SATURDAY
MAY 21
2016

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

Hard to believe this movie is 21 years old. Computer animation has come a long way – but this is the full-length film where it all started, thanks to the fabulous folks at Pixar. And though Toy Story was made in 1995, it still charms you, and warms your heart. Just like an old toy.

 

 
  
 
 

HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET

Bryan Cranston won a Tony Award for portraying Lyndon Baines Johnson in Robert Schenkkan’s 2014 play about the President’s behind-the-scenes negotiations with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (played here by Anthony Mackie) regarding the civil rights movement. This HBO adaptation is directed for television by Jay Roach, who also directed Cranston in Trumbo – and who adds another triumph to his string of politically themed HBO projects, which already includes Recount, Game Change and The Brink. For full reviews, see Ed Bark’s Uncle Barky’s Bytes and David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.
 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

When I was growing up in the 1960s, I thought of Fred MacMurray as the amiable patriarch of My Three Sons, and thought of Barbra Stanwyck as the tough matriarch of The Big Valley. It was a few more years before I’d delve into the earlier parts of their careers – such as this 1944 film noir classic, in which MacMurray plays an insurance salesman seduced into evil acts, including murder, by Stanwyck’s femme fatale.

 
  
 
 

History, 9:57 p.m. ET

A remake of Roots, the landmark 1977 miniseries about Alex Haley’s personal family history, is arriving on Memorial Day, shown across all the History Channel network of sister platforms. Tonight, to whet your appetite, History presents a behind-the-scenes special. Among the new miniseries’ executive producers: LeVar Burton, who starred in the original as Kunta Kinte.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 11:29 p.m. ET

Tonight is the Season 41 finale for Saturday Night Live, and for the occasion, the show is bringing back a former alumnus as guest host: Fred Armisen. Will he do a new sketch as Prince? Or would that be “too soon”? Musical guest: Courtney Barnett.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.