TUESDAY
JANUARY 6
2015

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: You can think of this new limited ABC adventure series as either a prequel to ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or a sequel to the 2011 Marvel movie Captain America: The First Avenger. Because it’s both. It’s set in 1946, with Captain America presumed dead, and his memorably effective colleague, secret agent Peggy Carter, relegated to a boring desk job. But as played, once again, by Hayley Atwell, she doesn’t stay trapped behind that desk for long – and soon takes off on a series of adventures and missions that require sexy disguises and quick-thinking bravado, like a period Sydney Bristow from ABC’s Alias. Count me in.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Tuesdays in February, this year, belong to Robert Redford, and to start off its month-long tribute, TCM is wasting no time in bringing out the big guns. Three of Redford’s finest performances, and most entertaining movies, are shown in a row tonight, starting with his two famous teamings with Paul Newman. First up, out of chronological sequence, is 1973’s The Sting, a remarkably entertaining movie that, like the movie that follows, sucks me in every time it’s televised. The Sting won the Oscar for Best Picture, and deserved it. Great plot (script by David S. Ward), terrific music (by Scott Joplin, arranged by Marvin Hamlisch), wonderful direction (by George Roy Hill), and superb performances all across the board, including Robert Shaw as the villain, Ray Walston and Harold Gould as veteran con men, and Charles Durning as the quintessentially crooked 1930s Chicago cop.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

This new Frontline starts with a given -- that the National Rifle Association is one of the most powerful and effective lobbying groups in Washington – then deconstructs the organization’s history to shed light on how, and when, it got that way. The power wielded by the NRA is a surprisingly modern phenomenon, it turns out, and this new documentary explains the group’s rise and increased clout. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET

Made in 1969, this movie, like The Sting four years later, was directed by George Roy Hill and starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The difference, this time out, was the screenwriter, William Goldman, whose perfect script managed to be both retro and modern at the same time, and introduce almost as many bits of dialogue and business into the national consciousness as his later The Princess Bride. “You just keep thinkin’, Butch – that’s what you’re good at.” This movie delights me so much every time I watch it, I fall in love with the cinema all over again. And with Katharine Ross – but I digress…

 
  
 
 

TCM, 12:15 a.m. ET

This 1972 Robert Redford movie was filmed in Utah, near the ski area of what was then known as Timp Haven. The rugged, beautiful scenery, filmed during several drastically different seasons, is a major character in this story of a reclusive mountain man played by Redford – and the scenery had a major impact on Redford as well. After the movie was finished, he bought the ski resort and some of the surrounding land, and named it after one of the other cinematic alter egos. Presto: Sundance was born, and the Sundance film festival, and the Sundance Channel, all followed. But this movie came first, and it’s another Redford triumph, with him spending almost as much time alone on screen as in All Is Lost.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.