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MONDAY
DECEMBER 31
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 
TAYLOR SWIFT: REPUTATION STADIUM TOUR

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

SPECIAL PREMIERE: Netflix started by generating original series – for adults and for children. Then it added TV movies and miniseries, and also has elbowed its way, quite forcefully, into the area of television specials. Standup comedy specials and music concert specials, long part of the territory claimed by HBO and Showtime, are now being mounted, quite forcefully, by Netflix as well. This morning, Netflix dropped this new filmed-for-posterity version of Taylor Swift’s recently completed U.S. Reputation stadium tour. It was performed and recorded at the tour’s final stop, in Dallas, and mixes the spectacle of a stadium show (mega-TV screens, giant snakes looming as part of the stage set, lots of choreography and costume changes) with a one-woman showcase (just the singer-songwriter, her guitar, and tens of thousands of fans, singing along to every word and illuminating the crowd by filming on their individual smartphones).

 
  
 
 
DICK CLARK’S PRIMETIME NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN’ EVE WITH RYAN SEACREST

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

This is the prime-time appetizer for the main course, which occurs at 11:30 p.m. ET on ABC. But if your party starts early, this is something to consider having on TV in the background. Or, if your party is a markedly low-key affair, perhaps even the foreground. Jenny McCarthy co-hosts.

 
  
 
 
NEW YEAR’S EVE LIVE WITH ANDERSON COOPER AND ANDY COHEN

CNN, 8:00 p.m. ET

Last year, Anderson Cooper presided over the New Year’s celebration with a new co-host, Andy Cohen – replacing the suddenly controversial Kathy Griffin. Tonight, Cooper and Cohen are paired again, which means CNN can now claim it as a new annual tradition.

 
  
 
 
THE TWILIGHT ZONE MARATHON

Syfy, 8:00 p.m. ET

This year’s Twilight Zone marathon continues all day and night, and goes into tomorrow – so any time you like, you can into the Zone merely by tuning to Syfy. But this year, today, I highlight in particular the 8 p.m. ET showing of “The Invaders,” the episode of The Twilight Zone I singled out for praise, and interpretation, as my contribution to Mark Dawidziak’s Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone – the perfect companion book, by the way, to this New Year’s Syfy marathon. My brief lessons learned from “The Invaders,” the 1961 episode written by Richard Matheson and starring Agnes Moorehead as a mute woman defending her remote farmhouse from doll-sized invaders from outer space, were: “Always look at things from perspectives other than your own, and never take anything at face value.” See the episode, then see why. Then buy Mark’s book…
 
  
 
 
THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! MARATHON

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

If you don’t yet have plans for a wildly entertaining New Year’s Eve, TCM provides one tonight – and it’s one that keeps going long after other New Year’s Eve festivities have concluded. Starting at 8 p.m. ET, TCM presents a quintet of full-length movie compilations of highlights from other movies. First up is 1974’s That’s Entertainment!, a breathless but proud romp through the golden era of MGM musicals. That’s followed at 10:30 p.m. ET by 1976’s That’s Entertainment! II, and at 12:45 a.m. ET, the first full movie shown in TCM’s New Year of 2019, the 1994 compilation That’s Entertainment! III. But wait, as they say on TV, there’s more. At 3 a.m. ET, there’s a showing of 1985’s That’s Dancing! – and at 5 a.m. ET, the overnight salute brings up the first dawn of 2019 with 1976’s It’s Showtime, a look at famous Hollywood and related show biz animal acts.

 
  
 
 
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC NEW YEAR’S EVE WITH RENEE FLEMING

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

The orchestra’s new music director, Jaap van Zweden, presents a program broad enough to include Broadway songs and Viennese waltzes, as well as classic selections of classical music. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 
DICK CLARK’S NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN’ EVE WITH RYAN SEACREST

ABC, 11:30 p.m. ET

The scheduled headliner, making an appearance on this ABC countdown celebration for the first time in more than a decade, is Christina Aguilera. Also performing from the New York City block of Times Square: New Kids on the Block.

 
  
 
 
NBC'S NEW YEAR'S EVE

NBC, 11:30 p.m. ET

Carson Daly hosts this special, with help from Keith Urban (the special is a split venue between New York and Nashville) and new co-hosts Leslie Jones from Saturday Night Live and Chrissy Teigen from Lip Sync Battle. Along the scheduled performers: Jennifer Lopez (pictured) and, taking the stage just before the end of 2018, Bebe Rexha.
 
  
 
 
BATMAN MARATHON

IFC, 12:00 a.m. ET

Beginning exactly at midnight ET – Holy Happy New Year, Batman! – IFC presents a marathon of the entire first season of ABC’s mod, mad, improbably entertaining Batman series, starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as his sidekick Robin, the boy wonder.  The action begins with “Hi Diddle Riddle” and “Smack in the Middle,” the episodes introducing Frank Gorshin as the Riddler – with Jill St. John as, if my memory is correct, the only character to meet a fatal end in the entire Batman series. Burgess Meredith as The Penguin shows up next, at 1:06 a.m. ET in “Fine Feathered Finks” and “The Penguin’s a Jinx,” and Cesar Romero as The Joker is another early addition, at 2:12 a.m. ET with “The Joker Is Wild” and “Batman is Riled.” But it wasn’t until late in that first season, after actors portrayed such minor villains as Zelda the Great, The Mad Hatter and False-Face, that Julie Newmar came on to steal the show as Catwoman (pictured). You can see her, and you should, at 9:51 a.m. ET Tuesday morning, in “The Purr-Fect Crime” and “Better Luck Next Time.”

 

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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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