Daily Best Bets

1) Football, 12:30 p.m. ET, Fox. The college football season, an American tradition, is starting in Dublin, Ireland. That’s where Nebraska(shown here)  and Northwestern – each back from a 1-8 Big Ten season – collide. There’s also a game on Fox Sports 1 (Connecticut/Utah State, 4 p.m. ET) and four on the CBS Sports Network – Austin Peay/Western Kentucky (noon) … Idaho State/Nevada-Las Vegas (3:30 p.m.) … Charlotte/Florida Atlantic (7) … Vanderbilt/Hawaii (10:30). Read more…

1) “Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert” (shown here), 9-10:30 p.m., PBS. With Europe staggering from Covid, warfare, inflation and more, this night – beautifully filmed – has a unity feel. Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons opens with German music (Beethoven) and closes – as always – with a Viennese waltz. He features a French composer (Saint-Sains) and cellist (Capucon), but also has a Romanian piece, two Czech ones and two from Ukraine. Read more…

1) “The End is Nye” debut; any time, Peacock, 10 p.m., Syfy. A dead-serious subject gets a whimsical launch. In each of the six episodes, special effects help Bill Nye (the science guy) step into a disaster, then tell us how to survive it and how to prevent it. All six are available on Peacock; they also show up (one per night) on Syfy, with disaster lead-ins. That begins today, with five goofy (and fun) “Sharknado” films (one is shown here), starting at 11:40 a.m. Read more…

1) “Welcome to Wrexham” debut episodes, 10 and 10:38 p.m., FX; repeat at 11:17 and 11:55. In a crumbling Welsh economy, Wrexham has two points of pride – a professional soccer team and a classic stadium. But the stadium is 215 years old and the team has fallen to the fifth level, just above semi-pro. Then actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (shown here) bought the team; this documentary’s opener, catching the end of the 2020 season, is both warm and bittersweet. Read more…

1) “Cinderella” (1997), 9-11 p.m., ABC; plus a special at 8. It was 25 years ago that the Disney people took a lesser Rodgers-and-Hammerstein musical and spiffed it up beautifully. They inserted Rodgers songs from other shows, then added vibrant sets and splendid Rob Marshall choreography. They also had color-blind casting; Brandy Norwood (shown here) was fine as Cinderella, Whitney Houston soared as her fairy godmother. The casting is a focus of the 8 p.m. special. Read more…

1) “TMZ Investigates: What Really Happened to Richard Simmons?” 8 p.m., Fox. As a young man, Simmons (shown here) shed 123 pounds, almost half his weight. Moving from New Orleans to Los Angeles, he started a fitness studio, emphasizing oldies music and upbeat attitude. He swirled through talk shows and more. Then — 8 ½ years ago, at 65 – he vanished. There was a brief hospitalization, an audio interview, a police wellness check, then nothing. Read more…

1) “House of the Dragon” debut, 9 p.m., HBO, rerunning at 10:10. This is the big one – or one of two big ones. Years in the making, there are epic prequels to “Lord of the Rings” (Sept. 2 on Amazon) and, first, “Game of Thrones.” HBO reportedly spent $200 million on this 10-episode season, set almost 200 years before “Thrones.” Paddy Considine (shown here) plays the king, with Emma D’Arcy (and, in the early years, Milly Alcock) as the dragon-riding princess. Read more…

1) “Jaws” (1977), 7 p.m., AMC; or “Back to the Future” (1985), 8 p.m., CMT. More than anyone else, Steven Spielberg has shown that a movie can be artfully crafted and wildly entertaining. He proved that by directing “Jaws” (shown here) and by producing “Back to the Future” – a film that (under director and co-writer Robert Zemeckis) can best be describes as Spielberg-esque. And yes, that’s a good thing. Read more…

1) “Secret Celebrity Renovation,” 8 p.m., CBS. It’s been a great stretch for Annaleigh Ashford (shown here) … albeit one that included “B Positive” being canceled. She was terrific in that show … and in Broadway TV specials … and as Clinton-accuser Paula Jones in a mini-series. More roles are coming – as actress Judy Holliday and as a prime force behind the Chippendale dancers. First, she visits home here, to help some home renovations for her dad and recently-retired mom. Read more…

1) “Reservation Dogs,” any time, Hulu. Crafted with subtlety and depth, “Dogs” (focusing on young native Americans) is taking big detours this season For two episodes, Elora (shown here, left) was fleeing to California with her former nemesis … until their car broke down. In the third, Bear (right) got his first job; that one ended with Elora saying her grandmother was dying. Now the community gathers for a deathwatch; the result is a great blend of warmth, humor and more. Read more…