Decades, 12:00 p.m. ET
The Monkees was a mid-Sixties TV series – and, for that matter, a band – created specifically for television, and just as specifically to ride the coattails of, and ape, The Beatles. (Ape? Monkees? See what I did there?) At first, the four Monkees cast for the NBC musical sitcom only sang on their records, with studio musicians playing the instruments and, at first, with other composers writing the music and lyrics. But even before The Monkees premiered on TV in the fall of 1966, the group – Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork – had enjoyed a hit single with “Last Train to Clarksville,” while their single and album sales, astoundingly, rivalled those of The Beatles, and not only in America. The TV series lasted only two seasons, and DECADES is showing all the episodes, many of them more than once, this weekend. The plots are total tossaways, but the music, and the nascent music videos, are worth the time, as are the composers. In addition to Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who provided the show’s theme song as well as “Clarksville,” and Nesmith, whose self-penned compositions included “You Just May Be the One” and “Mary, Mary,” the list of artists who wrote songs for The Monkees is not at all insubstantial. That list includes, for starters, Neil Diamond (“I’m a Believer”), Carole King (“Pleasant Valley Sunday,” “Star Collector”), and Harry Nilsson (“Cuddly Toy”). And if you watch every episode, in one of them, you’ll see… Frank Zappa.
Sundance, 7:00 p.m. ET
Surely I’m not going to recommend this super-silly comedy movie, starring Leslie Nielsen, yet again, even though it’s now 40 years old, and most of the punch lines, by now, are etched in cultural memory. Yes, I am – and don’t call me Shirley…
Cozi, 8:00 p.m. ET
Next weekend, Matthew Rhys, charismatic and chameleonic co-star of FX’s The Americans, will star in a new miniseries adaptation of Perry Mason, playing TV’s most famous lawyer in a prequel “origin story” drama before he was a lawyer. But tonight, you can see Rhys in a role that is not only pre-Mason, and pre-Americans, but culturally significant for a surprising reason. In 2003, which I remind you is now 17 years ago, young Rhys had a meaty guest role in this episode of Columbo, “Columbo Likes the Nightlife.” Rhys plays a young promoter who stages “rave” events – and who, in this episode, turns out to be the last killer Peter Falk’s Columbo every faced.
HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET
In this 2019 drama, Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen and Downton Abbey downstairs head Jim Carter star as… oh, what does the rest matter? When those three actors are in one movie, it’s incumbent upon anyone who cares about quality entertainment to watch.