FRIDAY
MARCH 21
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Various Networks, 12:00 p.m. ET

Of the eight games played yesterday in the first full day of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, six of the eight teams to advance were the higher-ranked seeds, but that left room for two early-round upsets in the South bracket: No. 11 seed Dayton beat No. 6 seed Ohio State, and No. 9 seed Pittsburgh dominated No. 8 seed Colorado. Today’s eight games are likely to provide another upset or two, or more. The action begins at 12:15 p.m. ET on CBS, when Duke (seeded No. 3 in the Midwest) faces Mercer (No. 14). At 12:40 p.m. ET on TruTV, Baylor (seeded No. 6 in the West) faces Nebraska (No. 11). At 1:40 p.m. ET on TBS, New Mexico (seeded No. 7 in the South) faces Stanford (No. 10). At 2:10 p.m. ET on TNT, Arizona (seeded No. 1 in the West) faces Weber State (No. 16).  At 2:35 p.m. ET on CBS, Massachusetts (seeded No. 6 in the Midwest) faces Tennessee (No. 11). At 3 p.m. ET on TruTV, Creighton (seeded No. 3 in the West) faces Louisiana (No. 14). At 4:10 p.m. ET on TBS, Kansas (seeded No. 2 in the South) faces Eastern Kentucky (No. 15). At 4:30 p.m. ET on TNT, Gonzaga (seeded No. 8 in the West) faces Oklahoma State (No. 9). At 6:55 p.m. ET on TBS, Memphis (seeded No. 8 in the East) faces George Washington (No. 9). At 7:10 p.m. ET on CBS, Wichita State (seeded No. 1 in the Midwest) faces Cal Poly (No. 16). At 7:20 p.m. ET on TNT, North Carolina (seeded No. 6 in the East) faces Providence (No. 11). At 7:27 p.m. ET on TruTV, VCU (seeded No. 5 in the South) faces S.F. Austin (No. 12). At 9:15 p.m. ET on TBS, Virginia (seeded No. 1 in the East) faces Coastal Carolina (No. 16). At 9:30 p.m. ET on CBS, Kentucky (seeded No. 8 in the Midwest) faces Kansas State (No. 9). At 9:40 p.m. ET on TNT, Iowa State (seeded No. 3 in the East) faces N.C. Central (No. 14). And at 9:47 p.m. ET on TruTV, UCLA (seeded No. 4 in the South) faces Tulsa (No. 13). Whew. That’s the way the balls bounce… all day and all evening, on four different networks.

 
  
 
 

CW, 8:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: This pleasant improv showcase returns for a new CW season, once again with Aisha Tyler as host and the usual players – Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles – around for a new series of sketches, prop play and guest stars. On tonight’s season-opening double-header, those guests include Tara Lipinski and, from Key & Peele, Keegan-Michael Key.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s guests include Shane Smith, correspondent and host of Vice, which follows Maher’s show, and has Maher as one of its executive producers. Also on the guest list is another pioneering documentarian: Errol Morris.

 
  
 
 

Smithsonian, 10:00 p.m. ET

The New York punk band Blondie, with Deborah Harry as lead singer, was quite a force in the late Seventies. Their fourth album, 1979’s Eat to the Beat, was the first album ever to be simultaneously released as a track-by-track video LP – only a few years after the first consumer VCRs were released in the U.S., and two years before the launch of MTV. But before Eat to the Beat, there was Parallel Lines, the 1978 album that included “One Way or Another” and “Heart of Glass.” This documentary revisits the making of that album, and the New York of that era, and interviews not only the Blondie band members and record producer, but former NY Mayor Ed Koch.

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 10:30 p.m. ET

This 2012 fact-based movie stars Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor as parents with those kids, whose family vacation is torn asunder by the tsunami that devastated Thailand, and other lands bordering that part of the Indian Ocean, in 2004.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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3697 Comments
 
 
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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.