SATURDAY
NOVEMBER 7
2020

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET

Delivered pandemically, this year’s induction ceremony will be relatively muted, at least in terms of the traditional closing all-star jam. But this year’s inductees will be saluted by a long list of celebrity admirers – and those inductees include Whitney Houston, The Notorious B.I.G., The Doobie Brothers, Nine Inch Nails, and others.
 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

There’s a Beatles movie in prime time on TCM tonight, and I’m recommending it. Big surprise. But there are plenty of extra reasons to watch this particular telecast of 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night, the first, best, and most seminal film starring the fab four. For one thing, this Saturday night showing means that A Hard Day’s Night is being presenting, discussed and acknowledged as one of TCM’s “The Essentials.” A very well-deserved honor. Second, it’s followed by two films that are connected directly to the group’s film aesthetic. At 9:45 p.m. ET, TCM is following The Beatles’ 1964 breakthrough movie musical with It’s Trad, Dad!, a prototypical early rock music movie that came out two years before, in 1962. In the U.S., it was released as Ring-a-Ding Rhythm, and you can decide which title is worse. But the film, by any other name, featured performances by such acts as Chubby Checker, Del Shannon, Helen Shapiro, and Gene Vincent, and is most notable because it was directed by Richard Lester – the same guy The Beatles chose to direct A Hard Day’s Night. And then, at 11:15 p.m. ET, comes The Knack… And How to Get It, a 1965 comedy, also directed by Lester, starring Rita Tushingham as a sweet country girl caught between two suitors – one innocent, the other a womanizer.
 
  
 
 

NBC, 11:30 p.m. ET

Four years ago, Dave Chappelle hosted the first SNL after the 2016 presidential election, which was held Tuesday, Nov. 8, and awarded the White House to Donald Trump. Tonight, four years later, Chappelle is back to host the first live SNLafter the Election night of Tuesday, Nov. 3. And four days later, as I type this Saturday morning, the election still has not been called – though it’s quite possible that, by the time Dave Chappelle steps on stage at 30 Rock’s Studio 8-H, Joe Biden will have been officially declared President-Elect of the United States. It's a Saturday Night Live not to miss. Imagine how closely to air the writers and cast members will have to scramble and adapt. And imagine the possibilities if, as he almost must be, Alec Baldwin shows up to play Trump. I think back to 1976, when the Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein book The Final Days on the last days of the Nixon presidency had come out, and SNL did a devastating sketch based on reporting from the book, in which Dan Aykroyd, as Nixon, roamed the White House talking to a portrait of Abe Lincoln, with Henry Kissinger, played by John Belushi, trying to soothe him. That’s the bar the current SNL company should be aiming to match. Musical guest, by the way? The Foo Fighters. Oh, and this just in: At 11:30 a.m. ET today, as I was writing another Best Bet entry, CNN and MSNBC called Pennsylvania for Joe Biden, and declared him the new President-Elect of the United States. Fox News did not, and went to a long block of commercials. SNL, start rewriting…

 

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.