SATURDAY
DECEMBER 10
2016

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

This 1964 Disney movie musical is a delightful little film treat, if decidedly oddball. There’s those weird animated penguins and lambs, and Dick Van Dyke’s crazy cockney accent – but there’s also Julie Andrews, who was only 29 years old when she starred as the parasol-sporting nanny and made a perfect musical companion piece to her cinematic starring role in another family musical, The Sound of Music. If you have young ones around, I’d highly recommend watching this as a collective viewing treat – but without the kids, before or after, I’d also recommend seeking out and watching Saving Mr. Banks, the 2013 movie starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, and Emma Thompson as P. L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books. It brings a new perspective, and poignancy, to the message and meaning behind the Mary Poppins movie.
 
  
 
 

CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

This holiday TV special, narrated and with the theme song sung by Burl Ives, was made way, way back in 1964, and has been repeated annually for more than 50 years. So it seems a little churlish, perhaps, to point out that this particular Rudolph special already has been televised by CBS in prime time this season – on November 29, just a few days after Thanksgiving. Or that the special that follows it tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS, 1969’s Frosty the Snowman, also has been shown already this holiday season, rolled out on November 25, the night after Thanksgiving. Maybe we shouldn’t think of this as re-repeating, or as cost-reducing recycling. Instead, just think of it as… re-gifting.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: Whatever’s going on here, in this wildly strange detective story, will be wrapped up tonight. Just don’t expect too tight a bow, or too concrete an ending. After all, the realities presented in Dirk Gently have shifted several times as it is. Besides, BBC America has renewed this series for a Season 2 – so it’s not ending soon, period.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET

Last week, when Tom Hanks was one of the guests, he told Graham Norton, quite accurately, that American TV talk shows were stealing from Norton’s approach left and right. They are – but no one is doing it as effectively, or entertainingly, as the original, who always finds ways not only to put his celebrity guests at ease, but to get them to interact playfully. Tonight’s scheduled guests include Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Jamie Oliver, and will.i.am.

 

 
  
 
 

NBC, 11:29 p.m. ET

Tonight’s guest host, on this new edition, is John Cena. Musical guest: Maren Morris. Not an all-star lineup, to be sure, but there it is. And for me, the star of tonight’s show will be, or ought to be, Alec Baldwin, whose guest-star president-elect impersonation reliably Trumps any other comedy sketch being presented here.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.