SATURDAY
SEPTEMBER 12
2015

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

El Rey, 12:00 p.m. ET

For the next three weeks, El Rey is devoting its Saturday afternoons to wall-to-wall showings of Stephen King TV miniseries, respectively running in their entireties beginning at noon ET. In two weeks, it’s 1995’s The Langoliers (really bad). Next week, it’s 1993’s Tommyknockers (pretty bad, but with a few good moments). And today, it’s 1994’s The Stand, one of the better King TV adaptations – especially at the beginning.

 
  
 
 

getTV, 12:00 p.m. ET

How and where do you get getTV? Here’s the getTV streaming website, for details – and here’s why you should make the effort. Today, beginning at noon, get is presenting a mini-marathon of one of the old shows it’s adding to its weekly schedule. In this case, it’s Nichols, the James Garner NBC series from 1971 that ran only a season, and ran after Maverick but before The Rockford Files. It was a Western, but a 20th-century one, set in 1914 – and its “hero,” a cowardly and semi-shady sheriff played by Garner, didn’t ride a horse. He rode a new invention called a motorcycle. Co-stars include Margot Kidder (pre-Superman) and Stuart Margolin (pre-Rockford), and this is such a rarity, I don’t think it’s ever been shown on TV since its original cancellation.

 
  
 
 

ESPN, 3:00 p.m. ET

Wow. In yesterday’s women’s semifinals, which took place Friday because they’d been postponed by rain Thursday, the tournament’s No. 26 seed, Flavia Pennetta of Italy, knocked out the No. 2 seed, Simona Halep, in straight sets, at one point winning 15 straight points. What a shocker. Then came the next match, in which another Italian player, the unseeded Roberta Vinci, faced Serena Williams, who needed only that match and the final to complete her Grand Slam. Vinci lost the first set, but won the second – and, in an increasingly intense showdown, the third, to win the match and experience, as Vinci said afterward, “the greatest day of my life.” This makes for, on very little rest for either victor, the first all-Italy major final in tennis history, with Vinci, 32, and Pennetta, 33, taking the court for what, clearly, is the game of their lives. It’ll be fun tennis to watch, but you have to remember – or forget – that the winner of the U.S. Open women’s championship this year will not be one of her sport’s Top 20 players.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 8:00 p.m. ET

Two more indispensible modern Doctor Who episodes are shown tonight, accompanied by behind-the-scenes info, are shown in prime time tonight. The first is The Time of the Doctor, the show’s 2013 Christmas Day special, the one that handed off the title role from Matt Smith to the current Doctor, Peter Capaldi. Then, at 9:45 p.m. ET, is 2010’s Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol, the show’s 2010 Christmas special, a Matt Smith episode featuring, as its surly Scrooge-like character, the great Michael Gambon.

 
  
 
 

CMT, 9:00 p.m. ET

Johnny Cash is being saluted all day today on CMT, including a special CMT all-Cash Hot 20 Countdown this morning. American Rebel is the highlight, though: a new documentary that explores, even if it doesn’t quite explain, the country star’s many contradictions and interests. For this new character study, give CMT credit, for paying (tribute to) Cash.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

As a stunt for charity, with HBO cameras along to document the achievement, Will Ferrell takes to the baseball diamond sporting different uniforms, and playing 10 different positions, that is justifiable, as an event on or off television, mostly because it is for charity. If you’re really enthusiastic about both Ferrell are baseball, this is a dream team – and Ferrell could field any spot on that team.

 

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.