THURSDAY
MAY 21
2020

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

National Theatre at Home, 12:00 p.m. ET

For one week only, beginning today, National Theatre at Home makes available (on its website and YouTube Channel) a taped production from the Young Vic: Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, the highly acclaimed 2014 production starring Gillian Anderson and Ben Foster. The former X-Files star plays Blanche duBois, with Foster as Stanley Kowalski, and Vanessa Kirby as Stella.
 
  
 
 

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

SPECIAL: Feel trapped in your surroundings? Keep thinking how nice it would be to get out? Well, here comes Jack Black, playing the host of Celebrity Escape Room, in which a small group of celebrities works together – most of the time – to try and solve clues and escape from their confining environment. Ben Stiller and Adam Scott are two of the players, and they’re joined by some Friends. Specifically, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow. It’s part of the Red Nose Day charity event presented on TV tonight by NBC. Stiller and Black are two of the show’s executive producers. Another Red Nose Day special follows.
 
  
 
 

Epix, 8:00 p.m. ET

Written and directed by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper (who also co-starred) and Terry Southern (who didn’t), this 1969 movie – Hopper directed it as well – exploded onto the scene as one of the instantly iconic movies of the Sixties. As a drama about the decade’s generation gap, and also the gaps between hawks vs. doves, rednecks vs. hippies and old vs. young, Easy Rider is about as blatant, and representative, as it gets. All that, and a young actor named Jack Nicholson, who’s along for the ride as well…
 
  
 
 

NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET

SPECIAL: The annual Red Nose Day is aimed at raising money to combat childhood poverty, and this year’s NBC telecast earmarks its fundraising efforts for children affected by COVID-19. It’s hosted by Mandy Moore and Justin Hartley from the network’s This Is Us. And while this will,  by circumstance, be another celebrity charity events where most contributors all but literally phone it in, it’s quite a guest list: Bryan Cranston, Julia Roberts, James Taylor, Paul Rudd, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Sarah Silverman, John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, and Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers.
 
  
 
 
 
 
Read and add comments HERE for today's Best Bets!
 
 
 
 
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3801 Comments
 
 
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Apr 21, 2026   |  Reply
 
Dave Bianculli
Hey sweetie,

It's not that complicated! It's TV!!! Do what I do!!!!! Grab a six pack of Miller Lite, crack the first one open and drink it. Rinse and repeat!!!!!!! ROTFLMBFFAO!!!!!!!!!

Just let the TV flow over you.

Good luck!!!!!!!!!!

Dave
Apr 21, 2026
 
 
 
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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.