Every two hours, from 3 p.m. to 5 a.m. ET, Animal Planet taps into Super Bowl fever with its cute and fuzzy counter-programming stunt, Puppy Bowl, which has been around long enough to earn, this year, an “X marks the spot” suffix. It’s puppies rolling around, and doing other cute stuff, on a miniature football field, with kitty capers at halftime and penguin cheerleaders (no kidding) around for this year’s ride. In other words, it’s YouTube without the Internet. Als

2014

Feb

SUPER BOWL XLVIII By David Bianculli

Perhaps you’ve already heard this is going to be on TV today. And here it is: the NFL’s best offense (the Denver Broncos, led by QB Peyton Manning) against the NFL’s best defense (the Seattle Seahawks, featuring Richard Sherman, whose last-second defensive play and defiant postgame rant in the NFC Championship Game drew equal attention). Despite initial fears, the weather is expected to be good enough to allow for the Broncos’ passing game, which should test both te

2014

Feb

MASTERPIECE CLASSIC: "DOWNTON ABBEY" By David Bianculli

Few networks are presenting first-run programming against the Super Bowl tonight, but PBS is one of them. Tonight on Masterpiece Classic is the fifth episode of Season 4 of Downton Abbey – in which a surprise party is thrown for Robert, the relationship of Anna and Bates is redefined again, and, as always, Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess gets all the best lines. Check local listings.

2014

Feb

MASTERPIECE MYSTERY!: "SHERLOCK" By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: Last week’s episode, Sign of Three, was a mostly comic departure for Sherlock, but you have to admit, the last-second reveal that added new meaning to its title – a play on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original Sign of Four Sherlock Holmes mystery – was as clever as it was unexpected. Tonight, the third and final story in Season 3 of Sherlock is presented. It’s His Last Vow, and introduces a new criminal mastermind for Holmes to confront: a media mogul na

2014

Feb

NEW GIRL By David Bianculli

Whenever the Super Bowl post-game show ends, tonight’s special showing of Fox’s New Girl sitcom begins. And as befitting its lofty status, and its potentially huge lead-in audience, tonight’s show gives Zooey Deschanel a very high-profile guest star: the artist formerly, and once again, known as Prince. Seven years ago, Prince performed a bit earlier in the evening – as the sizzling halftime show headliner for Super Bowl XLI.

2014

Feb

BROOKLYN NINE-NINE By David Bianculli

Here’s a trivia question with which you can stump people at today’s Super Bowl party: Which actor has starred in two different TV series in an episode featured after a Super Bowl, playing cops in both of them? The answer: Andre Braugher, whose NBC drama series Homicide: Life on the Street was launched with a special post-Super Bowl showcase in 1993. Tonight, he shows up again, opposite Andy Samberg, in a Fox sitcom, this time playing gay Brooklyn police captain Ray Holt.

2014

Feb

THE STING By David Bianculli

One of my favorite “spider-web movies” – so chances are, I’ll be stuck watching this 1973 caper movie all over again, and happily so. Paul Newman and Robert Redford star as Depression-era con men targeting a powerful mobster played by Robert Shaw, two years before he filmed Jaws. This fabulous picture won the Oscar for Best Picture, and Marvin Hamlisch’s score revived interest in the great ragtime piano compositions of Scott Joplin.

2014

Feb

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... By David Bianculli

This new TCM documentary kicks off its annual February “31 Days of Oscar,” collecting clips, and backstage stories, from previous Academy Awards ceremonies and movies. It’s followed, at 10 p.m. ET, by an appropriately epic movie treat: 1939’s Gone with the Wind.

2014

Feb

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS By David Bianculli

Sarah Jarosz and Milk Carton Kids, both of whom were up for Grammys this year in the folk category represent Americana on tonight’s new Austin City Limits. It’s a second visit for Jarosz, but the first for the Milk Carton duo – whom I learned about by watching the Showtime concert special tied to Inside Llewyn Davis. I’m looking forward to this one. Check local listings.

2014

Feb

THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW By David Bianculli

Tonight’s guests include Keira Knightley and Kenneth Branagh, and a story in which Keira tells about the director who “banned her pout” (pictured) from her go-to acting arsenal.

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