1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:30 p.m., NBC. Colman Domingo (shown here) has fresh fame in his 50s. He co-starred in “Color Purple,” got Oscar nominations for “Rustin” and “Sing Sing” and drew a Tony nomination for writing the play “Fat Ham.” Now, at 56, he hosts “SNL,” with Anitta, 33, as the music guest. It’s the first time for both of them. Read more…
“Saturday Night Live” will close its season with two of its favorite people, Will Ferrell (shown here) and Paul McCartney.
Ferrell hosts the May 16 episode, with McCartney as music guest.
That’s part of broad age range: Olivia Rodrigo, 23, doubles as host and music guest on May 2, two weeks ahead of McCartney, 83.
On a new episode Saturday (April 11), Colman Domingo hosts and Anitta is the music guest, both for the first time. Then, after two weeks of reruns, comes the final push, newly announced: Read more…
Right now, Roger Corman’s legacy is filling our Fridays with micro-budget movies.
Corman died in 2024, at 96, but his films persist. They were huge in quantity, mixed in quality, tiny in cost. And they launched great careers.
On April 10, for instance, two films — “The Wild Angels” (shown here) at 8 p.m. ET and “The Trip” at 11:30 — will show us Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, before “Easy Rider.”
On April 17, we see early work of Peter Bogdanovich (Targets,” 8 p.m.) and Francis Coppola (“Dementia 13,” 1 a.m.). A week later, it’s Martin Scorsese’s “Boxcar Bertha,” at 8. Those three men have gone on to get 15 best-director Oscar nominations, winning three times. Read more…
1) “Happy’s Place,” 8 p.m., NBC. This show often skids off the rails, but it instantly improves when Jane Lynch is there. Now Lynch — the five-time Emmy-winner — is back as imperious mother of Gabby. (They’re shown here.) Now she’s staying with Gabby, who’s desperate to oust her. Alongside another story (date night for Emmett), it’s a fun episode. Read more…
1) “Animal Control,” 9 p.m., Fox. Two weeks from its season-finale, this mixes three fun stories: Frank and Daisy (shown here) find a fresh way to lose money, then try to get it back …. Shred and Patel botch night duty … And Victoria can’t process her break-up with Parker. He’s played by Josh Segarra, who’s way overwrought as the “Best Medicine” cop, but much better here. Read more…
For half of the big-four networks, this is changeover time.
NBC is shedding its Mondays, so it can go on a basketball binge; Fox is wrapping lots of shows, as it prepares a (mostly) scriptless spring.
Some of this is bad news long-range, but good for a while. We get an early flurry of finales, (including “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins,” shown here), when shows are usually at their best. Details include: Read more…
1) “The Floor” season-opener, 8-10 p.m., Fox. It’s a fun start, with varied categories (from “Lord of the Rings” to “household chores”) and interesting contestants, from the first ones (shown here) to Brooke Camhi, a lawyer who won the 2017 “Amazing Race.” Many of them are too slow to say “pass”; twice, however, people manage to win with only one second left. Read more…
1) “Best Medicine” season-finale, 8 p.m., Fox. Last week’s hour set this up neatly: Visiting Norwegians tricked the town into a damaging deal … Greg and George mentioned they’d secretly married … and Dr. Best pointed Louisa to his ex-girlfriend, a fertility expert. Now that blends beautifully, in an excellent episode that often has Elaine (shown here in a previous episode) learn about her college application. Read more…
1) “St. Denis Medical” season-finale, 8 p.m., NBC. Dr. Ron (David Alan Grier) has been a curmudgeon, resisting warmth. Now he faces triple-bypass surgery and insists he just wants to be ignored … leaving others (shown here) to fret. Put that alongside another story — the aftershocks from Matt and Serena’s passionate kiss — and you have a terrific episode, rippling with humor and sentiment. Read more…
Is it too early to worry about season-finales?
Maybe, but CBS is ready. It will wrap up one season this month (“Matlock,” shown here, April 23) and some others in the first half of May,
Most of these will be back in the fall, with a few exceptions: “The Neighborhood” had already said this is its last season; CBS won’t be bringing back “DMV,” “Watson” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and has given no word on “America’s Culinary Cup” or “Hollywood Squares.”
But for 17 others, this is just a summer break; the finale dates are:
Read more…
Best-bets for April 11: “SNL” and lots of fighting 
Best-bets for April 10: comedy, ragtime & a stampede 
Best-bets for April 9: comedy time on Fox and Max 
