1) “SWAT,” 9 p.m., CBS. We’re two weeks from the end of an eight-year run. Tonight (shown here), an hour earlier than usual), there’s an explosion at a fruit-packing facility staffed by prisoners; six of them escape. Hondo and the team try to find them before they pull off a high-stakes robbery. Read more…
America’s smallest sports conference will again have a big-time TV deal.
The Pac-12 currently has, despite its name, two teams. (They’re shown here.) But a deal with the CW network will put nine football games on national TV this fall.
That will hold things for a year, until the Pac-12 adds six teams, nudging it to two-thirds of its name. Read more…
1) “Elsbeth,” 9 and 10 p.m., CBS. Next week, this terrific show wraps its season by bringing Elsbeth face-to-face with many of her past suspects. First, here’s a new hour (Billy Magnussen, shown here with Elsbeth, as an entitled playboy) and then a rerun, with Laurie Metcalf as star of a long-running cop show. Read more…
May will now be “Murder Mystery Month,” the Acorn streamer has proclaimed.
Then again, every month is murder-mystery time at Acorn. May provides handy alliteration (March would have also worked) and good timing:
Some mystery shows are wrapping up their seasons now. On CBS, “Matlock” has already finished and “Elsbeth” will do so on May 8.
So Acorn takes that time to load up. Some of its shows have weekly episodes on Mondays — “Murdoch Mysteries” (yes, more alliteration), “The Brokenwood Mysteries” and the new “The One That Got Away” have already started their seasons; “Harry Wild” (shown here) joins them on May 5. Read more…
1) “Wild Cards” season-finale,” 8 p.m,, CW. This show often has a bright, bouncy feel, but now it’s time to get serious: Ellis learns who was responsible for his brother’s death — and who is protecting the killer. Meanwhile, Max (shown here undercover in last week’s episode) sifts clues in the office of Ashford (Martin Sheen). Read more…
A little culture shock can be disconcerting … but how about a 114-degree temperature change?
That’s what Liliana Penuelas experienced. A Cuban native living in Puerto Rico, she decided to join a friend in Alaska’s northern-most city.
When she left, she tells Pati Jinich in a PBS film Tuesday (April 29), it was 90 degrees. When she arrived, it was minus-24. “I thought, ‘What are you doing?!?’”
But she stayed. Now, 34 years later, she’s married to a Mexican native. They have what Jinich (shown here, left) assures us is the only sit-down Mexican restaurant in Utqiagvik, Alaska.
Many such surprises emerge in “Pati Jinich Explores Panamericana,” at 10 p.m. Tuesdays. Read more…
1) “Independent Lens,” 10-11:30 p.m., PBS. Here is a joyous journey through the world of libraries. We see grand temples in big cities … tiny oases in small towns (an example is shown here) … and a bookmobile roaming Baton Rouge. We hear of crises – tax revolts, segregation, book-banning – and heroes who brought books to everyone from inner-city kids to rural Wisconsinites. Read more…
(This is the newest chapter of a book-in-progress, “Television, and How It Got That Way.” For the full book (so far) in order, click “The Book” under “categories.”)
Ted Turner’s business philosophy – and maybe his life – can be summed up in one word: “more.”
That’s an approach that took him through big gambles, big movies (including “Gone With the Wind,” shown here) and big changes in the cable-TV world.
Turner had one cable channel (TBS) and wanted many more. “It’s all about shelf space,” he told the Television Critics Association.
More channels mean more places to sell ads and (eventually) more money in per-subscriber fees. The catch is that you have to fill those shelves with things people want. You need programs and a purpose. Read more…
1) “NCIS: Origins” season-finale, 10 p.m., CBS. The bad news for Gibbs (shown here) is that he’s being investigated for murder; the worse news is that he and others know he did it. That adds up to a tense hour that we see through Cecelia (known as Lala), his steely colleague. It’s a gripping hour with a closing jolt. Read more…
The Fox network will stuff its summer with reality shows in general and Gordon Ramsay in particular.
We kind of thought it would. But Fox will also offer a surprise – new cartoon episodes (including “The Great North,” shown here) every Thursday, starting May 29 Read more…
