1) White House Correspondents Dinner, 8-11 p.m. ET, CNN. This event has been cancelled for the past two years (due to Covid) and hasn’t had a president there in six years (due to, well, Trump). But Joe Biden plans to be there, barring an emergency, to take and deliver barbs. Trebor Noah (shown here) hosts; the best parts tend to come near the end. Read more…
Donna Schmidt realized she was in an alternate universe.
Her daughter Rachel went to Lowell, the high-achievers’ San Francisco high school that’s now featured in a compelling PBS documentary (shown here). Everything was sort of backwards.
In other schools, kids might toss their books in a corner for the weekend and focus on leisure. Not Rachel or her classmates.
“Friday, when she gets home, she would start studying,” Schmidt told the Television Critics Association, in a press conference for “Try Harder!” (10 p.m. Monday, May 2, on PBS, under the “Independent Lens” banner). “That was just the weirdest thing …. So that’s (my) Friday, too.” Read more…
1)“Magnum P.I.” return, 9 p.m., CBS. This used to be dependable on CBS, with three crime hours each Friday. Lately, that’s shrunk to two and (for the last couple weeks) just one, Now “Magnum” is back, with only its second new hour in six weeks. It borrows an idea that has worked for “X-files,” “The Godfather,” “Law & Order” and more: A guy wakes up, covered with blood and unable to remember if he’s committed a crime; Magnum and Higgins (shown here) try to find out. That’s followed by “Blue Bloods,” which this week was renewed for its 13th season. Read more…
Vanessa Bayer manages to see the bright side of things – including childhood leukemia.
“I was able to get a lot of perks from it,” she told the Television Critics Association. Indirectly, that led to “I Love That For You,” at 8:30 p.m. Sundays on Showtime, starting May 1.
Bayer (shown here) plays a cancer survivor, stretching for her dream job, at a home-shopping network. In real life, her dream job (seven years on “Saturday Night Live”) came after survival.
“I had leukemia when I was 15,” she said. She’s fine now … and she’s mastered the art of making the best of something. Read more…
1) NFL draft, 8-11:30 p.m., ABC and ESPN. Baseball season has started, basketball and hockey are peaking … but football grabs our attention. It’s the first round tonight, with edge-rusher Aidan Hutchinson (shown here about to make a sack) possibly going first; two more rounds are Friday, with the final four Saturday afternoon. Rece Davis anchors, joined by Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and lots of clips and commentary. ABC will focus a bit more on the people side, ESPN on stats and stuff. Read more…
1) “Nature” season-finale, 8 p.m., PBS. The 40th season – a good one – ends with some spectacular views of Portugal. Brutal wind and the world’s biggest waves (up to 100 feet) have left shipwrecks, where creatures make their homes. The coast also has one of the largest seahorse populations. One island has a shrinking number of monk seals (about 30) and expanding number of wolf spiders (maybe 5,000). On land, we see wildfires and wild horses; we also see cork trees – their bark harvested every eight years – holding giant stork nests (shown here). Read more…
Back in 1972, Paramount Pictures was wobbling.
It had made three big-budget musicals, but not the good ones … and three Neil Simon comedies, but not the funny ones … and some youth-oriented films, but not the famous ones. It had scored with “Love Story,” flopped with others and needed a break; it got it with “The Godfather.”
And a half-century later? The Paramount+ streaming service and cable’s Paramount Network have had modest starts. One solution – again – is “The Godfather.” On Thursday, Paramount+ starts “The Offer” (shown here) a 10-part mini-series about the making of the film; that weekend, the cable network has both the film and its sequel – 7 and 11 p.m. Saturday, 4 and 7:45 p.m. Sunday
“I watched (‘The Godfather’) before I was a teenager and it deeply affected me,” Juno Temple, one of the “Offer” stars, told the Television Critics Association. “I have such a romanticism of Hollywood’s past.” Read more…
1) “New Amsterdam,” 10 p.m., NBC. After returning last week from a six-week break, “New Amsterdam” threw lives into limbo. There was a heavy-drinking night and four people are missing – Wilder (who may have summoned an online date) … Trevor (who may have convinced Iggy to cheat on his husband) ,,, Mia (who seemed suicidal) … and Casey (who’s still mad at Bloom, as is Leyla). Helen did make it home, but now she’s collapsed. Max (they’re shown here in a previous episode) raced home to check on her; he had planned to propose to her that night, but she fell asleep. Read more…
1) “Better Things” series-finale, 10 p.m., FX, rerunning at 11. A great show ends in typical style – odd, disjointed and intermittently brilliant. If you haven’t been watching it, just relax and let the finale wash over you. It starts and ends with clever music videos; in between are bits of the fictional life of Sam Fox – a lot like the real life of writer-director-star Pamela Adlon (shown here in an earlier season, with the actresses playing her daughters). Two long toilet scenes could have been skipped, but the rest has warmth, humor and human quirks. Read more…
CNN+ now goes down as one of life’s really bad ideas.
It lasted three weeks longer than the Titanic, 13 months less than the Hindenburg. No one was killed, but lots of talent (including Chris Wallace, shown here) was wasted.
Officially, the streaming service will shut down on April 30, 32 days after it began. The cause-of-death is listed as corporate confusion: Officials went ahead with the plan, fully aware that the incoming owners (Discovery) might dislike the idea; they did and shut it down instantly.
But unofficially? This was just never a good idea. Read more…
Best-bets for July 12: double-Joel, plus sharks 
Best-bets for July 11: a Messi moment for Cup 
Best-bets for July 10: perspectives on “BB,” JFK 
