Month: May 2021

Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for May 17: stars of pop and pulpit

1) “American Experience: Billy Graham,” 9-11 p.m. today, PBS. Graham (shown here) was a Southern farm kid, 6-foot-2, with blue eyes, a strong voice and an amorous nature. He quit Bob Jones College because he wanted to date girls. At another Bible school he met a missionary’s daughter; they were married 64 years, with five children. Graham was a classic evangelist, this terrific film says, but overstepped political lines. The Watergate tapes were “a crushing experience,” triggering apologies and moderation. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 15, 2021
Stories

After filling our TV for decades, Tim Allen steps back

Tim Allen has been living inside our TV sets for three decades.
He started “Home Improvement” in 1991 and will end “Last Man Standing” (shown here in an early promo photo) at 9 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday (May 20) on Fox)In a 30-year stretch, he spent 17 years with those two shows; also, TV kept rerunning his movies – especially “Galaxy Quest” and all the “Toy Story” and “Santa Clause” tales.
Now Allen’s overload stretch is ending; this will require some adjustment. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 15, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for May 16: Great “Zoey” leads finale flurry

1) “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” finale, 9 p.m., NBC. If this show isn’t renewed, then … well, it will have had a great series-finale. And if it does return? For the second straight year, it’s given us an amazing season-finale. Zoey (shown here in a previous episode) – who hears people’s thoughts via pop songs – is with Simon now, but has strong feelings for the departing Max. That leads to some vibrant song-and-dance moments at the nightclub … and then to the surprising (and rather superb) finish, Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 14, 2021
News and Quick Comments

CW goes seven-nights-a-week this fall

The CW, TV’s mini-network, will match the big guys in one area:
Beginning in October, it will add Saturdays, giving it primetime shows, seven nights a week.
At two hours a night, that’s 14 primetime hours a week. Fox has 15; ABC, CBS and NBC each have 22.
That will start Oct. 2, with the first half of the “iHeartRadio Music Festival” (shown here with Justin Timberlake in a previous year), an annual event that concludes the next night. After that, nothing has been set; next week, the networks start to unveil their fall line-ups. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 14, 2021
News and Quick Comments

“Friends” finally sets its reunion

“Friends” fans will finally get their reunion – a year later than first planned.
HBO Max says it will have the special on May 27. It will be unscripted, with all six stars (shown here), plus assorted guests, including Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Cindy Crawford, Tom Selleck, Reese Witherspoon and James Corden; Ben Winston, who produces Corden’s late-night show, will produce and direct. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 13, 2021
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for May 17: finale flurry and pop-music overload

1) “American Idol” finale (ABC) or “Billboard Music Awards” (NBC), both at 8 p.m. Sunday. To complicate our lives, two pop-music events are simultaneous. “Idol” is down to its final three now and is ready to choose a champion. Billboard has Nick Jonas hosting and Pink and The Weeknd performing. Drake (shown here) – who has had nine No. 1 singles – gets the artist-of-the-decade award. He and Weeknd are up for artist of the year, alongside Taylor Swift, Pop Smoke and Juice Wrld. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 13, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for May 15: Pop star, vaccine stars

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. Most teenagers don’t have a weekend quite like this: On Friday, Olivia Rodrigo (shown here) had the second-season opener of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” on Disney+; today is her “SNL” debut, with Keegan-Michael Key hosting. Six days later, her album will debut. Rodrigo, 18, starred for three seasons in “Bizaardvark,” before playing Nini in the Disney+ series. Her first single, “Drivers License,” was No. 1 in the U.S. and seven other countries. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 13, 2021
News and Quick Comments

Kennedy Center Honors grab Tony timeslot

This year’s Tony Award telecast will be last year’s Kennedy Center Honors … sort of.
And that could satisfy people who want high-class celebrations of the performing arts.
CBS has set the Kennedy Center show for 8-10 p.m. June 6. Gloria Estefan will host and the honorees will range from violinist Midori, 49, to actor Dick Van Dyke, 95; others are country’s Garth Brooks (shown here), 59; folk’s Joan Baez, 80; and actress-dancer Debbie Allen, 71. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 12, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for May 14: “Blue” finishes, “Pride” begins

1) “Blue Bloods” season-finale, 9 and 10 p.m., CBS. In last season’s finale, Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) met Joe Hill, an adult grandson he didn’t know about. (Hill’s biologic father, Joe Reagan, was killed as an undercover cop.) The new Joe was in the first three episodes this season, then vanished. Now we learn he’s been working undercover, in a gang that Danny – a police detective who is Joe’s uncle — is investigating. Now Danny (center) and Jamie (right) try to save their nephew (back to camera), in a two-part finish to the 11th season. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 12, 2021
Stories

It’s an anthem of life for Memorial Day star

The song “American Anthem” ripples through decades of Denyce Graves’ memories.
She met it 23 years ago, when her friend, composer Gene Scheer, sent it by cassette. Her reaction, she recalls, was instant: “It’s beautiful …. It’s a reflective piece that makes you think about your life.”
So she sang it often – from the a Hillary Clinton event to George W. Bush’s second inauguration. (“I’m a bi-partisan, equal-opportunity singer.”) After the latter, Sen. Joe Biden “came up to me and said, ‘What was that song!?’” Sixteen years later, he would quote it in in own inaugural speech.
Now comes another lofty occasion. From a rooftop overlooking the Capitol, Graves (shown here) sings “American Anthem” for the “National Memorial Day Concert,” at 8 p.m. May 30 on PBS, rerunning at 9:30. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 11, 2021