Year: 2022

Best-bets for April 15: Feel-good dancers, feel-bad cops

1) “Come Dance With Me” debut, 8-10 p.m., CBS. An OK dance competition gets buried in a sea of feel-good excess. Kids who are serious dancers – prizewinners, maybe professionals – team with parents who aren’t (shown here). The performances are quite good; after all, half the dancers are talented and they’re give excellent costumes, choreography, music and lighting. But “Come Dance” pushes too hard; it feels forced, surrounding acts with emotion and praise. Read more…

“Password” joins summer spree of game shows

There will be another new game show this summer – except this one is also very old. It’s “Password,” which began 61 years ago.
NBC’s summer version – hosted by Keke Palmer — will continue the basic plan of pairing celebrities with regular folks. But Jimmy Fallon (shown here playing with Jim Parsons), who is also the producer, will be one of the celebrities in each hour; the last of the eight episodes will be all-celebrity. Read more…

Best-bets for April 14: glimpses of Swayze stardom

1) ”Superstar,” 10 p.m., ABC. Patrick Swayze grew up in Texas, which is football country. A knee injury ended any shot at an athletic scholarship, so he spent more time dancing for his mother, who had a jazz-ballet company and a dance studio. He took over the lead role in Broadway’s “Grease,” then went on to “Dirty Dancing” (shown here) and movie stardom, before dying of cancer at 57. This hour includes Demi Moore and Tony Goldwyn (his “Ghost” co-stars), Debbie Allen and Jaclyn Smith (his mother’s students) and more. Read more…

Best-bets for April 13: Life’s tough in LA and the Arctic

1) ”Snowfall,” 10 p.m., FX; reruns at 11:05, 12:09, 1:13. Last week, the wedding party of Jerome and Louanne was spiked with LSD. It was a bizarre detour, but it led to revelations for Franklin (shown here in a previous episode) and Leon. Their stories continue this week, along with a fierce sub-plot: Louanne sent a crooked cop to kill a rival. Now opposite instincts are juggled: There might be peace and a crime-free life … or maybe retribution, with gang warfare in Los Angeles. It’s a strong hour, leading to a huge – and crowded — season-finale next week. Read more…

“First Lady” visits personal/political power

This is a tiny slice of Americana – just 41 people, spread over 232 years.
Now a new series views some of the most intriguing: “The First Lady” (9 p.m. Sundays on Showtime, starting on Easter) spends its first season with three women. Michelle Pfeiffer is Betty Ford, Viola Davis is Michelle Obama and Gillian Anderson is Eleanor Roosevelt … who was sort of at the turning point.
“Eleanor was, in my mind, the first modern First Lady,” said Cathy Schulman, who produces the series and wrote the second of this year’s 10 episodes. Read more…

Best-bets for April 12: finales for “Abbott” and Pam

1) “Abbott Elementary” season-finale, 9 p.m., ABC. This clever little show has been a bright spot for ABC, getting decent ratings, especially in the 18-49 age group. Now it wraps its first season, a week before “Black-ish” (9:30) ends its eighth and final year.  Tonight, the Abbott school has its annual trip to the zoo (shown here), with lives in transition. Janine faces a big choice … Tariq has been offered a job in New York … and Barbara ponders her future, after learning that her favorite reptile (a tuatara) has been retired because of age. Read more…

It’s dance time, with or without a pandemic

Let’s consider this a benefit from the pandemic.

Yes, the lockdown made people better at laptops and Zoom calls and maybe home-cooking. Beyond that, it drove them to dance … setting up “Come Dance with Me” (shown here0, which debuts at 8 p.m. Friday (April 15) on CBS.

“This was pre-pandemic when we first got into it,” LL Cool J, one of the producers, told the Television Critics Association. “Even at that time, I felt … the world could use a nice family show that people could dance to.”

Then the world changed, said Chris O’Donnell, another producer. “Covid hit and Tiktok hit and all of a sudden, we found ourselves sheltering in place with our families and doing our little dance moves.” Read more…

Best-bets for April 11: lots of music and 9-1-1 calls

1) CMT Music Awards, 8 p.m., CBS. Country music fills the night, including the Judds’ (shown here) first TV performance in 20 years. Other duos include Maren Morris with Ryan Hurd, Cole Swindell with Lainey Wilson, Mickey Guyton with Black Pumas, Jason Aldean with Bryan Adams, Thomas Rhett with Riley Green and Jimmie Allen with Monica and Little Big Town. Also performing: Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Kelsea Ballerini (who hosts with Anthony Mackie), Kane Brown, Miranda Lambert, Walker Hayes, Carly Pearce, Old Dominion Read more…

ABC plans a playful summer

ABC is planning another game-stuffed summer, but with a difference:
This time, it will have three new games, alongside the vintage ones.
The network’s summer success has been built on pieces of the “Bachelor” franchise (also returning this summer, with Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia, shown her), plus games from way back. This summer – starting in July, after the pro-basketball playoffs — that continues: “Press Your Luck” goes back to 1983, “Family Feud” (now with celebrities) to 1976 and “$100,000 Pyramid” to 1973 (when it was merely $10,000).
But joining them will be the new shows. “Generation Gap,” hosted by Kelly Ripa, has kids and grandparents answering trivia about the others’ generation. “The Final Straw” has people trying to remove objects from a tower, without making it fall. And “Claim to Fame” is more of a reality show, involving people who, at first, don’t reveal their link to more-famous relatives; it’s hosted by Kevin Jonas, 33, of the Jonas Brothers and his not-famous brother Frankie, 21. Read more…

Best-bets for April 10: “Eve” exits strongly, “61st” enters grimly

1) “Killing Eve” series finale, 8-10 p.m., BBC America. This has always been a great (but odd) series. It shouldn’t surprise that the finale (which reruns Monday on AMC) is sometimes weird and generally superb. As it starts, Villanelle is in the Scottish woods with another hitwoman … Konstanin is grooming a young assassin … Carolyn is pensive about her old days in The Twelve … and Eve (shown here with Villanelle in a previous episode) is convinced The Twelve must die. There are odd detours, a big (but quick) finish and then a final jolt. Read more…