Like the industry leader in sports television that created it, ESPN the Magazine is big, bold, and brash, using its oversize format to show off striking full-page images and splashy sidebars.It's not all flash, though: the magazine also gets contributions from familiar on-air talent such as Dan Patrick, Chris Berman, Stuart Scott, Peter Gammons, and John Clayton as well as the athletes themselves.The biweekly format doesn't allow for the minutiae that The Sporting News handles, so you'll get broader features--playoff previews, personality profiles, photo spreads--with an emphasis on basketball, football, baseball, hockey, and some extreme sports, though off-season coverage tends to be limited to a page or two.--David Horiuchi ... Read more

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Asin: B00005NIQ3
Subjects:  1. Entertainment    2. Sport & Leisure    3. TV (Television)   

Around nearly as along as the television has been in American homes, TV Guide has been the TV reference guide for generations. With weekly regional issues jammed with clear and organized listings of what plays when, it's a compact and dependable guide for everyone from leisure-time weekender to professional couch potato. TV Guide remains in step with the explosion of cable channels, as television becomes the prime destination for innumerable sporting events, movies, and music. In addition to the listings, the week in television is covered alongside features on the top personalities and trends: visit the set of The Sopranos, get up-close with Janet Jackson before her special hits the airwaves, or ready yourself for the upcoming NFL season. The most recognizable and bestselling magazine of its kind, TV Guide is ground zero for what's happening on television. --Doug Thomas ... Read more

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Asin: B00005NIMZ
Subjects:  1. Entertainment    2. Television   

What emerges is more than a collective liberal dream of an impassioned administration battling back ultra-conservative bogeymen ranging from the religious right to bigots to gun-toting militants. Wonderful episodes like "The Pilot" and "In Excelsis Deo" portray a government led by heroic, intelligent, and decent men and women. Whether or not one regards that as a political fantasy, it's a remarkably refreshing and appealing vision of politics and its practitioners, one that the public embraced with consistently strong television ratings. In a country whose citizens are used to viewing their elected leaders with mistrust and cynicism, that might be The West Wing's greatest accomplishment. --Eugene Wei ... Read more

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Asin: B00005JLF3
Subjects:  1. Television   

For years, animation buffs have waited impatiently for the Warner Bros.cartoons to appear on DVD. The Warner shorts never commanded the budgets andprestige of the Disney and MGM films, and won fewer Oscars than they deserved. Butdecades after the best ones were created, they remain the quintessentialHollywood cartoons: brash, fast-paced, aggressively funny and uniquely American.Virtually everyone in the U.S. under the age of 60 grew up on these films, intheaters and on TV. The 56 cartoons in the set (out of a studio output of over 1,000) weretransferred from good prints--which means the viewer can see dust, scratches, andoccasional mistakes by the cel painters. The films are all presented uncut, indefiance of the killjoys who have insisted on censoring alleged "violence" inthe versions shown on television. Warner Bros. is obviously testing consumer response with this set. Althoughthe erratic selection includes many classics, purists will argue (correctly)that it offers neither a fair representation of the directors' oeuvres,nor anything approaching a coherent history of the characters or studio style. (Nearly half the films were directed by Chuck Jones; only three are by BobClampett, and there's nothing by Tex Avery or Frank Tashlin.)But it seems petty to carp about omissions and biases when the discs offerexcellent, uncensored prints of some of the funniest films ever made in theU.S.--or anywhere else. (Rated G, suitable for all ages: cartoon violence)--Charles Solomon ... Read more

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Asin: B0000AYJXS
Subjects:  1. Feature Film Family   

It may share the same ZIP Code as its Tinseltown cousin Entertainment Weekly, but Premiere is a far different magazine, focusing less on gossip and more on the nuts and bolts that have helped Hollywood become a gigantic industry. Premiere tackles the big picture through articles like "Women in Film," "The Ultimate Summer Movie Guide," and "The Power List" of who's who in Hollywood. Premiere also offers a great variety of profiles, from movie stars to behind-the-scene players like grips and gaffers. Smart, unbiased reviews accompany each month's top movie releases, and the "In the Works" and "Home Guide" sections track films from creation to video release. Libby Gelman-Waxner adds humor with her indelible look at film from the fan's point of view. --Doug Thomas ... Read more

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Asin: B00005N7NT
Subjects:  1. Literary    2. Entertainment    3. Movies (Movie, Films, Film, Cinema)   

Divorce number 2 is immediately on the cards as the fifth season opens with "The One After Ross Says Rachel." As of this point, Ross's character undergoes some extreme personality changes (which apparently lost David Schwimmer many female fans). His incessant whining drives all the Friends to distraction, especially in "The One Where Ross Moves In" with Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Joey (Matt LeBlanc). Later things get uncomfortable both at work and at home when he goes through a period of rage ("The One with Ross's Sandwich"). While all this downplays his failed relationship with Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), the real idea is to allow focus on the secret pairing of Chandler and Monica (Courteney Cox) after a night of passion in London. This made for a return to the show's appealingly silly atmosphere as poor Joey is caught in the middle of everyone's secrets. Building to "The One Where Everybody Finds Out," the silliness pauses for some genuinely touching interplay between Perry and Cox. The previous year's semi-serious thread about Phoebe's (Lisa Kudrow) birth gets forgotten fast: to distract the viewer she's introduced to Gary (Michael Rapaport) in "The One with the Cop." This leads to some hilarious parodying with Phoebe interrogated about apartment hunting, and the guys excited and then scared in "The One with the Ride-Along." She's more than over him by the time of the two-part finale, "The One in Vegas," though, especially since she missed out on London. Just in case fans thought Chandler and Monica had permanently stolen the spotlight, a cliffhanger shocks expectation again with Ross and Rachel bursting out of a chapel.... --Paul Tonks ... Read more

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Asin: B0000C2IXN
Subjects:  1. Television   

Other narrative threads include Christopher's (Emmy nominee Michael Imperioli) descent into heroin addiction, Uncle Junior's (Dominic Chianese) trial, an unrequited and potentially fatal attraction between Carmela and Tony's driver Furio, and a rude joke about Johnny Sack's wife that has potentially fatal implications. Other indelible moments include Christopher's girlfriend Adriana's projectile reaction to discovering that her new best friend is an undercover FBI agent in the episode "No Show," Janice giving Ralph a shove out of their relationship in "Christopher," and the classic "Quasimodo/Nostradamus" exchange in the season-opener, which garnered HBO's highest ratings to date. Freed from the understandably high expectations for the fourth season, heightened by the 16-month hiatus, these episodes can be better appreciated on their own considerable merits. They are pivotal chapters in television's most novel saga. --Donald Liebenson ... Read more

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Asin: B00008PW1F
Subjects:  1. Television