Home Box Office Inc.

On Sunday night, Jan. 6, HBO will broadcast the first episode of the fifth, and last, season of The Wire. To assure fans: The show continues to offer perhaps the most loving and damning portrait of Baltimore ever put to film, from the cops to the teachers to the drug dealers to the politicians who make that city the charming disaster that it is. And as a bonus, a parade of favorites from past seasons (hey, was that Nicky Sobotka?) will be trotted past, like perps on a walk, before the final goodbye.  read more »

Thanks to on-demand viewership, TV programming honchos really need to come up with something good th  read more »

Laurence Mark, producer of Dreamgirls, carried his Golden Globe in one hand as he made the congratul  read more »

At 3 p.m. on Dec.  read more »

Wayne Baker and Meredith Ronayne   Met: June 5, 2005 Engaged: Aug. 24, 2006  read more »

Last night at my friend Dave's I watched the Fox hit Prison Break and was stunned to find out that there were no black guys in the prison. Well a couple maybe. In order to glamorize its grim setting and avoid hairy racial politics, Fox chose to whitefy the prison. Unrealistically, of course. Black actors should be pissed.

The larger point is that the only way blacks seem to make it on television as an ensemble is playing sports or on a comedy. The great dramas that have gripped television culture in the last ten years are white. The HBO all-you-can-eat tables of American life, Six Feet Under, Sopranos, Big Love, Deadwood and so on, are white. I guess only white people have dark currents and struggles in their lives. Or more likely, we're scared of those currents, are conflicted about blacks and crime. I'm told that Deadwood creator David Milch wanted to do a 60s black radical drama, which given his track record would surely be startling and loving and black to the eyeballs, but I'm still waiting.

I guess the old racist line, Darkies just like to dance and sing, is still alive. Now they just like to play ball and make jokes.

Today The New York Times announced it will take the opportunity to cash out its $100-million investment in the Discovery Times channel. "[I]t has become clear that our investment dollar is better spent developing video for our own nytimes.com," says the memo, reproduced below.

In the April 10 issue, the Observer reported, based on documents obtained by the Rocky Mountain News, that the Times might take advantage of a window in its agreement with Discovery Communications that would allow the paper to sell its stake.  read more »

This column is not about the HBO series Big Love.  read more »

This column is not about the HBO series Big Love.  read more »

At 9 a.m.  read more »

HBO’s new polygamy drama, Big Love, opens in a sunlit suburban bedroom, with a man and his wife qu  read more »

HBO’s new polygamy drama, Big Love, opens in a sunlit suburban bedroom, with a man and his wif  read more »

“This whole mess that we’re all in, called being alive, is just a fascinating dilemma,” said S  read more »

“This whole mess that we’re all in, called being alive, is just a fascinating dilemma,&r  read more »

If you like these acclaimed HBO programs, you might like these recent articles from The New York Times: The Wire: Police Chief Sees Drug Toll With Father's Eyes, by James Dao and Gary Gately, August 24, 2005. The Sopranos: Gotti Family Blood Brother Is Witness for Government, by Julia Preston, August 24, 2005. Six Feet Under: Eco-Friendly Burial Sites Give a Chance to Be Green Forever, by Patricia Leigh Brown, August 13, 2005. Sex and the City: Reader, I Dated Him, by Stephanie Rosenbloom, July 24, 2005. —Matt Haber  read more »

I hate feet. I hate them in theory and in practice.  read more »

Attention, all of you out there with Adjustment Problems, with Bad People Skills.  read more »

"The show we're doing has no precedent in American television history," declared Louis C.K., the 37-  read more »

On the evening of Wednesday, March 23, the members of the independent film world gathered to toast t  read more »

Wednesday 16th Lam I am!  read more »

"I'm very excited about this," said David Cross, the 40-year-old comedian and TV actor.  read more »

In December 2002, James Gandolfini, who plays brooding Tony Soprano on the HBO mob drama The Soprano  read more »

Stuart Stevens, a Republican strategist and co-producer working with actor George Clooney and direct  read more »

I seldom write about television, but when the best movie of the week is on the little screen instead  read more »

Wednesday, Dec. 18Just think: A year ago, Rosie O'Donnell still had a TV show.  read more »

Wednesday, Nov. 13Don't be fooled by that rockin' that he got / He's still Al. Go from the block!  read more »

Wednesday, Sept.  read more »

Wednesday 11th City takes deep breath today and tries to figure out how to handle the anniversa  read more »

Wednesday 7th How're ya liking August?  read more »

After just two weekends of filming, HBO has pulled the plug on a planned documentary about five gay  read more »

"Is warlike Spain hatching a plot?"You ask me anxiously. "And what

Of Scythia?" My dear Quinctius,  read more »

WEDNESDAY, MAR.  read more »

Wednesday, feb. 27It's Grammy Time-and boy, oh boy, snooze city !  read more »

Now that - can we say it?  read more »

Another Victim Claims a Run-in With A.J.  read more »

A lot of us know how Tony Soprano feels. His world seems to be coming apart.  read more »

Wednesday, April 25Those Puritan lunatics from Washington are at it again, trying to wreck your life  read more »

Who can resist a bargain?  read more »

When Lisa Fragner arrived in New York one year ago to take the reins as director of East Coast produ  read more »

The news landed like a Phil Simms long bomb in the lobby of the Sherry-Netherland Hotel, the grand o  read more »

Forget that alluring e-book.  read more »

This week's U.S.  read more »

"It's like a Super Bowl for lesbians!" shouted Marie Fiorino into the phone at Henrietta Hudson, the  read more »

On Jan.  read more »

Wednesday, Oct. 13Andrew Paquette and James Hudnall are a couple of comic book geeks.  read more »

Wednesday, March 24Don't hold your breath for new episodes of Mr.  read more »

''You know, you're a special guy," Don King told me.  read more »

Wednesday, August 5Patricia Fili-Krushel.  read more »

Wednesday, July 22 Don Imus sits down with Larry King Live .  read more »

Peter Bogdanovich's Movie of the Week In 1970–a decade before the video cassette age–Orson Welle  read more »