THURSDAY

SEPTEMBER 19

2019

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

With the Downton Abbey movie only a day away from appearing in theaters, NBC takes this opportunity to present a prime-time special celebrating the series and its imminent large-screen return. Why NBC and not PBS? If you’re asking that question, well, frankly, so am I. Regardless, we get to revisit such beloved characters and actors as Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol), Daisy (Sophie McShera), Mr. Carson (Jim Carter), and Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan). For a full review (of the movie...), see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

TCM SPECIAL THEME: JAMES BOND

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

The third week of TCM’s Thursday night salute to the James Bond movies is the weakest, beginning at 8 p.m . ET with begins at 8 p.m. ET with 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me and ending at 5:15 a.m. ET with 1985’s A View to a Kill. That’s a total of five films starring Roger Moore as 007, and not one of them is memorable. Not even the Bond girls, who include, at 3 a.m. ET, the likes of Maud Adams (pictured) in the title role of 1983’s Octopussy.

THE LAST DAYS OF PHIL HARTMAN

ABC, 9:00 p.m. ET

SPECIAL: Many network prime-time news specials these days, including several on ABC, present retrospective amounts of murder cases, in which they’re usually presented as mystery whodunnits. In tonight’s special, about the killing of former Saturday Night Live and Newsradio and The Simpsons beloved cast member Phil Hartman, the whodunnit is a foregone conclusion, his wife, Brynn Hartman, did it. But in this two-hour special, ABC examines how, and why.

THE PALEY CENTER SALUTES "THE GOOD PLACE"

NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET

So do I – but since the new, final season of NBC’s The Good Place begins a week from tonight, this seems a well-timed opportunity for the Paley Center to do so. It is, and remains, one of broadcast network TV’s very best current series. For more on The Good Place, 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.

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BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

ABC, 9:00 p.m. ET

NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET

David Bianculli

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