Mike Hughes on TV

This is going to seem like a plug for AMC, but it's not. (Until now, I've never mentioned the cable channel in this blog.) I have two requests, however, both relating to AMC:

1) Definitely catch the season-finale of "Mad Men." It just aired tonight and is, very simply, a deal-changer in every way. Lives change; business changes. Everything we've seen on "Mad Men" before this gets spun around. You can catch it Monday night (10:15 p.m. or 1:15 a.m.) or Tuesday night (2:15 a.m. and 3:17 a.m. on what's technically Wednesday morning). Please catch it.

2) Then catch the new version of "The Prisoner," from 8-10 p.m. Nov. 15-17. This is the one AMC calls "the television event of the year"; oddly enough, that's the truth. The only things to compare with it in sheer quality are "God on Trial" (a year ago on PBS) and "Children of the Earth" (this summer on BBC America). All three of those shows are British productions, which must tell us something; their empire may have crumbled, but those people still make great television.

It took five minutes for Wanda Sykes to become my friend for life.

Sure, the debut of her show (11 p.m. Saturdays on Fox) had some flaws. That opening monologue, however, was more than enough. It was fast, furious and funny; it was also daring.

Mostly, Sykes was taking after Fox News -- owned by the same people who employ her -- and others, for their Obama-bashing.

The president is trying to do too much? "That sounds like something your supervisor would say in a union shop."

How about Rush Limbaugh's claim that Obama is an egotist? "It sounds like the pot calling the kettle bl -- us, an uppity Negro."

Sykes reminded us how things were a while ago, when "trickle-down economics" failed the masses. "Nothing that trickles down on you can be good." She was sharp and caustic. Whether you agree with her politics or not, you have to admire her wit and her all-out assaults.

As for the rest of the show, a few parts didn't work. A couple bits -- showing an overly exuberent woman alongside Obama, having people guess Asians' homeland -- weren't terribly funny; another, involving sex toys, was crude without being clever. Also, Sykes too often seemed to be reading to us.

All of that ended, however, when she got to a roundtable (well, rectangular table) discussion with Daryl "Chill" Mitchell, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Phil Koeghan.  There was no more stiff, I'm-reading-this approach; sharp people bantered in an interesting way. It was a good start to a show worth catching.

When the Yankees beat the Phillies last night, they settled something more important than the World Series: There will be a new "Fringe" tonight (Thursday, Nov. 5), after all.

It's not a great "Fringe," but it's a pretty good one and it allows a rare moment of emotion for federal agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick).

Fox sent the episode to reviewers, but there was a complication: If the World Series went to a seventh game, the entire night -- "Bones" at 8 p.m., "Fringe" at 9 -- would be postponed.

Now, fortunately, that's settled. Sit back and enjoy a "Fringe" in which the killer is -- well, a shadow or a puff or  wisp oF smoke or something. It all involves Russian fringe science, which may be the scariest kind.

And it involves Broyles, the rock-like boss of Olivia and the others. This links back to a case that changed his life, four years ago. We get hints of the deep pain and passion beyond his firm surface.

There have been better "Fringe" episodes, but this show has a terrifically high standard. It's worth catching -- and now that baseball is done, it will be here every week.

Tuesday was a tough night for tap dancers. Three of them -- the first three ever to get that far -- had just made the top 20 of "So You Think You Can Dance." Now two of them are gone; here's the story I sent to papers:

For years, tap dancing – a vibrant
American art form – seemed invisible on American TV.

Even “So You Think You Can Dance,”
which ranges from ballet to Bollywood, ignored it. “They never
really had a tapper,” said Bianca Revels, 20, who auditioned each
year.

Now tappers have lots of attention –
not all of it cheery. Three of them reached the show's top 20; on
Tuesday, two of them three were ousted, short of the top 16.

“It's definitely a bummer,” Revels
said today.

Phillip Attmore, 25, the other person
ousted, was also bummed. Each week, couples pick a random style and
are assigned a choreographer. This week, he said, he and Channing
Cooke drew samba and had “a really difficult routine – not just
in the style and the steps, but in the lift.”

That last part is a key factor this
year: In many of the duos, the man and the woman are about the same
size; lifts can be iffy.

“Channing is not a large girl, but
she is muscular,” Attmore said. “We were a little
out-of-proportion together …. We pulled it (the lift) together
better than we thought we would.”

Judges said the struggle was too
obvious and sent him home.

That leaves Peter Sabasino as the only
tapper. For brief bursts, viewers have seen the joy of tap.

For Attmore, from Pasadena, that
started with seeing “Singing in the Rain” several times, then
going to a dance class. “I decided that I wanted top be a performer
at the age of 3.”

For Revels, from Detroit, that started
with her mother playing old-style music all day. “I would try
dancing around and had no rhythm. My mother decided to do send me to
dance class.”

The Detroit area has made an impact on
the show lately. Evan Kasprzak reached the final three this summer
and his brother Ryan had strong auditions. (Both can tap, but focuses
on their Broadway moves.) Also, Sonya Tayeh has become a favorite
hip-hop choreographer.

Revels moved to California two years
ago. “Detroit is kind of a hard place to emerge from,” she said.
“We had 'Hitsville USA' (the Motown Records home), but that was a
long time ago.”

So she went west to study acting and
singing. “I'm hoping to be the next Halle Berry in a few years.”

Tonight's good news? Steve Martin, the best host in Academy Award history, will be back this year.

I'm surprised that the producers decided they need two hosts, adding Alec Baldwin. Baldwin's fine, but he's no Steve Martin; nobody is.

Still, these are smart producers who could give the show a boost. One is Bill Mechanic, the Michigan State University grad and the studio boss behind "Titanic." The other is Adam Shankman, the choreographer, director anbd "So You Think You Can Dance" judge; I'm expecting some great visuals and great moves this year.

Speaking of "Dance," that's where the bad news comes. Tonight, Bianca Revels and Phillip Attmore were ousted, leaving the show with 16. In one swoop, "Dance" lost two of its three tappers and two of its five blacks; we'll miss them.

Bianca is the Detroit dancer with a zestful presence. Phillip is a Pasadena guy whose dad had died less than two weeks before this episode was taped.

Phillip is a dandy dancer, but he was hurt by one of the show's imbalances: For many of the duos, the man and the woman are almost the same size, making lifts difficult.

Still, the choreographers built in tough lifts for Phillip and Channing Cooke. He struggled -- way too obviously -- and was gone.

Here are a few of my other reactions; please add yours:

1) It's almost impossible for a dance to be less than beautiful, when the music is Etta James' "At Last." No matter what the technical details, that waltz by Jakob Karr and Ashleigh Di Lello was gorgeous.

2) My new favorite choreographer is Stacey Tookey. Her piece about fear was direct, simple, lyrical -- and superbly danced by Kathryn McCormick and Legacy Perez.

3) By comparison, that Wade Robson concept -- the people who aren't in a Van Gogh painting but used to be -- was way too abstract to dance effrectively to.

4) Mollee Gray and Nathan Trasoras were superb in the Bollywood number -- which she redubbed "Molleewood doing Bollywood in Hollywood." Next week, when the viewers make the decisions, those two 18-year-olds will be huge draws.

5) Mollee's friend Noelle Marsh was given a weak number (complete with tennis racquets) that dumped her into the bottom two women. Fresh from having her leg in a cast, Noelle did a brilliant solo and saved herself.

6) Mollee cried anyway. She cries a lot.

7) Visually, the highlights of the evening were Channing's blue dress and Channing's use of flowing blonde hair. Channing looked kind of nice.

8) I actually stop what I'm doing whenever they show the commercial about Windows forever saying this system will be better than the previous one. It's just a fun piece.

9) By comparison, I still don't get much from those "Bing" search-engine commercials. Maybe they should dumb them down for me.

10) And the night's overall hero remains Ellenore Scott. With one of her heels stuck in her dress, she still danced beautifully. We never even realized it until the judges pointed it out in the replay.