Mike Hughes

Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Aug. 31: 9/11 films bring deep humanity

1) “Generaton 9/11,” 9-11 p.m Tuesday, PBS. There were 105 babies born in the U.S. after their fathers died because of the Sept. 11 attack. This compelling documentary introduces six of them (along with one man who was 3 when his dad died). At 19, they are a varied group, from the intense – a criminal-justice student planning to be a lawyer, an ROTC student planning to be a soldier – to an athlete and to a musician (Megan Fehling, shown here) who rereads “Catcher in the Rye.” They push ahead with promising lives. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 30, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Aug. 30: The somber and the silly

1) “Housebroken” season-finale, 9:01 p.m., Fox. Clever enough for grown-ups, yet silly enough for kids, this animated show has been a summer surprise. Honey (Lisa Kudrow) is a wise poodle who holds group-therapy sessions (shown here) for neighborhood animals. Beneath her calm exterior is a lust for the wild world of Coyote. Now she has a night with him … and a change-of-heart. She and Chief – a St. Bernard with no cares and few thoughts – are in mortal danger; the group tries to save them. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 30, 2021
Stories

Condo crime comedy for these amigos

Let’s think of this as “Three Amigos Go Manhattan.” Only with a murder mystery. And a new amigo.
“Three Amigos,” in 1986, was the first pairing of Steve Martin and Martin Short; the third star was Chevy Chase. Now comes “Only Murders in the Building,” a droll, 10-part series that starts Tuesday (Aug. 31) on Hulu; the third star (shown here) is Selena Gomez.
Yes, one of these is not like the others. Martin is 76, Short is 71 … Gomez is 29. “I had no idea who they were,” she joked, at a Television Critics Association virtual press conference. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 29, 2021
Stories

20 years ago, their dads died on 9/11

The teen-agers featured on PBS would seem to have little in common.
Ronald Milam was an athlete; Nick Gorki was a cheerleader. Luke Taylor is an ROTC cadet, planning to be a soldier; Megan Fehling plays the guitar and re-reads “Catcher in the Rye.” Dina Retik promotes togetherness; Claudia Szurkowski (shown here) says she “loves to argue.”
But “Generation 9/11” (9-11 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31, rerunning on Sept. 10) points to a much bigger link: Each is 19; each was born after his or her father died on Sept. 11, 2001. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 29, 2021
News and Quick Comments

The news: Asner’s death, musical gem, “Manifest” rescued

The website was down for a couple days of technical fix-ups, but now we’re back during a busy time. I wanted to briefly mention:
— The death of Ed Asner today (Sunday, Aug. 29) at 91. This was someone who mastered both comedy and drama … inside the same character. Playing Lou Grant, he won three Emmys for comedy (“Mary Tyler Moore Show”) and two more for drama (“Lou Grant”). He could range from crusty to lovable; he laughed once when I mentioned that he holds the Jewish record for the most times playing Santa Claus.
— The upcoming debut of “Come From Away” (shown here), Sept. 10 on Apple TV+. More on that in a minute.
— And the surprise: “Manifest” is returning . Netflix will give it a final, 20-episode season, with the details pending.
Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 27, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Aug. 29: riveting memories, wicked songs

1) “9/11: One Day in America,” 9-10:30 p.m., National Geographic, rerunning at 11:30. This launches a three-night stretch of riveting television. Working with the 9/11 memorial (shown here), people dug through 950 hours of film from Sept. 11, 2001, added fresh interviews, then assembled it all with skill and restraint. There are deep waves of tragedy, but also surprising bursts of feel-good stories. Here is human nature at its best – heroism and stoic survival, mixed in with bursts of sheer luck. The stories are beautifully related. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 27, 2021
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for Aug. 30: country fun, 9/11 despair

1) “CMA Summer Jam,” 8-11 p.m. Thursday, ABC. For two summers, the Fan Fest was cancelled because of COVID. This year, however, the gap was filled by a two-day mega-concert in Nashville. Dierks Bentley sang at his club, Eric Church on a pedestrian bridge, Darius Rucker on a downtown stage and others at an amphitheater. That includes two Lukes (Bryan and Combs) plus Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani (shown here), Carrie Underwood, Gwen Stefani, Mianda Lambert, Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton and Thomas Rhett. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 26, 2021
News and Quick Comments

9/11 films bring fresh waves of emotion

Looking back 20 years, to the waves of Sept. 11 tragedy, Joseph Pfeifer tries to focus on the positive.
This was a day (shown here) when his fellow firefighters did what they always do, he said. They rushed in, found people, saved lives. They did “ordinary things – but at an extraordinary time in history.”
Pfeifer, 65, retired three years ago as assistant chief of the New York City Fire Department. Now he appears often in “9/11: One Day in America,” which arrives Aug. 29-31 on the National Geographic Channel, ami a surge of 20th-anniversary documentaries.
“The moment the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center, my life changed forever,” Pfeifer told the Television Critics Association. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 26, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Aug. 28: Eden ends, football begins

1) Football, 1 p.m. ET, Fox. The college season kicks off with a fairly good match-up. Skipping the usual non-conference openers, the Big Ten season begins with Nebraska (shown here) at Illinois. Elsewhere, ESPN has Hawaii at UCLA, at 3:30 p.m. ET and the CBS Sports Network has two games. It’s Fresno State at Connecticut at 2 p.m. and Southern Utah at San Jose State at 10. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 26, 2021
News and Quick Comments

Surprise: Some networks have more shows than ever

Yes, supply-chain issues keep confounding businesses.
But some TV networks now have more new shows than ever. A prime example is Showtime, with one-fourth more new hours this year than it had pre-pandemic.
“That was part of the intent to grow,” Jana Winograde said. Viewers will see that quickly when:
– “Billions” (shown here) returns Sunday, Sept. 5, to start the final five episodes of its fifth season. It will then “make up for lost time by premiering Season Six in January,” Gary Levine said. He and Winograde, co-presidents of programming, had a virtual press conference with the Television Critics Association. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 25, 2021