Day: October 11, 2023

Stories

Buffalo story is filled with complicated humans

A neon sign in Ken Burns’ editing room sums things up with two words: “It’s complicated.”
Life is, people are, history is. Burns’ latest documentary – “The American Buffao,” at 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 16-17), rerunning at 10 p.m. both days – is filled with complicated souls.
On one level, Burns said, this is straightforward. “It is an unmitigated tragedy …. You watch a species that numbered perhaps as many as 50 or 60 million” dwindle at one point to “under a thousand.” At the same time, the native Americans, who had co-existed with those buffalo for centuries, also declined.
But alongside that are all the rich complications of human behavior. Consider: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 11, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Oct. 13: CBS goes from cheery “Raid” to intense “Bloods”

1) “Raid the Cage” debut, 9 p.m., CBS. On Oct. 2, CBS debuted “Loteria Loca” (shown here). Now it debuts another full-throttle, high-octane show with international roots. Contestants pause (briefly) to answer trivia questions, but that’s to buy extra time to run into a room, grab prizes and get out before the door shuts. It’s sort of fun to watch (for a while) and we can see why it’s already in 18 countries. But the hosts (Damon Wayans Jr. and Jeannie Mai) and contestants seem confined to a perpetually cheerful tone that soon gets monotonous. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 11, 2023
Stories

Disney turns 100, via its semi-eternal TV show

A century ago, a young artist was in deep money trouble. He would be there often.
Walt Disney was 21 when his Laugh-O-Gram Studio went bankrupt. He moved to Los Angeles, where his brother Roy – older (30) and wiser in the ways of money – lived. On Oct. 16, 1923, they officially created what was then called the Disney Brothers Studio. Now that’s being noted twice:
— On Sunday (Oct. 15), Kelly Ripa hosts a “Wonderful World of Disney” celebration, at 8 p.m. on Disney-owned ABC. It includes the 2021 film “Encanto” and a new cartoon, “Once Upon a Studio.”
— On Monday (the studio’s 100th anniversary), Disney+ debuts a restored version of the 1937 “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (shown here), the first feature-length, animated movie in full sound and color. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 11, 2023