1) “Archer” season-finale, 10 p.m., FXX, repeating at 11:03. It’s been a rough year for Archer. His mom died and the evil Fabian bought the spy firm. Now Slater (voiced, appropriately, by Christian Slater), a CIA guys, is giving orders. Archer hates him, but likes the goal of killing Fabian. It’s a typical “Archer” (shown here in a previous season) – bright and brash, mixing scattered humor and action animation. Read more…
Tom Welling, once a teen-aged Clark Kent, is about to play a great-grandfather. Well, sort of.
Welling (shown here) will join “The Winchesters” (8 p.m. Tuesdays on CW) later this year. He’ll play Samuel Campbell, the gruff and distant father of Mary Campbell.
Since the show is a prequel, fans know the rest: Mary married John Winchester and begat Sam and Dean Winchester, the demon-hunting heroes in 15 seasons of “Supernatural.” That means Welling’s character is the future grandfather of Sam and Dean and great-grandfather of Dean II and Emma. Read more…
1) “The Winchesters” debut, 8 p.m., CW. On “Supernatural,” Sam and Dean followed the family tradition of smiting demons. But how did their parents start this? We go to 1972, when John meets Mary (shown here0. He’s tall, handsome and a Vietnam vet; she’s short, attractive and kicking creatures. He’s instantly impressed. This opener is smartly written, filmed and acted – far better than than debut of “Professionals,” at 9 p.m. Read more…
Dick Hill was many things – a great stage actor, a powerful singer and, I’m told, a splendid painter. He also did the New York Times crossword puzzle each day, in ink.
But Hill — who died Oct. 4 at 75 — may be best-known for something else — as a great narrator.
That’s his voice – a rich baritone – transforming into Jack Reacher and Harry Bosch aad Kurt Wallander and more. He narrated audio books by Dave Barry, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Dean Koontz, Ed McBain, Pat Conroy, Nora Roberts, Anne McCaffrey (shown here), Arthur C. Clarke, Clive Barker and more, including memoirs and such by Bobby Knight, Bill Walsh and Tim Conway.
He also did Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Pynchon (all 53 hours of “Against the Day”) and Nathaniel Hawthorne, plus Plato, Kafka, and Dostoevsky. In all, he did more than 1,000 books, winning three Audie awards, a Golden Voice and more. And this was just an accidental sideline. Read more…
1) “Kevin Can F Himself” series finale, 9 p.m., AMC. This keeps cleverly juggling opposite formats. At times, it’s a deliberately bad sitcom, with bombastic husband Kevin, wise wife Allison (Annie Murphy, shown heree) and audience laughter; at other times, it’s a dark drama about Allison’s agony. Eventually, she faked her death and disappeared. Now we see the impact on those who know she’s alive and those who don’t. There are surprises, deep emotions and a fiery finish. Read more…
1) “NCIS: Los Angeles” season-opener, 10 p.m., CBS. The 14th season begins with another crisis for Sam and Callen (shown here in a previous episode): Someone has bombed a building where combat drones were assembled. The team must find out who did it … while also dealing with troubling news about a body found in Syria. Read more…
It’s not quite a sign of the apocalypse, but it might be close:
A reality-TV guy has been put in charge of the Fox network.
Rob Wade – who supervised Fox’s reality shows and specials – takes over as the CEO, it was announced today (Oct. 6). He replaces Charlie Collier, who moved on to run Roku, after a run in which a few scripted shows — “The Simpsons” (shown here) and “9-1-1” — prospered and most wobbled. Read more…
Actors hardly ever quote Al Pacino when discussing a Lifetime movie.
Alicia Witt (shown here in a previous role) can do that. Her career has been that varied.
Her latest film, is “The Disappearance of Cari Farver,” at 8 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 8) and 6 p.m. a week later (Oct. 15) on Lifetime. It’s a true-crime tale that takes her character through some sharp twists; “I was kind of bouncing off my seat when I got to the end” of the script, she said.
Early in her career, this might have wracked her. But at 31 she did “88 Minutes” with Pacino. Read more…
1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. Maybe we worried too much about which stars had left; we should have fretted about writers leaving. Except for “Weekend Update,” last week’s season-opener was short on wit. This material couldn’t have been saved by Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant … or even by Belushi or Murray or Wiig and such. Let’s hope it improves now, with Brendan Gleeson as host and Willow (shown here), formerly Willow Smith, as music guest. Read more…
1) “Masterpiece” mysteries, 8-11 p.m. Sunday, PBS. After a sluggish start last month, this night has three openers. “Miss Scarlet and the Duke” (shown here) is light and bright at 8 p.m., with Eliza on a missing-person case with a twist. “Annika” (10) has a smart story, complicated by Scottish accents. In between, “Magpie Murder” (9) is special – a six-parter juggling two mysteries: Who killed the author? And who is the killer in the missing chapter of his book? Read more…
