1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. The new season is only two weeks away and we can get in the mood with this rerun. Ryan Gosling hosted on March 7 (shown here), shortly before his “Project Hail Mary” opened to box office success. It was his fourth time hosting and the first for Gorillaz — which originally had “virtual” band members — as music guest Read more…
It will be a different sort of season-opener for “Saturday Night Live” this fall: No movie star, no comedian … but, instead, a basketball player.
That’s Jalen Brunson (shown here), who led the Knicks to the championship. He’ll host on Sept. 26, with Katseye as the music guest.
That will be followed by more-traditional hosts — a movie star (Dakota Johnson), a comedian (Shane Gillis) and — appropriately, on Halloween — a horror-film star (Inde Navarrette). Details, at 11:29 p.m. on NBC, are: Read more…
1) 9/11 events. At 8:30 a.m. ET, ceremonies in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksvillle, Pa., will mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks (shown here). Networks and news channels will be there; CBS, for instance, plans coverage from 7-10 a.m. Then coverage continues throughout the day.
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Apparently, we don’t have to wait until next month to get really, terribly, awfully frightened.
October is when Freeform has its “31 Days of Halloween” (with fairly gentle tales) and others — AMC, Syfy, etc. — have variations. But Paramount+ now helpfully tells us about the horror films it already has.
That includes all three “A Quiet Place” films, all four “Pet Semetary,” all seven “Paranormal Activity: and all eight “Scream” (depicted here). Horror movies seem to have lots of sequels. Read more…
1) “Colin From Accounts” final season, Paramount+. In one eight-episode clump, here’s the entire season. It’s written (beautifully) by the married duo of Patrick Brammall (left) and Harriet Dyer (third from left), who also star. Starting three years after his drunken proposal, this gets some big laughs, then ends with warmth and humor. Once you’re past the Australian accents, it’s a delight. Read more…
1) Football season-opener, 8:20 p.m. ET, NBC. The pros are back, ready to gobble our TV time. There’s a pre-game show at 7 p.m. and then a Super Bowl rematch, with the Seahawks and (shown here) the Patriots. The next day, Netflix has 49ers-Rams. And on Sunday (plus one game Monday) it will be all the rest. Read more…
1) “America’s Got Talent,” 8-11 p.m., NBC. There’s no waiting this time: Ten acts will perform — including an acrobat, a naked singer-comedian and (shown here) dancing robots — and viewers will vote. From 10-11 p.m., they’ll learn which acts will reach the semi-finals, next Tuesday. Read more…
In the new TV world, award shows and specials have become more important. Now CBS is planning a flurry for this fall.
That includes a three-Sunday stretch of “Video Music Awards” specials (Sept. 13, 20 and 27), sandwiched around one special with Cedric the Entertainer and another with “Judge Judy” (shown here). All of those are before the network starts its new season, in the first week of October. Read more…
In her early days as a free-lance journalist, Gloria Steinem said, one editor dismissed her abruptly.
That was at Life magazine. “We don’t want a pretty girl,” he said. “We want a writer.”
Steinem told the story in “Famous Last Words,” a fascinating Netflix show whose interviews aren’t released until after the person’s death. This one debuted Thursday (Sept. 3), the day after her death at 92.
What it shows is the Steinem (shown here) we’re accustomed to. She joked, laughed, recalled her decades of women’s-rights struggles fondly. “It doesn’t feel hard,” she said. “It feels like fun.” Read more…
1) “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” 9 p.m., FX and FXX. The gang is sort of in its natural habitat here — a Renaissance fair (shown here), where weirdness is normal. Naturally, they take it too far, in an episode that’s erratic, but quite funny. That’s followed by a good “Adults” rerun, with Anton finding that people do, unfortunately, sometimes listen to him. Read more…
Best-bets for Sept. 12: lots of games and one Gosling 
Best-bets for Sept. 11: a somber anniversary observed 
Best-bets for Sept. 10: two comedy gems 
