Want to see a new televised concert version of Billy Joel's 2008 farewell to Shea Stadium? You should, because it's a true TV treat. Finding it, though, is more of a trick. Like other good but hard-to-pin-down public TV offerings this month, it's a pledge special -- the TV-scheduling version of Whack-a-Mole...
On some PBS member stations, such as New York's WNET-Ch. 13, Billy Joel: Live at Shea Stadium airs tonight (in New York, at 8 ET). And that's followed, on WNET, by an encore of last week's superb Troubadours edition of American Masters, which I wrote about HERE, and TVWW contributor Tom Brinkmoeller, in his Raised on MTM column, raved about HERE.
But in the same TV market tonight, on Long Island's WLIW-Ch. 21, a 7 p.m. ET telecast of The 25th Anniversary 'Les Miserables' Concert is shown instead, followed at 11:30 p.m. ET by an encore of a lively, memory-prodding concert special from Pittsburgh, My Music: Rock, Pop & Doo-Wop. That same special, featuring a truly show-stopping turn by Ronnie Spector, also can be seen tonight (Monday, Mar. 7) on KERA in Dallas (7 pm. CT), Tuesday at 10:30 ET on Philly's WHYY, and Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on WETA in Washington, D.C., for starters.
Meanwhile, in other markets tonight -- Philadelphia, for example -- Billy Joel is a no-show, but another show appears instead. On Philly's WHYY-Ch. 12, it's The Best of Laugh-In.
Will that special be entertaining, if you can find it in your market? You bet your sweet bippy. But finding it -- ah, there's the rub.
"Check your local listings" has never been more timely advice -- but these are well, well worth the effort to excavate them. The Troubadours edition of American Masters is part documentary, part musical overview, and 100 percent delightful.
Rock, Pop & Doo Wop serves up rare TV clips as well as newly performed golden oldies, making it a dream show for pop historians as well as tenured AM-radio lovers.
Laugh-In, for Baby Boomers from the 1960s and for younger viewers curious about that tumultuous decade, should be required viewing.
And Billy Joel: Live from Shea Stadium is nothing less than a head trip down memory lane. Joel notes, at one point, that the about-to-be-demolished Shea Stadium was built in 1964, the first year he joined a rock band.
The Beatles, famously, played Shea Stadium the following year -- and Paul McCartney shows up as a surprise guest, singing "I Saw Her Standing There" with Joel and closing with "Let It Be."
Other guests are Tony Bennett, doing a great job on "New York State of Mind," and Garth Brooks, performing Joel's "Shameless," which Brooks turned into a country hit. Other highlights from the TV concert version: With "Captain Jack," Joel somehow makes Shea seem intimate. With "Goodnight Saigon," members of the military share the stage at the end, getting a thunderous ovation.
"Italian Restaurant" is served well by its true orchestral backup -- and with "Piano Man," at one point, the crowd takes over, singing about as loudly as I've ever heard a concert audience register on a recording.
The mood is jubilant throughout. Except, that is, for one moment in "Always a Woman," when Joel salutes couples in love, and about to be married -- but can't keep himself from adding some words of sour advice. "Get a pre-nup."
Jeez, Billy... Let it be.