The O’s end

 “The Oprah Winfrey Show” Wednesday 4pm, NBC29 After 25 seasons and more than 5,000 episodes, the Queen of Talk ends her award-winning talk show. It’s impossible to overstate Oprah Winfrey’s influence on modern American culture. Her show has been home to some major pop-culture moments. Ellen DeGeneres came out on her stage in 1997. Liberace […]

Checking in with Jim Zarling

What were you doing when we called? I was checking out baseball scores and sitting with my dog. I just got home from work. I have a part-time job at the University. I work for the transportation training academy, and we basically set up workshops for road crews, and we do construction and design classes, […]

Bridesmaids; R, 120 minutes; Regal Downtown Mall 6

Bridesmaids arrives at a grim moment in the history of filmed entertainment, when people are actually asking whether women can be funny in American movies—and whether big studios will let them. At such a low moment, there may be no choice but for women to reclaim the gross and raunchy comedy of bodily functions formerly […]

Epic disasters

“The Good Wife” Tuesday 10pm, CBS The future is uncertain for this critically acclaimed drama, which wraps up its sophomore season tonight. Ratings have never been great, but I hope it gets picked up for a third go-round, because it’s easily one of the more interesting shows on CBS’s procedural-dominated schedule. The amazing Julianna Margulies […]

Checking in with Shelby Fischer

What are you working on right now? My idea of fun is the more work the better. I was just invited to be in a show at Piedmont next February that’s going to be called “Sew What.” Recently I’ve moved my focus from paper collage to fabric. The inspiration for the fabric work comes from […]

Wives’ tales

“Smallville” Friday 8pm, CW After 10 seasons, this sci-fi drama about the teen who would become Superman wraps up with a double-sized series finale. “Smallville” started out with a novel concept, promising a “no tights, no flights” examination of the Superman myth filtered through the prism of mopey teen isolation. Over the years it got […]

Checking in with Dinah Gray

What were you doing when we called? I had just finished teaching a Pilates class. I started practicing Pilates when I had a dance teacher in high school who used it as part of our technique class, so when I moved to Charlottesville I went ahead and got trained to teach it. It’s a little […]

Merry melodies

“The Looney Tunes Show” Tuesday 8pm, Cartoon Network The old “Looney Tunes” cartoon shorts remain brilliant even decades after their original airings. Don’t believe me? Try watching any of those Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote clips. They just don’t make them like that anymore. Except they do! Cartoon Network is bringing back Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, […]