Split between Los Angeles and New York, and Fergie and Ryan Seacrest, here’s the now-tenured New Year’s Eve TV celebration. Times Square is the province of Seacrest – and his free-range assistant correspondent, Jenny McCarthy. Scheduled to perform live: One Direction, Demi Lovato, Carrie Underwood and others…

2015

Dec

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC NEW YEAR’S EVE: LA VIE PARISIENNE By David Bianculli

This year’s musical celebration takes on even more importance. Following in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris, this year’s New York Philharmonic musical special is an all-French program. The compositions performed include Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess, as well as Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals – for which Nathan Lane provides the introductory poems. Check local listings.

2015

Dec

NEW YEAR'S EVE LIVE By David Bianculli

Over on CNN, Anderson Cooper rings in the New Year, trying to inject dignity into the CNN proceedings – while co-host Kathy Griffith, for the most part, tries to do just the opposite.

2015

Dec

THE FINAL BOWL MATH TEST: DIVIDING 4 TO GET 1 By Gerald Jordan

A tuxedo isn’t necessary, although it does seem quite appropriate tonight. When the nation’s top four college football teams collide on New Year’s eve to decide who’ll meet two weeks from now in suburban Phoenix to crown the national champion, this day – more than all the others during this ESPN-prolonged bowl buffet – matters...

2015

Dec

MOZART IN THE JUNGLE By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: Last year at this time, this series and Transparent helped Amazon establish itself as a serious contender in the original programming streaming business. Today, Amazon Prime drops Season 2 of Mozart in the Jungle, its vibrant series dramatizing the artistry and intrigue behind the scenes of a symphony orchestra. Lola Kirke stars as Haley, an oboe player who earns a chair in the fictitious New York Symphony. For a full review, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.

2015

Dec

I GET THAT A LOT By David Bianculli

SPECIAL: Once again, CBS presents an end-of-year I Get That a Lot special, in which celebrities are thrown into menial places and jobs, and toil there until someone asks them if they know they look just like… themselves. It’s a vanity special, and an even more diluted TV idea than the oldest Candid Camera gags – but on a slow TV night, it works. But really, would anyone have a problem identifying the “real” Kristin Chenoweth, for example?

2015

Dec

DESCENDANTS By David Bianculli

If you haven’t seen this made-for-TV Disney musical, you might want to catch up: This 2015 movie, about the next-generation offspring of familiar Disney villains and villainesses, proved so popular with its young TV audience that sequels, and theme-park attractions, are foregone conclusions.

2015

Dec

SINATRA By David Bianculli

Frank Sinatra sings 14 songs on this 1969 TV special, one of many unearthed this month as TCM has saluted the 100th anniversary of the singer’s birth. Songs include “My Way,” but also some numbers much less associated with the Chairman of the Board, including “Little Green Apples” and “Goin’ Out of My Head.”

2015

Dec

COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: I love this smartly focused Jerry Seinfeld talk show: one guest, one car, two cups of coffee. And this new season begins with quite a guest: President Barack Obama, whom Seinfeld says is qualified as a “Comedian” because of his well-timed delivery during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. As for the car: It’s a 1963 Corvette Stingray, which Seinfeld and the President of the United States take turns steering around the circular drive on the South Lawn

2015

Dec

PROHIBITION By David Bianculli

Part 3. The repeat showing of Ken Burns’ Prohibition ends tonight, with unspoken but obvious parallels to the growing legalization of marijuana. Wherever you stand on that issue, celebrate Burns and company for what they achieved here in their politically astute account of the movement to ban alcohol from American citizens. Then, at the end, toast to the result. This time of year, I suggest eggnog. Check local listings.

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