FRIDAY

MAY 19

2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Season 3 of this very funny, impressively multi-layered character comedy launches today, with Ellie Kemper continuing to persist, and in most cases evolve, as former cult captive Ellie Kemper. Last year’s cliffhanger had the charismatic but criminal leader of that cult, played by Jon Hamm, threatening to resurface with plans for a new marriage. Ellie’s not the targeted intended bride, though – because she already was forcibly “married” to him back when she was held captive in his underground lair. That plot line picks up immediately this season, in episodes that also make room for a new regular cast member: Daveed Diggs from the Broadway musical Hamilton.

12 MONKEYS

Syfy, 8:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: It’s Season 3 for this Syfy series as well – and though Syfy isn’t dropping it all at once, as Netflix is doing with the aforementioned The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, it is rolling it out in unusual fashion. This year’s 10 new episodes of 12 Monkeys will be televised over three nights, tonight through Sunday, in a weekend mini-marathon premiere event. Technically, that makes it 10 Monkeys, not a dozen – but why quibble? The first few new episodes are shown tonight beginning at 8 p.m. ET, reuniting the protagonists from the various timelines – past, present and future – to which they’ve been scattered.

THE NEW 'I LOVE LUCY' SPECIAL

CBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

CBS has done this before, with this vintage, beloved CBS series, and with The Dick Van Dyke Show: Take a pair of classic episodes, colorize them by new computer techniques, and show them in prime time. And tonight, CBS is doing it again, showing a pair of Lucille Ball’s later I Love Lucy “Hollywood” episode. The classic one, truly, is the one with Lucy and Harpo Marx, recreating the seminal broken-mirror scene from the riotous Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup. I used to be totally against colorization – which, in the early years, was far less effective and naturalistic than it is today. But now, with local TV syndicated stations not being the only afternoon game in town for young television viewers, new generations need not be, and are not, force-fed an unofficial syllabus of classic TV shows. College students in my TV classes, asked whether they’ve seen an episode of I Love Lucy prior to my showing it to them, now answer affirmatively less than half the time – the lowest it’s ever been, in my 20 years in the classroom. So anything that revives and exposes I Love Lucy and shows like it to a new era of viewers is fine by me. Of course, those viewers aren’t likely to be watching CBS anyway… Sigh…

AMERICAN MASTERS: “JAMES BEARD: AMERICA’S FIRST FOODIE”

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

American Masters, this week and next, is serving up a quartet of shows that food-loving cooking enthusiasts will enjoy. One new program will be paired each Friday with one related rerun, and tonight the new production is James Beard: America’s First Foodie. That title may sound like a stretch, but in TV terms, it’s absolutely and incontrovertibly accurate: His first TV series about food and food preparation, NBC’s I Love to Eat, was a 15-minute show that was shown in 1946, as one of only 12 shows on the brand-new TV network’s weekly schedule. James Beard’s Beard on Bread book taught me how to bake when I was in college, and I still remember how well-written, and encouraging, it was. Watch his enthusiasm here as well: It’s the secret sauce slathered over everything he touches. Check local listings.

AMERICAN MASTERS: “JULIA CHILD! AMERICA’S FAVORITE CHEF”

PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

This is a repeat show, from 2004, saluting Julia Child, who came to public television with The French Chef way back in 1962, making more than 200 episodes over the next 11 years. Her story, before, during, and after the show, is fascinating – just as Dan Aykroyd’s parody of her during the first season of Saturday Night Live (“save the liver!”) is unforgettable. Check local listings.

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

I confess to not being familiar with political analyst Boris Epshteyn, who is scheduled as the leadoff guest for tonight’s show – but given my Rocky & Bullwinkle tutelage, I’m presuming that Boris will have a lot to say about Russia. But the other guests slated to appear are among host Bill Maher’s all-time most vocal and intelligently combative guests: astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, conservative editor David Frum, and liberal academic Cornel West.

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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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