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GUEST BLOG #30: Diane Holloway likes Dick Enberg's versatility
[Bianculli here: Wimbledon tennis is available all weekend, regardless of weather, thanks to the new retractable Centre Court roof. Men's semis are televised live Friday by ESPN2 (7 a.m. ET) and NBC (noon ET). Women's finals are Saturday at 9 a.m. ET, and the men's on Sunday at the same time, both on NBC. And at the climax of these weeks of British tennis, contributing columnist Diane Holloway salutes one of its amiable, always professional sportscasters...] (more)
Friday, July 3, 2009
WIMBLEDON TENNIS ESPN2, 7 a.m. ET; NBC, noon ET Roger Federer is the favorite coming into today’s men’s semis, but there’s another match that affords, or deserves, just as much interest. It’s the Battle of the Network Andys, with Andy Murray, the hometown boy from Scotland, facing American Andy Roddick. |
TWILIGHT ZONE MARATHON Sci Fi Channel, 8 a.m. ET Today’s leg of this network’s usual holiday Zone marathon is a bit different. It starts with shows from the mid-’80s CBS revival series, which means viewers get a chance to catch two episodes written by the incomparable Harlan Ellison. His “Shatterday,” with Bruce Willis as a man divided, is shown at 11 a.m. ET, while his moody “Paladin of the Lost Hour” is televised at 7:30 p.m. ET. Hi, Harlan! Happy holiday weekend! |
WALL-E Starz, 7:20 p.m. ET Have some kids around for the holidays? All alone? Either way, watching this 2008 Pixar film will be time well spent. |
THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH Fox Movie Channel, 8 p.m. ET The fantasy sequences in this 1955 comedy, starring Marilyn Monroe as the object of Tom Ewell’s neighborly desire, are delightful, and eye-popping. But so are the reality sequences. |
DIRTY DANCING WE TV, 8 p.m. ET Normally, nobody puts Baby in a corner. But here she is, in the corner of the cable universe, playing as a Friday night movie on WE TV. Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze star – and on a slow night, it’s a fun film. |
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN... THE FABULOUS STAINS TCM, 2 a.m. ET Here’s a movie to record tonight and watch at your leisure: a little-seen 1982 drama about a young woman launching an all-female rock band. What makes it really watchable is that the star is Diane Lane, an actress now at the top of her game. Even here, as a young actress, she shines. Even as a Stain. |
WEIRD & WILD: Could you eat 60 hot dogs in 10 minutes?
WEIRD & WILD: The incredibly strange Jonathan Ross show
SNEAK PEEK: Ken Burns 'National Parks' online
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FOR BETTER OR WERTS
Fireworks are soooo 20th century. The modern age knows how to really celebrate America's independence -- gut-stuffing up-chucking gluttony! With that most all-American "food product," too. Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest (Saturday at noon ET, ESPN) has become the Fourth of July's most anticipated event among the cult cognescenti. Who needs LeBron vs. Kobe when you've got Takeru Kobayashi vs. Joey Chestnut? And that classic Coney Island shore setting? And wanton chewed-food spewing? . . . 
The Incredibly Strange Film Show has to be one of my all-time favorite series, exploring the heights -- or should I say depths? -- of indie B-moviemaking in all its bloody, breasty, low-budget glory. The perpetrator of this loving '80s look at the likes of Russ Meyer, Ray Dennis Steckler and a dozen other gonzo directors was Jonathan Ross, a breezy Brit who conducted low-life interviews and screened sleazy clips with the gusto of a truly irredeemable pop culture junkie. (Takes one to know one.) Now Ross puts that jones to weekly use as host of Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (Friday at 8 p.m. ET, BBC America), a London-based chatfest that also takes everything and nothing seriously . . . 
Can't wait to see Ken Burns' fall epic The National Parks: America's Best Idea? Online site PBS Video lets you watch a half-hour preview anytime. Excerpts from the 12-hour project unreel alongside footage of Burns and collaborator Dayton Duncan discussing their take on the subject. That same preview can be found on TV, too. PBS has scheduled two national feeds this week -- Wednesday, July 1 at 9:30 p.m. ET and Sunday, July 5 at 10:30 p.m. ET . . . 
NEW and RECOMMENDED
A man who has nothing left to lose is a dangerous thing. And a shocking thing. And a funny thing. And perhaps the most inventively entertaining thing, per hour, on television today. Breaking Bad arrives on DVD packed with visceral humanity, its seven episodes oozing life like the blood seeping from the various victims of its dying good-guy protagonist's missteps on the road to providing for his family after he's gone . . . CLASSICS TO CONSIDER
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered!" Ah, yes, Patrick McGoohan as Number 6. "I am not a number. I am a person." Was TV ever so surreal? Certainly not back in 1968, when McGoohan's glorious mind game hit the CBS airwaves, undoubtedly confusing lots of Beverly Hillbillies-era viewers -- and tantalizing the minds of open-minded others, to whom The Prisoner would become an enduring exploration of individualism vs. conformity . . . |
