Elaine Line writes The TV Maven for JackMyers.com in addition to arts and media criticism for the Dallas Observer and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A graduate of Trinity University, with a master's from SMU, Liner teaches writing and criticism on the college level. For a decade she wrote for daily newspapers, including the Dallas Times Herald, Dallas Morning News, Corpus Christi Caller-Times and Toledo Blade. She currently is adapting material from her popular blog, The Phantom Professor, into a book. When she's not watching TV, reviewing live theater or feeding the blog machine, Liner also teaches water aerobics at a Dallas health club.

Blog Entries by Elaine Liner

Oprah Hits 2-0-0: Media Say "Oh, No, No!"

2 Comments | Posted December 10, 2008 | 11:11 AM (EST)


Oprah Winfrey has chubbed up again. She announced it on the cover of her own magazine with a big coverline quote: "How did I let this happen again?"

The news of her weight gain spread like butter on a hot skillet around the tabloids, gossip blogs and columns. They...

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Oh, Larry! Oh, Wendy! Can't TV Talk Be Better Than This?

Posted August 27, 2008 | 10:23 AM (EST)


More from the mouths of TV's worst interviewers:

Larry King, announcing the death of Dave Matthews band member LeRoi Moore, last week said the musician died "in a TV accident."

Actually, it was an ATV accident, as in all-terrain vehicle. Good one, Lar. His CNN talker is a TV accident...

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The Wendy Williams Show: Another Daytime Talker Offers Chewing Gum for the Mind

Posted August 21, 2008 | 09:27 AM (EST)


Wendy Williams has had her daytime talk show only five weeks, but she’s already getting boiled on The Soup.

The New York radio DJ is finishing her test run on five Fox stations—including the affiliate in Dallas, where I’ve been watching it—and has received a full series order. Her...

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TV Dilemma: When the Set Dies, What's a Maven to Do?

Posted August 1, 2008 | 09:54 AM (EST)


Without a working television, a TV Maven is a fisherman without a net. When my 13-year-old Sony Trinitron blinked twice and died two weeks ago, it was as if an old friend had passed away. Sony and I had spent many a television season together, surviving moves to three cities,...

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The Bachelorette: He Can Kayak, But Can DeAnna's Future Husband Do What Really Matters?

Posted July 7, 2008 | 09:38 AM (EST)


If DeAnna Pappas, this summer's Bachelorette on ABC, indeed finds a husband on the show, is she in for a big surprise. Smart women, with the possible exception of Cameron Diaz, don't judge potential life partners by their Jet Ski skills or how they kiss on horseback in the surf...

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