Television has come far from the days when it showed the Guy Lombardo Orchestra each Dec. 31
.Dick Clark’s creation, “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” keeps prospering under Ryan Seacrest (shown here). But its competitors keep growing, including Fox with Steve Harvey and Maria Menounos (who’s feaured here under “stories,” at left) and NBC.
Here’s a round-up for this year: Read more…
1) “A Christmas Story” (1983), 8 p.m., TBS, 9 p.m., TNT. In Ralphie’s 1940s world, winter is precarious. Santas are scary (shown here) … tongues get stuck on metal poles … and kids want BB guns, despite warnings that they’ll shoot an eye out. All of this is wryly recalled in the script by Jean Shepherd, who also narrates. Alternately warm and cynical, it’s rerun every two hours on the Turner stations, for 24 hours. This time, they stagger the starts, so you can catch the beginning at the top of any hour. Read more…
Maria Menounos (shown here) will be back on Times Square this year, amid crowds, chaos and commotion.
Whatever happens, it’s bound to be easier than 2017, her first time with Fox’s New Year’s Eve.“It was the coldest (Eve) in New York ever,” she recalled. “And it was after I had brain surgery.”
One thing more: She was getting married – live, on the air – surprising everyone, including her parents. Read more…
