It’s safe to say this will be the highest-profile ESPY Awards in the history of ESPN’s annual awards show celebrating amateur and professional athletes and letting them share the stage with comics, musicians and actors. First of all, this year’s live telecast is presented not on ESPN, but on big-brother broadcast network ABC. Second, and most newsworthy, the ESPY’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award is being given this year to Caitlyn Jenner – whose acceptance speech is dest

2015

Jul

NOVA: "CHASING PLUTO" By David Bianculli

I wasn’t the best science student in high school. Actually, for years, I wasn’t a science student in high school – but that’s another story. Regardless, there’s enough science geek in me to have been alternately amazed and amused by NASA TV’s live coverage of the arrival, after nine years of space flight to the far reaches of the solar system, of the New Horizons spacecraft as it flew close to Pluto, taking pictures and gathering data. Yesterday morning ET, th

2015

Jul

TURNABOUT By David Bianculli

Based on the Thorne Smith comedy novel that was an early look at sexual stereotypes and role reversals, this 1940 movie stars Carole Landis and John Hubbard as a bickering wife and husband who, thanks to a wish granted by a magical statue, switch bodies: Her mind in his body, his mind in hers. And whatever points are made in this comedy, give it credit for making them so early.

2015

Jul

KEY & PEELE By David Bianculli

Among the sketches this week: Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key play explorers. British explorers… but no matter what these guys do, as in last week’s season-opener sketch about dueling “anger translators,” they hit their marks.

2015

Jul

WHY? WITH HANNIBAL BURESS By David Bianculli

Last week’s series premiere was not provided for preview, because the series is taped so close to telecast. But, for the record, the first show wasn’t exactly a laugh riot. In fact, the biggest laughs, and virtually the only ones, came courtesy of a brief cameo by Amy Schumer. I’ll give the show, and Buress, a second chance – but tonight’s show will have to improve for me to stay with it much longer.

2015

Jul

NEW HORIZONS PLUTO FLY-BY By David Bianculli

Nine years ago, the New Horizons space probe was launched, and one of its targets for exploration was, at the time, billions of miles away from Earth. That target was Pluto, and at the time of the launch, Pluto still was considered a planet. But even though Pluto has been downgraded, the expected “arrival” of New Horizons, which will come within an estimated 7,800 miles of Pluto at around 7:49 a.m. ET, is an exciting scientific achievement. Already, detailed photographs relayed from

2015

Jul

2015 MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ALL-STAR GAME By David Bianculli

Live from Cincinnati, this annual game between the National and American Leagues establishes home-field advantage for the start of the World Series – which is about its only import, other than bragging rights. But it’s a chance, this year, to watch several hot talents in the same game, including, for starters, Washington Nationals outfielder and slugger Bryce Harper.

2015

Jul

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: "BLACKOUT" By David Bianculli

During the New York City blackout of 1977, there was widespread looting, arson and a general sense of chaos and anarchy. Tonight’s American Experience revisits that event – caused by a cascading electrical failure during a severe storm – and puts it in a sociological and economic context. The best perspective comes from those who were there: “It was like something out of a world war,” says one person. It’s a sobering documentary – but not as disturbing a

2015

Jul

MISSION PLUTO By David Bianculli

Timed to today’s expected fly-by of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft, this new National Geographic special explores, so to speak, the spacecraft itself: What it took to send a man-made object billions of miles away, recording data and taking and relaying pictures all along the way.

2015

Jul

FRONTLINE: "ESCAPING ISIS" By David Bianculli

It’s hard to say what’s more chilling in this daringly behind-the-scenes look at women terrorized by ISIS followers overseas and hoping to escape their clutches and rule: Cell phone video footage of the young ISIS men joking about selling and trading their female “slaves," or panicked calls from some of those women, placed to a brave man running an underground railroad of sorts to escort them to safety. Check local listings.

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