SEASON PREMIERE: This is not a recommendation. I used to recommend Survivor, for years. But then there were more years, and more years, and even the “new” challenges and team structures became repetitive. Survivor premiered in 2000, and is still around 19 years later, and presenting two different games each season. That’s 19 times two, which works out mathematically, because tonight is called the “Season 38” premiere of Survivor. It’s actually “Cycle 38,

2019

Feb

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII By David Bianculli

This 1933 costume epic is directed by Alexander Korda, and stars the always riveting Charles Laughton as King Henry VIII. And because this is about his private life, and this particular monarch worked his way through a half-dozen wives, this film also features a bevy of beautiful co-stars. All but his first wife appear in this film, so his co-stars include Merle Oberon as Anne Boleyn, Wendy Barrie as Jane Seymour and, pictured, Elsa Lanchester as Anne of Cleves. Two years later, Lanchester would

2019

Feb

THE MASKED SINGER By David Bianculli

Two singers are unasked tonight, leaving the field to the final – and presumably most talented – three. Among the costumed singers still standing: Well, see for yourself…

2019

Feb

DOCUMENTARY NOW! By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: Season 3 of this wildly eccentric, creatively obsessive comic parody of specific documentary films begins with Batshit Valley, a mashup tribute to two nature documentaries: Netflix’s Wild Wild Country and 2012’s The Source. Owen Wilson plays a cult leader (pictured), with Michael Keaton as someone hot on his trail. Seth Meyers wrote the script.

2019

Feb

PBS' 'NATURE' EXAMINES LIFE ON “THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION” IN ‘LIVING VOLCANOES’ By Alex Strachan

You could be forgiven if, asked how most of the victims in Pompeii died when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, you replied that they were asphyxiated by ash and poisonous gas...

2019

Feb

REHABBING SAMMY DAVIS JR. IN PBS' 'I'VE GOTTA BE ME' By Ed Bark

The complexities of Sammy Davis Jr. run far deeper than that hug of Richard Nixon or those deferential, knee-slapping, “with your kind permission” appearances on a variety of talk shows...

2019

Feb

THE GIFTED By David Bianculli

The issues that divided this show’s central family have been resolved, and now the common enemy has been identified. The problem is: At this point, is she too powerful to be overcome?

2019

Feb

THIS IS US By David Bianculli

In tonight’s new episode, we finally learn more about Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) and her family, including in this show’s secret-weapon narrative form, the extended flashback. One family member we meet tonight, in fact, is Beth’s mother, played by an actress, Phylicia Rashad, who already has played one of the most famous moms in TV history: Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show.

2019

Feb

AMERICAN MASTERS: “SAMMY DAVIS JR.: I GOTTA BE ME” By David Bianculli

Sammy Davis Jr. seems to have been around show business forever – but he died at age 65, which, since I have lapped that age myself, now seems unsettlingly young. And yet, despite his Rat Pack associations, his killer TV variety show appearances, and his iconic photo-op kiss with Archie Bunker on All in the Family, Davis has never been the subject of a full-length artistic biography – until now. So even if it misses some cultural moments (Billy Crystal’s impersonation, for one

2019

Feb

THE BIO OF A CAPTIVATING ENTERTAINER COMES TO PBS WITH 'SAMMY DAVIS JR.: I'VE GOTTA BE ME' By David Hinckley

There’s a compelling case that no entertainer of the 20^thcentury could multitask better than Sammy Davis Jr...

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