Mike Hughes

Stories

PBS packs the fall with music, drama, politics, more

As TV networks’ fall plans sputter, there’s a counterpoint:
PBS still has big plans for the season. That includes concerts (including Lea Salonga, shown here, and Wynton Marsalis), dramas (including Hugh Laurie), politics (including general rage), nature and whimsy.
Well, not a lot of whimsy. (This is PBS, after all.) But it will air “History of Zombies” on the eve of Halloween and visit “Santa’s Wild Home” before Christmas; it will also have a jazz tribute to “Sesame Street,” visit tropical islands and board the queen’s plane. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 21, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 22: New and (very) old comedy

1) “Corporate” (shown here) season-opener, 10:30 p.m., Comedy Central. Two delightful TV take-offs propel this half-hour. One is a sci-fi show that tries too hard, with sudden plot twists. The other is a kids’ cartoon that doesn’t try at all; it just keeps singing “pickles for breakfast.” Now that they own some TV shows, these fictional people try a corporate approach: Just survey viewers and give them what they want. It’s a flawed plan, they learn: Good TV is often much more – giving us what we didn’t know we wanted. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 20, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 21: Dancing joy, COVID agony

1) “World of Dance,” 10 p.m., NBC. “America’s Got Talent” is pausing for a “best of auditions” special from 8-10 p.m., but “Dance” booms ahead. This is the first half of its junior-division “duels,” including a classic mismatch — Savannah Manzel (shown here), 9, facing a large teen group. (You can guess who gets the focus and sympathy.) Other duels are more fair: The two callback survivors – The Young Cast and grvmnt – compete; MDC3 – with a terrific variation on a romantic triangle – faces Chibi Unity. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 19, 2020
News and Quick Comments

Sunday specials remember John Lewis

John Lewis, one of the towering figures in American history, will be remembered in two Sunday-morning reruns on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Lewis died Friday at 80, after a six-month struggle with cancer. The son of Alabama sharecroppers, he played a key role in the civil-rights movements, from Selma (he’s shown here revisiting the site) to the March on Washington, where he was a keynote speaker at 23. He was a congressman from Georgia for more than 30 years.
The specials will be at 11 a.m. on the next two Sundays (July 19 and 26); they are: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 19, 2020
Stories

Broadway vanished? Not on Fridays

In a theater-less season – no Broadway, no summer-stock musicals, nothing — we need a break.
Fortunately, PBS is trying. In a five-Friday stretch, it will give us Broadway-style reruns.
That includes two musicals (“She Loves Me” (shown here) and “The King and I”), two plays (“Present Laughter” and “Much Ado About Nothing”) and a making-of film (“In the Heights”). It’s sort of a history of theater – from Shakespeare to Miranda. Here’s a rundown, with shows at 9 p.m. (check local listings): Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 19, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 20: Worst (?!?) seasons ever?

1) “The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons – Ever!” 8-11 p.m., ABC. Then again, maybe tonight should be re-titled “The Worst Seasons – Ever!!!” They focus, alas, on Brad Womack (shown here with Emily Maynard). In 2007, he dated 25 bright and beautiful women, including two nurses and four realtors … then rejected them all. In 2011 he returned, chagrined and ready to marry and settle down. He dated 30 beauties, from a Rockette to a funeral director, chose one … and had broken up with her before the episodes finished airing. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 18, 2020
News and Quick Comments

Films view Latino toll from COVID

From classrooms to farm fields, the pandemic is having a disproportionate effect on Latinos.
Now two documentaries – one streaming, the other on PBS – look at that. They are:
– “Pandemia: Latinos in Crisis,” at 9 p.m. ET Sunday (July 19) on CBSN, the digital news service run by CBS. It’s also available any time at www.cbsnews.com/pandemia.
– “Frontline: COVID’S Hidden Toll” (shown here) at 10 p.m. Tuesday (July 21) on PBS. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 17, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 19: Dramas end, sharks take over

1) “Masterpiece: Grantchester” season-finale, 9 p.m., PBS. Set in the late 1950s, this show has been rough on Will (the good-hearted, crimesolving vicar) and friends. His assistant remains in the closet … his housekeeper is appalled by her new husband’s past … his friend the cop (shown hyere with Will in the seas0n-opener) sent his mother-in-law to a mental institution. Will is despondent (his youth boxing program brought trouble) and is voluntarily celibate. Now much of that brightens, amid a smart case that involves murder and missing women. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 17, 2020
Stories

She’s achieved her shark-filled dreams

Other kids might pester Santa with trivial requests for ponies and unicorns and such.
Kori Garza, however, was more original. At 3, she plunked on his lap and asked for a great white shark.
She didn’t get it, which was probably for the best. It would be odd, she now grants, “to have a great white swimming in the bathtub.”
But it was a fine start for her current life: Garza (shown here) is a shark expert and the central figure in “World’s Biggest Tiger Shark?” That’s at 8 p.m. Sunday (July 19), launching National Geographic’s “Sharkfest.” (See overview under “stories” and schedule under “quick news and comments.) Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 16, 2020