SATURDAY
JUNE 22
2019

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

BBC America, 8:00 p.m. ET

This 1980 movie is a study in starmaking – and in scene-stealing. Yes, Chevy Chase walks around this golf course, and this comedy movie, like he owns the place. But the former Saturday Night Live player is outshone not only by veteran comic Rodney Dangerfield, but by Chase’s own SNL replacement, Bill Murray. Watch Murray to learn just how a bold and improvisational comedian can run away with a film – if he’s willing to gopher broke.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Speaking of actors and ad libs, this 1975 movie, based on a true-life bank robbery, features one of the all-time most electric ones. Al Pacino, completely in character as the unpredictable bank robber, feeds off the energy of the onlookers watching the on-location scene outside the Brooklyn bank, and begins and leads a chant of “Attica! Attica!,” referring to the recent prison rebellion. Great stuff. And, by the way, great movie. Sidney Lumet directs, and Pacino’s talented co-stars, working off that same energy, include John Cazale and Charles Durning.

 
  
 
 

CNN, 9:00 p.m. ET

CNN is repeating this documentary series tonight – many more hours than the network usually does, so it’s a convenient place to stock up on your 50-year-old memories. My favorite, from the opening episode (which is all about television of that decade), is the segment focusing on the Smothers Brothers. I’m not in that segment, if I recall correctly, but I am in other segments of the TV episode of The Sixties. And after all, isn’t not recalling correctly part of the appeal of these documentaries in the first place?

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET

Mel Brooks made one brilliant comedy movie after another in 1974. (One was this film. The other was Young Frankenstein. Beat that creative double-header!) Blazing Saddles seems almost more brazen these days, because of our overall political correctness – but that makes it, somehow, even funnier with age. Richard Pryor worked on the script with Brooks, but Cleavon Little got to play the on-air role of black Bart – as opposed to Black Bart – opposite Gene Wilder.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.