• the onion

    Virginia Heffernan Finally Right, Onion News Network Loud and Shrill

    Brave Virginia Heffernan launched a brazen attack against The Onion in yesterday's New York Times Magazine, slamming the faux-news organization's year-old Onion News Network. Chagrined, one of the Network's biggest supporters fired back with the following volley: More »
  • the internet

    "The MySpace of My Youth"

    Is this generation of teens the first to grow up completely online? Hardly. Highbrow TV critic Virginia Heffernan was a MySpace teen before Myspace teens even existed, she reveals in this week's NYT mag. The year was 1983. The nascent online world: "primitive computer network" XCaliber. More »
  • you wouldn't understand

    Friday Night Lights and the Stupid People Who Don't Like It

    Virginia Heffernan (and supposedly other people) lives in constant dread that her beloved Friday Night Lights will be canceled. It's her favorite show but draws only half the viewers of many other, dumber shows. Heffernan, the our favorite breathless TV critic, mournfully parses the situation in the Times Magazine, and it's sort of like when your articulate but totally misguided friend explains why nobody's into her fiance. She chalks up the show's flop to the unwavering artistic integrity of its creators and a lack of sophistication that leads laypeople to reject high art, just like when Shakespeare wrote the totally under-appreciated first season and a half of Hamlet. Hey, remember the time Heffernan compared lonelygirl15 to Jane Austen? We sure do. [New York Times]
  • upfronts and personal

    Time For Jeff Zucker's Annual Apology For 'Joey'

    Each year, one of our only fave aspects of the upfronts—those fancy endless presentations where network executives and the occasional star prostrate themselves in front of advertisers and announce next season's schedule—is Virginia Heffernan's liveblogging of the events for the Times. More »
  • new york times

    Words In Ink On Dry Pulp Explain Internet

    Pity poor Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times, tasked with explaining the phenomenon of teen social networking sites in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings.
    The word loner has shown up regularly in the news media's descriptions of Mr. Cho, and it seems to have struck a chord with users of Facebook, for whom would-be friends—other users who respond to electronic overtures, often reciprocally—sometimes seem more numerous than strangers. (To those familiar with older connotations of the word "friend," a Facebook or MySpace friend might be better described as a "correspondent.")
    Say what you will about the Times, at least they understand the needs of their geriatric print readership. Stephen Holden, writing an appreciation of Kitty Carlisle Hart, gets off easy: You don't need to provide a lot of context for the folks who had tea and crumpets with the late grande dame. More »
  • virginia heffernan

    Coming Soon To Must-See TV: Jennifer 8. Lee Is Enough

    Last week we took note of Times TV critic Virginia Heffernan's close reading of The King of Queens. It turns out we weren't the only ones:
    [I]f you review that longest-running live-action sitcom, and you praise it, the creator with the super-wholesome reputation might even reveal his unsavory secret when he calls to say he thinks he named the couple of "The King of Queens" — Heffernan — when he saw your name in a magazine.
    This is where we'd make the joke about Emily Litella having been inspired by Alessandra Stanley, but we're pretty sure most of you are too young to remember who that is. So we're just gonna go with Clyde Haberman as the spark behind the Jerry Stiller character on Queens. More »
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