SATURDAY
NOVEMBER 12
2016

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

RetroPlex, 1:15 p.m. ET

Here’s a network that has snuck up on me: Have you ever heard of RetroPlex? Neither have I. But this sister operation of the Starz network is here, on my satellite lineup, and it offers movies – very vintage and a bit more recent – unedited and uninterrupted. Today’s schedule, for example, includes Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam at 9:30 a.m. ET and Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at 9:35 p.m. ET – and really caught my attention by making room, at 1:15 p.m. ET, for Mike Nichols’ 1970 version of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, starring Alan Arkin as WWII soldier Yossarian. It’s a very underrated movie, with a ridiculously talented and sprawling cast. Buck Henry, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Orson Welles, Jon Voight, Martin Sheen, Art Garfunkel. Paula Prentiss, Jack Gilford, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Bob Balaban…. And that’s just for starters.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET

The mystery continues. And deepens. And, though it hardly seems possible, gets even weirder…

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET

Sir David Attenborough, the British TV nature documentarian whose contributions to the medium are incalculably significant, has appeared on this freewheeling British talk show several times – and each time, the old man has flirted shamelessly with his attractive female fellow guests, who seem delighted as well as surprised by the attention. Let’s see if he stays true to form tonight. If so, he’ll be focusing on Claire Foy, star of Netflix’s new The Crown, who guests tonight along with Ben Affleck, Matt Smith and Sting.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 11:29 p.m. ET

Dave Chappelle is tonight’s guest host, and that’s quite a coup for Saturday Night Live – as is the landing of the week’s long-dormant musical act, A Tribe Called Quest. But even they will be overshadowed by this week’s opening sketch, in which, undoubtedly, Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon will take the stage as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. And did the former star of 30 Rock ever dream, when he signed on to impersonate the former star of The Apprentice, that he was heading for at least a four-year extended gig?

 
  
 
 

TCM, 1:30 a.m. ET

Here’s a rarely seen 30-minute film short that film fans should really enjoy (and Project Runway fans, too): a trapped-in-amber portrait of a lushly staged night of celebrity revelry at Hollywood’s famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub. It’s filmed in Technicolor – quite a rarity, in 1934 – and features appearances by silent screen star Mary Pickford (who talks) and movie-star crooner Bing Crosby (who sings), and also features a full-color, appropriately lavish Hollywood fashion show.
 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.