Year: 2022

Best-bets for Nov. 24: Parade launches Christmas season

1) Thanksgiving Day parade, 9 a.m. to noon, NBC and CBS (but on the West Coast, CBS will delay until about 1 p.m. PT. The mega-parade has 12 bands, lots of balloons and 28 floats, often with stars onboard. It will be Jimmy Fallon with the Roots, Mario Lopez with his family, Gloria Estefan with her daughter and granddaughter and Santa (shown here) wrapping things up. Near the start, NBC has the Broadway casts of “Funny Girl,” “The Lion King,” “A Beautiful Noise” and “Some Like It Hot”; CBS counters with the casts of “Moulin Rouge” and “Six.” Read more…

Quick change: Award show will be Saturday (Nov. 26)

There’s a new awards show coming – quickly. And some Christmas cartoons will be delayed to make room.
In an unusually speedy move, CBS announced that it will air “Byron Allen Presents TheGrio Awards,” from 8-10 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 26) on the network and on Paramount+. The shows that had been scheduled then — “Robie the Reindeer” and “The Story of Santa Claus” – will move back a week, to Dec. 3.
Allen, 61, is a former comedian and actor who has become one of the major Black owners in the TV world. His company owns The Weather Channel plus regional sports channels, digital channels, TV stations and shows.
Now he’s created awards that will go to Black icons (including Dave Chappelle, shown here) and to Norman Lear, the 100-year-old producer known for “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons: and more. “Grio” is based on a word for an African storyteller. Read more…

New Christmas movies: Here are the best (and worst)

Sure, all those cable Christmas movies look the same.
They have the same sunny faces, same glittery settings, same songs (public-domain, no problem getting rights) in the background.
But once you get past that, they vary widely. There are some good ones (really); that includes “Must Love Christmas,” shown here. There are also some awful ones (obviously) and a lot in-between.
We sampled a dozen of them, many from around Thanksgiving weekend, when key ones arrive. The dates listed here are when they first air, but don’t worry: Christmas movies, like old Christmas sweaters, never really go away: Read more…

Best bets for Nov. 23: ancient Egypt, modern Thanksgiving

1) “Tutankhamun: Allies and Enemies,” 8 and 9 p.m., PBS. It was 100 years ago (this Saturday, Nov. 26) that Howard Carter chiseled a peephole. “Can you see anything?” his patron asked. The reply: “Yes, wonderful things.” After five years, he had found the tomb of King Tut (depicted here); 5,398 objects, mostly gold, were there. This film looks back and leaves questions: We still don’t know who was Tut’s mother, how he died or whether this was meant to be his tomb. Read more…

Best-bets for Nov. 22: native star, country chaos

1) “American Masters,” 9-11 p.m., PBS. Buffy St. Marie (shown here) tells of being bullied and blacklisted, of being abused as a child and of surviving (barely) a dangerous romance. Still, she has emerged as a vibrant force – a singer, songwriter, actress and Indian-rights activist. Her “Universal Soldier” has been recorded by 157 people; her “Up Where We Belong” won an Academy Award. Here’s a compelling portrait of a zestful performer at 81. Read more…

Best-bets for Nov. 21: current stars, eternal Lansbury

1) Angela Lansbury tribute, Turner Classic Movies. Here’s a full day with Lansbury, who died last month at 96. It starts at 6:15 a.m. with “National Velvet” (1944) and ends with the 3:45 a.m. “Sweeney Todd” – the only nod to her mastery of musicals. There are some obscure films and then the three that brought her Oscar nominations – “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962) at 8, “Gaslight” (1944, when she was 18; she’s shown here behind Ingrid Bergman) at 10:15 and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1945) at 12:15 a.m. Read more…

Best-bets for Nov. 20: The dead walk; the living sing

1) “The Walking Dead” finale, 9-10:30, AMC, rerunning at midnight and 1:30 a.m. “Dead” (shown here in a previous episode) has been one of cable’s top successes — 11 seasons, 177 episodes, countless zombies and huge ratings. Last week’s episode saw a swarm heading for the city; that reruns at 7:25 p.m. and then the fuss begins: Chris Hardwick hosts a red-carpet preview at 8:30. After the finale, he’ll host a “Talking Dead” with the actors and producers, until midnight. Read more…

Christmas commotion? It depends on where you live

If you think Christmas is a big deal in your neighborhood … well, compare that to Puerto Rico.
“Food is abundant,” Rita Moreno said. So is commotion.
“You go from house to house and make a lot of noise,” she said in a video press conference. “Everyone has homemade instruments. And if it’s 1 o’clock in the morning, it doesn’t matter. You open the door.”
Now Moreno – who moved to New York when she was 5 — co-stars in a film filled with the tamer traditions of the mainland. “Santa Bootcamp” (shown here), at 8 p.m. Saturday and 10:03 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19-20, on Lifetime. It has her running a school for Santas and such Read more…

Week’s top-10 for Nov. 21: Holiday season takes over

1) Thanksgiving Day parade, 9 a.m. to noon Thursday, NBC (rerunning from 2-5 p.m.); also, 1-4 p.m., CBS. The mega-parade (shown here in a previous year) has 12 bands, 10 performance groups, lots of balloons and 28 floats, often with stars – from Paula Abdul to Ziggy Marley — onboard. Early on, NBC will have the Broadway casts of “Funny Girl,” “The Lion King,” “A Beautiful Noise” and “Some Like It Hot”; CBS will counter with the casts of “Moulin Rouge” and “Six.” Read more…

Best-bets for Nov. 19: Dorothy, Dolly, Grinch and more

1) “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), 5 and 6:33 p.m., TBS. Two of the all-time great shows return, as part of a great stretch for TBS. Tim Burton’s brilliant “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005) is at 2:30 p.m., with “Grinch” (shown here) – a wondrous blend of Dr. Seuss and animator Chuck Jones – at 5. “The Year Without a Santa Claus” is 5:30, with “Oz” at 6:33 and 8:45 … and “Charlie” again at 11:01 p.m. Read more…