TUESDAY

SEPTEMBER 22

2020

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

Fox is just about the only broadcast network throwing much effort into pretending to launch a new fall season this week – but its seams are showing. Tonight, Fox presents a double feature of two new episodes of its nonfiction science series Cosmos: Possible Worlds – but it isn’t really a new season. These are leftover, previously unaired episodes from Season 1, beginning with Episode 14. Neil deGrasse Tyson hosts. Regardless, the episodes are new, and on the commercial broadcast networks, at least, there’s very little else on. PBS, on the other hand, is another matter, and has the evening’s very Best Bets. Details below.

WOMEN MAKE FILM: A NEW ROAD MOVIE THROUGH CINEMA

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Tonight is the fourth installment of this fascinating documentary, and it’s the episode that not only examines three new aspects or “chapters” of filmmaking (“Staging,” “Journey,” and “Discovery”), but connects some of the earliest and most current female cinema directors. In this non-chronological study of film, the first woman filmmaker, Alice Guy-Blaché, finally gets mentioned and celebrated. And in the same installment, so does Patty Jenkins, director of Wonder Woman. And, as always, the documentary is followed by an all-night mini-festival of female films, including, this evening and tomorrow morning, 1988’s Salaam Bombay!, directed by Mira Nair (12:15 a.m. ET), and 1976’s Mikey and Nicky, directed by Elaine May (6:30 a.m. ET Wednesday).

FRONTLINE: "THE CHOICE 2020"

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

SPECIAL PREMIERE: Frontline, one of the best nonfiction series to come out of PBS (and all of television, for that matter), premiered in 1983, and has been going strong – very strong – for 37 years now. In 1988, five years into its run, it presented its first special edition of The Choice, in which it offered back-and-forth biographies of the Republican and Democratic candidates for the presidency. Back then, the subjects were George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis. Every four years since then, Frontline has presented new installments: Most recently, The Choice 2008 profiled John McCain and Barack Obama, The Choice 2012 profiled Mitt Romney and Obama, and The Choice 2106 profiled Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. And tonight, in a Must-See TV offering, The Choice 2020 presents dual, and dueling, biographies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Check local listings. For background information on the show, see Alex Strachan's TV That Matters, and for a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Like Frontline on PBS, this HBO series has been doing very strong TV journalism for a very long time. This is the silver anniversary for Bryant Gumbel’s sports news and features series, and Season 25 is unfolding during an international pandemic and the exponential rise of the Black Lives Matter movement – two stories that are front and center in our country, our culture, and this program.

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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.

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BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

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