SUNDAY
JANUARY 1
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Syfy, 12:00 a.m. ET

The first day of 2017 presents 24 more hours of Syfy’s Twilight Zone marathon, making it a Happy New Year indeed. In prime time, beginning at 8 p.m ET, the network is inaugurating a new wrinkle in its schedule: a three-hour block in which classic episodes vow for supremacy, and the right to be screened in this arena-type bracket format, via Twitter voting. Rather watch The Eye of the Beholder than To Serve Man at 8:30 ET? Better get that #TZEyeofBeholder hashtag out there. Personally, I say just show them all, and leave the interactive nonsense to the people with less quality TV to watch. #SecondScreenHumbug…

 
  
 
 

MeTV, 3:30 p.m. ET

A couple of TV offerings are starting the New Year in a last-minute scheduling shift to honor the passing of Carrie Fisher. One is here on MeTV, when the regularly scheduled repeat of Laverne & Shirley is substituted by a special episode featuring Carrie Fisher as special guest star. First televised in 1982, a handful of years after the first Star Wars movie, it features Fisher and series star Penny Marshall as wannabe Playboy bunnies who interact with Hugh Hefner, who plays himself. The episode was directed by Michael McKean, who co-starred on Laverne & Shirley as Lenny, two years before he co-starred as David St. Hubbins in This Is Spinal Tap – and 33 years before he began his current, dramatic co-starring role as Chuck McGill on Better Call Saul.

 
  
 
 

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This is a warning, not a recommendation. This new Fox series comes from the folks at FXX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and stars one of that proudly crass sitcom’s central players, Kaitlin Olson (as Dee). She plays an ultra-loose cannon reprobate who, through a series of well-timed crises, finds herself temporarily in charge of her sister’s three kids. Think of it as Auntie Buck, then don’t give it a second thought. The opening sequence alone should let you know what you’re in for… and ready to escape from. For this Fox pre-empts The Simpsons? For full reviews, and a range of opinions, see Ed Bark’s Uncle Barky’s Bytes and David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
  
 
 

NBC, 8:20 p.m. ET

The last week of the regular NFL season is filled with meaningless games, because many teams already are eliminated from playoff contention. But other games still matter, including tonight’s prime-time game between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions. Both teams are 9-6 heading into tonight’s game, and facing all sorts of possible fates. The Packers, who have surged towards the postseason with five consecutive victories, can clinch the NFC North division title with a win against the Lions. But if Green Bay loses, and the Washington Redskins beat the New York Giants, the Packers miss the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Lions are in the postseason if they beat the Packers, but even if they lose to Green Bay, they have a shot of advancing – but only if the Giants beat the Redskins. Got it? Me, neither.
 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: It’s been seven years since Sherlock arrived on PBS, bowling over critics and viewers instantly with its fresh take on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mysteries, and making a star of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes. (Martin Freeman, as his Dr. Watson, already was a beloved British figure, thanks to his co-starring role on the original BBC incarnation of The Office.) And not counting the most recent, stand-alone Christmas special, Sherlock hasn’t given us a new installment in three years, so this is a very welcome return. But it’s a brief one, only three episodes long, so enjoy them while you can. (It seems that just as U.S. television finally is adapting to the British model of shorter TV seasons, the Brits are adapting too, to a mini-model.) This fourth season opens with The Six Thatchers, and is based on the Holmes story in which someone is locating and vandalizing plaster busts of a famed historical personage. Of course, Sherlock creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have had a little fun updating the original: Back when Conan Doyle first published it in Collier’s magazine in 1904, that story was titled The Adventures of the Six Napoleons. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

HBO has added its 2010 special, Wishful Drinking, to tonight’s schedule, as a timely reaction to the deaths of Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds. Both are represented in this televised version of Fisher’s autobiographical one-woman stage show. Fisher discusses her parents, actress Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, at length, and her mother is interviewed in film segments during the program. With Carrie Fisher talking frankly about everything from Star Wars to ex-husband Paul Simon, Wishful Drinking is a funny one-woman memoir, but sometimes poignant – now more than ever.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.