Amc

To each generation its poets. For that sliver of a generation sandwiched between baby boomers and Generation X'ers - outside of the luxuriant lyricism of Dylan and Springsteen and the brutal provocations of punk and rap - there's Mark Eitzel and the American Music Club. Looking like low-budget extras in Reservoir Dogs, the San Francisco band played the 23 East Cabaret in Ardmore on Thursday night. And with a rich tapestry of sound that wove mournful pedal-steel and acoustic guitars with surging electric rock, it delivered a set that was nothing less than spellbinding.

NEW YORK - Mary Fickett, who played compassionate nurse Ruth Martin on ABC's "All My Children," has died at age 83. The veteran daytime drama star died Thursday at her home in Virginia, the network said. Fickett was an original cast member of "All My Children," which premiered in 1970, and for decades she appeared alongside Ray MacDonnell, who played her on-screen husband, Dr. Joe Martin, in the fictional town of Pine Valley, Pa. She retired from the show in 2000. In 1973, she became the first performer to receive an Emmy for work on a daytime soap opera.

THE WALKING DEAD. 10 p.m. tomorrow, AMC. AMC has become the TV home for tales of a lone man in the midst of personal turmoil, from "Mad Men"'s crisis-challenged Don Draper to "Breaking Bad's" cancer-stricken meth dealer Walter White to "Rubicon's" perma-paranoid Will Travers. But none of these guys battle zombies. AMC's newest foray into original programming is "The Walking Dead," based on the Image comic created by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore. And viewers beware: This is a new breed of horror television.

AMC's Rubicon : Lots of puzzles wrapped in who-knows-what-enigmas, with sparing doses of mayhem, suspense, and character. The once-blessed AMC cable channel adds to its stable of two stunning series ( Mad Men and Breaking Bad ) with a giant conspiracy show that will dilute the brand. But that was pretty much inevitable. MM and BB may be grand-slam home runs, but even Ty Cobb struck out occasionally. Rubicon , premiering Sunday with two episodes from 8 to 10 p.m., is no strikeout.

One of the vastly underrated joys of cable TV is a programming service that offers no news, no sports, no original movies, no music videos, only one old TV series, the occasional documentary and, best of all, no ads. For the bulk of its 104 1/2-hour broadcast week, American Movie Classics is just what the name suggests - all movies, all oldies, all the time. Not that movies are all that difficult to find on TV, especially if your budget permits the luxury of premium services like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Disney, Bravo or the Movie Channel.

* THE WALKING DEAD. 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC. * COMIC BOOK MEN. 10 p.m. Sunday, AMC. IN THE AGE of the DVR, caring about audience flow is supposed to be, well, so 2007. We record what we want, we watch when we can. AMC must not have gotten the memo, because starting Sunday it's following the return of "The Walking Dead" with the premiere of Kevin Smith's "Comic Book Men. " It might look like a match made in geek heaven, but it's more than the pairing of a show based on a comic book series with one about the people who buy, sell and obsess about comics.

Township and school district officials have confirmed that representatives from American Multi-Cinema Inc. are interested in building a movie theater complex on property owned by the district. "There's been a contact made with the school district at this point," said district solicitor Charles Potash. "There would appear to be something in the nature of a proposal. " Township commissioner Eric Kretschman confirmed that AMC is considering building a 24-screen movie theater on Morrison Tract, 20 acres behind Abington High School at Easton Road and Charles Street.

SO MUCH television, so little time: Even if zombies didn't already make me nervous - when you're a TV critic, you don't need anything else nibbling away at your brain - the ratings for Sunday's premiere of AMC's "The Walking Dead" would probably have caused a slight shudder. I don't begrudge AMC a single one of the 5.3 million viewers who tuned in for Frank Durabont's smart but grisly adaptation of the Robert Kirkman comic-book series, which really begins to get interesting (for me, at least)

The Bryn Mawr Theater, which has served Main Line moviegoers for 70 years, will shut down for at least two weeks while a new organization takes over operations. The AMC chain, which has run the theater since 1987, will not renew its lease at the end of the month. Several industry sources say United Artists Theater Circuit, which runs the Wynnewood and Ardmore Theaters, intends to take over the Bryn Mawr. UA has announced plans for a six-screen theater complex in Manayunk, just across the Schuylkill from the Main Line.

The Air Force has formally announced that it is moving the Northeast gateway for its Air Mobility Command (AMC) passenger flights from Philadelphia International Airport to Baltimore/Washington International Airport. The move, which Philadelphia officials had anticipated since spring, was made primarily because military-base closures mean the military population in the Baltimore and Washington areas is now larger than it is here, Air Force officials said. The decision was made official Sept.

This is what passes for a crisis in the lives of TV critics: Each year about this time (well, except for the terrible Mad Men drought of 2011 - about which the less said the better), they're sent a disc with the first few hours of the new Mad Men season. The problem is that it invariably arrives with a note from the show's haughty creator, Matt Weiner, spelling out the details and plot points he strongly requests not be revealed. There follows an inventory of taboo subjects longer than the packing list for your kids' summer camp.

* MAD MEN. 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC. Returns to 10 p.m. April 14. TIMES CHANGE, people mostly don't. Especially on "Mad Men. " Which is why it doesn't matter that Matthew Weiner, creator of AMC's set-in-the-'60s series, is again asking critics not to mention what year it is when the show returns Sunday for its sixth season. Several other things are being withheld, some of which matter even less, except to make the writing of reviews more awkward than usual. But I've no problem letting fans do their own Google searches to fix ad man Don Draper (Jon Hamm)

The Danish are apparently a patient, good-natured people. You can take them through a lengthy, twisty mystery like Forbrydelsen (the TV series from which AMC's The Killing was adapted) and at the very end reveal nothing. In Denmark, they sit back, laugh jovially, and say, "Oh, you got me good that time, Magnus. I didn't see that one not coming. " Here in America, we're more demanding. When the catchphrase and advertising slogan of your series is "Who killed Rosie Larsen?", at the end of 12 moody, rain-drenched hours we firmly expect to know the identity of the culprit.

AMC's The Killing , returning for its second season on April 1, has been called one of TV's most original murder mysteries. Its intricate story structure is unique, following a single murder case - the abduction and murder of high school student Rosie Larsen - over two 13-episode seasons. Its hero is one of a kind, an obsessive, monomaniacal, lone-wolf detective. But it isn't original at all: The Killing is a remake, a copy, of the Danish mystery Forbrydelsen (literally, "the crime")

* THE WALKING DEAD. 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC. * COMIC BOOK MEN. 10 p.m. Sunday, AMC. IN THE AGE of the DVR, caring about audience flow is supposed to be, well, so 2007. We record what we want, we watch when we can. AMC must not have gotten the memo, because starting Sunday it's following the return of "The Walking Dead" with the premiere of Kevin Smith's "Comic Book Men. " It might look like a match made in geek heaven, but it's more than the pairing of a show based on a comic book series with one about the people who buy, sell and obsess about comics.

* HELL ON WHEELS. 10 p.m. Sunday, AMC. SET A SERIES in a lawless, ever-changing outpost in the post-Civil War American West and you're practically inviting comparisons to HBO's "Deadwood. " AMC, though, would be happy enough if its latest series, "Hell on Wheels," manages to attract the viewers who made its 2006 miniseries "Broken Trail" the network's highest-rated program. Maybe it's good to know your limits. "Deadwood" was an epic poem that happened to be set in a Western mining town.

NEW YORK - Mary Fickett, who played compassionate nurse Ruth Martin on ABC's "All My Children," has died at age 83. The veteran daytime drama star died Thursday at her home in Virginia, the network said. Fickett was an original cast member of "All My Children," which premiered in 1970, and for decades she appeared alongside Ray MacDonnell, who played her on-screen husband, Dr. Joe Martin, in the fictional town of Pine Valley, Pa. She retired from the show in 2000. In 1973, she became the first performer to receive an Emmy for work on a daytime soap opera.

A version of this column appeared on Jonathan Storm's blog, "Eye of the Storm," at www.philly.com/eyeofthestorm . The brains of some TV critics are still smoldering after Sunday's season finale of AMC's The Killing . SPOILER ALERT: If you still have it on the DVR, you might want to stop reading here, though there's not a whole lot of specific plot rehash. I'm easy, but I do understand how people feel jerked around by the show and by AMC, which kept promoting the "Who Killed Rosie Larsen?"

April in the land of television. No holiday tables, but a couple of chestnuts and way too much programming for any single person to keep up with. For a long, long time, most of the new shows came in September, when the days grew short. "Aha," said the cable channels, "we'll counterprogram in the charm of spring, when there's nothing new. " And then there was something new: a TV logjam of monumental proportions. Hot on the heels of Starz's lusty Camelot , which premiered Friday, come three more new big-deal productions on Sunday, all the kind of "event" television that TV execs are constantly touting.

THE KILLING. 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC. CHAOS. 8 p.m. Friday, CBS3. CAMELOT. 10 p.m. Friday, Starz. SEATTLE HOMICIDE detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) is halfway out the door and on her way to a new life in sunnier climes when a blood-soaked, pink sweater turns up in the city's sprawling Discovery Park. Sarah won't be going anywhere fast and neither will "The Killing," which makes its two-hour premiere Sunday on AMC, home of "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead.