Word: air
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When ER goes off the air April 2, we will say goodbye to more than the medical staffers who have lived, loved and been tragically killed off for sweeps over the years. We will also say goodbye to the era of broadcast TV it represented: the era of big shows, big audiences and big money...
...viewer, the important question is, Are there better shows on TV or not? The answer is - and has been for years - yes. More important, the answer is yes for precisely the same reasons that the big broadcast networks are fading. (There's also more bad TV on the air because there's more of everything. Unless it bothers you that other people are watching bad TV, this is also not your problem...
...most obvious reason the small-TV era has made television better is the rise of cable. Even as Fox finds new hours on the clock to air American Idol, brilliant comedies and (especially) dramas on cable are flourishing - Breaking Bad, United States of Tara, In Treatment, Rescue Me and The Colbert Report, just for starters...
...less likely to make the next West Wing (or Knight Rider). But smaller shows survive that once wouldn't have lasted a season. Take NBC's finely detailed small-town drama Friday Night Lights, which draws as few as 4 million viewers a week. It was able to air a third season this year because NBC signed a cost-sharing deal with DirecTV - one of the very satellite providers that have helped atomize the audience...
...evening offers an intimate mixture of living-room conversation and informal recitals, with a heavy sprinkling of reminiscences about the Cape Town of old, where the jazz and carnival music filled the air of crowded polyglot neighborhoods...