SEASON PREMIERE: We’ve already had Shark Week, thanks to Discovery Channel’s annual escapades — and now it’s time for Shark Tank Week, with Mark Cuban and other high-rolling business types competing to find, and finance, the best ideas brought to them. Including, in tonight’s opener, an enterprising way to identify a bedbug infestation before calling in the exterminators. Creepy, sure — but profitable? Quite possibly.

2012

Sep

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND By David Bianculli

Here’s another “spider-web movie” of mine — a film that I’ll recommend, and watch, almost every time it’s televised. And this Steven Spielberg one, at this point, is 35 years old, which makes both its special effects and its effectively dramatic story and characterizations that much more impressive. Richard Dreyfuss, Francois Truffaut star.

2012

Sep

THE VIRGIN QUEEN By David Bianculli

Long live the Queen! TCM presents a triple feature of costume epics about Elizabeth I tonight, and two of them star Bette Davis, in movies made decades apart. Davis in 1955’s The Virgin Queen (pictured) leads off the night, and an earlier Davis effort, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex from 1939, is shown at midnight ET. In between: the lovely Jean Simmons in 1953’s Young Bess, televised at 10 p.m. ET.

2012

Sep

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: “GOTTERDAMMERUNG” By David Bianculli

I’ve been watching this recently staged version of the Wagner Ring cycle all week, and now have a renewed appreciation for the quote, attributed to Mark Twain, that “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.” But this climactic installment contains most of the fiery drama, as well as the Wagnerian anthems adopted and adapted, with very different results, in Birth of a Nation, Apocalypse Now and other films. In this finale, which translates as Twilight of the Gods, Siegfrie

2012

Sep

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli

It’s not a politics-heavy panel this week, but it is a vocal one. Maher’s guests include, among others, John Legend and Bob Costas.

2012

Sep

PSST! WANT TO HEAR A FALL 2012 TV SEASON SNEAK PEEK? By David Bianculli

Our TVWW 2012 Fall TV package is coming Monday, with tips on the best of what to watch and avoid. Meanwhile, Thursday on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, you can get an advance taste…

2012

Sep

1977: 'THE RICHARD PRYOR SHOW' DEBUTS ON NBC By Christy Slewinski

Today in 1977, NBC introduced the short-lived comedy series, The Richard Pryor Show...

2012

Sep

SOME STARS HAVE YET TO MAKE THE 'KENNEDY CENTER' CUT By Ed Bark

This week's announcement of the annual Kennedy Center honorees again raised questions of who's in and who's still out...

2012

Sep

AMERICA’S GOT TALENT By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: If you watch only one installment of this series each season, this is the one, because this is the one where a winner is crowned. But even then, when the finalists include an animal act and a children’s dance troupe (pictured), it’s kind of like watching a time-warp, jazzed-up episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. Only instead of Ed, you have Howard Stern. Also performing, though not competing: Justin Bieber.

2012

Sep

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: “SIEGFRIED” By David Bianculli

My ears are still Ring-ing with the compositions of Wagner’s operatic cycle, presented all this week in an ambitious production. Tonight is the penultimate opera in the series, in which the title character, played by Jay Hunter Morris, matures enough to fulfill his destiny and embark on a dangerous quest — which involves both slaying a dragon and rescuing his true love. You know, the standard fairy-tale stuff. Check local listings.

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