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Diane Holloway, and Millions of Others, Get Their Wish: Betty White Will Host "SNL"
How cool is this? (Answer: Very.) Fan and critic pressure, for once, has carried the day: NBC has announced that, due to popular demand, Betty White WILL host "Saturday Night Live"... (more)
Thursday, March 11, 2010
AMERICAN IDOL Fox, 8 p.m. ET Two boys, and two girls, are voted off tonight, as the group gets pared to the top 16. One more week of these multiple auditions, and we’re ready for the real deal. |
KITCHEN NIGHTMARES Fox, 9 p.m. ET South Florida is the location of tonight’s beleaguered restaurant, and the owner of Le Bistro is as hot-tempered and vocal as Gordon Ramsay himself. This leads to a lot of butting heads, even when their heads are spaced far apart. |
30 ROCK NBC, 9:30 p.m. ET Elizabeth Banks continues her recurring guest spot tonight, and look who else pops in on a return visit to show off some comedy chops: Brian Williams. |
THE MARRIAGE REF NBC, 10 p.m. ET This is the one that has to be seen. The panel on tonight’s installment features Larry David on one end, Ricky Gervais on the other – and Madonna in the middle. |
THE MENTALIST CBS, 10 p.m. ET Jane fields a phone call from a female scientist, who begs Jane to solve a murder – her own. She’s been poisoned, and wants Jane to find her soon-to-be killer. |
FX, 10 p.m. ET Archer decides to leave the agency, and his mom the boss, to seek spy employment elsewhere. This turns his life upside down. His car, too. |
ARCHER
FLICK PICKS: Ginger & Fred & Akira Kurosawa
DVD THIS WEEK: Polyester cheese!
READ THIS: Oscar mania accelerates
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FOR BETTER OR WERTS
Tonight's marathon of all 10 musicals pairing Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire is just the beginning of a monthlong salute to Rogers on Turner Classic Movies. The channel's March lineup also boasts a celebration of Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, making this another bang-up month demonstrating why the commercial-free channel remains movie lovers' favorite. Wednesday nights are devoted to Rogers, and though it's natural to start with those legendary Fred-and-Ginger musicals, the rest of the 43-film slate illustrates Rogers' decades of Hollywood versatility through comedy, drama and even westerns. Kurosawa gets his due Tuesdays on TCM . . . 
Sometimes you just need to watch something awful. Shut down your brain. Let the recycled plots, banal dialogue and bad acting wash over you. Maybe even mock it madly, MST3K-style. What you need is Matt Houston. The first season of ABC's 1982-85 private eye romp arrives on DVD this week as the ne plus ultra of the Aaron Spelling school of celeb-stuffed cheese. Here it is in a nutshell: Mustachioed wisecracker Lee Horsley channels Smokey and the Bandit-era Burt Reynolds, playing a Texas oil gazillionaire moved to Hollywood to solve murders among his famous friends. He flies his own helicopter from his rodeo ranch . . . 
Just like the Super Bowl, there's always overkill when it comes to the Oscars. Which take place this coming Sunday (8:30 p.m. ET on ABC), in case you missed the 7,000 promos, ads, pre-shows and other assorted hype/hoopla. But this story about the Oscars caught my eye because it seems even wackier than usual . . . 
NEW and RECOMMENDED
People went a little crazy when rock 'n' roll living legend Elvis Presley died unexpectedly on Aug. 16, 1977 at the age of 42. Elvismaniacs went into shock and hysteria, extolling their idol into some kind of god-like icon. Elvis skeptics hit back, mocking his cheesy Vegas jumpsuits, cookie-cutter '60s flicks, prosaic post-Army music output, and wasted potential. There wasn't much middle ground -- until John Carpenter's Elvis miniseries hit ABC on Feb. 11, 1979. Nobody expected much. The 31-year-old director was coming off a low-budget frightfest called Halloween. The star had been a child actor known for Disney drivel like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. But Kurt Russell turned around his own image by turning the iconic/insipid emblem into a full-bodied human being . . . CLASSICS TO CONSIDER Unauthorized TV DVD releases are a bad thing. They're often low quality. The sellers can be dodgy. They violate the legal rights of those who own the show. And they discourage official releases by diverting revenue into the hands of pirates. Now here's why I'm making an exception for The Nostalgia Merchant's two-set release of Amos 'n' Andy. The transfers from the sitcom's vintage film prints aren't bad. This particular video distributor has a 30-year track record. And it's that rare case where the show's ownership simply can't release an authorized version. There's just too much lingering controversy over this 1950s hit -- TV's first major network series with a black cast -- for rights-owning corporation CBS to go there . . . |
