FRIDAY
MAY 1
2015

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

On tonight’s new installment of Shark Tank, singer Pat Boone accompanies the inventor of a car prototype that runs not on gasoline, or even on recycled cooking oils, but on good old compressed air. Isn’t that astonishing? Pat Boone is still alive!

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Tonight TCM is saluting Orson Welles, and its tribute begins with his two crowning cinematic achievements. First up is Welles’ 1941 first foray into cinema, his masterwork, Citizen Kane. Structurally and thematically, this flashback biography of a media baron was as bold then as Pulp Fiction was when it was released – and parts of it, all these decades later, still astound with their crispness of focus, depth of field and audaciousness of scope. Never take it for granted, and always take the opportunity to watch it.

 
  
 
 

Starz!, 9:00 p.m. ET

What’s most improbable about this 2014 Marvel movie? That it stars Chris Pratt from Parks and Recreation as an action hero? Bradley Cooper as a gun-toting, fast-talking raccoon? Vin Diesel as a monosyllabic giant tree-trunk alien? Zoe Saldana as a green-skinned space warrior? Or that it was a monster hit for Marvel, launching a new franchise from one of the comic company’s least-known titles?

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Former chess master Garry Kasparov, now a human rights activist, is one of tonight’s guests, and economist Joseph Stiglitz is another. Comic D.L. Hughley is there too, among others, and he’s always quotable when he visits Maher – but personally, I can’t wait to see what Stiglitz, and (especially) Kasparov, have to say.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET

Another Orson Welles cinematic masterpiece. This 1942 movie has him as the narrator, as well as director, with Joseph Cotton as the star. But watch for Agnes Moorehead. She’s wonderful here.

 

 
  
 
 
 
 
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3695 Comments
 
 
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Dave Bianculli
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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.