Day: November 10, 2020

News and Quick Comments

Mid-season plans set: from old “Idol” to new “Masked Dancer”

Just as the fall TV shows belatedly arrive, there’s a bonus: Two networks – ABC and Fox – have announced mid-season plans.
For ABC, that ranges from “The Bachelor” on Jan. 4 to “American Idol” on Valentine’s Day. For Fox, it includes January starts for six scripted shows – five of them returning, plus a new comedy that Jim Parsons is producing, with Mayim Bialik (his “Big Bang” wife) as star – along with “Hell’s Kitchen” and the new (shown here) “Masked Dancer.”
Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 10, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Nov. 12: The eternal dramas return

1) “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC) and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (NBC) season-openers, both 9 p.m. The two longest-running scripted shows current on TV collide; both are changing with the times. For “SVU,” starting its 22nd year – an investigation faces community distrust of police, And for “Grey’s”, starting its 17th season (the original cast is shown here), the COVID crisis grows. Things get worse when teens accidentally set a fire; that story starts on the “Station 19” season-opener at 8, then spreads into the two-hour “Grey’s” opener. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 10, 2020
Stories

“Fiddler”: A theater giant, molded from tradition

Some of Broadway’s best minds were trying to say what their prospective musical was about.
It had this dairyman … and his daughters … and the czar’s soldiers … and …
But what, director Jerome Robbins asked, was it really about? Finally, someone said it was about tradition. “Write that!” Robbins said.
That story is told in “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles,” a richly crafted documentary at 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13), on PBS. The film tells of a musical some people felt would fail.
It didn’t. “Fiddler on the Roof” (shown here) won nine Tony awards and ran for 3,242 performances – at the time, the longest-running show in Broadway history. It’s had five New York revivals, six tours and a movie. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 10, 2020