1) “Kitchen Nightmares” season-opener, 8 and 9 p.m., Fox. Who knew there was this much angst and anger in the back of basic, down-home restaurants? In the first hour, a chef faces an immensely disinterested front-of-the-house manager; in the second, an all-American diner wades in ill-will. Somehow, Gordon Ramsay (shown here) seems like the calmest guy in the room. Read more…
1) Celebrity Family Feud,” 9-11 p.m., ABC. Last Thursday, “Feud” — one of TV’s best game shows– had its season-opener.s Now those episodes rerun today, emphasizing football — AFC and NFC champs — and music — En Vogue (shown here at its peak) vs. Sheila E, Lisa Lisa vs. Taylor Dayne. OnThursday, a new episode will pit the U.S. men’s and women’s Olympic hockey teams. Read more…
1) World Cup championship, 3 p.m. ET, Fox. Argentina, the current champs, are back in the finals — barely. Lionel Messi (shown here) and his teammates needed a last-minutes, come-from-behind surge to edge England, 2-1. The Argentines have been in six previous finals, winning three times. Now they face Spain, which won its only previous finals, back in 2010. Read more…
1) “Celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” season-opener, 8 p.m. Wednesday, ABC. Things start with two interesting duos. First, Larry David is paired with his daughter Cazzie, a writer and actress. Then Ben Affleck teams with Jamie Ding (shown here), who won 31 straight nights of “Jeopardy.” That’s followed by reruns of Tim Allen’s “Shifting Gears.” Read more…
For fans of TV dramas, there are two pieces of good news:
“Maigret” (shown here) will return Oct. 18, for its second season on PBS. And “Sullivan’s Creek” will be back sometime next year, for its fifth on CW. Read more…
1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. On the day after his epic “Odyssey” (shown here)_ reaches movie theaters, here’s Matt Damon with fewer battle scars. He hosts this rerun, with music by Noah Kohan. Read more…
For one network, the start of the fall season will be tidy and uncomplicated.
Fox will stuff all of its season-openers into one week. That starts with games (“Name That Tune” and “Weakest Link”) on Monday, Sept. 21, and ends with laughs — “The Simpsons” (shown here), “Animal Control” and more — on Sunday, Sept. 27.
And yes, it will all feel familiar. The season starts with zero new shows. Read more…
When “Stuart Fails to Save The Universe” (shown here) debuts Thursday (July 23), it will bring all sorts of TV milestones.
This is the third spin-off of “The Big Bang Theory” … and the second to skip using a studio audience … and the first to have an alternate-world, apocalyptic, science-fiction concept.
The show (on HBO Max) has Stuart find a portal in his comic-book store. It’s the sort of notion the “Big Bang” guys might savor. “This is the kind of show that they would watch and argue about,” said producer Bill Prady.
But there’s one thing more that makes “Stuart” unique: It’s accompanied by strong praise for David Zaslav. Really. Read more…
As “The Big Bang Theory” neared its finale, people gathered for a ceremony.
In the front were the main stars and producers; looking on were reporters. And near the back — mostly unnoticed, as usual — was Kevin Sussman.
He had done 84 episodes as Stuart Bloom, the oft-overlooked owner of a comic book store. Sussman chatted politely with a reporter, then excused himself. “I have to go,” he said. “I have an audition.”
Life is like that for a character actor. There are scattered auditions, random roles, maybe commercials, maybe day jobs. It’s an endless cycle — except Sussman (shown here) has had two exceptions: Read more…
1) “American Experience: JFK” (2013), 9-11 p.m., PBS. The first half of this terrific film saw John Kennedy (shown here), nearly crippled by ailments, pull off upset victories to become the country’s youngest president. Now comes the hard part — Bay of Pigs, Cuban missile crisis and the Vietnam build-up. Read more…
Best-bets for July 21: kitchen nightmare, space joy 
Best-bets for July 20: lotsa games, new and reruns 
Best-bets for July 19: Messi soccer, gory vampire 
