1) Figure skating, 8-11 p.m., NBC and Peacock. The U.S. Championships front-load their biggest draw, the women’s finals. (Shown here is a glimpse of last year’s event.) Also, rhythm dance has its finals from 5:12 to 7:30 on Peacock and 6-7:30 on USA. Saturday and Sunday bring the men, pairs and free dance. Read more…
(This is the start of a book, “TV, and How It Got That Way.” It will emerge here, one chapter at a time.)
To see how far TV has come, let’s step back a bit.
We’ll go to 1952 in Clintonville, a Wisconsin town of 4,600, known for big, tough trucks and (back then) big, tough football players.
I’m in the living room with my sister, our parents, a grandmother and a grandfather. Stationed a reasonable distance from the TV set, we are watching … well, a man playing records.
The man says what record he’s playing and starts it. Sometimes, the camera shows the record going around; sometimes it shows the man watching the record go around. Read more…
1) “Only Murders in the Building” (shown here), 9-11 p.m., ABC. This wraps a great season that aired on Hulu. A clever finale assembles key suspects, played by Tina Fey (a rival podcaster), Michael Rapaport (Detective Kreps), Cara Delevingne (Alice, Mabel’s friend) and more. Also, Oliver (Martin Short) and Charles (Steve Martin) have emotional family moments. Read more…
1) “Nova,” 9 p.m., PBS. For almost 80 years, people have buzzed about UFO’s in silly movies (shown here) and serious forums. This hour traces that history and offers reasonable explanations for most sightings. But it doesn’t spoil the intrigue. It includes pilots and scientists who point to unexplained cases, insisting they be taken seriously. That starts a strong string of new “Nova” hours. Read more…
When someone mentions Pittsburgh, we might think of Steelers or steel mills or steely resolve.
We might not think of world-class museums or medical centers. So the actors in “Watson” (shown here) — which CBS debuts Sunday, Jan. 26) were in for surprises.
Eve Harlow did know she wanted to see the mega-museum devoted to Pittsburgh native Andy Warhol. “I remember someone saying, ‘Oh, you should go to The Mattress Factory.’ My response was, ‘Oh, I didn’t know mattresses were such a big thing in Pittsburgh.’”
She soon found that this is a converted warehouse, filled with modern-art installations. “It’s amazing; I really love it.” Read more…
1) “Doc,” 9 p.m., Fox. For Amy (Molly Parker, shown here), it’s the first day back at work, after a crash took away eight years of personal and medical memories. Flashbacks show when she was an overbearing medical chief; now she can only watch and suggest. This compelling hour has opposite patients, one in denial, the other deeply loving. We also see Amy’s life, emerging from a fog. Read more…
1) “Miss Scarlett” (shown here), 8 p.m., PBS. Last week, Eliza (a detective) argued with the chief inspector (who dislikes detectives). Still, they solved a case. Now he has a job for her, but not what she expects. In a smartly written hour, she manages to wedge into another case. Read more…
1) Football, 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN and ESPN2. It’s the national championship game, with two frequent champs. In the past 95 years, Notre Dame has won the title 11 times, Ohio State (shown here) 8; only Alabama (14) and Southern Cal (9) compare. Each team had three playoff wins, two of them upsets, to get here. Read more…
In the transient TV world, “Murdoch Mysteries” (shown here) seems almost eternal.
The show is quiet, clean, Canadian. People rob and kill, but they rarely are impolite or unkempt.
And now it reaches a landmark: Its 300th episode is at 8 p.m. ET Monday (Jan. 20) on the Ovation channel, with earlier ones streaming on Acorn, Amazon, Hulu and more.
Yes, 300. That ‘s seven more than “Blue Bloods” or “Beverly Hills, 90210,” 25 more than “Cheers,” 36 more than “Frasier” or “Murder, She Wrote.” Read more…
For college football fans, the truly bizarre playoffs are wrapping up.
That’s 7:30 p.m. ET Monday (Jan. 20) on ESPN and ESPN2. Depending on the outcome, I’ve got a cool T-shirt idea afterward; feel free to use it.
But first, let’s look back: Read more…
