Stories

Celebrating Cline, 61 years after her death

The music world has plenty of people who flash and fade, who soar and then sag.
But occasionally, it has someone whose work seems eternal. That includes Patsy Cline, the subject of a PBS concert at 9 p.m. Friday (Nov. 25), under the “Great Performances” banner. (Shown here is one of the performers, Grace Potter, at a previous evet.)
“The fact that we’re here, 61 years after her passing, is a testament” to her impact, Julie Fudge — who is Cline’s daughter and a producer of the special — told the Television Critics Association.
Yes, 61 years. On March 5, 1963, Cline died in a plane crash. She was 30, with a husband, a daughter and son (ages 4 and 2) and a rising career. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 17, 2024

Stories

Tortured genius? No, Leo was the life of the party

The world keeps showing us geniuses with tortured souls. We get a grumpy Beethoven, a dreary Poe, a troubled Michelangelo.
But then there was Leonardo da Vinci, resisting stereotypes.
“The sense we get … is that he was more-or-less a happy person,” said Sarah Burns, whose epic profile of him starts Monday (Nov. 18) on PBS. “That he was the life of the party, even, in some ways.”
He was a gifted painter (an example is shown here), in a vibrant time for eager thinkers.
“They’re in these bodegas, where they are learning math,” said David McMahon, Burns’ husband and filmmaking partner. “They’re reciting poetry. They’re playing music. It feels a little bit like Warhol’s Factory, without the (drugs).” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 15, 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

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

Stories

It’s a wild world — even in our cities

These used to feel like different worlds.
There were humans, with their cities and streets and such. And somewhere beyond, there was nature.
“Nature was ‘other,’” filmmaker Nate Dappen said. “It was something that you went to find and it wasn’t happening here.”
Until we found it everywhere. An example is “San Diego: America’s Wildest City” (shown here) at 8 p.m. Wednesday (Nov. 6) on PBS, under the “Nature” banner Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 1, 2024

Stories

Preston’s husband becomes her “Elsbeth” foe

So there is some logic to the TV world, after all:
Michael Emerson will soon be a recurring character on “Elsbeth,” the show that stars his wife, Carrie Preston. (They’re shown here.)
That starts Dec. 12, with Emerson-playing Milton Crawford. CBS says he’s a “haughty, soft-spoken judge” from a prominent New England family.
And yes, that combination has always seemed logical. “I would love, obviously, to have my husband come on the show,” Preston, 57, told the Television Critics Association session in July. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 28, 2024

Stories

“Lincoln Lawyer” juggles sleek and serious drama

The latest “Lincoln Lawyer” mini-series (shown here) is sleek, smart and kind of fun.
It also puts Netflix back in its sweet spot – light mini-series that thrust a hero into weirdly complicated cases.
Other streamers also do that, of course. The best is Hulu’s annual “Only Murders in the Building,” which wraps its fourth season Tuesday (Oct. 29).
But Netflix does it most often. It’s had Vince Vaughn in the 10-part “Bad Monkey,” Arnold Schwarzenegger in the eight-part “FUBAR,” Edgar Ramirez in the seven-part “Florida Man.” And its most consistent success is “The Lincoln Lawyer,” with Manuel Garcia-Ruffo; it recently released its third 10-part season. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 25, 2024

Stories

Reba’s still juggling an overloaded life

Long ago, Reba McEntire received some astute maternal analysis.
“Momma always said I had the attention span of a 2-year-old,” she told the Television Critics Association.
That hasn’t changed much, now that she’s 69. It will be evident Tuesday (Oct. 22), when NBC displays her as:
— A comedy actress. At 8 p.m., it reruns the opener of “Happy’s Place” (shown here with Belissa Escobeda and McEntire) following its debut at 8 p.m. Friday (Oct. 18).
— A music judge. At 8:30 is a 90-minute version of “The Voice.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 17, 2024

Stories

No longer a teen cliche, Georgie brings quiet charm

We sort of figured we knew Georgie Cooper.
When “Young Sheldon” started, he was a high school quarterback who charmed girls. He quit the team, quit school, bought an RV that was a mobile bedroom. He was sort of a generic TV teen, easy to ignore.
Then that changed. Even before “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage’ (8 p.m. Thursdays, starting Oct. 17, on CBS) began, he had evolved.
“He’s growing up and becoming the man of the household,” Montana Jordan (shown here), who plays him, told the Television Critics Association. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 15, 2024

Stories

Harmons combine to give Gibbs his prequel

After living with his dad’s show for more than half his life, Sean Harmon had
an epiphany: Hey, this really needs a prequel.
Now it has one: “NCIS: Origins” (shown here) airs its intense opener from 9-11 p.m. Oct. 14 on CBS, then settles in at 10 p.m. Mondays.
The idea came, Harmon recalled, as “a lightning bolt moment, when we were shooting episode 400 of ‘NCIS.’”
That one – which aired in November of 2020 – flashed aback to when Leroy Jethro Gibbs was a young widower, joining what would become the NCIS. Mark Harmon was in his 18th season as Gibbs and Sean (his son) had his seventh episode as young Gibbs. He was playing, he said, “a guy who’s got something broken inside, … at risk of going down a much darker path.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 7, 2024