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The worst fall TV season I’ve had to review

September 16, 2013 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

That’s right, I said it.

Nevertheless, here’s what I’ve been up to since late summer — trying to find something, anything to say about the new crop of fall shows from the broadcast and cable networks. I didn’t give any A’s this year and a whole lot of D’s and F’s — and, yes, I did a self-reflective moment to make sure I wasn’t just wearing an extra-cranky pair of crankypants. This year’s season gets a 1.88 GPA, which, in my book, equals academic probation, right?

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: criticism, Hank Stuever, Style section, TV reviews, TV reviews Fall 2013, Washington Post, writing reviews

Toob

February 5, 2013 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

Sorry to have made it seem that I once again abandoned this blog. After I left Montana, I was on the road for 37-38 days (depending on how you add it up), with a lot of stops along the way. I’m back in D.C. now.

While criss-crossing America, I also went back to my job as TV critic at The Washington Post, filing a heap of TV reviews from hither and yon, mostly yon.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Hank Stuever, Hank Stuever TV reviews, Style section, television, TV reviews, Washington Post

Another year, another List

January 2, 2013 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

Monica Hesse and Dan Zak’s 2013 edition of The Washington Post’s annual List is out, and it’s a good one.

This is the 35th year that the Style section has put out an “in/out” List, a tradition begun by Nina Hyde and Jura Koncius in 1978. It was my great pleasure (and huge headache) to pen The List in 2000 and then from 2003-2009. It is my greater pleasure that Dan and Monica are now in charge of doing it. Like anything worthwhile, it’s much harder than it looks.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: #TheList2013, Dan Zak, Monica Hesse, newspapers, Style section, The List, Washington Post, Washington Post in and out list, writing

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Nov. 26 — name of dog, brand of beer

November 26, 2012 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

On Monday, we finished up critiquing the Nov. 7 scene stories. For my general diagnoses of these stories as a whole, please see the Nov. 19 recap. Meanwhile, here are excerpts from the three stories that I liked best, and why. (I haven’t fixed anything — the copy you’ll read here is exactly as it was filed to me.)

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 000 Silver Dollar, 50, Allison Bye, Bob Barker, Eben Keller, Eben Wragge-Keller, Gene Weingarten, gold party, Hank Stuever, Jour494, Journalism 494, Maryland House, Pollner professor, Price is Right, Style section, T. Anthony Pollner, Tom Holm, University of Montana School of Journalism, Vanity Fair Oscar party, Washington Post, William Booth, writing

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recaps for Nov. 5 and 7 — Weingarten week!

November 11, 2012 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

Sorry for the delay in recapping. You can tell that the semester has reached the frenzy point here at the School of Journalism. My crew in the Pollner seminar (aka this class) is spread so thin that you can hear the knives clanking in their mayonnaise jars; just being around them makes me vicariously exhausted. I remember this part of college quite well: all the term papers coming due at once, the looming finals, the registration (and graduation) deadlines for next semester, and the inescapable realization that the student newspaper still has to come out. A good number of my students went to Helena on Tuesday to cover election night for their advanced reporting classes, but managed to return, bleary-eyed, in time for our Wednesday Skype session with the multi-Pulitzered Gene Weingarten. (Depicted above, as he is every Sunday in the Washington Post Magazine, by illustrator Eric Shansby.)

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: armpit of America, Battle Mountain Nevada, Esquire, Fred Rogers, Gene Weingarten, Joan Didion, Jour494, Popular Culture Journalism class, Shar Peterson, Ted Prus, The Fiddler in the Subway, Tom Junod, University of Montana School of Journalism, Washington Post

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 24 — television without pity

October 25, 2012 by Hank Stuever 1 Comment

Busy class on Wednesday. We finished up critiquing the personal essay riffs: Dustin on “Lost”; Cody on “The Gong Show” reruns; Ashley on “Supernatural” and boy bands; Allison on “The Office’s” Jim & Pam romance; and Carli on loving the ’80s, even though she missed the ’80s entirely. Good discussions.

Then we talked about progress (frustrations, too) on scene stories. Sounds mostly good; some are still casting about for the right scene to go cover. Not quite time to panic yet — still about 10 days to figure it out, report it out, and file by Nov. 7. Somehow we still managed to talk for half an hour about who/what/where/when/why/how and pitch some more ideas. Come by and see me if you’re having problems.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: David Finkel, David Finkel story about family who watches television, Jour494, Journalism 494, Pollner professor, Popular Culture Journalism class, University of Montana School of Journalism, Washington Post

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 22 — personal essay critiques

October 23, 2012 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

Although I didn’t plan it this way, it worked out nicely that Monday’s critique session in class was the day Alice Thorpe came to visit Journalism 494. Alice is the mother of Anthony Pollner, the Montana alum in whose memory all of this happens. She came from New York for her annual trip to visit the J-school, the students, and hear the Pollner professor’s big lecture. We were delighted to see her.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Billie Loewen, Carli Krueger, David Finkel, David Finkel story about family who watches television, Donelle Weston, Eben Keller, H. Neil Sauer, Hank Stuever, Heather Jurva, Jour494, Montana Kaimin, Pollner professor, Tom Holm, University of Montana School of Journalism, Washington Post, writing

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Sept. 24 — scene stories

September 27, 2012 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

Tampa Bay Times

We’re a month into the semester, the pace is quickening, and the Pollner class is turning into a bit of a juggling lesson. On Wednesday, we’re going to be group-critiquing the reported essays. (Professor Stuever is also grappling with something he hasn’t thought one bit about since he left college: grades. How to grade? There’s a horrible tug between needing to be tough and wanting to be kind. You’d think three years of eviscerating TV shows would lend itself to grading 17 essays. You’d be wrong. I have to factor in hopes and dreams here.)

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Dan Zak, Hank Stuever, journalism, Journalism 494, Michael Kruse, Monica Hesse, Pollner professor, Popular Culture Journalism class, Prince Harry, Tampa Bay Times, University of Montana School of Journalism, Washington Post, writing

Too much about the tube of plenty

September 14, 2012 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

Call the midwife! I’ve once again assisted in the birth of another FALL TV ISSUE (would you believe my fourth?). You can read every last bit of it online by going here. But if you’re in Washington, won’t you do us the kindness of buying a paper? This year included reviews of all the new scripted shows, as usual– 22 of them, not technically all if you count that new Scott Baio comedy on cable and other morsels buried deep down on the program grids.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Allie Ghaman, Allison Ghaman, criticism, Emily Yahr, Fall 2012 TV shows, Hank Stuever reviews fall TV shows, Joe Heim, Johanna Goodman, journalism, Lynn Medford, Marie Elizabeth Oliver, Maura Judkis, Style section, Television Critics Association, TV critic, Washington Post, Zack Davenport

Montana!

August 27, 2012 by Hank Stuever 6 Comments

Let me bring you up to speed and then slow it way down:

I’ve left D.C. behind for the next four months and driven 2,500 miles to beautiful Missoula, Mont., to be the 2012 T. Anthony Pollner Professor at the University of Montana’s excellent School of Journalism. The professorship is the gift of the Pollner family, in memory of their son and brother, who graduated from Montana in 1999 and was — like so many of us — a committed (and talented) journalism junkie. Since 2001, the School of Journalism has invited a professional working journalist/author to come live here each fall and teach a seminar course of his or her own design. The Pollner professor is also on hand to help advise (in a casual way) the staff of the student-run paper, the Kaimin, which publishes four days a week. I’ll also be giving a public lecture on Oct. 22.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: books, Gene Weingarten, George W.S. Trow, journalism, Journalism 494, Missoula, Montana, Montana Kaimin, Montana School of Journalism, Pollner professor, Popular Culture Journalism, T. Anthony Pollner, The Fiddler in the Subway, University of Montana, Washington Post, Within the Context of No Context, writing

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