MONDAY
OCTOBER 23
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

The Battle Rounds continue – and in this second week, continue to escalate in drama because each time a judge uses a “steal” to save, and inherit, a rival team’s losing candidate, there are fewer reprieves in play the rest of the way.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s a marvelous night for movies on television. It begins with this moody, emotional, utterly beautiful 1980 black-and-white drama, starring John Hurt as John Merrrick, the disfigured man who is discovered in, and rescued from, a Victorian freak show. This film was produced by Mel Brooks for his new Brooksfilms company, and he kept his name off all publicity when the movie was released because he didn’t want it incorrectly anticipated as a comedy. (That also, by the way, explains the presence if his wife, Anne Bancroft, in a small but breathtakingly touching supporting role.) And Brooks, as producer, hired as director someone with no major feature-film experience: an unusual, and unusually gifted, young man named David Lynch.

 
  
 
 

Sundance, 9:00 p.m. ET

Sundance Channel, tonight, presents a double feature that would have been one of the ultimate double features for my then-teen daughter: The Princess Bride, followed by Labyrinth. First up: This 1987 delight, adapted by screenwriter William Goldman from his own novel and directed by Rob Reiner. Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Christopher Guest, Chris Sarandon, Andre the Giant – and don’t forget Peter Falk and a young Fred Savage – help make this flawless fantasy film the 1980s generation’s family-film equivalent of The Wizard of Oz.

 
  
 
 

Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET

In this episode, the mutant rebels plan a surprise attack to rescue one of their own – which has a woman with unusual powers and purple hair teaming with a girl with unusual powers and blonde hair to rescue a woman with unusual powers and green hair. If this series isn't sponsored by Clairol, it should be...
 
  
 
 

Sundance, 11:00 p.m. ET

This 1986 film by the late, great Jim Henson is about a teenager (played by a young, already beautiful Jennifer Connelly) who wishes ill upon her baby brother – a wish that is granted by the Goblin King, played magnificently, and maleficently, by the late, great David Bowie, leading Connelly’s Sarah to find a way to save herself, and her baby brother, from the goblin Gareth’s clutches.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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Dave Bianculli
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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.