FRIDAY

AUGUST 8

2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

Public Television, Check local listings

What a wonderful treat, and a privileged opportunity to look back. Bill Moyers, in the first of two shows devoted to the late Maya Angelou, revisits his 1982 installment of Creativity in which he profiled the poet – 32 years ago! – and guided her on an emotional tour back to her very small, very segregated home town of Stamps, AR. For dates and times when this series runs in your area, check the Moyers & Company website. Check local listings.

GREASE & GREASE 2

ABC Family, 6:00 p.m. ET

ABC Family is wallowing in Grease tonight, showing both the iconic 1978 movie musical, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, and its widely ignored 1982 sequel, which actually isn’t a proper sequel as well, since its stars, Maxwell Caulfield and an unknown actress named Michelle Pfeiffer (pictured), play entirely different roles. But the latter wouldn’t be unknown for much longer, and certainly would outlive her Pink Lady role here.

DICK CAVETT'S WATERGATE

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Forty years ago to the minute when this new special is televised nationally, President Richard M. Nixon took to the air waves – at 9 p.m. ET on August 8, 1974 – to announce his resignation. To mark the occasion, Dick Cavett looks back, presenting vintage interviews he conducted then about Watergate, with both the investigators (e.g., Howard Baker) and some of the witnesses (e.g., John Dean). Just looking back on it again, I can’t help but think: What an amazing time I lived through! But doesn’t everyone, at whatever age, think that? Check local listings.

THE KNICK

Cinemax, 10:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: Clive Owen stars in this new Cinemax drama series, set in the year 1900 at the Knickerbocker Hospital in New York. The state of the state of the art, back then, will have you watching some of the operating-room scenes through your fingers, but stay with this show. It grows on you, and the characters and conflicts grow exponentially. Steven Soderbergh is an executive producer, and directed all of this first season’s 10 episodes. For a full review, hear or read my report on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross website.

JONAH FROM TONGA

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This is more of a warning than a recommendation. In his full review, Eric Gould’s Cold Light Reader explains why.

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4197 Comments

Nolan

This farewell page feels unusually personal for a recommendations site. What I appreciate most is the attention to habit: returning to shows, voices, and small details over time. That same kind of close listening matters in music practice too, where separating a full mix into parts can make hidden details easier to notice.

Jul 13, 2026 | Reply

Nolan

This closing note has a nice sense of memory and gratitude. I especially liked the way it treats television criticism as something personal rather than just a list of recommendations. It made me think about how much of media work is really about listening closely, saving small details, and returning to them later. I often do that with music practice as well, using simple tools like https://tunestems.com/ to separate parts and hear what is happening underneath the full mix.

Jul 13, 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.

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PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Cinemax, 10:00 p.m. ET

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

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