Many hours have been spent on two worthy debates:
1) Who was the best “Star Trek” captain? and
2) Who was the best Scrooge?
I’ll save you some time. The answer to both is Patrick Stewart (shown here as Scrooge), who died Wednesday at 86. Read more…
In early January — when many Americans are encased in snow and sorrow — the beach babes will return.
The beach hunks will, too. The “Baywatch” reboot starts Jan. 6 on Fox.
The network has long been obsessing on the show. At the “upfronts” in May, when networks promote their new seasons, Fox had no new series coming in the fall; instead, it focused on “Baywatch” and showed that the new cast of young (and fit) actors (shown here). It’s also run promos during football games and more.
Now the debut has been set for 9 p.m. on a Wednesday. So far, Fox hasn’t announced its usual plan of airing the first episode right after a football game. Read more…
“Saturday Night Live” will soon have another stretch of three new episodes.
Along the way, it will have one of its most popular hosts (John Mulaney, left), plus two newcomers.
“SNL” opened its season Sept. 26 (its earliest start in more than a decade) with a stretch of three new shows. Then two reruns were scheduled, including one this Saturday (Oct. 24), with Dakota Johnson hosting and Turnstile as music guest.
Then comes the new stretch, with shows at 11:29 p.m. on NBC: Read more…
A star-stuffed concert will rerun on cable-TV Tuesday (Oct. 20), exactly 25 years after it debuted.
“The Concert for New York City” was held in Madison Square Garden on Oct. 20, 2001, six weeks after the World Trader Center attack. Now it will air from 7 p.m. ET Tuesday to midnight on MTV, MTV2, VH1 and Logo, again raising money for Robin Hood, a New York charity.
The original was organized by Paul McCartney (shown here), who quickly gathered other British acts to express a love for New York. David Bowie opened the night by combining “America” and his “Heroes”; McCartney closed it with six songs, sandwiching his new “Freedom” with “Yesterday” and “Let It Be.” The Who drew raucous approval; other British performers include Elton John, Eric Clapton and a duo of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Read more…
A great movie career will soon be flashing before us.
That’s when Turner Classic Movies has an Eva Marie Saint marathon. From noon to midnight ET on Oct. 25, it will show five films — including “On the Waterfront” (shown here with Saint and Marlon Brando), one of the best-acted movies ever — and an interview.
And yes, it was a long life. Saint’s death –Oct. 6, at 102 — came 72 years after “Waterfront” drew raves and awards. Read more…
The newest Dolly Parton tribute will link much of Nashville.
It will have the Dolly-style country divas — Reba McEntire, Ella Langley (shown here), Carrie Underwood — and more. It will range from banjo whiz Bela Fleck to singing actresses Kristen Bell and Kristin Chenoweth.
It will also include Lainey Wilson, who hosts the Country Music Association awards, Nov. 18 on ABC ad Disney+. Before that, she’ll be one of the performers when those networks (9-11 p.m. Oct. 21) have “CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton.” Read more…
Each year, Hispanic Heritage Month draws shrugs from most networks and glee from PBS.
This year, things seem more gleeful than ever. In an 11-day stretch, there will be three documentaries — looking at jazz, movies (including “La Bamba,” shown here) and guerrilla-style disruption — plus an award show and more.
Officially, National Hispanic Heritage Month starts on Sept. 15 — a key date for the drive toward independence for Mexico and five Central American countries — and continues through Oct. 15. PBS, however, is bunching most of its events into early October. They include: Read more…
At first, music videos seemed like minor miracles.
With a shortage of money and an excess of whimsy, people were turning songs into visual experiences. We were amazed; we still are, sometimes.
But what we saw at Video Music Awards on Sunday (Sept. 27) went far beyond that. Numbers done live, onstage numbers felt like video epics.
That went from the first number (Madonna, shown here in a recent performance, linking with Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX and a swarm of props and dancers) to the last one (Gener8ion and Yung Lean re-creating their video), this popped with amazing visuals. Read more…
CBS seems determined to spotlight all of the female music icons.
Its Video Music Awards show (7:30-9:30 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 27) will now be a Madonna-Taylor-Dolly event. And two months later, CBS will have a Thanksgiving-night event, with Jennifer Lopez (shown here) backed by a swarm of singers, dancers and musicians.
Details include: Read more…
At 9 a.m. one Tuesday, I was phoning Ric Burns, a gifted filmmaker.
His “New York: A Documentary Film” was finally wrapping up. The first five parts aired in 1999, showing a city that was merely created for commerce … then somehow became a cultural-social core for the world. Now, two years later, the final two chapters were ready.
It was a fascinating film, but during the interview, I kept noticing a commotion in the newsroom: At 8:46 and 9:03 a.m., planes had crashed into the World Trade Center.
In the weeks that followed, people would ignore most other things … including Burns’ films, which aired Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. A quarter-century later, he’s put things back in order; the new final chapters — spanning 9/11 and much more — air from 9-11 p.m. Monday and Tuesday (Sept. 20-21) on PBS. Read more…
