It used to be that fans of station WCHL 1360’s progressive talk lineup were resigned to turning off their favorite station with a sigh at nighttime—particularly if they lived outside of the station’s main broadcast area. And Raleigh? Forget about it. You had a hard enough time listening during the day if you live there. […]
Danny Hooley
Bio: Danny Hooley lives in Durham, writes about television and music and plays in The Bastages.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/dhoohoo
Posted inArt
Is Breaking Bad’s Walter White beginning to resemble MacGyver?
Breaking Bad Season 5 premiere Sunday, July 15, 10 p.m. AMC When Eddie Cochran sang “There ain’t no cure for the summertime blues” back in 1958, he wasn’t anticipating the rise of top-tier-worthy basic cable shows 50-odd years later. Hell, he wasn’t anticipating cable TV, period. If Eddie was alive today, maybe he and the […]
Posted inCulture
TV honors Andy Griffith with marathon programming
Folks who stayed out of the house all day on July 4 may have missed out on all-day TV tributes to Andy Griffith, but that’s OK. They’ll get some more chances over the next couple of weeks. TV Land and The Hallmark Movie Channel wasted no time in honoring the Mt. Airy, N.C. native, who […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Portlandia comes to Trianglia
Our individual tastes in comedy say an awful lot about us, obviously, and it’s not just as simple as “Dane Cook people” versus “Louis CK people.” For instance, you either “get” IFC’s sketch-comedy series Portlandia or you don’t. If you do get it, then, to bastardize Jeff Foxworthy here, you just might be a hipster […]
Posted inArt
TV looks for the next way to waste five years of viewing
PERSON OF INTEREST CBS Premieres 9 p.m. Sept. 22 ONCE UPON A TIME ABC Premieres 8 p.m. Oct. 23 TERRA NOVA Fox Premieres 8 p.m. Sept. 26 Every year as fall arrives with its requisite television premieres, a special feeling of dread envelops my weary soul as I consider the latest batch of TV dramas […]
Posted inCulture
Movie-making with the Kate Plus 8 kids
[UPDATED MONDAY, AUG. 8 WITH VIDEO AT BOTTOM OF POST.] North Carolina-based actress Melissa Lozoff runs filmmaking classes and workshops for kids at Movie-Makers, a project she founded in 2001. Fans of reality TV can get a glimpse of her teaching process on Monday, Aug. 8, at 9:30 p.m. on the TLC channel. “I basically […]
Posted inArt
The Closer ends this year
The Closer TNT Begins July 11, 9 p.m. The TNT crime drama The Closer ends this year after seven seasons, and I’m really going to miss it. I almost never watch it, but I’m going to miss it all the same. That’s not intended as a snarky dig at a fine show. It’s just an […]
Posted inArt
Liberal talk-show host Stephanie Miller on defending Obama and outselling Pacino
Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour Stephanie Miller, Hal Sparks, John Fugelsang Durham Performing Arts Center Saturday, June 4, 8 p.m. The Stephanie Miller ShowWCHL-AM 1360 Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon Comedian and progressive radio host Stephanie Miller is a glass-half-full kinda gal. Heck, make that glass-fully-full. Miller, comic purveyor of anti-conservative jabs and the occasional fart joke, is […]
Posted inArt
Bill Maher talks Obama’s budget speech, the right and performing in the South
Bill Maher plays Memorial Auditorium Thursday, April 21, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $49.50–$59.50, not including a hefty Ticketmaster surcharge. Opinionated comedian Bill Maher was in a good mood on the afternoon of April 13, 2011. He was pleased that he’d been wrong, after all. On MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show the night before, the […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Lizard Lick Towing’s Ron Shirley and the mythical promises of reality television
You gotta hand it to Ron Shirley, the star of truTV’s Lizard Lick Towingthat boy never runs out of marketing ideas. Take that blond faux-hawk on top of his big ol’ dome, for instance. While renting out the close-cut areas on either side of his head for ad space has probably occurred to him at […]
