TUESDAY
AUGUST 5
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

Actually, the title is only 25 percent accurate, because the Country Music Association Music Festival (that title comes, surely, from Mad magazine's Department of Redundancy Department) actually unfolded over four days, back in June. But there are indeed some high-energy, rocking performances on tap here, including a duet featuring Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood that’s a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, and a little bit hot pants.
 
  
 
 

PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

Part 2 of 2. I love how thoughtful and perceptive Ken Burns’ biography of Sam Clemens and his literary alter ego is, and how it takes its time. Part 1 ended with Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, so we still have two hours for the rest of Clemens’ eventful life – and the older he gets, the more his story veers towards the tragic side. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

All day and all night, it’s Barbra Stanwyck’s day on TCM. And though she’s showcased in plenty of movies familiar and unfamiliar, comedic and dramatic, the network has saved one of the most enjoyable Stanwyck roles to open its prime-time roster. In this 1941 Howard Hawks film, Gary Cooper plays a professor of lexicography out to catalog the latest examples of popular slang – and Stanwyck dazzles him, and his colleagues, as flashy nightclub singer Sugarpuss O’Shea, who’s both the cat’s meow and the bee’s knees.

 
  
 
 

Comedy Central, 10:00 p.m. ET

This new edition is devoted to Hollywood, and one of its segments is on the making of Citizen Kane – featuring John Lithgow, who’s playing King Lear in Shakespeare at the Park right now in New York, as media baron William Randolph Hearst (how’s that for an eclectic resume), and Jack Black as Welles, who lampooned Hearst so devilishly in his classic film. By the way: the brief preview segment of this episode didn’t reveal the greatest secret about Citizen Kane (think “Rosebud,” but in a different context), but if it’s not in this show, the drunk guy telling the Kane story may not know it. I heard it from Bob Hope, as perhaps the best insider show-biz story I ever heard. Come to think of it, Bob Hope told me the second best story, too, about Milton Berle at a poker game hosted by Jackie Gleason. But I digress…

 
  
 
 

FX, 10:00 p.m. ET

In this week’s episode of Tyrant, the threat of retaliatory violence continues to escalate (what a stretch, in a drama set in the Middle East). After Jamal targets Sheik Rashid with an assassination attempt, word arrives that Rashid may somehow survive the brutal attack. In other words, I guess, he may be able to Sheik it off…

 
  
 
 
 
 
Read and add comments HERE for today's Best Bets!
 
 
 
 
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4813 Comments
 
 
Hanya kebohongan dan taktik penipuan. Buang-buang waktu dan uang saja.
Sep 28, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Ini adalah halaman penipuan lain yang dijalankan oleh manusia-manusia serakah, pembohong, dan sampah masyarakat. Hindari dengan segala cara.
Sep 28, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Pemerintah Indonesia, persetan dengan situs web ini, mereka menipu orang.
Sep 28, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
madison89
Between reading family memories and taking a short break, https://playamo-live.com/ can be a simple way to change the pace for a while. It is always special when personal stories help preserve someone's memory for future generations.
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Para penipu ini benar-benar bajingan, berbohong kepada orang-orang dan mencuri uang seperti penipu kotor yang sebenarnya.
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Pemerintah Indonesia tangkap situs web sialan itu
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Bajingan keparat, akan kupukul pantatmu dengan sangat keras!
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Para penipu yang memalukan memangsa orang-orang dengan klaim palsu dan kebohongan.
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Manusia sampah sejati, memangsa orang-orang tak berdosa hanya untuk mengisi kantong mereka yang serakah. Sungguh memalukan.
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Halaman ini dikelola oleh para penipu brengsek, hanya berisi kebohongan, janji palsu, dan trik murahan. Hindari orang-orang bodoh ini.
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Penipu sejati, persetan denganmu, jalang!
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Penipu sejati, persetan denganmu, jalang!
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Pemerintah Indonesia, persetan dengan situs web ini, mereka menipu orang.
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Penipu sejati, persetan denganmu, jalang!
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Tidak ada yang nyata di sini. Hanya omong kosong penuh tipu daya dari orang-orang serakah.
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Hanya sekelompok penipu lain yang melakukan bisnis kotor secara online.
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Pemerintah Indonesia tangkap situs web sialan itu
Sep 27, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
Wow, cool post. I'd like to write like this too — taking time and real hard work to make a great article… but I put things off too much and never seem to get started. Thanks though.
Sep 22, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
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Sep 22, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
You…are…my…hero!!! I cant believe something like this exists on the internet! Its so true, so honest, and more than that you dont sound like an idiot! Finally, someone who knows how to talk about a subject without sounding like a kid who didnt get that bike he wanted for Christmas.
Sep 20, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
 
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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.