1) “The Neighborhood” and “DMV” series finales, 8 and 8:30 p.m. today, CBS. This fall, CBS will trim from four comedies to two. “Neighborhood” has always known that this season (its eighth) would be its last, so it planned to go out with the weddings of the brothers, Malcolm and Marty. Then the clever “DMV” (shown here in its first episode) wraps its only season with some power shifts. Read more…
1) “The ’90s Boy Band Boom,” 8-10 p.m., CW. In the early ’90s, AJ McLean says here, record sales were all “grunge or rap.” He was in the Backstreet Boys (shown here), which sputtered at home, then spent two years abroad. It had wild stunts, loud clothes and sales of 130 million records. This fun film traces many of the groups that offered odd touches and bouncy music. Read more…
There was a time when cable-TV was more than a swap meet or a corporate shell game.
It was an adventure and it needed risk-takers. It needed people like Ted Turner, who died today (Wednesday, May 6) at 87.
Turner eventually merged his empire — CNN, TBS, TNT, TCM — into Warner Brothers, then regretted it. Warner has since been part of three more mega-deals..
Huge fortunes have been made by men whose names we’ll quickly forget. Turner will always be remembered.
I’ve written about him in my book-in-progress, “Television, and How It Got That Way.” Here are those portions: Read more…
For much of the year, the world sort of forgets about Broadway. Then comes a two-month surge.
In New York, that means a fresh world of dancing cats, rocking vampires and an entire village consumed by show tunes.
And for the rest of us. watching on TV sets? First, PBS delivers a four-Friday stretch of music, old (“Top Hat” is shown here) and fairly new. Then CBS has the Tony Awards. Read more…
1) “Suffs,” 9 p.m., PBS. For the next two Fridays, PBS gives us full-scale, Broadway-style musicals. Next week is the silly fun of “Top Hat,” but this one (shown here) is an involving look at the drive that brought women the vote in 1920. Shaina Taub won Tonys for her book and her music score; she also does a solid job as Alice Paul, an unrelenting American hero. Read more…
We know that actors can stretch far beyond themselves. They can… well, act.
But they don’t usually stretch this far.
Judith Light (shown here) one of the most involved and articulate people inshow business. In the six-part “The Terror: Devil in Silver” (debuting Thursday, May 7, on AMC+ and Shudder), she’s Dorry, her life crumbling inside a mental hospital.
“She’s fragile and she’s heartbreaking,” Light told the Television Critics Association.
And now even her simple world is wobbling. This hospital — the only place she’s known for 30 years — is full of death and dismay. Read more…
1) “Grey’s Anatomy” (shown here in a previous episode) season-finale, 10 p.m., ABC. The 22nd season ends with a crisis (the aftermath of last week’s bridge-collapse) and change. It’s the final episode for Owen (Kevin McKidd) and Teddy (Kim Raver); they’ve been there for 18 and 12 seasons. Nick (Scott Speedman), who’s been scarce in recent years, may be back as a victim. Read more…
1) “Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure,” 8 p.m., PBS. Two days before David Attenborough turns 100, PBS notes his most ambitious project. “Life on Earth” (shown here) debuted in 1979, after three years and 1.5 million miles of travel to 30 countries, filming 600 animals. In this amiable hour, Attenborough and others fondly recall the adventure Read more…
1) “NCIS: Origins” season-finale, 9 p.m., CBS. Next week, the other “NCIS” shows wrap their seasons. First, “Origins” (shown here in last week’s episode) gets the focus, amid much confusion. There was Gibbs’ surprise marriage to Diane Sterling. And there are rumors that the office will be closed and the team will be scattered. Read more…
David Attenborough’s first century has been quite splendid or rather tragic.
The good news: Attenborough — who turns 100 on Friday (May 8) — revolutionized the way we see nature on TV.
“People had never seen a pangolin on television,” he wrote. “They had never seen a sloth. We showed them the largest lizard … and, for the first time, birds-of-paradise dancing in the New Guinea forest.”
And the bad? During his century, he wrote, nature has struggled. “This is the true tragedy of our time: the spiraling decline of our planet’s biodiversity.”
Now come ample chances to survey both extremes: Read more…
