'Dragnet' (the 1951 original, transferred nearly intact from radio) served as a veritable template for all cop shows to come. — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
'Kukla, Fran and Ollie' occurred in real time and was a benign and bewitching example of pure television. — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
You do have to wonder how Jack Bauer, maverick hero of '24,' can stay hidden for so long when no matter where… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
Crime dramas will never go away as long as people turn to television for, among other things, reassurance and comfort. — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
The fault is in our stars, dear Brutus: not the glass screen through which we see them. — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
The perils of credit and debt, especially perilous in the computer age, have long been acknowledged in pop culture, but very infrequently… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
Late-night television is like the cereal aisle in the supermarket: too many choices. Also, too many 'different' brands that really aren't different… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
'Leave It to Beaver,' which ran from 1957 until 1963, was one of the strangest, sweetest, most distinctive domestic sitcoms of television's… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
Tom Snyder was born to broadcast. He loved television and it loved him back. In that, he was a member of a… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
The once inviolate frame within which programs or commercials were displayed on television - always separately - has been violated to a… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
From a producer's point of view, of course, 'Law & Order' presents an ideal - a show that is almost entirely actor-proof,… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
No matter how much programming improves, however, media savants tend to see the medium living out numbered days. It's feared that the… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
Obviously neither 'American Idol' nor 'Dancing With the Stars' is a variety show in the classic sense, but the way they incorporate… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
Somewhere around the turn of the century, it stopped being hip to say you never watched TV. Adults are much more likely… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
The original and very basic 'Law & Order' series has always seemed to me to be 100-percent exposition, with no filler, no… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
Perhaps unscripted reality shows and written fiction have already blurred together into some new amalgamated mush, just as the line between commercials… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
Larry King's show got to be an increasingly lonely outpost of humane civility in a mephitic menagerie of hotheads, saber rattlers, cretins… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
Like sugar and, oh - let's say the most tabloidy and gossipy reality television programs - credit is, for millions, genuinely addictive. — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
It might be hard to remember this far back, but once upon a time, some of us hoped that public TV would… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
Television's escapist programming naturally continues to endorse living beyond one's means as the time-tested American Way and rarely depicts families or individuals… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
ABC's intelligently hilarious sitcom 'Modern Family' depicts a gay-male marriage in which both partners are refreshingly dimensional, believable human beings. The writers… — Tom Shales Copy Share Image
Maybe it's the hair. Maybe it's the teeth. Maybe it's the intellect. No, it's the hair. — Tom Shales Copy Share
Jimmy Kimmel still comes across like a guy who crashed a party and got caught at it, yet adamantly refuses to leave. — Tom Shales Copy Share
In city after city, newspaper after newspaper has diminished its staff of critics, sometimes to zero. Film and T.V. critics have been dropped and… — Tom Shales Copy Share
'Kukla, Fran and Ollie' occurred in real time and was a benign and bewitching example of pure television. — Tom Shales Copy Share
Maybe Larry Kings cannot thrive or even survive in a world where the norms for discourse are rage, vehemence and character assassination. King wanted… — Tom Shales Copy Share
Obviously neither 'American Idol' nor 'Dancing With the Stars' is a variety show in the classic sense, but the way they incorporate elements of… — Tom Shales Copy Share
Robert Osborne either has the best job in the world, or comes very close. As millions of viewers know, Osborne is the resident host… — Tom Shales Copy Share
Making music on TV used to be as common as commercials. In the '60s and '70s, prime time was stuffed with variety shows headlined… — Tom Shales Copy Share
For those who don't like Dave Letterman, there's Jay Leno; and for those who like neither, there's Craig Ferguson; and if you're still feeling… — Tom Shales Copy Share
The once inviolate frame within which programs or commercials were displayed on television - always separately - has been violated to a pulp. Program… — Tom Shales Copy Share
'Leave It to Beaver,' which ran from 1957 until 1963, was one of the strangest, sweetest, most distinctive domestic sitcoms of television's celebrated Golden Age. — Tom Shales Copy Share
The original and very basic 'Law & Order' series has always seemed to me to be 100-percent exposition, with no filler, no pesky nuances… — Tom Shales Copy Share
Gimmicks come and go; the cop show seems one genre that will never leave - not as long as people like to sit at… — Tom Shales Copy Share
If the networks can get audiences to tolerate pop-up promos by the dozens, maybe they'll start selling pop-up commercials, too. — Tom Shales Copy Share
Jerry Seinfeld is amazing in many ways, not the least of them his ability to find humor, and convincing us to find it, too,… — Tom Shales Copy Share
