FRIDAY
NOVEMBER 14
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

The well-known, and daunting, statistic relevant to this entrepreneurial series is that an estimated 90 percent of all new businesses fail in their first year. Perhaps an acute awareness of that is what’s behind tonight’s episode, a cheery celebration at having reached episode number 100 in the cutthroat world of network television. Tonight, for the first time on this series, all six sharks will be swimming in the same TV pool simultaneously. They will not, however, be equipped with laser beams.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

This 1957 Ingmar Bergman drama is a bleak, ponderous, yet ultimately haunting and perceptive study of the human condition, told by focusing on a very limited set of characters in a narrative containing more thoughts than action. In other words, it’s a classic Ingmar Bergman film. And a classic, period.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is the opening guest on tonight’s show, and his take on the new makeup of Capitol Hill, and his own future political plans, should prove quite interesting – Maher is a much more pointed interviewer than many people presume. And the other guests on this installment are noteworthy, too, and include the always outspoken Andrew Sullivan and the always entertaining (Well, except on Fox’s Mulaney, but that’s not his fault) Martin Short.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET

Jack Nicholson was an actor ablaze in this 1970 character study, playing his role of the talented but tormented pianist (hence the title) with the energy and ferocity of a caged tiger. The scene of him playing the piano in the back of a truck as it rolls down the highway is memorable – but no scene is more iconic than the one in which he rebels against the arbitrary rules at a highway diner by demonstrating a very novel way to place his food order the way he wants it. “I’ll have a chicken salad sandwich…”

 
  
 
 

HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET

Earlier this week, you saw Dave Grohl performing live on stage at HBO’s Concert for Valor. Tonight, he performs again – a new song, inspired by the things he heard and saw while tracing the history of modern music in Los Angeles. Stops along the way include The Doors, NWA, Joan Jett and the Runaways and The Eagles, so this installment of Grohl’s very personal music appreciation course is wide-ranging indeed.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.