MONDAY
SEPTEMBER 7
2015

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ESPN 2, 11:00 a.m. ET

The highest-profile match today occurs at night, after 7 p.m. ET, when No. 2 seed Roger Federer plays in prime time. Watch to see if Federer unleashes his newly developed weapon, which he calls SABR. It stands for Sneak Attack By Roger, and it has him, rarely and very unexpectedly, rushing forward as his opponent serves, to meet the incoming serve about midcourt. Otherwise, it’s one day and counting before Serena and Venus Williams play in the next round – on opposite sides of the net.

 
  
 
 

FX, 12:00 p.m. ET

What yummier way to celebrate a holiday than with a bunch of Cookies? Beginning at noon ET today, FX is borrowing the first season of Empire from sister network Fox, and showing it in its entirety in one 10-part Labor Day marathon.
 
  
 
 

Buzzr, 8:00 p.m. ET

Apparently, there’s a game-show-obsessed network, other than the Game Show Network, called Buzzr. Also apparently, this week Buzzr, which is available in certain TV and cable markets (check the Buzzr website), is devoting prime time this week to “Lost Pilots Week.” First up: Amelia Earhart. (Just kidding. What? Too soon?) Actually, first up, at 8 p.m. ET, is the original 1962 pilot of The Match Game, followed by one of the few surviving episodes from the early Sixties, featuring Orson Bean and Jayne Mansfield. Other interesting rarities and oddities occupy prime time the rest of the week, including the 1963 Let’s Make a Deal pilot Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, and, somewhere along the way, pilots for such forgotten or never-were game shows as Star Words, Now You See It, Body Language and Child’s Play. You can sample the Match Game pilot on YouTube, if you can’t wait to hit the Buzzr – and all this information comes courtesy of a friendly TVWW reader, Jerzon Vargas, who worked harder on this entry than I have. Send me your mailing address, Jerzon, and you’ve earned a TVWW TV key chain!
 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Part 1. Between today and Friday, PBS is rebroadcasting this landmark Ken Burns documentary series – a newly remastered version, with both sound and images, in honor of this massive and superb historical miniseries’ silver anniversary. Tonight, we get the lead-up to the war, lots of the endearing commentary of Shelby Foote, the first Battle of Bull Run – and, as a capper, the Sullivan Ballou letter, one of the best moments of television in the past 25 years. For an in-depth interview with Ken Burns, see Noel Holston’s The Grassy Noel – and for my own remarks on The Civil War, and a few more comments from Ken Burns, see my own Bianculli’s Blog. Check local listings.
 
  
 
 

TCM, 12:00 a.m. ET

Here’s a rarely televised movie: From 1971, it’s a moody sci-fi parable, set centuries in the future, about a man who rebels against his regimented society. It’s the first movie by George Lucas, who wrote and directed it. It stars Robert Duvall, and is executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola, who must have liked what he saw of Duvall here. The following year, Coppola cast Duvall in The Godfather – and the year after that, in 1973, Coppola co-produced American Graffiti, the next film written and produced by Lucas. And then the next film Lucas wrote and directed was a little thing called Star Wars. It all started here, with his first, much darker futuristic fantasy. Co-stars include Donald Pleasance and, believe it or not, Marshall Efron.
 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.