BroadwayHD, 12:00 a.m. ET
SPECIAL: Only through this weekend, the streaming service Broadway HD is presenting – free, and without any need to sign up for a subscription – a special showing of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I, the Lincoln Center production starring Kelli O’Hara and Ken Watanabe. This production was filmed for TV in 2018 at the Palladium Theatre, when the company was on a brief, special visit to London. Co-stars include Ruthie Ann Miles, who won a Tony for her supporting role in this revival. Also winning Tonys that year: O’Hara, and The King and I itself. You have until 8 p.m. ET Sunday to watch this on BroadwayHD, and you should – especially with youngsters around. Shall we dance?
HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET
You’ve seen the series – now see the movie. Just as many movies are adapted from TV series as TV series are adapted from movies: the cash-in-on-name-recognition trick definitely is a two-way street. But the 2019 film Downton Abbey, which picks up the narrative of the acclaimed TV series in the year 1927, is a special case. It’s written by Julian Fellowes, the same guy who wrote the series, so it’s got creative integrity and pedigree. And it also has Hugh Bonneville as Robert Crawley, Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary, Jim Carter as Mr. Carson, and Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley. And all those other familiar faces, all scrambling to prepare for a possible royal visit.
Various Networks, 8:00 p.m. ET
SPECIAL: Talk about paying it forward. In 1947, Helenka Pantaleoni co-founded UNICEF USA, and served as its president for the next 25 years. Now, in 2020, her granddaughter, actress Téa Leoni, is co-producing this special, a charity event for UNICEF first responders, scientists and others supported internationally by the organization. (The actress has been a UNICEF ambassador for almost 20 years, so this is no “new” pet cause.) Entertainment lined up for this streaming event includes one big-budget music video: the world premiere of a new Cher video, her Spanish-language rendition of the ABBA song “Chiquitita.” The rest are the now-familiar from-home intimate performances, including ones by Sheryl Crow, Sting, Rod Stewart, Peter Frampton – and a virtual reunion of Eurythmics, which means both members, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, will be reuniting, albeit from separate locations. Among the places to watch this streaming special are NBC News NOW, NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com and
www.unicefwontstop.org.
NBC, 11:29 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: This just in, as they say… NBC has just announced that Saturday Night Live will be ending its current season with tonight’s episode. Usually, the show runs through May, but this third “At Home” edition, presenting sketches and musical guests and a guest host, all performing from separate, isolated home locations, will be this series’ final original production until fall. Previous “At Home” installments were broadcast on April 11 (hosted by Tom Hanks) and April 25 (hosted by Brad Pitt). And in the fall, if Saturday Night Live returns, there may be a fourth such installment. Let’s hope not… but it seems increasingly likely. Meanwhile, tonight’s finale is one not to miss, for sure. And it puts to bed Season 45 of TV’s longest-running entertainment show. And speaking of long-running… since I broke into the professional TV critic business with a review of the premiere of Saturday Night Live, that means that I, too, am close to wrapping up 45 years doing this. I’d throw a party – but who’d come? And even if they did, would I let them in?
TCM, 2:15 a.m. ET
In 1970, Robert Altman broke into the big time by directing MASH, the hit movie (later to be adapted as an even more popular TV series, with asterisks added) starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould. The film was so popular, Altman was given the green light to do whatever he wanted to do next – and what he wanted to do next, later that same year in 1970, was this bizarre, weirdly charming allegorical story. Bud Cort, who had appeared in MASH in a small role, and who the following year would star in Hal Ashby’s even odder and more charming Harold and Maude, stars in the title role, playing a loner who lives secretly in the hidden depths of the Houston Astrodome, and hopes to build a pair of wings to allow him to fly. Co-stars include Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy, René Auberjonois, and John Schuck, all of whom appeared in Altman’s MASH. The female star of Brewster McCloud, though, wasn’t a veteran of MASH. Starring opposite Bud Cort in Brewster is Shelley Duvall, in what was her first movie role. She would be featured in several other Altman movies, then co-star in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, opposite Jack Nicholson. Director Altman, meanwhile, would follow his idiosyncratic Brewster McCloud with an unbroken string of amazing movies. After MASH and Brewster McCloud, Altman’s next eight movies, in a creative explosion from 1971 to 1977, were McCabe and Mrs. Miller; the criminally underrated Images; The Long Goodbye; Thieves Like Us; California Split; his masterpiece, Nashville; Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson; and 3 Women, which, like Brewster, starred Shelley Duvall. Come to think of it, a Robert Altman film festival would be a great way to while away some pandemic viewing hours… so set your DVRs and start here.
