at Rowan University, Bianculli is also the founder and editor of the website, TVWorthWatching.com.
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A new show from the late All in the Family producer centers on an Alabama widower and his trans daughter. Clean Slate delivers laughs and tenderness, courtesy of stars George Wallace and Laverne Cox.
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The filmmakers of this emotionally powerful documentary followed Delwin Fiddler Jr. as he returned home to South Dakota after years in Philadelphia — then kept revisiting him for more than a decade.
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In Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, Questlove mines the archive of musical performances, while the four-part series SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night dives into the show's creative process.
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We listen back to a 1994 interview with Lynch, who died Jan. 14. His credits include Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. Plus, Isabella Rossellini and Nicolas Cage remember the director.
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Set in the lawless Utah territory of 1857, Netflix's six-part series features chaotic violence, endearing characters and some sights and performances you'll not soon forget.
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Stephanie Hsu plays a woman whose ex-boyfriends keep dying on the Peacock series Laid. Going Dutch features Denis Leary as a military colonel who's assigned to run a service base in the Netherlands.
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Fresh Air critic David Bianculli watches more TV than anyone he knows. He found it impossible to come up with a top 10 list this year — and is reveling in the abundance of exceptional shows. -
Inspired by the real-life theft of $18 million worth of government-stored maple syrup, Amazon Prime's six-episode series is loaded with wonderful characters, performances, music and surprises.
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A new Disney+ documentary chronicles the Beatles' first trip to America. By combining footage, stories and songs, Beatles '64 makes it clear why the group, and its music, continue to be revered.
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Ted Danson stars as a retired professor who goes undercover at a retirement community in a charming new Netflix series that's both entertaining and surprisingly philosophical.
