Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET
Host Ryan Seacrest opened last night’s show by saluting Dick Clark, who died Wednesday, and alongside whom Seacrest was welcomed years ago as co-host of
Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. (For Dick Clark tributes from some of us at TVWW, read Ed Bark
HERE, Bill Brioux
HERE, and my own story
HERE.) Tonight, there’s a finality of a less literal sort, as another singer is eliminated from the pack of Idol finalists. And this time, there’s no judges’ save – so last week’s histrionics, when Jennifer Lopez and company rushed the stage to save and embrace young Jessica Sanchez, cannot be repeated.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Dick Clark doesn’t appear in any of tonight’s movies on TCM’s “Spring Break” lineup, but he’s here in spirit, since the movies are loaded with the same performers, and peppy attitudes, that marked his American Bandstand days. This 1963 movie, the first in a series of sun-and-fun, music-and-dance frolics aimed squarely at the teen market, stars Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Avalon makes Justin Bieber look sloppy and surly, and Funicello – well, this is where the former star of The Mickey Mouse Club outgrew, and shed, those Mouseket-ears. Co-stars include – ready? – Robert Cummings, Morey Amsterdam… and Vincent Price.
NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Andy (Ed Helms) returns to the office, and he’s not prepared for the welcome he receives – or doesn’t. Or, for that matter, for the pressures that mount very quickly, leading to the very definition of an Office meltdown.
NBC, 9:30 p.m. ET
NEW TIME: Is it just me, or does NBC seem to schedule – and reschedule, and re-reschedule – its Thursday comedies in ways designed to discourage, rather than support, regular viewership? (It's not me.) Well, Parks and Recreation is back, in yet another time slot, this time following The Office. Will a later spot lead to more viewers? It seldom does. Then again, neither does hopping a series from place to place like a piece on a checkerboard.
TCM, 1:30 a.m. ET
This 1965 film is the most famous of the Beach Party movies, and the one that most rewards careful face-watching. Ask “Isn’t that…?,” and the answers, in the affirmative, will include not only stars Annette and Frankie, but Marta Kristen from Lost in Space, Linda Evans from The Big Valley, and Paul Lynde, Don Rickles and, astoundingly, Buster Keaton – the latter three of whom are shown in the photo at left.