PBS has some good news for fans of dramas that are large, lush and (of course) British.
The movie version of “Downton Abbey” (shown here) will air twice – on Christmas Day and on Jan. 2. It will be alongside two other favorites (“Call the Midwife” and “All Creatures Great and Small”) and something new – David Tennant in an eight-part mini-series, “Around the World in 80 Days.” Read more…
Douglas Adams, the late “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” author, had a vertical theory of humor:
All truly funny people, he said, were 6-foot-5-inches tall.
That might have seemed true in his native England. But now, in the U.S., it’s off by a foot-and-a-half.
Meet Quinta Brunson (shown here, foreground) , who is about to rescue us from a slow year for network-TV comedy. She’s the producer, star and sole creator of “Abbott Elementary,” which has an advance showing at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday (Dec. 7) on ABC, then gets a regular spot next month. She’s listed at 5-foot, but some of that is wishful thinking. Read more…
.1) “A Home for the Holidays,” 9:30 p.m., CBS (but 9 p.m. PT). There’s music starpower here, with Justin Bieber (shown here), Alessia Cara, Darren Criss and Kane Brown. And between songs, there are true stories of adoptions. We’ll meet a UCLA freshman who was in nine foster homes in her first 12 years. And a former adoptee who now has an adoptive son. And a family that had three biological siblings, then adopted a boy and his baby sister. We’ll also see a girl’s adoption being finalized. Read more…
1) “Abbott Elementary” debut, 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, ABC. Quinta Brunson is a tiny (4-foot-11) force, ready to save TV comedy. She went to school in Philadelphia, then became a star in streaming shows and on cable, in “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and (as a cowboy outlaw) in “Miracle Workers.” Now she’s written this clever show and stars as a Philly teacher (shown here, left) who has earnest (if overwhelmed) colleagues and a clueless principal. It gets a weekly spot Jan. 4, but for now, we can savor a sharp and funny opener. Read more…
1) “A Clusterfunke Christmas,” 7 p.m., Comedy Central. If you’ve seen a few Christmas movies, you’ll like this; if you’ve seen a lot of them, you’ll love it. It skillfully skewers their cliches, including the basic plot: A citydweller – accomplished, attractive, lonely – goes to a small town for a business deal … then discovers home-style warmth. Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch (left and right) wrote a delightful script and co-star as the inn-owners. Vella Lovell stars (center), with Cheyenne Jackson as the hunky guy with an ax. Read more…
1) Football, 8 p.m. ET, ABC. It’s time for the conference championship games – two tonight and then nine packed into a busy Saturday. ABC has the big one, with the Oregon Ducks (10-2; their fan section is shown here) and Utah (9-3) colliding for the Pac-12 title. And at 7 p.m. ET, the CBS Sports Network has the Conference USA game: The University of Texas at San Antonio – which was undefeated until its loss Saturday – hosts Western Kentucky, which has won seven straight, after starting the season at 1-4. Read more…
1) “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (shown here) season-opener, 10 and 10:30 p.m., FXX. Most shows simply started late during the pandemic, but “Sunny” skipped all of 2020 and most of 2021. Hhere are its first new episodes in two years and 11 days. They start the 15th season – passing “Ozzie and Harriet” to become TV’s longest-lasting situation comedy (cartoons excluded). And they’re hilarious. The first tells how these guys triggered 2020’s key events; the second sees them make a micro-budget movie. Read more…
1) “Annie Live,” 8 p.m., NBC. The surge of live TV musicals has been a mixed blessing. Shows have ranged from great (“Grease,” “Hairspray”) to awful (“Peter Pan,” “Little Mermaid”). Now NBC plays it safe … just as it did in when it started the surge in 2013 with Carrie Underwood in “Sound of Music.” It takes a familiar show, filled with jaunty tunes, and inserts strong singers – Harry Connick (as Warbucks), Nicole Scherzinger and Megan Hilty. Celina Smith(shown here) stars, with Taraji Henson as Hannigan.
This is the season of sameness, which is fine … sometimes.
We like having the same Christmas cartoons and songs and such. But too often, Christmas movies have seemed to have the same plots and the same Caucasian actors.
Now, belatedly, that’s changing. Corbin Bleu points to “A Christmas Dance Reunion” (8-10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, on Lifetime), shown here, as an example.
This is a romance, he said, that “has nothing to do with the fact that we’re Black …. I wish I was able to see a lot more of that onscreen, when I was a kid and watching all these holiday movies.” Read more…
1) “The Hot Zone: Anthrax” conclusion, 9-11 p.m., National Geographic. On Monday, the mid-section of this three-night mini-series pulled a sudden detour. We’d been following FBI scientists Daniel Dae Kim and Dawn Olivieri (shown here) and Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist who said someone in his military-research unit might be responsible for the lethal anthrax mailings. But then came signs that Ivins (beautifully played by Tony Goldwyn) was oddly unhinged. Tonight, this strange-but-true story reaches its conclusion. Read more…
