MONDAY

SEPTEMBER 15

2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

Part 2. Last night’s opening episode established the Roosevelt family tree, and in particular tiptoed along one branch, following brash young Theodore as he worked his way into politics, ultimately ascending to the largely ceremonial office of U.S. Vice President. Beginning with tonight’s Part 2, Teddy Roosevelt suddenly finds himself as the President – and what he does with that office, expanding its powers largely through force of will, gets the 20^th century off to an amazingly fast start. Also in this installment: Teddy’s niece and his fifth cousin, Eleanor and Franklin, marry one another. For my full review, see Bianculli’s Blog. And to hear my review on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, which includes audio samples from several episodes, visit the Fresh Air website. Check local listings.

PRIVATE SCREENINGS: LAUREN BACALL

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Tonight and tomorrow night, TCM presents a two-night salute to the late Lauren Bacall. The salute begins tonight in prime time, with a repeat of the interview special in which TCM host Robert Osborne spoke to Bacall about her career, and her life, in 2005. That’s followed by two of her very best movies: 1944’s To Have and Have Not at 9 p.m. ET, in which Bacall made her famously sultry film debut at age 19, and, at 10 p.m. ET, 1946’s The Big Sleep, another film noir classic in which she co-starred opposite Humphrey Bogart, her leading man off-screen as well as on.

TERROR AT THE MALL

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

Many of today’s scripted horror movies are built around the concept of “found footage” – of framing their drama, visually and narratively, from the point of view of hand-held and surveillance cameras. This new documentary does the same thing, but this is no trick, and the horror in this hour-long program is that the violence is all too real. British filmmaker Dan Reed assembled Terror at the Mall using surviving footage from hundreds of surveillance cameras, still photos, cellphone video, and by interviewing survivors about their ordeal. The event in question took place last year in an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, when four young men from the Shabab militant group invaded the mall, sporting automatic weapons and killing almost everyone in their path – more than 60 by the time the siege was over. But the cameras, and this documentary, also show acts of amazing heroism and ingenuity, as some of those people trapped in the mall find ways to survive, while others try to enter the mall in hopes of saving them. It’s as captivating and haunting as any scripted drama I’ve seen all year – and stays with you long afterward.

THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART

Comedy Central, 11:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s show features two of the people making some of the smartest, most entertaining and most illuminating television of their generation: guest Ken Burns, whose The Roosevelts: An Intimate History continues tonight on PBS, and host Jon Stewart.

HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE

TCM, 1:00 a.m. ET

This part of today’s TCM salute to Lauren Bacall arrives late – well, late at night, anyway – but it’s worth the wait. Bacall, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe co-star in this 1953 comedy, playing three women who finagle their way into temporary use of a luxury Manhattan apartment, and try to pool their resources to find and land a rich husband or two. Or three.

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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.

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BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

Comedy Central, 11:00 p.m. ET

TCM, 1:00 a.m. ET

David Bianculli

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