MONDAY

SEPTEMBER 9

2019

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

ESPN, 7:10 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: This season of Monday Night Football begins on ESPN with a doubleheader, with two Week 1 games played back to back. First, at 7:10 p.m. ET, is the Houston Texans vs. New Orleans Saints, followed at 10:15 p.m. ET by the Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders. And it’s worth noting that Monday Night Football remains the second oldest continuing series in prime time. Before moving to ESPN, it began on sister broadcast network ABC in 1970. The record holder, though, is 60 Minutes, which began on CBS in 1968 – and has remained there ever since, and remained impressively popular.

THE DEUCE

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: This is the third and final season for The Deuce, the latest series from David Simon and his talented collaborators, including co-creator George Pelacanos. And once again, there’s a significant time jump between seasons. The initial season of The Deuce began in 1971, culminating in the 1972 arrival in Times Square (and the rest of the country) of the first “mainstream” porn film, Deep Throat. The second season jumped to 1977, when the invention of the VCR and the opening of home-video shops and rental stores would transform the porn industry yet again, with Maggie Gyllenhall’s streetwalker-turned-filmmaker, Candy (pictured), becoming an auteur porn success by mounting an X-rated urban version of the Little Red Riding Hood fable. (Her movie’s title: Red Hot.) And now, for the third and concluding season of The Deuce, the action jumps ahead again, this time to 1985, when Rudy Giuliani was mayor, vowing to clean up the porn-theater stretch around Times Square, and when the hot new X-rated films included New Wave Hookers. (There. Finally justified the tax write-off for that particular video rental.) For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

A VERY BRADY RENOVATION

HGTV, 9:00 p.m. ET

MINISERIES PREMIERE: This is not exactly a recommendation. But I know viewers of a certain age will watch this anyway, and may even enjoy it – so here it is. This is a home remodeling series with a celebrity and nostalgia twist: It takes the home made famous, or at least recognizable, by The Brady Bunch, the blended-family sitcom that premiered 50 years ago on ABC, and does a full-scale makeover. And it has to, because the property, at 11222 Dilling Street in Los Angeles, was used only for exterior shots. The interior Brady home, including those famous stairs, were built and housed on a Hollywood soundstage. But for the HGTV designers and contractors, the challenge was to build an interior to match the TV series, inside the familiar exterior house structure. Quite a challenge – especially since the original home is a single-story structure, so why (and how) the staircase? Along for the ride, and this renovation: surviving members of The Brady Bunch cast, who are paired with various HGTV hosts: Jonathan and Drew Scott of Property Brothers, Mina Starsiak and Karen E. Laine of Good Bones, Lara Spencer of Flea Market Flip, and so on. HGTV bought the home last year for $3.5 million – and you can bet the network won’t be losing money on this particular redo.

OUR BOYS

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

I’d recommend this show anyway, but tonight I’m mentioning Our Boys for an additional reason. Until now, the series has been shown on HBO at 9 p.m. ET on Mondays – but tonight, with the third-season arrival of The Deuce, HBO is moving Our Boys to a later time slot at 10 p.m. ET. If you have a season pass to record Our Boys, or watch on HBO Go, that won’t matter – but if not, consider this a heads up.

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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

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