PBS – once considered mostly a cozy place for classical music, British dramas and French cooking – is broadening its scope.
Paula Kerger, the network CEO, has announced projects for this fall, ranging from Harriet Tubman to Chuck D (shown here) and hip hop history. She also announced long-range efforts that, she said, “will elevate new voices … and amplify diverse perspectives.” Read more…
1) “Stars on Stage,” 9 p.m., PBS. This wraps up a series that gave three Broadway-style talents each an hour-long concert. Now it’s Brandon Victor Dixon’s turn. On Broadway, he’s portrayed the music greats – Eubie Blake and Berry Gordy; he’s won a Tony (for producing the “Hedwig” revival) and been nominated for two more. Still, more people may know him from two live TV performances – in “Rent” and a sensational, Emmy-nominated turn as Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar” (shown here). Read more…
For the third straight year, an awards show is being delayed by COVID.
This time, it’s the Grammys. Originally scheduled for Jan. 31 in Los Angeles, it’s now been moved to April 3 in Las Vegas. Read more…
1) “Women of the Movement” conclusion, 8 p.m., ABC. With the world watching, two women testified in a packed Mississippi courtroom. One was a store clerk, 27; after Emmett Till (14, visiting from Chicago) talked to her in 1955, he was kidnapped and killed. The other was Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. The case would propel the civil rights movement; Till-Mobley (played by Adrienne Warren, shown here with Cedric Joe as Emmett) would go on to get a master’s degree and be an educator and an activist. This wraps an intense mini-series; a documentary follows at 10:31. Read more…
1) “The Wonder Years,” 8:30 p.m., ABC. Dean (shown here in a previous episode) loses his spot as first-chair saxophone in the school band. That annoys his dad (a professional musician), who pushed him to win it back. But do father and son really share the same dreams? Read more…
For years, Simone Finch was at the edge of great TV, hoping to be part of it.
Then her own life became a starting point. The result is “Single Drunk Female,” a comedy-drama that debuts at 10 and 10:30 p.m. Thursday (Jan. 20) on Freeform.
“I started writing this in 2012 – before I got sober, actually,” Finch said. “And then I got sober – and then I realized it was about a girl getting sober.”
Now she’s further along – almost eight years without a drink – and can look back at a precarious time. Her story finds Sam (Sofia Black-D’Elia, 30, shown here) back from rehab, living with a mother (Ally Sheedy, 59), who thinks, as Sheedy puts it: “She’s not going to come change my life and my habits.” Read more…
1)“Great Performances: The Broadway Revival,” 9 p.m., PBS. Right now, Adrienne Warren is starring as Emmett Till’s mother in an ABC mini-series that concludes Thursday. Before that, she drew raves in a Tina Turner musical (shown here) … until COV ID closed Broadway, “It crushed me,” she says here. After a 19-month break, the show returned … and she had to relearn everything. “It was hilarious,” she says, “and also terrifying.” She’s one of many people in an involving (but repetitive) look at Broadway’s comeback. Read more…
So Lizzie McGuire gets to be a grown-up after all – sort of.
The new show is “How I Met Your Father,” Tuesdays on Hulu, starting Jan. 18. It’s a different character (now named Sophie), with different producers; but it’s still Hilary Duff (shown here), with Lizzie-like zest.
And it reflects another show (a sequel to Duff’s “Lizzie McGuire”) that started and then stopped. “Comparing it to the ‘Lizzie’ that never was,” Duff said, “I think she’s a totally different character and we … have a lot more fun with what people are doing in their 30s.” Read more…
1) “9-1-1: Lone Star” and “Ordinary Joe,” 8 p.m., Fox and 10 p.m., NBC. Suddenly, our TV sets are filled with snow.; both episodes have blizzards. For “Lone Star,” that’s a surprise; Texas doesn’t get much snow. It’s also a rerun of the season-opener, starting an excellent, multi-week story: Owen (Rob Lowe,shown here), bearded and brooding, is in a cabin when the world transforms. And for “Ordinary Joe,” all three of these extraordinary Joes – the cop, nurse and rock star – see their lives battered. Read more…
TV shows, even the popular ones, used to end without warning.
Tracee Ellis Ross remembers that from “Girlfriends.” After a cozy, eight-season run, it simply vanished.
“We didn’t know the show was ending,” Ross recalled in a Television Critics Association virtual press conference. “We didn’t get a wrap party; we didn’t get a finale – none of that.”
Now she has the opposite experience on “Black-ish” (shown here). Before work began on this eighth season (9:30 p.m. Tuesdays, ABC), everyone knew this would be the last. Read more…
Best-bets for July 13: One show debuts, three return 
Best-bets for July 12: double-Joel, plus sharks 
Best-bets for July 11: a Messi moment for Cup 
