TUESDAY
MAY 1
2012

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

This new one-hour biography of Jesse Owens, whose speed mocked Adolf Hitler’s vision of Aryan supremacy at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, is itself presented at a breathtaking, exhilarating pace. Narrated by Andre Braugher, and co-produced by Stanley Nelson (who wrote it) and Laurens Grant (who directed it), Jesse Owens, like its subjects, bursts out of the blocks with no wasted motion – and never slows down. For a full review, see Gerald Jordan’s Crossing Jordan review HERE. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

HBO2, 8:00 p.m. ET

The same day this four-hour documentary is released on home video, HBO2 repeats it, showing Part 1 tonight and concluding with Part 2 at the same time tomorrow. To order the DVD, click HERE. And to watch the Beatles’ complete rooftop concert, with links to previous Material World reviews by Eric Gould and me, click HERE.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET

This is the elimination night that gets us down to the Final Four. All I’m saying is, Juliet Simms had better be one of them. Even when they make her go on stage dressed as a fallen angel to sing an Aerosmith song, as they did last week (see photo), she takes those two strikes and somehow manages to score a hit. And last night, she channeled James Brown -- and got very good reception. For a report about the British version of this show, now in its first season over there, read new contributor Kim Akass' story HERE.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Parts 3 and 4. This four-hour examination of the current financial crisis, and how we got to this point, is very informative, but also very depressing. And there’s no avoiding the conclusion that we’re not close to being out of the woods yet. But we knew that already, didn’t we? Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET

Long before Peter Benchley went to the sea with Jaws, but long after Herman Melville did it with Moby-Dick, Ernest Hemingway dove into his own aquatic allegories with this short, terse story about an aging fisherman and his persistence in his quest to catch an elusive, glorious marlin. Spencer Tracy stars in this 1958 movie version, directed by John Sturges. The author’s fourth wife, Mary Hemingway, can be seen in the film very briefly, playing a tourist.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.