1) “Game of Thrones” finale, 9-10:20 p.m., HBO, rerunning at 11:30 p.m. and 2 a.m. This has been epic television, complete with angry dragons, naked people and toppling empires. It’s managed to mix spectacle, character drama and political intrigue. Now it concludes after 73 episodes over eight seasons. Read more…
1) “The Voice” finale, 9-11 p.m. today and Tuesday, NBC. For a while, Blake Shelton’s dominance was slipping. In 13 editions, he had six champions and seven runners-up; then Kelly Clarkson won two straight. Not to worry; Shelton now has three of the four finalists — Gythy Rigdon, Dexter Roberts and Andrew Sevener; John Legend has the fourth, Maelyn Jarmon. (She’s shown here with, from left, Sevener, Rigdon and Roberts.) Tonight, each does three songs; on Tuesday, one will be the winner. Read more…
The rise of female superheroes will get another boost this fall:
Now Batwoman and Supergirl will be back-to-back on Sundays, TV’s strongest night.
“Batwoman,” a spin-off of the just-ended “Gotham,” is one of only two new shows this fall on the CW mini-network. The other is “Nancy Drew,” about a teen crimesolver. A third one, “Katy Keene,” will wait until mid-season, along with four returning shows. Read more…
1) “Saturday Night Live” season-finale, 11:29 p.m., NBC. For a time, “Avengers: Endgame” seemed to be the only movie in existence. In its first weekend, its U.S. box office was eight times as big as EVERY other movie – all 111 of them – combined. After the third weekend, it had totaled $734 million in the U.S. and $2.5 billion worldwide. Wisely, “SNL” has an “Endgame” star (Paul Rudd, shown here, who plays Ant-Man) host; he’s done it three previous times. DJ Khaled is the music guest. Read more…
On the day before “Big Bang” says farewell, CBS has unveiled its lineup for next season.
It will try to retain is comedy dominance on Thursdays, with “Young Sheldon” (shown here in Thursday’s season-finale) and “Mom” at 8 and 9 p.m. Those will surround two new comedies: Walton Goggins plays a recent widower in “The Unicorn”; Patricia Heaton — already with two hits in “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “The Middle” — tries for her third act with “Carol’s Second Act.” Read more…
1) “Catch-22,” any time, Hulu. After being a bombardier in World War II, Joseph Heller began his great war novel. Fortunately, he wrote it slowly; when it finally came out in 1961, it fit the emerging ’60s, Vietnam-influenced era. The first hour of this six-part series captures the book’s mix of horror and humor. Alongside the gore, there are hilarious diatribes by officers (George Clooney, shown here, who produced this, and Kyle Chandler). And the scene explaining the title ranks with the classic “Who’s on first?” Read more…
It’s easy to get lost inside the sprawling Disney empire.
Today (May 14), many of Disney’s cable networks announced their plans for next season. There was big news – which would have seemed bigger, except it was at the same time as the fall-schedule news from Disney-owned ABC … and the news that Disney is buying full control of Hulu. Once you get past that, key news included:
— “The Simpsons” will have a three-network home – Fox and FX and now Freeform. FX’s John Landgraf said he had a nine-year deal with the show; after using it for five years to propel the FXX channel, he was ready for a sub-lease. Read more…
ABC will jump into the fall with a less-is-more plan. Except for “The Conners,” for which more is more.
Last year at this time, the network was announcing seven new fall shows, plus four more for mid-season. It was too much, new programming chief Karey Burke said this morning; she has just four new fall shows (one a familiar reboot), with three for mid-season.
She will, however, have more “Conners” (shown here), the show that powers Tuesdays. It had only 11 episodes this season and nine (as “Roseanne”) the previous one. Now Burke expects to be “very close to a full season,” which would be about 22. Read more…
1) “The Big Bang Theory” finale, 8 and 8:30 p.m., CBS. Television’s best comedy is finally ending after 12 seasons — a record for situation comedies done in front of an audience. The show has drawn huge laughs, but it’s also made us care deeply about its weird-but-good-hearted characters. As the end nears, we’ll see how their lives turn out. Will Sheldon and Amy (shown here) win the Nobel Prize? Will Penny change her mind about not having kids? Will Raj’s fiance return? We’ll root for them. Read more…
In her long career and longer life, Doris Day was many things. She was a big-band singer with an incredibly gorgeous voice.
She was a serious actress who boosted films like “Midnight Lace” (1960). She was an animal-rights advocate.
But mostly, Day – who died today, at 97 – was known for her comedies, some good and some awful. We can sample them on June 9, with a Turner Classic Movies marathon. Read more…
