FRIDAY
JULY 13
2012

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Public Television, Check local listings

In tonight’s new edition, Bill Moyers explores the seed of a great idea. Specifically, he interviews Vandana Shiva, a scientist and philosopher who both explains and questions the spread of generically modified plants and seeds – and the long-term ramifications, health-wise and otherwise, for all of us. And that’s only one of Moyers’ guests on this week’s show. It airs from Friday to Sunday on local public TV stations; to find it in your local area, click HERE.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

In 2007, Brad Pitt starred in the fact-based Western titled, clunkily but accurately, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Pitt played Jesse James, and Casey Affleck played his assassin, Robert Ford. Almost 60 years earlier, though, Samuel Fuller directed and co-wrote this 1949 Western, which told the same story. John Ireland stars as Ford in this one, and Reed Hadley plays James.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

SERIES FINALE: It saddens me to say this, especially about a comedy that has made me laugh so loudly and so often, but this 39th episode is the final fresh installment of the HBO animated series based on the raucously informal and freewheeling podcasts featuring Karl Pilkington, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. My, I’ll miss this show – especially Gervais’ laughter and Pilkington’s deadpan observations. Tonight, for example, he’s trying to prove to Gervais and Merchant that the longer creatures live, the smarter they become, and uses as evidence a bit of personal observation: “I saw a cockroach playing Pac-Man.” Gervais roars when he hears that – and, watching the promo, so did I. Thanks, Karl and Ricky and Stephen, for a reliable Friday night delight.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 9:30 p.m. ET

This Samuel Fuller film, from 1952, showcases him as both writer and director – with his latter duties far outshining the former. But this movie, about rival New York newspapers in the 1880s, captures such an interesting time and place, that it’s fascinating (especially to old newspaper wretches such as myself) from start to finish. Especially the finish, which has an inside-journalism nod that’s much too good to spoil.

 
  
 
 

Fox Movie Channel, 10:00 p.m. ET

When The X Files was a weekly series on Fox, it owned Friday nights. But now, on Friday the 13th, the 2008 movie version – the second, most recent big-screen version – is slipping in almost unnoticed, on Fox’s own movie network. But will there ever be another movie entry in this franchise, starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson? I want to believe…

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.