THURSDAY
MARCH 23
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Various Networks, 7:00 p.m. ET

We’re not at the Final Four yet – but tonight we have four of this year’s NCAA games, all in prime time – two presented by CBS, the other two by TBS. Starting things off, at 7 p.m. ET on CBS, presents the Midwest’s No. 3 Oregon Ducks vs. No. 7 Michigan Wolverines, the team, that is emerging as one of the tournament’s most beloved teams, and stories, this year. Other games tonight, in order of telecast: At 7:30 p.m. ET on TBS, the West’s No. 1 Gonzaga Bulldogs vs. No. 4 West Virginia Mountaineers. At 9:30 p.m. ET on CBS, Midwest’s No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks vs. No. 4 Purdue Boilermakers. And finally, at 10 p.m. ET on TBS, West’s No. 2 Arizona Wildcats vs. No 11 Xavier Musketeers, the only double-digit seed playing tonight.


 

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

In the United States, the giant lizard monster Godzilla was introduced to us via 1956’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, one of many 1950s movie presenting giant, atom-bomb-mutated creatures as allegories for fears of nuclear disaster. Raymond Burr starred in that movie, old-time monster movie fans may recall, playing an American reporter named, believe it or not, Steve Martin. But Burr’s scenes were all shot two years after the release of the original Japanese lizard-monster film, Gojira, and added to the film for an American release, while other scenes were dubbed into English, and many scenes about Japanese society simply edited out. But tonight, at the start of a wonderful night of monster and sci-fi classics, TCM presents the original, Japanese 1954 version of Gojira. And if “Godzilla” is merely a lost-in-translation version of Gojira, that’s not the last time such a pop-culture misunderstanding led to a mislabeling of a famous brand. According to legend, the landmark videogame Donkey Kong actually was designed after the simian character in the movie King Kong, and, to avoid copyright issues, was named “Monkey Kong” – a name that somehow changed to “Donkey” somewhere along the way. If that’s true, the videogame’s name, and design, actually makes a lot more sense…

 
  
 
 

FX, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: One thing you wouldn’t expect out of Baskets – one of the very few things – is timeliness. Yet for tonight’s season finale, for reasons yet undisclosed, Chip (Zack Galifianakis) joins… the Russians.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET

Speaking of Donkey Kong, Monkey Kong, and King Kong – with the new Kong: Skull Island reviving the legend, and movie franchise, of King Kong, here comes a TCM replay of the 1933 original. Its special effects are all over the place, from spectacular for their time to cheesy at any time, and the titular giant ape changes in size and shape more than Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. But if you remember that this King Kong adventures originally arrived in movie theaters only six years after the advent of the age of cinema sound in The Jazz Singer, its achievement is amazing. Fay Wray stars.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 12:00 a.m. ET

This 1956 movie, presented right after the Joe McCarthy Communist witch hunts, and at a time when America still was terrified of being infiltrated by Russian spies and sympathizers (oh, remember what a quaint era that was?), remains one of the best movies about properly motivated paranoia ever made. (For others, see All the President’s Men, The Parallax View, The Thing, and Alien, to name a few.) Don Siegel, who eventually directed Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, directs this still-scary story about people being changed, one by one, in ways that are very sinister, but not immediately apparent…

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.