TUESDAY
JULY 14
2015

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

NASA TV, 7:30 a.m. ET

Nine years ago, the New Horizons space probe was launched, and one of its targets for exploration was, at the time, billions of miles away from Earth. That target was Pluto, and at the time of the launch, Pluto still was considered a planet. But even though Pluto has been downgraded, the expected “arrival” of New Horizons, which will come within an estimated 7,800 miles of Pluto at around 7:49 a.m. ET, is an exciting scientific achievement. Already, detailed photographs relayed from the spacecraft have provided the first accurate measurements of Pluto’s size (about 1,473 miles in diameter). And today, from 7:30 to 9 a.m. ET, NASA TV is providing live coverage from mission control – so even if we can’t see the latest images until they’re fully processed and reconstructed, we get to see the team in action.

 
  
 
 

Fox, 7:00 p.m. ET

Live from Cincinnati, this annual game between the National and American Leagues establishes home-field advantage for the start of the World Series – which is about its only import, other than bragging rights. But it’s a chance, this year, to watch several hot talents in the same game, including, for starters, Washington Nationals outfielder and slugger Bryce Harper.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

During the New York City blackout of 1977, there was widespread looting, arson and a general sense of chaos and anarchy. Tonight’s American Experience revisits that event – caused by a cascading electrical failure during a severe storm – and puts it in a sociological and economic context. The best perspective comes from those who were there: “It was like something out of a world war,” says one person. It’s a sobering documentary – but not as disturbing as 1978’s Connections, in which science TV host James Burke approached the then-fresh blackout not only by explaining how and why it happened, but asking viewers what they would do if the lights, and the power, never returned. That’s scared me ever since – and that Connections episode also inspired the 1996 movie The Trigger Effect. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

National Geographic, 9:00 p.m. ET

Timed to today’s expected fly-by of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft, this new National Geographic special explores, so to speak, the spacecraft itself: What it took to send a man-made object billions of miles away, recording data and taking and relaying pictures all along the way.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

It’s hard to say what’s more chilling in this daringly behind-the-scenes look at women terrorized by ISIS followers overseas and hoping to escape their clutches and rule: Cell phone video footage of the young ISIS men joking about selling and trading their female “slaves," or panicked calls from some of those women, placed to a brave man running an underground railroad of sorts to escort them to safety. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.