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Movies & TV: every article
48 articles, newest first.
23 September 202648 pieces
- Movies & TVWesterns Ranked by How They Actually Play on Family NightTwelve of the best, ordered by whether an eleven-year-old stays in the room, with the content concerns named up front.
- Movies & TVWatching Every Clint Eastwood Western From Rawhide to UnforgivenA viewing order, the content concerns said out loud, and why The Outlaw Josey Wales is the one to start your teenagers on.
- Movies & TVWhere to Start With Gunsmoke's 635 EpisodesTwenty seasons, one marshal, and no finale. A watch plan that gets you to the great stuff without doing twenty years of homework.
- Movies & TVTen John Wayne Films to Watch With Your Son, in OrderSkip The Searchers on night one. Start where an eleven-year-old can get in, and work up to the hard stuff.
- Movies & TVHappy Days Still Works and the Fonz Is the Reason WhyABC made Henry Winkler wear a gray windbreaker. Eleven seasons later, the leather jacket was in the Smithsonian.
- Movies & TVTwo Shows That Put God on Prime Time Without ApologizingMichael Landon and Roma Downey ran faith on network television for fourteen combined seasons. What they got right, what they fudged, and where to start.
- Movies & TVThe Lone Ranger Never Shot to Kill, and That Was the Point221 episodes, a masked man with silver bullets, and a set of writing rules that would get laughed out of a modern pitch meeting.
- Movies & TVStreaming the Old Westerns and Family Shows Without the JunkHalf the free copies floating around are fuzzy, cut short or colorized. Find the clean prints, and know which episodes to preview before the kids sit down.
- Movies & TVDon't Start Classic Family Shows at Episode OneThe pilots are the weakest part of almost every great old show. Nine classics, the episode to open with, and what to flag before the kids sit down.
- Movies & TVBonanza Still Teaches Fathers How to Raise SonsFourteen seasons, 431 episodes, a widower with three boys, and a code worth stealing. Where to start, and what to know before the kids sit down.
- Movies & TVDr. Quinn Medicine Woman Is Better Than You RememberSix seasons of frontier medicine, a three-year courtship and a town worth caring about, plus the content concerns nobody warns you about.
- Movies & TVWhat The Waltons Still Gets Right About Fathers and WorkNine seasons, a failing sawmill and a bedtime sign-off that became a national catchphrase. It holds up better than it has any right to.
- Movies & TVAndy Taylor and the Mayberry Kind of ManEight seasons, 249 episodes, and a sheriff who never had to raise his voice. Start with "Man in a Hurry" and watch your kids go quiet.
- Movies & TVWalker Texas Ranger Still Knows What a Good Man Looks LikeThe fights are telegraphed, the bad guys attack one at a time, and the show still gets more right about courage than most of what's on now.
- Movies & TVLittle House on the Prairie Still Holds Up Fifty Years OnNine seasons, 204 episodes, and one of the best fathers ever put on television. What to watch first, what to skip, and where the show gets soft.
- Movies & TVWayne, Cooper and Stewart Still Teach Manhood Better Than AnyoneThree actors, three models of being a man, and the films to start with — including the content you'll want to know about first.
- Movies & TVSports Movies Where the Game Is the Least Interesting PartThe scoreboard is a lie. These films are about what a man does when nobody's clapping, plus the content concerns before you press play.
- Movies & TVBand of Brothers Still Sets the Bar for War on TelevisionTwenty-plus years on, nothing has topped it. But eight other series come close, and here's exactly what's in each one before you press play.
- Movies & TVThe Greatest Westerns Ever Made, From Shane to Lonesome DoveA ranked canon with the content concerns named plainly, plus the case for why a 1953 movie about a homesteader still beats all comers.
- Movies & TVTV Shows You'll Actually Like With the Kids in the RoomTen series that hold a grown man's attention without clearing the living room, with the content concerns named up front and no guessing.
- Movies & TVFather and Son Movies, and the Right Age to Watch Each OneTen films that land, sorted by how old your boy needs to be, with the content concerns named up front so you're not fumbling for the remote.
- Movies & TVWhat Survival Movies Get Right and Where They'd Get You KilledHypothermia kills in hours, starvation takes weeks, and almost every movie on this list has the ratio backwards. Here's the good stuff anyway.
- Movies & TVThe Fifty Best Manly Movies Ever MadeOne a week for a year, with the content concerns named plainly so you know which ones the kids can sit in on.
- Movies & TVThe Old Action Movies That Still Work on a Modern ScreenYou can draw the floor plan of Nakatomi Plaza from memory. That's not nostalgia, that's filmmaking, and here's which ones earned it.
- Movies & TVShows Dad Picks That Nobody Has to Leave the Room ForNine series with enough grit to hold a grown man's attention and nothing that'll have you lunging for the remote at 8:40 on a Tuesday.
- Movies & TVThe Best Survival Movies and What They Get Wrong About Staying AliveEleven films worth your Friday night, sorted by how honest they're about cold, water and panic, with the content concerns named up front.
- Movies & TVThe Heist and Spy Classics Worth Clearing a Saturday ForTwelve picks, the content concerns named straight, and a running order that gets everybody home before midnight.
- Movies & TVThe Eighties and Nineties Action Movies That Still Hold UpReal stunts, real weight, and heroes who bleed. Twelve picks with the language and violence flagged before you press play.
- Movies & TVFifty Movies Every Man Should See at Least OnceA hundred hours of film, one list, and a plain content note on every title so you know what you're getting into before you press play.
- Movies & TVThe Christmas Movies Worth Watching Again Every DecemberA rotation you can lock in before Thanksgiving, with runtimes, plain content notes, and the deep cut nobody in your house has seen.
- Movies & TVThe American Biopics Actually Worth Your Saturday NightThirteen real lives on film, with runtimes, ratings, the content concerns named plainly, and which ones the kids can actually sit through.
- Movies & TVOld Movies Grandparents and Grandkids Can Actually FinishA working plan for the couch: which classics hold a seven-year-old, which ones need a warning first, and the fifteen-minute trick that beats black-and-white resistance.
- Movies & TVFather and Son Movies That Actually Hit HardTwelve films about fathers and sons worth a Saturday night, with the content concerns named up front and the right age for each.
- Movies & TVBuild a Home Theater Your Family Will Actually UseSpend the first four hundred dollars on sound, not screen size, and three other decisions that separate a real movie room from a pile of boxes.
- Movies & TVOld TV Shows That Still Work on Modern KidsWhat actually holds a nine-year-old's attention from 1960, what to preview first, and how to watch it without paying for four streaming services.
- Movies & TVSurvival Films Worth Pausing to Talk About With Your KidsWhat one man can do, another can do — and a handful of adventure movies that actually teach it, with the content concerns named up front.
- Movies & TVEight Classics and the Production Disasters Behind ThemThe shark didn't work, the Tin Man nearly died, and the snow was fire extinguisher foam. What went wrong on set often made the movie.
- Movies & TVHow Much TV Is Too Much for Your FamilyA workable household screen limit, the test that tells you when you've crossed it, and the two ugly weeks that come after you set one.
- Movies & TVFamily Movie Night Picks Your Teenagers Won't MockFifteen films that hold a sixteen-year-old and a forty-five-year-old at the same time, with the content concerns named up front.
- Movies & TVMovie Speeches That Still Work, and WhySeven scenes worth rewatching with your family, and the mechanics underneath them that you can steal for a toast, a locker room, or a hard conversation.
- Movies & TVWhat Your Streaming Bill Is Actually Buying YouSix subscriptions at fifteen bucks a month is over a thousand dollars a year. Here's how to cut that in half without losing a single show you care about.
- Movies & TVThe Best Sports Movies Ever Made, RankedFourteen films worth a Friday night, ranked, with the content concerns named up front so nobody has to lunge for the remote.
- Movies & TVDate Night Movies You and Your Wife Will Both FinishThirteen films that hold up for both of you, with the content concerns named up front and a system for picking one before 9 p.m.
- Movies & TVThe Classic Movies Your Kids Should See Before ThirteenAn age-by-age viewing ladder, with the content concerns named up front and the ones that will lose a kid in six minutes flagged.
- Movies & TVEight Documentaries Worth Canceling Your Evening ForReal footage, real people, no narrator telling you what to think. Content concerns named up front so you know what you're putting on.
- Movies & TVVet a Movie in Eight Minutes Before Family NightThe rating letter tells you almost nothing. The one-line reason underneath it, plus four free tools, tells you everything.
- Movies & TVClean Comedies That Are Actually FunnySeventy years of proof that a comedy doesn't need to be filthy to work, plus the content warnings the streaming apps never bother to give you.
- Movies & TVThe Westerns Every Man Should Watch At Least OnceStart with 85 minutes of Gary Cooper, end with a six-hour cattle drive, and know exactly which ones you can put on with the kids in the room.