SATURDAY

JULY 29

2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Today on The Essentials, Tony Curtis is being saluted, and the salute begins with 1959’s Some Like It Hot, which may be his ultimate acting showcase. After all, Curtis effectively plays three roles in this comedy, which has him and Jack Lemmon playing jazz musicians who witness a mob hit and go on the lam by impersonating members of a women’s orchestra. Another member of that orchestra is played by Marilyn Monroe, and Curtis also portrays a wealthy fop, adopting an obvious Cary Grant accent, aiming to woo her. And whether Curtis is playing a woman sax player, a guy on the run, or a tycoon on the make, Curtis is a riot.

ORPHAN BLACK

BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET

There aren’t that many episodes left for this series, and the confrontations are getting more tense every week. Tonight, Rachel has her eye on Sarah’s daughter, Kira – and when I say eye, I’m not overestimating.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

NBC, 11:29 p.m. ET

Tonight’s SNL is a repeat of the show, from last season, hosted by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the star and composer of the Broadway smash Hamilton. This episode was performed live on Oct. 8, 2016, a month before the presidential election – and one day after news broke about the 2005 recording in which Donald Trump boasted of groping and gabbing women, using unforgettably vulgar language. That news, and that videotape and audio, broke on a Friday. The next night, Miranda opened SNL by singing his way through the backstage halls of Saturday Night Live – and pausing in front of a picture of Trump, who had hosted SNL once, and who now was the Republican candidate for the 2016 presidential election. Looking at the picture, Miranda sang a line straight from Hamilton: “Never gon’ be President now.” The audience laughed and applauded, but Donald Trump, a month later, got the last laugh. Or at least the next one…

THE HIDDEN

TCM, 2:00 a.m. ET

Twin Peaks: The Return isn’t the only genre drama in which Kyle MacLachlan has starred, with a key plot point being the ability of mysterious beings to absorb or inhabit bodies. In 1987, three years before MacLachlan starred as FBI Agent Dale Cooper in the original Twin Peaks, he played an FBI agent investigating a mysterious case in The Hidden. The case is really mysterious because he’s on the trail of an alien parasite who can take over the bodies and consciousness of unsuspecting humans – and even more mysterious because MacLachlan’s FBI agent actually is an alien also. And the alien he’s chasing inhabits several bodies over the course of The Hidden – but none is more noteworthy than the one played by Claudia Christian, as a strip-club dancer who becomes suddenly, and extraterrestrially, homicidal.

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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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