Mike Hughes

Best-bets for July 31: rescue heroes, Olympic heroes

1) “58 Hours: The Baby Jessica Story” and “Super Reviewers: Rate, Review, Repeat,” 9 and 9:30 p.m., CNN. On two Saturdays, CNN is debuting four half-hour documentaries. The first re-tells a compelling story – heroes (shown here) struggling to save an 18-month-old toddler who fell into a narrow well in her aunt’s backyard. The second is fresh and current – meeting people who write lInternet reviews. There’s a contagious joy to Denise Barclay, who roams the country in her RV, doing quick reviews for Google Maps. Read more…

Yes, stupid fun is going prime time

After more than four decades, “Stupid Pet Tricks” (shown here) is finally ready for prime time.
The TBS cable channel is turning it into a 10-episode series. Sarah Silverman will host, David Letterman’s company will be a co-owner and Merrill Markoe will be a consulting producer.
Markoe created the notion in 1980, when she was head writer of Letterman’s morning show. That show died quickly, but Letterman moved to latenight in 1982 and stayed there for 33 years, always with “Stupid Pet Tricks” as an audience favorite. Read more…

Best-bets for July 30: “Truth,” track & Ted

1) “Burden of Truth” season-opener, 8 p.m., CW. As a big-city lawyer, sleek and smart, Joanna (Kristin Kreuk, shown here) pushed herself too hard. Now life is even harder: She and Billy are back in their hometown, losing sleep with their new baby. She’s also representing a landowner who resists a mining project that this hard-scrabble town wants. There are some moments that seem contrived, to nudge the plot along. Still, this Canadian drama works well, with solid characters and neatly understated performances. Read more…

Best-bets for July 29: injury-plagued gymnastics

1) Olympics. NBC expects big ratings tonight (8 p.m. ET and beyond), with finals in four swimming events and in the individual, all-around portion of women’s gymnastics – a field hampered Tuesday by an injury to Simone Biles (shown here). The swimming is live, the gymnastics isn’t; you can see it live from 6-11 a.m. ET on Peacock. This afternoon (noon to 5 p.m.), NBC has U.S. teams in men’s water polo (Italy) and women’s volleyball (Turkey). At night, CNBC has men’s volleyball and women’s beach volleyball, both live; USA and NBC have early heats in track. Read more…

Travel the world? Hide away? Choices abound

So maybe you’re thinking about a change in lifestyle, possibly something drastic.
Not to worry. In addition two a “Baby Jessica” story (shown here), a brief CNN series – 9-10 p.m. ET on the next two Saturdays – offers opposite choices:
1) Sell the house and get an RV. Go everywhere; do everything. Just remember to write online reviews.
2) Take the opposite approach; go nowhere, do nothing. Get a bunker, suitable for any catastrophe.
3) Or acquire a new skill; underwater archaeology would be fine. Read more…

Best-bets for July 28: chefs and gymnasts, plus 10 p.m. flurry

1) “MasterChef,” 8 and 9 p.m., Fox; also, 9 p.m. Thursday. If you haven’t been watching this likable show, here’s the perfect time to catch up. Fox reruns the three episodes that chose the 15 contestants. None are professional cooks – there’s a bartender, a construction worker (shown here) and more – so Gordon Ramsay is on his best behavior, always with another famous chef to help. It’s Emeril Lagasse (shown here, right) at 8 p.m. and Curtis Stone at 9, with Paula Deen on Thursday. Read more…

Best-bets for July 27: great blues, great gymnasts, good laughs

1) “American Masters,” 9 p.m., PBS. Growing up on a sharecropping farm in Louisiana, Buddy Guy (shown here) had one goal: Go to Chicago to hear Muddy Waters and other blues greats. He got there and was signed by record companies … which tried to change his wailing-guitar style. He was still driving a tow truck in his early 30s. Then Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger and others started emulating him. In this terrific documentary, Guy, 84, visits home and reflects on a style that shaped modern rock guitarists. Read more…

Best-bets for July 26: aliens and gymnasts

1) “Roswell, New Mexico” season-opener, 8 p.m., CW, rerunning Thursday. Sure, this might seem like a silly, sci-fi soap opera. We follow pretty people (three of them descended from outer-space aliens) and a couple others resurrected from the dead. But this is from Amblin, the Steven Spielberg company that made “Resident Alien” a gem; it’s well-cast and sharply filmed. Tonight, the three sorta-siblings eye an eerie lookalike. And in Los Angeles, Liz (shown here), a brilliant scientist, nears a breakthrough and a crisis. Read more…

Best-bets for July 25: Biles is back; Olympics soar

1) Olympics, NBC. Women’s gymnastics is back, with Simone Biles (shown here) and other favorites. The team event will be shown early evening (7-9:30 p.m.), then concludes Tuesday. In the afternoon (12:15-6 p.m.), NBC plans to show swimming, surfing and diving, plus a men’s basketball game with the U.S. and France and the finals for men’s street skateboarding. Later at night (9:30-11:30 p.m.), it has swimming and skateboarding. There’s much more on cable and on the Peacock streaming service. Read more…

Week’s top-10 for July 26: Lotsa Olympics, lotsa alternatives

1) Olympics. For two more weeks, the Olympics dominate on NBC, cable, Peacock and online (www.nbcolympics.com). American audiences are especially big on swimming (shown here), which continues through Sunday, and gymnastics, which keeps going: The team finals are today (men) and Tuesday (women); the individual all-around titles are Wednesday (men) and Thursday (women). Then, on Sunday, individuals start competing per-specialty. Also, the track-and-field events finally start Friday. Read more…