SATURDAY

NOVEMBER 8

2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Every time this 1967 WWII movie is televised, I like to point to a different performance and character, and it’s a trick that doesn’t seem to get tired. I could do it a dozen times, easy. And tonight, let’s look beyond the likes of Lee Marvin and Jim Brown, and pay special attention to Donald Sutherland. He has a minor role here – but three years later, in the delightful 1970 WWII movie Kelly’s Heroes, he, like Telly Savalas, managed to star in a comic variation on the same war-movie theme. Of course, while Savalas played the same same basic tough guy in both movies, Sutherland was a true study in contrasts.

SLEEPING BEAUTY

ABC Family, 9:00 p.m. ET

Very smart timing here. Just as the 2014 live-action movie Maleficent hits video on demand, ABC family is repeating the 1959 animated Disney film, in which poor Sleeping Beauty runs afoul of a witch named Maleficent, who curses her with a prediction of death by spinning wheel needle. And thus, her father the King, like fathers everywhere, tries to shelter her in a paternal, but ultimately futile, effort to keep her away from all unwanted pricks.

DOCTOR WHO

BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: Part 2 of 2. “Dark Water” concludes tonight, and after last week’s installment, already promises to be one of the season’s best. I still haven’t fully shaken the Doctor’s visit to the supposed “afterlife,” specifically one character’s assertion (which, thank goodness, was revealed to be misleadingly false) that souls in the afterlife could feel whatever happened to the bodies they left behind, including cremation. But almost as disturbing was the revelation that the Doctor’s age-old nemesis (a particularly literal use of the phrase), the Master, was back – in the form of a woman named Missy, short for Mistress, and played by Michelle Gomez. Peter Capaldi concludes his first season as the Doctor, and Jenna Coleman may or may not be winding down her stint as the Doctor’s all-time best companion, Clara.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE VINTAGE

NBC, 10:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s vintage episode of Saturday Night Live is from 1979, the final season featuring most of the original cast members. In 1972, Rick Nelson wrote and sang “Garden Party,” a hit about how weary he was of being asked to sing only his old songs. Seven years later, the former heartthrob star of Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet showed up on Saturday Night Live – not as musical guest (that was Judy Collins), but as guest host. Yet even as guest host, he finds time to sing such songs as “Hello Mary Lou” and “Travelin’ Man,” and to play in a Twilight Zone sketch in which he finds himself trapped in a series of 1950s sitcoms.

THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW

BBC America, 10:15 p.m. ET

The momentum continues for this British import, which keeps packing its guest list, and its couch. The relatively unknown British name among the group is comic Micky Flanagan – but the rest of the gang this week includes Matthew McConaughey, Lena Dunham, Anne Hathaway, and the camera-shy singer Sia.

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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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BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

ABC Family, 9:00 p.m. ET

BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET

NBC, 10:00 p.m. ET

BBC America, 10:15 p.m. ET

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