1) “Animal Control” season-finale, 9 p.m., Fox. An excellent – but too short – season concludes with a fresh crisis: Frank (Joel McHale, right) botched the funding for a kennel for dogs awaiting adoption; then he reluctantly begged a “dog expert” (Ken Jeong) for the money. Now the kennel’s grand opening is set … but no dogs are available. The team scrambles to find some. Read more…
(This is the ninth chapter of a book-in-progress, “Television, and How It Got That Way.” For the previous chapters, scroll down under “stories.”)
We’ve always assumed that three is the logical number for anything.
It’s the number of strikes, outs, Stooges, little pigs, blind mice and little kittens that lost their mittens. But is it the ideal number of over-the-air, commercial TV networks?
It seemed that way. Early efforts at a fourth network sputtered, despite such stars as Jackie Gleason (shown here), Ernie Kovacs, boxers and a bishop. Other tries failed. For 30 years, it was ABC, CBS and NBC. Read more…
