THURSDAY

MAY 3

2012

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

TCM offers up a killer schedule tonight – true-crime movies – with more to come every Thursday in May. And what a start: Robert Blake, after years as a child actor, burst into adult stardom as the psychopathic loose cannon at the center of Truman Capote’s fact-based story, in this 1967 film directed energetically by Richard Brooks.

30 ROCK

NBC, 8:30 p.m. ET

What do do after last week’s live triumph? Return to the familiar, I guess – this time a sequel of sorts to a previous episode, introducing Tracy Jordan’s attention-hogging wife as the star of her own reality show, “The Queen of Jordan.” And is Susan Sarandon back this week as well. According to the promotional photos, at least, yes.

PARKS AND RECREATION

NBC, 9:30 p.m. ET

And there’s a noteworthy guest star on this fresh NBC sitcom as well. Tonight on Parks, Leslie (Amy Poehler, who also, coincidentally, appeared on last week’s live 30 Rock) squares off, yet again, in an election debate against the incumbent city councilman – played, with a mixture of smarm and cluelessness, by recurring guest star Paul Rudd.

THE MENTALIST

CBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

The title of tonight’s episode, “So Long and Thanks for All the Red Snapper,” plays off a famous Douglas Adams title and quote from his Hitch Hiker’s books. And the plot of tonight’s story is no day at the beach. Actually, it is: There’s the murder of a surfer to investigate. And the investigation leads, somehow, to Lisbon’s ex-fiance, played by Shield and Sons of Anarchy regular Kenny Johnson.

THE BOSTON STRANGLER

TCM, 10:30 p.m. ET

Another true-crime thriller, this one, from 1968, stars Tony Curtis as Albert DeSalvo. Thought to be extremely gruesome at the time, it now seems almost quaint – and is better as a police procedural, really, than a character study. Think of it as an expanded episode of Law & Order: The Previous Generation.

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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

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

NBC, 8:30 p.m. ET

NBC, 9:30 p.m. ET

CBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

TCM, 10:30 p.m. ET

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