Day: April 7, 2023

PBS this summer: mysteries, music, more

As long as there’s a PBS, summertime viewers won’t be confined to reruns, reality and game shows.
The network will have new mystery episodes on Sundays this summer, including “Grantchester,” the final season of “Endeavour” (shown here) and two new arrivals. It will also have an opera, a symphony, a Little Richard profile and the annual 4th-of-July mega-concert.
Viewers looking for new, scripted shows in the summer often turn to cable or streaming networks, or to CW, which will have new “Nancy Drew” and “Riverdale” episodes through Aug. 23.
But the bigger broadcast networks have resisted. For instance: Read more…

A neighborly world turns 100

In the past – or maybe it was in fiction, or in Canada – neighbors’ interlocked.
Lives were spent on the front porch and the front lawn, Everyone knew everyone.
That’s the world that exists in “The Neighborhood” (shown here) which has its 100th episode at 8 p.m. Monday (April 10) on CBS. Some of the stars recall it from their childhoods.
For Max Greenfield, 43, that was in Dobbs Ferry, population 11,000, in New York’s upscale Westchester County. “We definitely knew our neighbors,” told the Television Critics Association. “You were able to walk around town. It felt like I had a lot more freedom back then.” Read more…

Fox stuffs its summer with food

As soon as this TV season ends, Fox will start stuffing its line-up with food.
In a quick stretch (May 22-24, plus May 29), it will launch five summer shows – three centering on food. The line-up includes four returnimg shows – “MasterChef,” “Crime Scene Kitchen,” “Beat Shazam” and “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” – plus the new “Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars.”
That last one is sort of a “Shark Tank”/”Apprentice” blend: Contestants are entrepreneurs with food-related businesses. Ramsay(shown here) – also the producer and host of “MasterChef” and more – will give them challenges, then invest $250,000 in one of their businesses. Read more…

Best-bets for April 9: good vibrations, great dramas

1) “Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys,” 8-10 p.m., CBS. Here’s a romp through great songs – many of them sunny and frilly, a few deep and dark. The hits are there, sung by Beck, Weezer, Charlie Puth, My Morning Jacket and more. But we also get emotional ballads from LeAnn Rimes, Mumford & Sons, and (shown here) a Brandi Carlile/John Legend duet. There are also key comments: When “In My Room” came out, Bruce Springsteen was 13; he played it over and over, in his room. Read more…