TUESDAY
AUGUST 22
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

This is the second of three live shows presenting 12 of the remaining contenders – so if you watched last week, you can tune in again tonight and decide for yourself, as the judges are deciding on live TV, whether tonight’s group is cheaper by the dozen.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

It’s Glenn Ford day at TCM on tonight’s Summer Under the Stars tribute, and there are interesting films all day, including, at 4 p.m. ET, the classic 1955 inner-city school drama, Blackboard Jungle. But in prime time, pay attention to this rarely televised 1962 crime thriller, Experiment in Terror, in which Ford plays an FBI guy handling a case in which a man threatens to kill a woman’s younger sister, whom he’s captured, unless the woman steals  money for him from the bank where she works. Lee Remick plays the bank employee – and her little sister is played by Stefanie Powers, who was then 19 years old.

 
  
 
 

Science Channel, 9:00 p.m. ET

Hey, procrastinators, take heart. The Science Channel is repeating last night’s prime-time special compilation of the best solar eclipse views from across the continental U.S. – so if you missed it yesterday, here’s another chance. And you can also go back and listen to Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” again, in which she sang of her song’s self-satisfied subject, “You flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia / to see a total eclipse of the sun.” Her song came out in 1971, referring to the total solar eclipse of Mar. 7, 1970. This information was brought to you by TVWW, where one of our slogans is: “Digression Is the Better Part of Valor.”

 
  
 
 

Discovery, 10:01 p.m. ET

Part 4. This fact-based miniseries takes a lot of dramatic license, but it also boasts some good performances, and has the capability of making you think about the Unabomber’s manifesto, and the search for him, long after each episode is over. Now if I’m stopped at a traffic signal late at night, I think of the Unabomber. I’m not sure that’s a good thing – but it’s one more thing TV has given me over the years. Paul Bettany (pictured) stars as the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, and Sam Worthington plays FBI profiler James Fitzgerald, who hunted him for years.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 12:00 a.m. ET

A gambler is hired by a casino owner to work in his Buenos Aires casino – and learns, when he gets there, that the casino owner also has employed the gambler’s ex-wife. Glenn Ford stars as the gambler, and this is supposed to be his movie – and, on TCM, his day – but 1946’s Gilda is stolen by the actress playing the title role: Rita Hayworth, playing one of the cinema’s most iconic femmes fatale.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.