OK, so it wasn’t a popular poll, votes-wise —44 tallies total—but I’m not going to hold that against those who voted, so here we go.

NBC might not be the ratings champ it used to be, but it finished first among Remote Access poll voters, with nearly 1 in 3 choosing it over all other networks for this fall’s slate of original programming.

And I can’t say I’d disagree with that. Among series that continue to pump out new episodes, my three favorites—”30 Rock,” “The Office” and “Chuck”—are all Peacock productions. And, well, it doesn’t hurt that one of my childhood friends was just cast on “Saturday Night Live.” So to celebrate, I figured I’d post this sweet 1956 NBC logo. Hotness.

Finishing in a tie for second were ABC and HBO.

ABC has its share of series that I hear are great but have not seen (”Lost,” “Ugly Betty,” “Pushing Daisies”) and one that I have seen but think is a bit overrated (”Grey’s Anatomy”).

Not surprisingly losing ground among RA voters and critics alike is HBO. Yes, it’s got its share of stimulating programs in comedy (”Flight of the Concords,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Entourage”) and miniseries genres (”John Adams,” “Generation Kill”), but serial dramas, once the pay-net’s stronghold, have been neither so popular nor so acclaimed since “The Wire,” “Deadwood” and “The Sopranos” faded to black.

Check out the rest of the poll results—including which three networks tied for last—and a look at the current poll after the break. Read more of this entry »

It’s generally not a good idea to mock an audience unless you’re a talented stand-up comedian (which I am not), but I have to give the vast majority of Remote Access readers a gentle ribbing for not voting in this blog’s latest poll.

Seriously, other than the 22 of you to vote so far, do you not know and/or care what TV channels you are watching these days? It was pretty easy to figure out even before cable companies starting posting the names of the network and show on the screen when you channel flip with your remote.

So forgive me if I’m disappointed by the turnout so far for what I figured would be a simple yet volatile poll question: For the 2008-09 TV season, which network has the best original programming?

While I could try to generate reasons for the current breakdown (NBC has the slimmest lead over ABC while Fox and myNetworkTV have yet to score a single vote), it’s wayyyy too small a sample size for me to conduct any legitimate analysis.

So get to it, Accessories! Tally up all your favorite shows, figure out what channels they run on and vote in the poll in the right margin. We’ll leave the poll open through next week.

What’s up with writer Andrew Davies, TV’s Mr. Adaptation? His many triumphs include the definitive “Pride and Prejudice” (A&E) and a riveting “Bleak House” (PBS) that remains one of the most moving productions I’ve seen on the tube.

Recently, however, the runner has stumbled. Earlier this year, he recast PBS’ “A Room With A View”  as a tragic romance — which added a certain poignant urgency, if nothing else, to E.M. Forster’s tale of a young woman who must choose between true love and a safe life. With the misconceived new version of Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited,” however, he’s totally missed the point. Read more of this entry »

Tomorrow is Earth Day, and PBS is framing the occasion with an imaginative new “Great Performances” and the return of an acclaimed series.

Tonight at 10 on WNET-Channel 13 locally, it’s “Dance in America: Wolf Trap’s Face of America,” an unusual, enervating pairing of dance and nature that actually evokes the origins of the art form.

I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: Curious George is one of the best shows for the youngun’s on TV.

We try to limit the TV our little guys watch; sometimes we’re better at it than others. But Curious George, on PBS Kids, is pretty good. I’ve seen most episodes, and it focuses on math and science concepts has had its share of animal-focused episodes, which our four-year-old looooooooves.

So I can only imagine that tomorrow and Tuesday’s Earth Day episodes will be big hits in the house.

Monday is “Curious George, Sea Monkey” and “Old McGeorgie Had a Farm” and Tuesday is “Curious George Beats the Band”/ “Hats and a Hole.”

Here’s the description of the first half of Monday’s episode:

Clad in a sea monkey scuba outfit equipped with a camera and microphone, George embarks on a submarine trip to retrieve a small weather satellite that crashed from space. Along the colorful ocean floor, George investigates a gigantic coral reef and even makes a few fishy pals—but will the school of small coral sharks he encounters be as friendly? And, with a little help from our friends at EarthEcho International, we’ll travel to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in Key West, Florida, where we’ll meet world famous explorers Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau — whose father, Philippe Cousteau Sr., was the famed son of the legendary Jacques Yves Cousteau!

Last Sunday’s PBS adaptation of “A Room With A View” reversed the typical movie treatment of a literary work.

Usually, films romanticize novels, as in the superb 2006 version of “A Painted Veil,” which is far more forgiving than W. Somerset Maugham’s equally haunting novel.

But Andrew Davies — just call him “Mr. Adaptation” — gave E.M. Forster’s “Room” an unhappy ending, which rendered the story of an impressionable young woman who chooses love over money all the more poignant. Still, it had nothing to do with Forster’s book.

Mourning, however, becomes PBS this month. At 9 p.m. Sunday on WNET-Channel 13 locally, “Masterpiece” presents “My Boy Jack,” about author Rudyard Kipling’s 17-year-old son, a soldier who wound up missing in action in World War I. David Haig, who adapted the screenplay from his own stage work, is the gung-ho Kipling, with Kim Cattrall as his independent-minded, American-born wife, Carrie, and David Radcliffe as their son.

It’s a tribute to Cattrall’s and Radcliffe’s performances that you never once think of “Sex and the City” or Harry Potter (or for that matter, Radcliffe in “Equus,” coming to Broadway this fall). “My Boy Jack,” however, is really about Kipling, yet another middle-aged man sending a young one off to war. Read more of this entry »

This Sunday is host to an embarrassment of riches on the tube.

At 8 p.m., the History Channel presents “King” with Tom Brokaw, in honor of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and remembrance of his assassination 40 years ago today in Memphis.

At 9 p.m. on PBS’ “Masterpiece,” it’s the conclusion of Andrew Davies’ excellent two-part “Sense and Sensibility,” which, while it won’t make you forget the stylishly ironic 1995 film, has the time to explore the characters’ relationships more deeply.

Meanwhile, HBO continues with Part 5 of the equally fine seven-part “John Adams,” which considers not only the brutality of the intramural game known as presidential politics but the poignant private cost of a public life. Any resonance for our own time is, I’m sure, entirely intentional.

What they all have in common is a belief in the power of the written and the spoken word. There’s a terrific moment in “Sense and Sensibility, ” in which Col. Brandon, head- over-heels for the similarly passionate Marianne Dashwood, confronts her sister Elinor about Marianne’s possible engagement to the scoundrel Willoughby. Brandon is the far worthier beau and part of that worthiness is his willingness to put the desires of the woman he loves above his own. To your sister I wish every possible happiness, he tells Elinor, and to Willoughby that he might endeavor to deserve her.

It is at once a noble relinquishment and a stunning put-down — an example of how language, rather than fists, can deliver the coup de grace.

Among King’s many gifts was a capacity for eloquence equal to Austen’s — though applied in a very different way. Indeed, oratory — once an essential part of American politics — has come back into vogue with the ascent of Barack Obama, even if it is still a neglected and suspect form of communication. (Part of our fascination with Obama is not only the grace with which he can deliver a speech or talk extemporaneously but the disconnect between that ability and our skepticism of it.)

Being a preacher, King was well-acquainted with the Gospels and used their brilliant mirror-imagery to vivid effect, particularly in his elegiac “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, which today certainly reads like a leave-taking. (Did he have a premonition of his assassination?)

“I may not get there with you,” he told striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis the day before he died. “But we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”

That’s as good as anything in the King James Bible.

How many people remember, though, that the speech references ancient Greek writers and the Renaissance? (For that matter, how many local readers know of its tribute to the White Plains High School student who wrote King after an earlier attempt on his life in New York City?)

John Adams would’ve appreciated King’s speech. Whatever the personal and political shortcomings of the man whose pompous Federalism earned him the nickname “His Rotundity,” Adams knew the importance of words — thought of, written, spoken, remembered.

The entertainment/gossip site Defamer.com has pronounced “John Adams” boring.

But then, when your life revolves around the wasp waist of Posh Spice it’s hard to expand the mind.

On Sunday, Part 1 of a new PBS adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility” (9 p.m., WNET-Channel 13) vies with the return of Showtime’s “The Tudors” (10 p.m.) for your attention. But it’s really no contest as to which you should watch.

While it won’t make you forget the 1995 Ang Lee-Emma Thompson film, Andrew Davies’ retelling of “Sense and Sensibility” is a thoroughly absorbing affair, despite a very un-Austen-like opening seduction scene that leaves no doubt as to what a rapscallion Willoughby (Dominic Cooper) is.

He will, of course, romance the sensibility of our story, the passionate, impoverished beauty Marianne Dashwood (Charity Wakefield, below right), who is adored by the worthier Col. Brandon (David Morrissey). The sense is provided by Marianne’s older sister, Elinor (Hattie Morahan, at left), who must conceal her love for young cleric-to-be Edward Ferrars (Dan Stevens) and her fear of being separated from him forever.

I have no particular criticism of this miniseries, which is more than I can say for “The Tudors.” Read more of this entry »

Whether offering a salty “Hi, sailor” to tenor James Valenti — playing the cad of a naval lieutenant, B.F. Pinkerton — or introducing a segment in a fluted, undulating metallic evening coat and diamond necklace, Graham was the hostest with the mostest, a down-to-earth diva in the tradition of Beverly “Bubbles” Sills.

Susan, don’t quit your day job. But when you’re ready to someday, there’s another waiting for you.

Just a quick shout out to two new programs/series that should generate a good deal of local interest — a new culture magazine from Thirteen and WNBC’s tribute to Yankee Stadium.

At noon Sunday, Thirteen/WNET launches SundayArts, which in effect wraps an arts magazine show around each week’s featured presentation. This Sunday’s main event is “Madama Butterfly” — a New York City Opera production that actually airs on PBS’ “Live From Lincoln Center” tonight. It’s teamed with segments on the Irving Penn show at The Morgan Library & Museum, Jasper Johns at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, sculptor/installation artist Cai Guo Quing at the Solomon R. Guggenheim and the Stephen Petronio Dance Company at the Joyce Theater.

The March 30 featured presentations are the Oscar-winning “Peter and the Wolf” and the Metropolitan Opera’s HD “Hansel and Gretel” — both well-crafted but creepy. (Except for the poignant prayer duet, “Hansel” is a weird blend of religiosity and cannibalism. I’m not a big fan of kids’ stories, so I sometimes forget that the Grimm Brothers were so, well, grim.) Read more of this entry »

With regard to all the media coverage of the New York Philharmonic’s North Korean concert — which PBS airs locally on WNET-Channel 13 at 8 tonight — it seems that society doesn’t care about culture, until the moment it realizes it can show off with it.

It reminds of an incident in a book on physicist Marie Curie that I read as a child: Whenever the Russian inspectors came to her Polish school, the teachers would call on her, as she was the only one in her class who spoke flawless Russian. She was the token brainiac.

Now the Philharmonic has blazed a trail in a remote, despairing place for all that’s great about America and New York in particular. Well, good for the Phil and good for the North Koreans: They’re an aesthetic people who deserve more beauty in their lives. And good if it helps pave the way for diplomacy. I just hope the Powers That Be realize that you don’t learn to play Dvorak’s “New World Symphony,” one of the works on the bill, overnight. It takes talent, training, technique and a certain temperament to be an artist. And one more “T”: It takes time.

Time also means money. Perhaps our government could invest more of both in the arts, so that in the future when we want to blaze a cultural trail, we’ll be able to do so as breezily as the Phil plays the Overture to Bernstein’s “Candide.”

I’m not usually one to comment on the musings/failings of other journalists. Who has time for one-upmanship? But I felt I really had to respond to Charles McGrath’s piece in last Sunday’s New York Times, titled “Is PBS Still Necessary?”.

Sure, he makes some good points about the dilution of  public television’s programming, the dwindling of dollars that has sent shows like “Masterpiece” packing up its bonnet for the safety of Austen country and the increasing reliance on pop culture, albeit pop culture of another era. I think PBS has just discovered the ’60s. Witness upcoming salutes to folkies Pete Seeger (on “American Masters” Feb. 27) and James Taylor (on “Great Performances” March 4). Both of these are quite good. The Seeger tribute in particular is very moving. He really is a man for all seasons.

One sentence in the Times’ piece, however, stopped me cold: “The Showtime series ‘The Tudors’ is just the kind of thing — only better produced and with more nudity — that used to make ‘Masterpiece Theater’…so unmissable.”

First off, since when is nudity the hallmark of excellence? We’re not talking Michelangelo-esque nudity or even the daintily erotic nudity of Poussin’s Arcadian romps, now pleasurably on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. We’re talking R-rated movie nudity in which pretty actors simulate passion unconvincingly. But leave that aside.

“The Tudors,” better than, say, “The Forsyte Saga” or “Prime Suspect”? Really? It’s laughable. “The Tudors” has so compressed the historical timeline that the series has mixed up Henry VIII’s sister Margaret with his sister Mary, marrying Mary, er, Margaret off to the king of Portugal (it was the king of France). She then ludicrously kills him. Ugh!

Though it pains me to write this, the historical liberties wouldn’t really matter — nobody goes to “Richard II” for a history lesson — if the miniseries weren’t so flawed dramatically. The anachronism of the way-too-contemporary writing that depicts courtiers and court ladies as if they were Henry’s posse is exceeded only by the anachronism of the acting. As the blustery, florid, portly Henry, the insidious, hunky, brunet Jonathan Rhys Meyers is completely unsuitable. (Nor do I hold much hope for Eric Bana — another hunky brunet but of a kindlier on-screen demeanor — as Henry in “The Other Boleyn Girl.” What’s with this casting against type? Is Hollywood trying to make palatable a man who was a butcher of priests and women alike?)

There’s more at stake here than miscasting, though. The idea that the author of a Times’ article can equate the trashy “Tudors” with even the worst of “Masterpiece” is one more example of a lack of context in a culture that is both a creator and a reflection of our country as a meritocracy of mediocrity. Time was not too long ago (you only have to go as far back as the Kennedy administration) when our nation was still made up of strivers after excellence. Now we’re a country of strivers for the middle ground. Good enough is, well, good enough as long as it’s fast and preferably, cheap but especially fast.

Let’s round up the usual suspects, shall we? The lack of leadership in government, the corporate sector and houses of worship; the decline in education, particularly arts education; the emphasis on the quick-fix, pop-a-pill, lottery-lapping, YouTube lifestyle; the slavish devotion to a technology that creates more work than it does. (The best invention ever? The washing machine. It actually frees you to read and write.)

But reading and writing, exploring the arts, watching dramas and documentaries unfold on PBS — these take time, and time is the great enemy of a childish society that is afraid of growing up and old and terrified of dying.

Why do we still need PBS, particularly the PBS of its heyday? Because like the arts, PBS helps  teach us how to think — rather than what to think — and provides us with the historical perspective that enables us to understand that in the scheme of great television, “The Tudors” just isn’t very good.

Not that I’m against cable. On March 16, HBO will beginning presenting the promising “John Adams,” based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by David McCullough, the same David McCullough who’s been a longtime contributor to such PBS programs as the superb “American Experience.”

Watch Laura Linney as Abigail Adams, a woman who spoke Latin and yet could scrub a floor vigorously in the hopes of warding off smallpox in her house.

Abigail Adams had a life and part of that life was a life of the mind.

Gee, maybe Showtime can cast Jonathan Rhys Meyers as her panting hubby.

Have you seen Gillian Anderson as the new hostess of PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre�? I must confess I’m not loving her. She is a talented actress and has an arresting presence that she used to heartbreaking effect as a calcified Victorian aristocrat in “Masterpiece’s� “Bleak House.� (If you missed it, it’s available on DVD and worth every minute.)

As “Masterpiece� hostess, she looks tight and obvious reading from a teleprompter. The swirling red backdrop doesn’t help.

The beauty of Alistair Cooke and Russell Baker as the previous hosts — preceded each week by a parade of marvelous souvenirs of “Masterpiece� triumphs, accompanied by “The Prince of Denmark� march — was that you felt they were talking with you.  Perhaps that’s because they were writers. Generally, writers make very good readers, especially of their own material.

This theory has its limits. Actress Diana Rigg was a superb hostess of PBS’ “Mystery!�. Dressed in her own soigné outfits amid the sets of the various “Mystery!� miniseries, Rigg made you feel as if she were entertaining you at home.

I know, I know: “Masterpiece� is trying to be hip and hot for the Internet crowd. But the move betrays a bit of desperation and risks alienating a core audience that will always prefer Classic to New Coke.

A day late, but not a dollar short.

GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, announced the nominees for its 19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. As usual, just the TV nominees are listed here. Go to the GLAAD site for the full list here.

Here’s the TV noms:

Drama Series
Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Degrassi: The Next Generation (The N)
Dirty Sexy Money (ABC)
Greek (ABC Family)
The L Word (Showtime)

Comedy Series
Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Exes and Ohs (Logo)
The Sarah Silverman Program (Comedy Central)
Ugly Betty (ABC)
The War at Home (Fox)

Well, I’ve been tagged. I’m it.

Yes, the “8 random things about me” meme has managed to make the rounds of the Internet for quite some time without hitting me, but Jane over at Jericho Monster got me this weekend.

So I decided that in keeping with this blog’s theme, I’d keep my eight things TV-related:

1. I’ve seen every episode of Charles in Charge. (I’m not proud, just honest.)

2. The original Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980 defined my life for two years. I had the biggest crush on Richard Hatch, the original Apollo, who now plays Tom Zarek on the (way better) remake.

3. A few of my colleagues and I have obsessed about Lost the day after each new episode for three years now.

What is the current sub-prime crisis but another example of our need to have — or fix — it all, all at once? Can’t afford a house right now? No prob. There’s always someone to lend you the money, particularly since he’s planning on selling your mortgage to the next guy, who in turn is counting on the fact that you didn’t read the fine print too carefully.

“The Lobotomist” — airing at 9 p.m. Monday on PBS’ “American Experience” (Thirteen/WNET locally) — is America’s need for the quick fix taken to a horrific extreme. It’s the story of Dr. Walter J. Freeman (pictured center below), who is perhaps most famous today for supervising the frontal lobotomy that rendered the mentally challenged Rosemary Kennedy — sister of the late president — severely incapacitated. She, however, was one of thousands who underwent the crude procedure, which often robbed people suffering from anxiety, depression, dementia and psychosis of their personalities and cognitive abilities.

Making stark use of archival footage, which depicts patients in mental institutions as well as the operation Freeman “refined,” “The Lobotomist” is a fascinating tale that’s hard to watch and therefore can’t be recommended for everyone. Those willing to plunge themselves into the darkness, however, will find plenty for the brain’s various lobes to ponder.

Next! Here’s a list of the TV nominees from the Directors Guild of America (”for Outstanding Directorial Achievement”). For a list of all the nominees, in movies and the like, go here. They also list the entire “directorial team” and previous nominations. I skipped the directors of commercials, too, because, frankly, the way they were listed was really confusing.

Winners will be named at a swanky dinner Jan. 26 at the Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel in LA.Here they are:

Movies for Television/Miniseries

JON AVNET
The Starter Wife
(USA)

JEREMIAH CHECHIK
The Bronx Is Burning
(ESPN)

LLOYD KRAMER
Oprah Winfrey Presents Mitch Albom’s For One More Day
(ABC)

MIKAEL SALOMON
The Company
(TNT)

YVES SIMONEAU
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
(HBO)

When the going gets tough, the tough get going to their favorite author, and we don’t mean John Grisham.

This Sunday — while the saga of the Writers’ Guild strike continues with no happy ending in sight — PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre” launches The Complete Jane Austen — adaptations of her six novels, plus the drama “Miss Austen Regrets,” based on her life.

First up is a new version of “Persuasion” (9 p.m., Thirteen/WNET locally) and while it won’t make anyone forget the quietly ardent 1995 film — arguably the darkest of the Austen adaptations — it is very fine indeed. Sally Hawkins is particularly touching as Anne Elliot, a woman who nearly loses her second chance at love with Capt. Wentworth (a heartfelt Rupert Penry-Jones, pictured above with Hawkins), thanks to her dim, materialistic family. (That’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s” Anthony Head as Anne’s marvelous twit of a father.)

The scene in which Anne runs after her beloved in a last-ditch effort to make a case for their living happily-ever-after is palpable in its breathlessness.

“Persuasion” is followed Jan. 20 by “Northanger Abbey,” the weakest of the new productions. But then, this may be the weakest of her narratives, a sendup of the Gothic novel. Byron simply doesn’t suit her.

Then it’s a solid new “Mansfield Park” on Jan. 27 and “Miss Austen Regrets” on Feb. 3. From Feb. 10 through 24, “Masterpiece” has the definitive “Pride and Prejudice,” with a brilliant script by Andrew Davies — who did some of the other adaptations in the series as well as the stunning “Bleak House” — and Colin Firth as a most delectable Mr. Darcy, matched retort for retort by Jennifer Uhle’s spirited Miss Elizabeth Bennet.

The series continues March 23 with “Emma” — the one starring Kate Beckinsale and not Gwyneth Paltrow — and concludes March 30 and April 6 with a new “Sense and Sensibility.”

It’s a lot of Austen and it still begs the questions, Why Jane? and Why now? Actually, we’ve been in an Austen revival since the mid-’90s, when the “Pride and Prejudice” miniseries, Ang Lee’s “Sense and Sensibility,” “Persuasion” and the Gwyneth Paltrow “Emma” proved the author was reliable box office. That bodes well for the ratings.

Critics will tell you that her elegantly omniscient voice, concise, romantic plots and subtly intriguing characters — not for Austen the colorful bombast of Dickens — make her ripe for adaptation. But I think what makes her especially appealing to our post-feminist age is that she writes astutely about an issue that continues to obsess (some might say, plague) women — marriage. And because her novels are comedies, not tragedies (”Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery,” she offered), she never denies her heroines the satisfaction of marriages in which love and money are also wed.

As the charming film “Becoming Jane” suggested, however, the real Austen had to forgo romantic love and wealth. Still, she had great art.

I think she chose the better part.

Are those the Ghosts of Kennedys Past and Present hovering over the New Hampshire primary? The coolly brilliant Barack Obama looks like a young Jack Kennedy, with the telegenic family reinforcing the image. Whereas Hillary Clinton seems more and more like Ted Kennedy — a relic of the past, a perpetual senator.

“Oswald’s Ghost,” a haunting new documentary by Robert Stone airing on PBS’ “American Experience” at 9 p.m. Jan. 14 (Thirteen/WNET locally) reminds us just how much we remain in the Camelot thrall. The film revisits the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald (center below) on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza and especially, the conspiracy theories that mushroomed in the aftermath of the tragedy. Its cast of players — including historian Robert Dallek, reporter Dan Rather, novelist/essayist Norman Mailer and activist Tom Hayden — will be mostly old acquaintances to those who have charted this course before. It is to Stone’s credit that a familiar journey takes some unexpected turns.

Partly this has to do with Stone’s skill as a filmmaker, which gives the narrative a Hitchcockian flavor. (I particularly love the way the conspiracy theorists’ books swirl into a black hole, reminiscent of a silhouetted James Stewart falling during the dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.”) The score by Gary Lionelli — who collaborated with Stone on “Guerrilla” for “American Experience”— adds a particular urgency.

It’s a new year and a brave new world for Thirteen/WNET, which is set to launch a different kind of Saturday-night film series.

By now you’ve seen the promos: Out with the double-bill of oldies but goodies, which were often repeated in various combos. In with Reel 13, which begins with a classic film at 9 p.m., followed by short, selected by visitors to the Web site, and then an independent film that might’ve premiered at Sundance or one of the other film festivals.