Day: September 16, 2021

Ali: sweet and brutal, vilified and beloved

Ken Burns keeps immersing himself in large lives, filled with contrasts.
There was Thomas Jefferson, the champion of freedom, who owned slaves. And Ernest Hemingway, the macho man with a fragile ego. And now Muhammad Ali is profiled in a four-night film, Sunday through Wednesday (Sept. 19-22) on PBS.
With the hyper speed of his boxing and his tongue, Ali could be brutal. At other times?
“He was so sweet and cuddly,” Rasheda Ali, one of his nine children, told the Television Critics Association. “Daddy was very affectionate. I think all of us are now, because of him.” Read more…

Best-bets for Sept. 18: a night of key reruns

1) “S.W.A,T.” and “NCIS: New Orleans,” 8 and 9 p.m., CBS. When the season starts Monday, reruns will mostly disappear from the broadcast networks. Here’s one last shot for some key ones: In the “S.W.A.T.” season-finale, a police station is bombed and there’s a showdown with a domestic-terrorist group. Then the series finale of “NCIS: New Orleans” includes the wedding day (shown here) of Pride and Rita (Scott Bakula and Chelsea Field, married in real life), complicated by worries about his son. Read more…