Stories

Super Bowl Sunday? Here’s a TV overview

In the first 58 years of the Super Bowl, a pattern was set.
There would be lots of repeat champions, but no team would even get a shot at a three-peat … until now.
At 6:30 p.m. ET Sunday (Feb. 9), the Kansas City Chiefs try for their third straight championship. Standing in their way are the Philadelphia Eagles, plus history.
The Super Bowl began (shown here) with the Packers winning comfortably against the Chiefs and then the Oakland Raiders; the third year, however, they didn’t make it to the game. Later, there were back-to-back wins by the Dolphins, Steelers (twice), 49ers, Cowboys, Broncos and Patriots. In each case, the team failed to reach the game in the third year. Now the Chiefs arrive, with Patrick Mahomes (of TV-commercials fame) at quarterback, Travis Kelce (of Taylor Swift fame) at tight end and a 17-2 record this season.
It should be fun. Here’s our casual fan’s guide to the day on TV: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 31, 2025

Stories

Remember when TV was our “shining center”?

(This is the second chapter of a book-in-progress, “Television, and How It Got That Way.” For the first chapter, scroll down in “stories.”)

In his busy life, Pat Weaver was involved in many fine creations. They included “Today,” “Tonight,” the Sid Caesar (shown here) comedies and Sigourney Weaver, his daughter.
(There’s a bit more on her at the end of this chapter.)
But he also fell far short of one goal. Television, he once said, could be “the shining center of the home.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 29, 2025

Stories

It will be Oscar night every night

Think of this as Super Bowl season for movie buffs.
It’s when Turner Classic Movies dips into its bottomless library for “31 Days of Oscar.” That starts Feb. 1 and continues through Academy Award night (March 2), with films ranging from 1928 to 2017.
This is the 30th year for the marathon, with the set-up changing – some years are alphabetical or chronological or whatever.
This year, daytime (anything before 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) will bunch the films by nominee categories. During the weekend that daytime category is always best-picture. Viewers can catch such gems as “In the Heat of the Night” (shown here) at 6 p.m. ET Feb. 1 and “Tom Jones” at 3 p.m. Feb. 2. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 27, 2025

Stories

TV (some of it) gears up for Black history

When Black History Month arrives, television will be ready.
Well … some of TV, anyway. PBS will have lots of documentaries and a Wynton Marsalis (shown here) concert. CBS has a special that celebrates Blacks on TV (mostly, on CBS). Streamers load up.
In the four-and-a-half years since the death of George Floyd, separate Black departments have been created at ABC, Hulu, Hallmark and more. Still, it’s uneven. Some focus on Black History Month (starting Saturday, Feb. 1), some don’t. Here’s a sampling: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 24, 2025

Stories

Let’s visit TV’s good(?) old days

(This is the start of a book, “TV, and How It Got That Way.” It will emerge here, one chapter at a time.)
To see how far TV has come, let’s step back a bit.
We’ll go to 1952 in Clintonville, a Wisconsin town of 4,600, known for big, tough trucks and (back then) big, tough football players.
I’m in the living room with my sister, our parents, a grandmother and a grandfather. Stationed a reasonable distance from the TV set, we are watching … well, a man playing records.
The man says what record he’s playing and starts it. Sometimes, the camera shows the record going around; sometimes it shows the man watching the record go around. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 22, 2025

Stories

Pittsburgh: Warhol and “Watson”; art and steel

When someone mentions Pittsburgh, we might think of Steelers or steel mills or steely resolve.
We might not think of world-class museums or medical centers. So the actors in “Watson” (shown here) — which CBS debuts Sunday, Jan. 26) were in for surprises.
Eve Harlow did know she wanted to see the mega-museum devoted to Pittsburgh native Andy Warhol. “I remember someone saying, ‘Oh, you should go to The Mattress Factory.’ My response was, ‘Oh, I didn’t know mattresses were such a big thing in Pittsburgh.’”
She soon found that this is a converted warehouse, filled with modern-art installations. “It’s amazing; I really love it.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 20, 2025

Stories

UFO’s: Lots of answers … and some enigmas

The sky seems to be full of blips and blobs and blinking objects.
Any one of those might be little Billy’s new drone, or maybe Venus. It might be benign or a spy balloon or …
Our minds often leap to UFO’s, the sort (shown here) depicted in old movies. That’s “pretty harmless,” Mick West told the Television Critics Association. “People seeing things in the sky and thinking they’re UFO’s or aliens or whatever, there’s no real harm in that.”
He’s a lifelong science-fiction fan, but in a new “Nova” documentary (9 p.m. Jan. 22, PBS), he creates practical explanations for events that seem exotic. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 13, 2025

Stories

First the day jobs, then classy British dramas

For most actors, a key step involves “day jobs.”
The lucky people are skilled waiters or carpenters or such, before rushing off to their next auditions. The others …?
“I am probably the worst magician in the world,” said Tom Durant Pritchard.
There he was, struggling to do balloons animals and magic and such at children’s parties. Fortunately, it worked out; at 37, he’s now had several good roles, two of them stirring up royals-watchers.
And now he steps into the male lead in “Miss Scarlet” (shown here) which starts its season at 8 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 12) on PBS, in front of the season-opener of “All Creatures Great and Small.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 5, 2025

Stories

“Origins” steps one Foote into the light side

Rippling through “NCIS: Origins” are all the usual elements – murder, arson, treason and generally impolite behavior.
But there’s one thing more: “There’s so much humor in the show,” David North, one of the two showrunners, told the Television Critics Association.
Well … not “Big Bang” or Three Stooges humor, but neat niches of levity from Caleb Foote (shown here) and others. Viewers can sample that as “Origins” reruns the start of its season.
So far, 10 episodes have aired. Before the second half of the “Origins” season starts (Jan. 27), all will have had a second run.
Two reran early. Now come the others – one on Monday, Dec. 30; three on Wednesday, Jan. 1; one Monday, Jan. 6; the other three on Sunday, Jan. 12. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 31, 2024

Stories

Here’s the line-up of new shows and season-openers

Here’s a list of 42 shows — debuts or season-openers — coming this mid-season. Some are terrific (“The Americas” is shown here), some aren’t, but all provide fresh choices. The story below this has more details.

NEW SCRIPTED SHOWS
— “Going Dutch,” 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 2, Fox. The career of a tough colonel (Denis Leary) implodes. He’s sent to a gentle Dutch base, run by his estranged daughter. The opening episode is flat; the second is better.
— “Doc,” 9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7, Fox. Here’s a brilliant concept, beautifully executed. Recovering from a traffic crash, a doctor has lost eight years of memories. Now she must update her knowledge … and adjust to her misdeeds during those years. Molly Parker leads a terrific cast. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 28, 2024