Mike Hughes

Best-bets for June 6: A long day of D-Day films

1) “The Longest Day” (1962), 8-11 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies; and “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), 7-11 p.m., AMC. On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, here are esteemed films, a generation apart. Both won Oscars for cinematography (black-and-white, for “Longest Day”) and were nominated for best picture. “Longest Day” required three directors and endless stars, from John Wayne to Richard Burton; “Private Ryan” (shown here) had Tom Hanks and the brilliant, Oscar-winning direction of Steven Spielberg. Read more…

New York cabbies are driven to ruin

Mohammed Hossain is your almost-typical working guy.
He says he drives his cab 14 hours a day, seven days a week for less than $25,000 a year. And that’s if you don’t count his loan payments. In a three-years stretch, he was supposed to pay $717,500.
“I know so many drivers, they kill themselves,” Hossain (shown here) says in the June 9 episode of “The Weekly,” the compelling cable series focusing on New York Times reporters. “But I love my family.”
That leaves the broader questions: Why would a guy below the poverty line borrow a fortune? And who would loan it to him? Read more…

Best-bets for June 5: Country glitz; handmaids’ despair

1) CMT Music Awards, 8 p.m., CMT, rerunning at 10:30. The show will have the most performances in its history, CMT insists. And these are A-list stars — Carrie Underwood (shown here), Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, Kelsea Ballerini and more. Two of this year’s nominations leaders, Maren Morris and the Zac Brown Band, will perform; so will the hosts, Little Big Town, plus Thomas Rhett, Tanya Tucker, Toby Keith, Cole Swindell and Kane Brown. For crossover, there’s Boyz II Men, Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile and Trombone Shorty. Read more…

D-Day on TV: Here’s a cable guide

In “Saving Private Ryan” (shown here), D-Day filled 21 minutes; in “The Longest Day,” it filled three hours.Still, these movies – separated by 36 years and huge leaps in cinema – had the same effect: They showed the horror and triumph of the day that marked the beginning of the end of Europe’s nightmare.As Thursday’s milestone — the 75th anniversary of D-Day – nears, we can see both on cable. Here’s a sampling: Read more…

Best-bets for June 4: Mini-chefs triumph

1) “MasterChef Junior” finale, 8-10 p.m., Fox. This began with 24 home chefs – all talented and all ages 8-13. Now we have the final three, each 11. Che Spiotta is from Boiceville, NY,, in the Catskills … Malia Brauer is from Santa Clarita, Cal. … Ivy Angst (shown here with Gordon Ramsay) is from Atlanta and especially interesting: Going by Little Chef Ivy, she’s 3-foot-6, with a form of dwarfism that causes short limbs. She masters the kitchen, with the help of a stool; now she has a shot at a $100,000 prize. Read more…

Best-bets for June 3: Romantic rugby (?), hectic hockey

1) “The Bachelorette,” 8 p.m., ABC. Life is much easier for the guys who gets one-on-one dates with Hannah Brown: One gets a mini-concert by country star Jake Owen; the other strolls around Boston, drinks in the “Cheers” bar … and plays basketball with two Celtics (Jaylen Brown and Terry Roszier) in their arena. The other guys? They have a rugby game (shown here) that sends one to the hospital. Read more…

TV is ready to go lunar loony

For the next couple months, it seems, our TV sets will be space-crazy.
And it won’t end there. The National Geographic Channel has just announced a “The Right Stuff” series that will begin next year.
Most of this is keyed to July 20, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. ABC already featured that in its “1969” series …. PBS has declared this its “Summer of Space” … and cable channels are piling on. Read more…

Best-bets for June 2: Lawyers and dunk shots

1) “Burden of Truth” season-opener, 8 p.m., CW. For summertime, the old “Supergirl” slot goes to … well, to the former Lana Lang. That’s the role Kristin Kreuk had in “Smallville”; she went on to “Beauty and the Beast” and then to this role as a tough lawyer. In the first season (shown here) she and Billy (Peter Mooney) won millions for teens in her old home town. Now she’s in a big city, Billy isn’t … and neither is happy. There’s potential, but Kreuk pushes her stern facade to a stony extreme. Read more…

Week’s Top 10 for June 3: Two Emmy champs return

1) “The Handmaid’s Tale” (any time Wednesday, Hulu) and “Big Little Lies” (9 p.m. Sunday, HBO). Two years ago, these dominated the Emmys. “Handmaid” won for best drama series, “Lies” for best mini-series. Their stars, Elisabeth Moss and Nicole Kidman, also won. “Handmaid” and Moss won again last year; as the third season arrives, she’d seeking ways to rebel. “Lies” took last year off, but returns with a new mystery and its old stars (Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley, shown here) … plus Meryl Streep. Read more…