Day: July 19, 2020

Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 21: Dancing joy, COVID agony

1) “World of Dance,” 10 p.m., NBC. “America’s Got Talent” is pausing for a “best of auditions” special from 8-10 p.m., but “Dance” booms ahead. This is the first half of its junior-division “duels,” including a classic mismatch — Savannah Manzel (shown here), 9, facing a large teen group. (You can guess who gets the focus and sympathy.) Other duels are more fair: The two callback survivors – The Young Cast and grvmnt – compete; MDC3 – with a terrific variation on a romantic triangle – faces Chibi Unity. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 19, 2020

News and Quick Comments

Sunday specials remember John Lewis

John Lewis, one of the towering figures in American history, will be remembered in two Sunday-morning reruns on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Lewis died Friday at 80, after a six-month struggle with cancer. The son of Alabama sharecroppers, he played a key role in the civil-rights movements, from Selma (he’s shown here revisiting the site) to the March on Washington, where he was a keynote speaker at 23. He was a congressman from Georgia for more than 30 years.
The specials will be at 11 a.m. on the next two Sundays (July 19 and 26); they are: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 19, 2020

Stories

Broadway vanished? Not on Fridays

In a theater-less season – no Broadway, no summer-stock musicals, nothing — we need a break.
Fortunately, PBS is trying. In a five-Friday stretch, it will give us Broadway-style reruns.
That includes two musicals (“She Loves Me” (shown here) and “The King and I”), two plays (“Present Laughter” and “Much Ado About Nothing”) and a making-of film (“In the Heights”). It’s sort of a history of theater – from Shakespeare to Miranda. Here’s a rundown, with shows at 9 p.m. (check local listings): Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 19, 2020