By Jim McFarlin
Published: 11/11/2009
Types: Screens, Television
I count myself extremely fortunate to have been writing about television, and working in Los Angeles for long stretches, during the late '80s. I got wind that comedian Arsenio Hall was grooming his own syndicated late-night series, and since no other folks of color were hosting anything close to tha...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 10/28/2009
Types: Screens, Television
It's frightening the lengths to which some people will go to realize their dream. Lee Martin, the creator-producer-director-writer-host and namesake of Lee Martin's Midnight Hour, the made-in-Detroit horror anthology series that celebrates Halloween with a two-hour marathon of episodes from 9 to 11 ...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 10/14/2009
Types: Screens, Television
You may remember the mustache. TV talk hosts rarely sport fuzzy lips (potentially distracting to viewers, consultants tell 'em), but Jeffrey Miller's whiskers were tight, dashing and distinctive — just like the newsmaker interviews he conducted for a dozen years on the locally produced series ...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 9/23/2009
Types: Screens, Television
Well, what did we expect The Jay Leno Show was going to look like? Despite NBC's monumental hype and the months-long buzz suggesting fresh and different prime-time entertainment, last week's debut of Leno at Ten-o was startlingly identical to The Tonight Show from which he was unseated so the netwo...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 9/9/2009
Types: Screens, Television
When Jay Leno played the Palace last April, his stated purpose was to provide a "comedy stimulus plan" for unemployed Detroiters by appearing in concert for free, and no doubt his motives were sincere. But he was also here to rehearse for next week. The Hardest Working Man in Show Busines...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 8/26/2009
Types: Screens, Television
My friends, aware of my avocation, have been coming from all corners this month urging me to "Mad Men Myself" and create my swingin' '60s avatar alongside the cast of AMC's celebrated ad agency drama, as can be accomplished on the show's website. Reluctantly, I built my computerized doppel...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 8/12/2009
Types: Screens, Television
The answer is: U-S-A! U-S-A! The question up for discussion today is, which cable channel is best? And choosing between the pool of possible candidates is as subjective as deciding which act dominated last night's America's Got Talent. Those who read this idiot-box-watcher's opinions may have disce...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 7/29/2009
Types: Screens, Television
The Renaissance Center, a towering phallic symbol! The Joe Louis fist, suddenly a massive black dildo! And the Dodge Fountain at Hart Plaza? Oh, one can only imagine what wild sexual images that might suggest! Funny how your city's landmarks take on an entirely different symbolism when an HBO series...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 7/15/2009
Types: Screens, Television
If I had the pocket change in Jerry Bruckheimer's tailored slacks right now, I'd be livin' way too large to write this column. It's no exaggeration to suggest that few people in the history of TV have had more impact on its history than our impossibly successful Mumford High alum (an alma mater h...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 7/1/2009
Types: Screens, Television
I recently completed an extended work assignment for a college of nursing and got to know many nurses in professional and casual situations. TV has taken a few years to catch up to the notion that nursing's a booming and valuable profession worthy of dramatization, but clearly its time is here. Th...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 6/17/2009
Types: Screens, Television
America, you are cordially invited to witness the wedding of Miss Jaénelle Burnette and Mr. Nykolas Jones of Detroit at 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 23, 2009, at the Belle Isle Conservatory. RSVP not required. Gifts are optional, since the actual marriage took place 10 months ago. But what a receiving line ...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 6/3/2009
Types: Screens, Television
Ruminations of a professional vidiot … The most pressing challenge facing NBC this summer — besides trying to make The Jay Leno Show at 10 o'clock five nights a week not look like The Tonight Show Lite, so Conan O'Brien won't figure out he got screwed — is what to do about Chris Meloni ...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 5/13/2009
When it exploded on the scene, nobody gave it a Mine That Bird chance of winning TV's popularity derby. Its network had a biblically horrific record in late-night programming, its competition was too entrenched — legendary, even — and the branding device upon which it decided to ha...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 4/29/2009
TV hosts just ain't what they used to be. If Flavor Flav, Donald Trump and Dog the Bounty Hunter can star in their own series, and Octomom Nadya Suleman is negotiating for a reality program, why can't Monica Conyers have a show? The weekly Ask the Councilwoman exhibition, showcasing Detroit's ...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 4/8/2009
Types: Screens, Television
If there were as many cops on the street as on our TV sets, wouldn't we all feel better served and protected? Since the days our remote control also was known as Dad, television has had an incurable affliction for taking a popular genre and beating it to a pulp. Once it was medical dramas (now...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 3/25/2009
Types: Screens, Television
Television used to be so simple. The big networks (anybody remember when there were only three?) unveiled all their shiny new programs in September. Some would be hits. Most would fail. Then in January, they would trot out a mess of fill-in series to plug their open holes until summer, when re...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 3/11/2009
Bill Bonds may or may not be a classic, but there's no denying he's a doozy. "Got a second?" Detroit's most legendary TV newsman asks, laying down his phone to riffle through some papers. "Here's some names for you. Jimmy Hoffa. John F. Kennedy. Robert Kennedy. Ronald Reagan. George Wallace. R...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 2/25/2009
Is Dollhouse more like a house of cards?What monumental hype. What resounding disappointment. If you saw the same episodes of Joss Whedon's elaborate new future-shock action series I've watched the past two weeks (9 p.m. Fridays, FOX2 in Detroit), you have to wonder big-time about this show's ...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 2/4/2009
Dr. Benjamin Carson asks, "Did you recognize some of the places in Detroit?" — his voice a mixture of excitement and quiet satisfaction. Carson, chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore and arguably the world's most famous brain doctor, returned to ...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 1/14/2009
By today, most everybody in TV America knows what a Kara DioGuardi is. The fourth, newest, and most inexplicable judge of television's most popular part-time series, American Idol, made her debut Tuesday as the singfest returned with its hilarious, can't-miss "cattle call" audition phase ...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 12/31/2008
"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible ... who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time ... who still questions the power of our democracy ... tonight is your answer." And if anyone questioned the power of tele...[MORE]
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