SATURDAY
NOVEMBER 18
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

TBS, 7:00 p.m. ET

I still consider this 1939 family classic a holiday tradition – but any time it’s televised, I feel compelled to point it out. Tonight, TBS shows The Wizard of Oz twice, at 7 p.m. ET and again at 9:15. The good news is, it’s on a Saturday night, the weekend before Thanksgiving, when families already may be starting to gather. The bad news is, TBS presents the movie with commercial interruptions – something you won’t have to endure if you wait until the film is shown by sister network TCM.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET

Once again, Jon Stewart hosts this annual live benefit for care and research related to autism.  Stephen Colbert is slated to perform, along with John Oliver, Sarah Silverman, Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler and many others. Louis C.K. was part of the original lineup, but was dropped after the recent allegations of his sexual misconduct became public. But will the topic, also in the news because of Minnesota Senator Al Franken and Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore, be addressed on this live show? Undoubtedly.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Tonight, TCM begins a repeat cycle of this year’s The Essentials visit by Tina Fey, appearing with her former 30 Rock co-star Alec Baldwin, host of The Essentials, to co-host and present and comment upon some of her own favorite movies. The first film she chose is also part of this month’s James Stewart TCM tribute: the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window, co-starring Grace Kelly, and featuring one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best visual concepts for a film – and that’s saying something. Stewart plays a photographer, confined to his apartment with a broken leg, who alleviates his boredom by using his high-powered camera lenses to peek into the lives of the residents of the apartment building across the way. It’s voyeurism, it’s creepy, it’s sexy – and, ultimately, it’s murder.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET

It’s a clash of powerful forces tonight, as one character begins to learn the extent of her mystical powers. But is it too little, too late? Or just in time? And on this show, what does time mean anyway? If you haven’t been watching, I don’t have the time to explain…

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s scheduled guests include Hugh Grant, whose appearance on Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show was one of the most famous, and infamous, talk-show moments in TV history. They also include Kelly Clarkson, whose past contains much less controversy – and who just completed a nice stint as guest advisor on NBC’s The Voice.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 11:29 p.m. ET

Tonight’s guest host and musical guests are both musical, and both from the same genre of music. The host is Chance the Rapper, and the musical guest, by chance, is Eminem.

 
  
 
 

Sundance, 9:00 p.m. ET

DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: This two-part, four-hour documentary on the 1959 murder case immortalized by Truman Capote in In Cold Blood is chilling. It uses period audio recordings and film clips, as well as new audio of the victims' relatives, speaking for the first time about the case, to present a fuller portrait than ever before of the senseless slaughter of a Kansas family. Capote enters the story midway through tonight's Part 1, but the entire documentary is well worth viewing, for what it says about small towns, the media, gun violence, and many, many other things. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.