Last night, Katie Couric made her CBS Evening News debut. Overall, the newscast was perfectly fine - no banter, a long Lara Logan feature on going in Taliban-run Afghanistatn, an interview (sorta like The Daily Show, just without the humor) with the NY Times' Thomas L. Friedman, a segment from Morgan "30 Days" Spurlock, and what the public has really been waiting for, pictures of baby Suri Cruise (she has a crazy head of hair!).......

With just two new episodes so far this season, the NY Post wonders if Saturday Night Live is really dead. It's a good, if evergreen question. Horatio Sanz is certainly no Tina Fey during Weekend Update, though Gothamist has been impressed he's been able to hold it together this long. With Maya Rudoph's pregnancy, it seems like most sketches with a female character involve Amy Poehler (who rules, but maybe she needs a break). There......

The reviews are out, and Chris Rock is getting a mixed bag of feedback for his duties as the MC of the Oscars. The NY Daily News' David Bianculli says he wasn't edgy or funny enough, Variety says his opening monologue was great (subscription required), the Hollywood Reporter says that Rock wasn't on a roll, and the Washington Post's Tom Shales says Rock was strangely lame and mean-spirited. Gothamist wonders if there's a generational divide......

The pundits are talking about how Senator Kerry seemed "presidential" and how President Bush only had thirty minutes of material, as the respective presidential aides are trying to spin that their candidate won the debate. Our thoughts: John Kerry was solid, strong and articulate, even if he's kind of a bore, while President Bush, though very approachable, unraveled towards the end - he was Pausey McPausepants. Not that everyone can be a smooth talker,......

The new fall TV season has started, and it's almost as if Gothamist didn't notice. We can't say for sure if it's that we're used to the hundreds of cable channels that are catered to our whims, our love for DVDs, or spending too much time blogging, but the new fall season just seems like a formality. Seinfeld came on in the midseason, as did Twin Peaks; Melrose Place was the first big summer premiere......

A few major telelvision critics weigh in about the Democratic National Convention coverage so far: The Daily News' David Bianculli like old footage of Tom Brokaw on the convention floor in 1976 (the election is Brokaw's swan song, before he retires) but didn't like how CNN showed the empty seats at the Fleet Center; he also notes that Fox News covered the disappearance of pregnant Lori Hacking a lot. The Washington Post's Tom Shales thought......

Ah, to see our city's tabloids on the opposite sides of a table. Headline check: The Daily News goes for the literal, while the Post recalls a tune (although it seems backhanded, since the song is "The Lady is a Tramp). The Times' David Sanger says Condoleeza Rice sticks to the script while the Washington Post's Tom Shales says she could have done the whole testimony with "a teacup and saucer on her head. She's......

HBO has been hyping their $60 million epic film, Angels in America, for weeks and weeks, and it seems that the hype of seeing Tony Kushner's Pulitzer and Tony–winning play on screen, directed by Mike Nichols, with performances by Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, Mary Louise Parker, and Jeffrey Wright is justified. Gothamist read Angels in America ten years ago, so we've been eagerly awaiting the adaptation (buy Angels in America: The Millennium......

How could people think that a cable movie version of Caesar would be a good idea? Just looking at photos of Chris Noth as Pompey in TNT's Caesar makes Gothamist seriously rethink the idea of a Roman Empire. And Jeremy Sisto, is he the new go-to man for TV and cable biopics about leaders many millennia ago? Tom Shales describes Chris Noth as looking "like a cross between Dean Martin and Sylvester Stallone, both drunk."......

Gothamist finally has the Harry Potter book, so now we can turn our attention to Sex (and the City). Gothamist enjoyed last night's episode, "To Market, to market," but we were thrown by the appearance of little Tate(r). (Good plot twist, writers!) So we researched and in fact, the last Aidan episode did appear in was January 2002, so there was adequate time for a Tater in the oven and then Tater in a papoose.......

The curmudgeon Gothamist would like to be, Larry David, speaks with Bob Costas tonight on On the Record with Bob Costas. David doesn't often give interviews (mainly because he doesn't have to), so it should be interesting to hear him riff. He'll tell the infamous story about quitting-Saturday-Night-Live but-returning-to -work-after-freaking-out -about-the-ramifications story that became the basis for The Revenge episode of Seinfeld where George does the same thing. Apparently, the real Kramer told David......

A high school musical Gothamist would pay to see: Point Loma High School in San Diego has created a musical based on Winona Ryder's shoplisting trial. Called "Sticky Fingers," the musical is about "a missile-factory employee and tango dancer who travels to Rodeo Drive, where she has a fateful meeting with her idol, Ryder, at Saks. The department store donated shopping bags for the set." We'd like to see this musical make it's way to......

When Tom Brokaw reported that White House officials said that many of the images from President Bush's speech last night, aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, would appear in re-election commercials, it became clear that's what this speech was: Ostensibly to talk about Iraq, but really the first stump speech Bush is giving. And the setting alone was artful and dramatic. Forget the speech, his Bush's handlers and the Republican party seized an awesome moment:......

This Reebok by the Arnell Group is okay at communicating the Reebok part, but the story is awesome. Terry Tate, a football player, is hired by a company to improve office productivity. Big up to the Arnell creatives for the "TPS cover sheet" shout out. Even Tom Shales liked it, I think. Learn more about Terry Tate and watch his other films. For your own TPS report cover sheet.......

Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales, arguably the most influential/feared TV critic today, on the media and the DC sniper wp article......