Month: February 2022

1) TONIGHT’S MUST-SEE: “American Masters,” 9-11 p.m., PBS. Just 51 weeks after PBS had a splendid Marian Anderson profile, here’s an even better one. Last year’s film focused on the peak: Banned from the segregated Constitution Hall, Anderson had a triumphant concert (shown here) at the Lincoln Memorial. This film includes that, but has a deeper profile of a winding life – a phenom at 8, a high-school grad (finally) at 24, a star who performed for royalty, but sat in the back of the bus. Read more…

1) “American History: Riveted: The History of Jeans,” 9 p.m., PBS. At first, jeans were just supposed to be sturdy and practical; cowboys and farmhands could wear them forever. Then they were worn by everyone from civil-rights protestors to hip hop stars to model (including Brooke Shields in the ad shown here). They became fashionable … and expensive; they were ripped and faded (on purpose). It’s a fun and fascinating story. Read more…

1) Olympics, 7-11:30 p.m., NBC. The figure-skating team portion concludes with finals in three popular categories – women, pairs (shown here in 2018) and dance. Also in prime time, NBC has live coverage of the women’s alpine giant slalom (which then concludes from midnight to 2 a.m.) and women’s freestyle skiing. Men’s freestyle skiing is live at 1:30 a.m. on USA. There’s more all day, including the USA network’s live coverage of U.S.-Switzerland women’s hockey, at 8:10 a.m. , rerunning at 5 p.m. Read more…

1) “Malcolm X” (1992), 12:58 p.m., Sundance; and 3 p.m., TNT. Black History Month finds two marathons, both led by Spike Lee’s masterpiece, with Denzel Washington as the civil-right leader (shown here). Both channels also share “Ghosts of Mississippi” (1996); it’s 6 a.m. on TNT and 5:30 p.m. on Sundance, which then has “The Color Purple” (1996) and “Rosewood” (1997) at 8:30 and midnight. TNT has “Selma” (2014) at 12:15 p.m., “Black Panther” (2018) at 7:15 and “Just Mercy” (2019) at 10. Read more…

1) Olympics opening ceremony, 6:30 a.m. ET, NBC, USA, Peacock, Olympic Channel. Then 8 p.m. and 12:38 a.m., NBC. As the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympics, Beijing tries to match its previous success – on a smaller scale. In the summer of 2008, its spectacular ceremony (shown here) had 15,000 performers and a reported $100-million budget. Now it’s in the same building, with the same director; about 3,000 performers are expected. Read more…

1) Olympic competition begins, 8 p.m. to midnight and 12:35-2 a.m., NBC. Figure-skating is starting early, because of double duty: Skaters compete for the team championship first, then will start over in the push for individual medals. Tonight’s skating has rhythm dance, plus the short programs for men (Nathan Chen, shown here, as an American skater with three world championships) in prime time and pairs after midnight. That will be shown live, but prime time will also have taped coverage of alpine skiing, with the men’s and women’s moguls. Read more…