Year: 2024

News and Quick Comments

ABC patches some holes in mid-season shift

ABC’s line-up – a patchwork creation this fall – will get some much-needed repairs for mid-season. That includes:
— “Abbott Elementary” will no longer be the network’s only comedy. It will be paired with a show starring Tim Allen, with Kat Dennings as his daughter.
— “Scamanda” will finally surface. Announced for the fall schedule and then pulled, it will be paired with another true-crime tale.
— There will eventually be two drama nights, instead of one. “Will Trent” (shown here) and “The Rookie” have season-openers in January, sandwiching “High Potential” on Tuesdays. The Thursday line-up (“9-1-1,” “Doctor Odyssey,” “Grey’s Anatomy”) returns in March. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 12, 2024
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Nov. 14: a warm Thanksgiving and a big streaming day

1) “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” 8 p.m., CBS. As Georgie nears the first Thanksgiving since his dad’s death, he’s determined to get his family together. But his mom is in deep despair, his sister is cynical, his grandma promised to go camping with Dale. (They’re shown here with Mandy and her baby.) Mandy tries to patch things up, in an episode that mixes sharp humor with moments of genuine emotion. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 12, 2024
News and Quick Comments

It’s a TV rarity: solid laughs and real warmth

TV’s best comedy – that’s “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” – is about to pass two milestones. At 8 p.m. Thursday (Nov. 14), it has:
— Its first Thanksgiving episode (shown here); and
— A story that’s as much about warmth and character drama as about comedy.
That first part is good news, Situation comedies often peak at Thanksgiving, when characters are thrown together in new ways.
But the second is remarkable. Most sitcoms need years to establish characters that can invoke true emotion; “Georgie” does it in its fifth episode. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 11, 2024
Stories

A massacre’s impact resonates through history

Kieran Haile was about 16 when an uncle handed him a book and mentioned a personal connection.
He said, “one of our granddads got chased out of town,” Halle recalled.
He promptly shrugged it off, as busy teens tend to do. The book told about the Wilmington, N.C., insurrection (shown here) and massacre of 1898, which is profiled in a PBS documentary at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12. At first, Haile considered that just another nasty footnote to history.
“Part of me was like, ‘Okay, so what?’” he told the Television Critics Association. “’Like, Black people have always suffered … Why should my family be any different?’” But this was very different. His great-great-grandfather ran the newspaper for a thriving Black community that was shattered by a mob. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 10, 2024
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Nov. 12: crisp comedy, strong “Murder”

1) “St. Denis Medical” debut, 8 and 8:30 p.m., NBC. In a slow year for comedy, this is just what we need – a sleek, smart workplace show from the “Superstore” people. This time, the setting is a hospital, with an overstressed nurse (Allison Tolman, shown here, of the first “Fargo” mini-series) and an underskilled administrator (Wendi McLendon-Covey of “Goldbergs.”). David Alan Grier, 68, offers droll counterpoint of an older doctor.
Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 10, 2024
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Nov. 10: “Yellowstone” finally returns

1) “Yellowstone” (shown here), 8 p.m., Paramount Network; 10 p.m., CBS. It’s been quite a ride for this modern western. With sharp dialog and expansive settings, it leaped to No. 1 in the ratings. Then came strikes and Kevin Costner’s movie schedule. After a 22-month gap, this starts its final six episodes. Paramount reruns the season’s previous ones, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 8, 2024
Stories

Grier took a funny route to the hospital

David Alan Grier has finally entered his family legacy, working in a hospital.
Alas, it took him 68 years to get there. Also, it’s fictional.
Grier (shown here) stars in “St. Denis,” a hospital comedy from the “Superstore” and “American Auto” people. It debuts at 8 and 8:30 p.m. Tuesday on NBC, with Grier as a doctor he describes as “an old curmudgeon,” surrounded by people who are younger and more frantic.
That medical setting should sort of fit. Grier’s father was a psychiatrist; most of the offspring followed suit. “My brothers and sisters – psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, mental health,” he told the Television Critics Association. “That was all part of my upbringing …. I grew up around Black doctors.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 8, 2024
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for Nov. 11: doctors, soldiers and the Grinch

1) “St. Denis Medical” debut, 8 and 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. The “Superstore” people have another quick, slick workplace comedy. Allison Tolman (shown here), from the “Fargo” mini-series, plays an overstressed chief nurse, with Wendi McLendon-Covey (“Goldbergs”) as an underskilled administrator. David Alan Grier (shown here), 68, offers the droll counterpoint of an older doctor. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 7, 2024