Mike Hughes

Best-bets for July 19: love, rage and murder

1) “The Bachelorette,” 8-10 p.m. , ABC. It’s almost time for the final four guys and home-town visits, but two still haven’t had one-on-one dates with Katie Thurston (shown here), 30. Brendan Scanzano, 26. is a firefighter trainee; Mike Planeta, 31, is a gym owner. The others: Blake Moynes, 30, wildlife manager; Greg Grippo, 27, sales rep; Justin Glaze, 26, investment salesman; Michael Allio, 36, business owner; and Andrew Spencer, 26, who has spent three pro-football seasons as a defensive back in Austria. Read more…

Streamers dominate TCA nominations

TV critics have confirmed what the Emmy Awards suggested – the year of COVID was also the year of streamers.
Last week, the Emmy nominations came out, dominated by streaming networks and pay-extra cable. Now the Television Critics Association nominations echo that.
Streamers piled up 46 TCA nominations, led by five for “Ted Lasso” (shown here), which starts its second season July 23 on Apple TV+. That compares to only 10 for all of over-the-air TV – four for NBC, four for PBS (mostly its kid shows), three for CBS, zero for ABC, Fox or CW. Read more…

Best-bets for July 18: Dark gems on “Monday,” “Masterpiece”

1) “Black Monday,” 10 p.m., Showtime. The humor grows as the cast shrinks, one murder at a time. Now it’s Blair (shown hee, cente) who thinks his heiress wife will kill him … a move that many others would approve. There are great scenes here – a wayward surprise party, a reflection on “pansexual” – that can jump from big laughs to drama in an instant. This dark gem follows a surprisingly sweet “The Chi,” at 9: Kevin, Papa and Emmett try to retrieve romances they once had; Kiesha ponders a new one. Read more…

Best-bets for July 17: Lotsa sports, plus some laughs

1) Basketball,” 9 p.m. ET, ABC, with previews at 8 and 8:30. Yes, a winter sport has sprawled into the second half of summer. Hockey has finished its season, but for basketball this is the fifth game of a best-of-seven series, with Milwaukee (shown here with Giannis Antetokounmpo) and Phoenix. The other games, if needed, will be Tuesday and Thursday … on the eve of the Olympics opening ceremony. Read more…

Top-10 for week of July 19: Finales, nature … then the Olympics take over

1) Olympics opening ceremony, 7:30 to midnight ET Friday. After a five-year wait – a year longer than usual – the Olympics are here. A few sports – soccer, softball, archery, rowing –will begin Wednesday on the NBC Sports Network; others will wait for the ceremony, which could be spectacular. (The 2016 ceremony is snown here.) There will be no in-person spectators, but there will be 11,000 athletes from 206 countries – ranging from 600-plus Americans to one each from Nairu, Tuvalu, Aruba and South Sudan. Also NBC has previews all day, except 4-7 p.m. Read more…

Best-bets for July 16: The sounds and images of music

1) “Icon: Music Through the Lens” opener, 9 p.m., PBS. After a too-long introduction, we get great stories about photographing rock stars. Sure, some have been difficult; Kurt Cobain arrived four hours late, promptly asking for a vomit pale. But others — Beyonce and Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix and more – have shown a natural sense for great visuals. For one session, the photographer had only 30 minutes, a tiny apartment and – in lieu of catering – lollipops; Madonna turned them into sexy props. This is produced by Gered Mankowitz (see separate story), who photographed Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithfull (shown here) and more. Read more…

Rock photographers capture a quaking world

There was a time, in the 1960s, when it seemed like everyone wanted to run away and be a rock star.
This was, of course, poor thinking. Some of them should have run away and been rock photographers.
That job had it all, people say in a fascinating new series. Ir was “musical ecstasy” … it was “an hour and a half of sweaty madness” … it stirred “the adrenaline – there’s nothing like it.”
It was a fine job. “I was incredibly lucky,” Gered Mankowitz said via a Zoom interview from England.
He produced “Icon: Music Through the Lens,” the six-week series that starts at 9 p.m. Friday (July 16) on PBS. He’s also a participant, recalling shooting Jimi Hendrix (shown here) and touring with the Rolling Stones. Read more…

Best-bets for July 15: “Grown-ish,” “Good Girls,” Gwynn-less throne

1) “Grown-ish,” 8 p.m., Freeform. Zoey’s grand plan – a Mexican resort party before the senior year – imploded last week. She and Aaron had a drunken wedding … then were arrested during beach sex. Ana raged at Javi, after reading his phone messages. Doug and Lucca (shown here) went with some “hot ladies” … and ended up at a 15th-birthday party. Now some of it gets settled, in a terrific episode. The A-to-Z (Aaron and Zoey) scenes ripple with humor, hurt and more, beautifully written and performed. Read more…

From Bradys to Bunkers: TV transformed

A half-century ago, the fictional Carol Brady was living TV’s version of don’t ask, don’t tell.
he married Mike Brady and merged their families as “The Brady Bunch” (shown here with Alice, the housekeeper). He had three sons and was widowed; she had three daughters and, well … ???
The plan was for her to be divorced, said Lloyd Schwartz, a “Brady Bunch” producer and the son of creator Sherwood Schwartz. ABC said no. “Divorce was a taboo topic on television, so they said, ‘Let’s just leave it so you don’t know.’”
Schwartz relates that in “History of the Sitcom,” which CNN airs at 9 p.m. Sundays. Its two-hour  opener (July 11) offered a quick, slick ride through depictions of family and sexuality. Read more…

“Schmigadoon” brings quirky musical joy

In the year that Broadway sleeps, musicals keep bubbling up inside our TV sets.
There’s been “The Prom” and “Jim Jam” and “In the Heights” and more. And now comes the biggest project yet – also the goofiest and most fun.
“Schmigadoon” (shown here) arrives Friday (July 16) on Apple TV+. “It is a love letter to the Golden Age of musicals,” Cinco Paul, who created it with Ken Daurio, told the Television Critics Association.
In many loving families, of course, people make fun of each other. So “Schmigadoon” is ready to mock all the old musical traditions … then break into another big-deal song and dance. Read more…