THURSDAY

MAY 29

2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s new episode has to get points, at least, for eclecticism. Guests include Arsenio Hall (picured, at far right), Bradley Whitford and Tony Hale.

2014 SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE

ESPN, 8:00 p.m. ET

Forget the odds about becoming an American Idol or the next winner of The Voice. For this annual national spelling bee competition, there are some 11 million competitors in the original field – a number winnowed, through various local and regional contests, to the 281 super-spellers who make it to tonight’s final rounds, televised live on ESPN. I don’t know why it is that I’m so drawn to this particular event, or so accepting of the fact that ESPN presents it as a “sport.” What I do know, though, is that this annually televised spelling contest is TV at its purest.

CITIZEN KANE

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

The best movie ever made? Quite arguably, yes. One of the most influential? Inarguably. And I still marvel, whenever Orson Welles’ 1941 cinematic debut is presented on television, that it’s so easy to see something that, when I was in college in those pre-VCR days, the only way to see Citizen Kane was to wait for it to be screened at a local movie revival house. But now, in prime time, here it is: Welles and company, skewering media baron William Randolph Hearst with both a bludgeon and a scalpel.

THE SIXTIES: "TELEVISION COMES OF AGE"

CNN, 9:00 p.m. ET

MINISERIES PREMIERE: This 10-part documentary series begins with Television Comes of Age, a scene-setter that works perfectly, because just about everything of importance that happened in the Sixties, except for Woodstock, was filtered directly though the TV screen. I have to admit to what has the appearance of a conflict of interest, since I appear in and advised on this opening installment of The Sixties. But there’s no conflict, as I see it, in me praising the results very highly – it’s such a good and concise retrospective of the issues and television of that decade, I can’t wait to add this hour as the new opening-night introduction of my Television History & Appreciation of the ’60s and ’70s college class. For a full review (of the series, not my class), see Bianculli’s Blog.

UNDATEABLE

NBC, 9:01 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: The praiseworthy elements of this new NBC sitcom – that its characters and their relationships actually change a bit, if only temporarily, over time – are, unfortunately, mitigated by the fact that I can’t imagine anyone but a stubbornly dedicated TV critic to stick around to watch that many episodes. Even with Bill Lawrence attached as a co-executive producer, Undateable feels eerily, and wearily, familiar, like another of those endlessly subpar sitcoms NBC used to stick on Thursday nights as forgettable mortar between its more successful shows. Some things haven’t changed. Chris D’Elia stars, and is asked to do so much physical comedy, it’s as though his character can’t speak without playing Charades. This is a warning, not a recommendation.

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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

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ESPN, 8:00 p.m. ET

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

CNN, 9:00 p.m. ET

NBC, 9:01 p.m. ET

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