Eric Deggans

Tv and Media Critic for the Saint Petersburg Times

Eric Deggans appears in the following:

4 More Things NBC Must Do To Save 'Meet The Press'

Monday, August 18, 2014

In keeping with its recent tradition of drawn-out, publicly humiliating anchor switches, NBC has finally admitted it is replacing Meet the Press host David Gregory with the network's political director, Chuck Todd, on Sept. 7.

The switch had been rumored for months, as it became increasingly obvious that the Gregory-led ...

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Don Draper? Tywin Lannister? These Aren't Your Father's TV Dads

Friday, August 15, 2014

As part of All Things Considered's series on Men in America, NPR's Eric Deggans considers the way television fatherhood has changed over the past five decades, from Ward Cleaver to Walter White.

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Robin Williams: A Supreme Talent Who Was Always On

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

For many years, Robin Williams seemed like a talent who had no off switch.

From his standup comedy work to TV roles to talk show appearances to Oscar-caliber movies and performances on Broadway, Williams was a dervish of comedy — tossing off one-liners, biting asides and sidesplitting routines in a ...

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'The Knick': Cinemax's Quality Play Opens Its Eyes To Race

Friday, August 08, 2014

Cinemax's The Knick is an amazing bit of TV filmmaking: a gritty look at a turn of the century hospital, with explicit scenes showing how brutal early discoveries in surgery and medicine must have been in the year 1900.

But as much as I savored director Steven Soderbergh's innovative way ...

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Modern Anthology Series Could Revolutionize Television

Wednesday, August 06, 2014

TV is reinventing the anthology with shows like Fargo, True Detective, and American Horror Story. Our TV critic examines what the form allows producers, writers and executives to do.

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'Sharknado' Part Deux: The Laughably Bad Epic Strikes Back

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Syfy channel has cornered the market on a new kind of film: a movie that's played completely straight, but constructed to look cheesy and easy to ridicule. The best example? Sharknado...

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'Purple Rain' Taught Me How To Be In A Band

Saturday, July 26, 2014

For Eric Deggans, Prince's movie wasn't just a spectacle. Sitting in a theater packed with kids his age, he saw Purple Rain as "a validation of the musical world I was already seeking out."

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U.N.: Second Black Box Found At Algerian Airliner Crash Site

Saturday, July 26, 2014

The data recorder was recovered from the Air Algerie AH5017 debris field in southern Mali. Investigators are linking Thursday's crash that killed 118 to bad weather.

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5 Things I Learned About TV's Future From The Critics Press Tour

Thursday, July 24, 2014

The voice came from over my shoulder, a shouted greeting in a room crowded with journalists, publicists, network executives, producers and stars.

I tuned to see David Boreanaz, star of the Fox TV show Bones, calling out to me like a long-lost friend. I knew he had mistaken me for ...

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Appreciating James Garner: TV's Best Unhero

Sunday, July 20, 2014

I didn't know, watching Isaac Hayes push James Garner around on The Rockford Files, that I was seeing a special character continue an important television legacy.

All I knew, as a devoted fan of Garner's put-upon private eye, was that Jim Rockford seemed like a kind of hero you never ...

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Viola Davis Gets Groundbreaking Role As ABC Bets On Diversity

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

She has won a Tony Award, been nominated for an Oscar and joined Time magazine's list of the most influential people in the world.

But until she was cast as sexy, hard-nosed attorney and law professor Annalise Keating on ABC's new drama How to Get Away with Murder, Viola Davis ...

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Asking Katherine Heigl The 'Difficult' Question At Press Tour

Monday, July 14, 2014

It may be the toughest task of all at a press tour in Los Angeles packed with TV critics from across the nation: How to ask a celebrity a tough question about her bad reputation without looking like a jerk yourself.

That moment surfaced for me Sunday, when trying to ...

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Snubs And Successes: 6 Lessons Learned From This Year's Emmy Nominations

Thursday, July 10, 2014

There are things you could quibble about in the array of nominations announced today for the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards.

No best drama series nomination for CBS' The Good Wife, though several stars got acting nods. No acting nomination for Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany, though she plays about eight ...

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Social Media Meltdowns Highlight The Power Of The Audience

Wednesday, July 09, 2014

At first glance, Adam Richman and Anthony Cumia might not seem to have much in common.

True enough, they are media stars who took a hard fall thanks to untoward comments on social media. Richman, a host on the Travel Channel, saw the debut of his new show delayed indefinitely ...

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Questlove And The Roots: How A Hip-Hop Band Conquered Late Night

Thursday, July 03, 2014

"It's strange to admit it, but this is kinda the job we were born for," Questlove says of his group's serving as house band for The Tonight Show.

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As The Anchor Chair Turns: A Glimpse At ABC News Past And Future

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

ABC News has announced major shakeups in its anchor lineup, as Diane Sawyer steps down from her perch as anchor of the network's evening news. What does her replacement say about the state of TV news?

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Diane Sawyer's 'World News' Departure Sets Off Big Changes At ABC News

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Diane Sawyer will leave her job as anchor of ABC News' flagship program, World News, during the last week of August, capping a five-year run at the show and kicking off an anchor shuffle at the network.

Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos, who was widely seen as Sawyer's likely ...

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'Freedom Summer' And 'The Watsons': Powerful TV About A Civil Rights Journey

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

This story in the "Book Your Trip" series features NPR TV critic Eric Deggans on two books turned TV shows about civil rights: PBS's Freedom Summer and Hallmark Channel's The Watsons Go to Birmingham.

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FX's 'Tyrant' Drowns An Opportunity For Nuance In Stereotypes

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

With Iraq spiraling out of control in a conflict where everyone involved has a compromised and troubling past, there's no better time for a TV series about the son of a brutal Middle Eastern dictator who returns home from America ready to oppose his father's tactics.

It's too bad that ...

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Sputtering On Fumes, 'True Blood' Has Outstayed Its Welcome

Friday, June 20, 2014

HBO's True Blood is a prime example of a TV show that kept going long after it should have ended. Why is it that some shows stay on air well after they've run out of creative juice?

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