SUNDAY
SEPTEMBER 1
2013

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

TCM, 10:00 a.m. ET

Most years, you might hope for your Labor Day weekend to proceed without a hitch – but today, TCM makes it better by adding one. It’s an all-day, all-day Alfred Hitchcock festival, which begins with this rarely televised, sometimes bizarre early effort from 1930, starring Norah Baring. The rest of the day’s lineup is much more familiar, and, frankly, more entertaining: 1948’s Rope at noon ET, 1945’s Spellbound at 1:30 p.m. ET, 1964’s Marnie at 3:30 ET, 1963’s The Birds at 5:45 ET, 1943’s Shadow of a Doubt at 8 ET, and more.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET

These specials, increasingly, have been somewhat diluted over the years, because of such uncontrollable factors as rights fees, target audience considerations, program lengths and overall approach. But the TV historian in me still wants to salute and support such efforts, even if they’re less than what they could be. Tonight’s newest two-hour network special from the Paley Center presents a countdown of the 30 funniest moments in TV history, including Golden Age classic I Love Lucy. Since the list includes Saturday Night Live and In Living Color, it obviously includes sketch shows, which means there ought to be room for SCTV and Your Show of Shows as well – but I wouldn’t count on it. And by not narrowing the focus purely to sitcoms, this show has made its task even tougher from the outset. However, the list does include Taxi, which, if it’s the scene at the DMV with Christopher Lloyd’s Rev. Jim, will forgive a multitude of sins and omissions…

 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

This series, about ambitious players in the British judicial system, is worth watching for a lot of reasons, but I’ll settle on one: Natalie Dormer as Niamh Cranitch, who in tonight’s episode takes her first stand in court. Dormer has had an impressive run of juicy roles of late: Anne Boleyn in Showtime’s The Tudors, Irene Adler in CBS’s Elementary, Margaery Tyrell in HBO’s Game of Thrones – and she’s signed to appear in two of the upcoming Hunger Games sequels. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

AMC, 9:00 p.m. ET

I won’t say anything about last week’s episode – or this week’s, since Breaking Bad is one of the few TV shows confident enough, and with enough unstoppable momentum, to televise a fresh episode on Labor Day Weekend. And expect an explosive one: Tonight’s new episode is titled “Rabid Dog,” and you know what happens to rabid dogs. They’re put down.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET

The all-day Alfred Hitchcock salute on TCM continues with this 1960 classic, a superb – and immensely influential – horror movie, made by Hitchcock using his tried and trusted TV crew from Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Janet Leigh stars, but (53-year-old Spoiler Alert!) not for long… And after Psycho concludes, there are more Hitchcock treats in store. Specifically, two super-early films, 1926’s silent The Lodger (at midnight ET) and 1929’s Blackmail (2 a.m. ET), and the tribute finale, a 3:30 a.m. ET telecast of Hitchcock’s penultimate film, 1972’s Frenzy.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.