THURSDAY
NOVEMBER 21
2013

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s new installment is a Thanksgiving episode, which ought to be enjoyable enough. But sometime during the festivities, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) learns, for the first time, that Penny’s drunken Las Vegas wedding years ago, to an old boyfriend, is still valid – and apparently, Penny (Kaley Cuoco) learns it for the first time, too.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

This 1960 documentary by Robert Drew captured politics right before politics and TV got wise to one another. The 1960 debates between Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon (the current vice president) and Democrat John F. Kennedy were the first televised presidential debates in history, and changed everything. But before that, when Kennedy was still politicking for the nomination of his party on the presidential ticket and fighting for delegates, filmmaker Drew caught the momentum, and the mistakes, by capturing one particular local campaign battle: the 1960 Wisconsin primary held that April. JFK and fellow senator Hubert H. Humphrey are the primary combatants – and of all the JFK-themed materials this month, this remains, 50 years later, one of the most enlightening and unguarded.

 
  
 
 

Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET

Way back in Season 1, when Glee seemed to know where it was going, Matthew Morrison and guest star Neil Patrick Harris sang Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” together – and as a sort of competition. Tonight, four seasons later, the entire show is devoted to Joel’s music, and “Piano Man” is sung again, this time by Darren Criss as Blaine (pictured). Sing us a song, you’re the piano man…

 
  
 
 

Sundance, 9:00 p.m. ET

Part 4. The photo accompanying tonight’s episode may look like a picture of Batman and Catwoman from a big-screen superhero movie – but it’s actually a flashback prologue from this evening’s The Returned, and it features two of this moody miniseries’ female stars, talking while exiting a costume party. What happens next puts the drama in most costumed movie epics to shame – and what happens after that, well, I’m still not talking openly about, because the surprises are so vital and so unusual. But I am urging you to watch.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 10:00 p.m. ET

Every week, when I watch this series, I end up feeling glad that it’s on TV, because a family drama, where the issues are so specific and yet so universally identifiable, is a very endangered species these days on the small screen. Or, in 2013, on any size screen. And this week, with an episode titled “Election Night,” a lot more is decided than just a mayoral vote. Even the promos look especially intense.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.