1) “The Sting” (1973) and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969), 8 and 10:15 p.m. ET., Turner Classic Movies. Thiswas the perfect blend — top stars (Paul Newman and Robert Redford), talented director (George Roy Hill), jaunty music and fresh takes on cowboys and con men. Both won Oscars for their scripts and music; “Sting” (shown here) won for best picture. Read more…
1) “Sullivan’s Crossing” season-finale, 8 p.m., CW. For four seasons, we’ve seen good-hearted people — Maggie, a former surgeon, and Cal, a former lawyer — fall in love amid Nova Scotian beauty. (They’re shown here in a previous episode.) Then came her long-ago husband Liam, whose divorce papers were misfiled. As a land ceremony nears, she must make a choice. Read more…
Some people are simply the best at what they do.
No one can match Spielberg at making movies or Williams at scoring them. No one matches Ohtani at baseball or Elvis at doing Elvis things.
And no one could match James Burrows at an important and dwindling art –directing a comedy that’s done in front of a studio audience.
Burrows died today (June 19) at 85; I’ll have a full story about him later, but for now the basics: Read more…
On the July 4 weekend, it seems, all Americans will simultaneously be:
— Partying outdoors, with music and fireworks and such; and
— Sitting at home, watching music and fireworks and such.
At least, that’s the plan, as networks set massive 250th-birthday plans.
Fireworks? NBC will be in New York, as usual … CBS and Fox News will be in Washington, D.C. … ABC and its cable and streaming chanels will be in Nashville and Disneyland …PBS will be in Colonial Williamsburg — a day after many of its stations are at Mount Vernon.
Music? You’ll find lots of country stars — Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, Trace Adkins, Tim McGraw, Clint Black, etc. — plus others, including Post Malone, Bebe Rexha, Ne-Yo, Jon Batiste, Kelli O’Hara and Judy Collins.
Here are the plans, with details pending; all are for the 4th, except where noted. We’ll start with the networks that have been doing this every year: Read more…
1) “House of the Dragon” (shown here) season-opener, 9 p.m. Sunday, HBO and HBO Max. Here is epic filming — TV on a mega-movie scale. At one point, the show had expected to close its second season with the Battle of the Gullet. Now, instead, it uses that to give the third season a huge start. Dragons, ships and warriors collide in the water between two kingdoms.
Read more…
1) CMA Fest, 8-11 p.m. Thursday, ABC. Riley Green and Lara Spencer host a night with country’s top stars. There are long-timers — Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, Lainey Wilson, Keith Urban, Gretchen Wilson, Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw –plus relatively fresh forces. They include Ella Langley (shown here with Green), Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Shaboozey and Molly Tuttle. Read more…
1) “Bonnie and Clyde” (1969), 5:45 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies; and “Project Hail Mary” (2026), 8 p.m., MGM+. Some 57 years apart, both films blended smart stories, great actors (shown here are Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty as Bonnie and Clyde) and great cinematic skill. That’s also true of “Top Gun: Maverick” (6:50 and 10 p.m., Paramount Network) and the “Godfather” (6 and 9, Showtime) and “Lord of the Rings” (2, 6 and 10, TruTV) films. Read more…
Amid all the “Games of Thrones” extremes, all the sex and spectacle and such, a pattern emerged.
Viewers got used to “a slow build and then there’s an explosion — maybe midway through and then certainly near the end” of a season, said Ryan Condal, writer-producer of “House of the Dragon” (shown here) a “Thrones” prequel.
That’s what makes the third “House” season such a surprise: It starts (9 p.m. Sunday, June 21, on HBO and HBO Max) in full battle mode.
“I think it’s going to put people back on their heels,” Condal said, in a Zoom press conference. “It just comes out so heavy and unexpectedly.” Read more…
1) “The Clash of Nations,” 8-10:05 p.m., History. Two boxing matches (1936 and ’38) were seen as global symbols. Max Schmeling (left) represented “German superiority”; Joe Louis (right) was the rising Black American. This film debuts on Juneteenth (which marks the end of slavery), preceded by films on Jesse Owens (6 p.m.) and the stars who followed Jackie Robinson (4). Read more…
NBC is turning the New York Knicks’ championship into a three-day celebration. That includes:
— Tonight (June 15): The Knicks do a takeover of Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show,” at 11:35 p.m.
— Tuesday: At 10 p.m., “Password” has the Knicks’ Josh Hart competing with Jimmy Fallon; there’s even a category focusing on the team. (The previously scheduled hour with Ice-T will air later.) And at 12:35 a.m., Karl-Anthony Towns (shown here) visits Seth Meyers’ late show.
— Wednesday: Og Anunoby visits Meyers’ show. Read more…
Best-bets for June 23: Bob, Paul and great movies 
Best-bets for June 22: Love wobbles in Nova Scotia 
Best-bets for June 21: monsters and mysteries 
