Best-bets for March 30: Bart’s back; basketball booms

1) “The Simpsons” return, 8 p.m., Fox. For 31 years, “Simpsons” has been a Sunday staple. So it was a jolt, when Fox actually rested it. After six sad, Homer-less weeks, it’s back; Bart becomes a celebrity DJ (shown here) and Homer pushes Ned Flanders too far. “Family Guy” slides to 8:30, “Great North and “Krapopolis” stay at 9 and 9:30 and “Grimsburg” rests. Read more…

Week’s top-10 for March 31: Basketball builds; other shows return

1) Basketball, 6:09 and about 8:39 p.m. ET Saturday, CBS. It’s final-four time, as the teams collide in San Antonio. The winners will be back next Monday, for the national championship. Meanwhile, CBS has some of its top shows back after a two-week break. It’s cop-and-firefighter shows on Friday (“Fire Country” is shown here) and (see No. 8) comedies and mysteries Thursday. Read more…

Best-bets for March 28: greatness on ice and in concert

1) “Jacqueline du Pre: Genius and Tragedy,” 9 p.m., PBS. At 17, du Pre (shown here) burst onto the music scene. “She was simple, she was caring, she was smiling,” conductor Zubin Mehta says here. Friends called her “Smiley”; others called her the “golden girl.” Then multiple sclerosis ended her cello-playing at 28. This is a superb profile, filled with great music Read more…

She likes jobs … so she juggled three of them

After 35 years on the job, some people might get a gold watch, a dinner or maybe a fishing pole. Heather Tom got extra work.
That’s fine with her, she said. “I don’t like not working.”
Brad Bell, the producer of “The Bold and the Beautiful,” was aware of that. “This is a celebration of my 35 years of work,” Tom said. “So Brad said, ‘Let’s give you three jobs.’”
She wrote, directed (shown here) and acted in an episode — possibly the first woman to do that in one daytime episode. It airs at 1:30 p.m. Thursday (March 27) on most CBS stations. Read more…

PBS’ Broadway series: from Dylan to Cole Porter

Two Midwestern songwriters who seem worlds apart – Bob Dylan and Cole Porter – will be featured this May, in PBS’ annual Broadway series.
Porter grew up on an Indiana farm; his “Kiss Me Kate” concludes the series May 30. A week earlier is the “Girl From the North Country,” with 20 songs from Dylan, who grew up in small-town Minnesota.
In their original versions, both shows drew Tony nominations for best musical; so did “Next to Normal” (shown here in its Broadway production), which opens the series. (“Kiss Me Kate” won, back in 1949; the others didn’t.)
They’re joined by the lone play in this group, “Yellow Face.” The shows, each at 9 p.m. on “Great Performances,” are: Read more…

Finale time nears … including a few forever finales

Barely into spring, it’s time to think about TV’s season-finales.
CBS has announced 19 of them, including three shows that won’t be back – “SWAT” (shown here), “FBI: International” and “FBI: Most Wanted.”
It also plans to turn some of the season-finales into events. Several will be two-parters; “Elsbeth” will bring back some of its favorite villains. Read more…