FRIDAY

JANUARY 31

2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

Public Television, Check local listings

Before David Simon was a TV writer and producer, creating such brilliant series as The Wire and Treme, he was a newspaper reporter – covering the police beat in Baltimore in an eye-opening experience that inspired Homicide: Life on the Street. In this new installment of Bill Moyers’ talk show, Simon applies the same skills he used so surgically and perceptively in all those TV series – taking the time to probe and explain, in human terms, the various institutions that shape poverty, crime, hope and hopelessness, and applies them to the larger canvas of America itself, right on the heels of President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union Address. Moyers & Company airs from Friday to Sunday on local public TV stations; to find it in your local area, check the BillMoyers.com website.

GREAT PERFORMANCES: "BARRYMORE"

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

This is one of the great things TV can do for us: import, into our living rooms, something that can enrich as well as entertain us, and treat us to something we might otherwise have missed. This is a Great Performances presentation of Christopher Plummer’s Broadway performance of Barrymore, for which he won a Tony. He plays John Barrymore in that famous actor’s twilight year of 1942, preparing to humble himself for a backer’s audition in hopes of raising funding for a revival of his legendary Richard III production from 22 years earlier. Barrymore is written by William Luce, the playwright who also wrote The Belle of Amherst. Check local listings.

BILLY JOEL: A MATTER OF TRUST – THE BRIDGE TO RUSSIA

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

In 1987, Billy Joel took his high-energy band, and act, to the U.S.S.R., making a significant and unprecedented visit to that Iron Curtain country as a very loud and spirited exercise in glasnost. At the time, the trip was captured in two works: the documentary A Matter of Trust, and the concert special Billy Joel: Live in Leningrad. More than 25 years later, here comes a new look at that trip, using additional as well as familiar footage, and conducting new interviews that put Joel’s trip in a truly historic perspective. And watch as Joel covers The Beatles’ “Back in the U.S.S.R.” – what a cover version. And, given the setting and the context, what a moment.

JAY LENO: MR. COMEDY

CNN, 10:00 p.m. ET

This new CNN special profiles Jay Leno, on the eve of his stepping down – for the second time – as host of NBC’s Tonight Show. Nischelle Turner is the interviewer.

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Here’s hoping, for tonight’s show, Maher recycles one of his jokes that made me laugh out loud earlier this week. He was “live tweeting” for the Huffington Post during President Obama’s State of the Union Address, and noticed the same odd color disparity between the President and the two men seated behind him on TV. Maher tweeted: “Biden, Obama, Boehner – it’s like watching Neapolitan ice cream.”

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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

Public Television, Check local listings

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

CNN, 10:00 p.m. ET

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

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