I, Claudius

Where would we be without the Romans' contributions to civilization? The Latin alphabet! The aqueduct! And, of course, the respectable public-TV orgy! This seamily intellectual 1976 miniseries about Rome's stuttering-but-savvy fourth emperor established what would become HBO's modus operandi, and not just because it tread similar ground to Rome or because it happened to involve a certain conniving mother named Livia. It proved that the lofty and the sordid were not mutually exclusive, by offering a politically acute version of history that also showed us what happened when the togas came off.

















Tom Friedman
Pictures of the Week
Updating Beverly Hills, 90210
Review: I Served the King of England
The Web's Word: Obama Is Not the Antichrist
Can Yahoo! Fix the Buzz Problem?
The Sour State of Florida Citrus
Joel Stein Karaoke Speechmaker
Drug May Lower Cerebral Palsy Risk
Nerd vs. Tiger: Guess Who Wins?