Wednesday, December 04, 2019


Mark Bianculli, son of former BJ TV critic David Bianculli, is co-producer/writer of “Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector,” a crime series that NBC will premiere as a 2020 midseason replacement.

Russell Hornsby plays Lincoln Rhyme, a retired paraplegic forensic criminologist who continues his work remotely to help NYPD detectives, played by Arielle Kebbel and Michael Imperioli, solve cases.

The TV series is based on “The Bone Collector” novel by Jeffery Deaver.

Mark has been making his mark (sorry about the pun) as a writer and, now, a writer-producer.

As for his father, David Bianculli, he tormented me repeatedly when I was his Television Editor at Ol’ Blue Walls, entertaining the newsroom with his antics that included dancing on his desk as deadline approached. Brilliant writer. Not so special at meeting deadlines.

David is the founder and editor-in-chief of the website TVWorthWatching.com, and an associate professor of TV and film history at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.

David skipped into the BJ newsroom from the Fort Lauderdale News-Sentinel, where David spend his official childhood, then danced into the Philadelphia Inquirer and New York Post before bouncing off to the New York Daily News and then sauntering away into the academic world. The University of Florida graduate also has been contributing to National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” for a zillion years.

I have had extraordinary luck during my 42-year newspaper career. Hall of Famers crossed my path regularly.

As Television Editor, I began with Bianculli as we gave birth to Channels, the now-defunct weekly television guide that ushered the BJ into the computer technology age and the expansion of cable and TV that rivaled the Big Bang of the universe.
When David headed for bigger things in Philly and New York, Mark Dawidziak, the man from Tennessee by way of New York City, became my next TV critic.
Mark since has written more books than I can count, about Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, Columbo, etc. and, I think, rivals Hal Holbrook in doing Twain for his Mostly Literary Theatre Company. And still is a pop culture critic, at the PD.
Next came Rich Heldenfels, who in the beginning refused to change his byline to that name from his R.D. Heldenfels when he came to 44 E. Exchange Street.
Rich – I’m allowed to call him that now – retired from the BJ but still collects checks for answering TV trivia questions that are distributed by Tribune News Service.

When I was second in command at the Dayton Daily News I worked under legendary Sports Editor Si Burick, who was named sports columnist of the year in Ohio so often that they should have just named the trophy after him.
Much like my 20-year Blue Room munch partner, Bob Dyer, has done with the Ohio Columnist of the Year award.

At the St. Petersburg Times I got ushered into the office of owner/publisher/everything Nelson Poynter, along with all the other recent hires. He was a big deal in newspapers, too.

But Poynter, in my mind, stands in a far more giant shadow in John S. Knight, probably the best newspaper owner in American history.
And I was hired by Ben Maidenburg, another giant, even though Ben knew I had been fired in Dayton, after 13 years, for my union activities. Ben’s advice: “Pick a side, and stick with it.”

But I disgress.
This is about David Bianculli’s son, Mark Bianculli, who may well make his father look like a piker when it comes to careers. And that’s what every father wants, including me, for his children to far excel what their parents have achieved.

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