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Father's Day Choices: Remembering Old Broadway, Old TV, and Old TV Dads
June 13, 2008  | By David Bianculli
 
Father's Day is Sunday, and this year, it seems, it's a day to wallow in nostalgia, on or about TV. Sunday night offers competing prime-time awards shows: The Tony Awards on CBS, featuring an amazing competition among Broadway musical revivals, and the TV Land Awards,a nonstop stroll down TV's memory lane.

Plus, TV WORTH WATCHING's own Diane Werts has assembled a dizzyingly diverse list of DVD sets featuring famous and infamous TV dads. (Read it here.) Put them all together, they spell F-A-T-H-E-R...

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Of the two Sunday shows, I'd choose the Tonys (8 p.m. ET). Much as I love vintage TV, and as much as I chuckle at the idea of a taped piece featuring Laverne & Shirley, a.k.a. Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, getting accosted by photographers as though they were Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, the TV Land Awards (9 p.m. ET) is the sort of show that's better to watch on one of the endless instances when TV Land reruns it. That way, you can zip through the boring parts -- and the interminable commercial breaks.

The Tonys, over on CBS, are a one-shot deal. And this year, you'll get a shot to see and hear some of the best musical revivals mounted not just this year, but in recent memory. Kelli O'Hara in South Pacific, Patti LuPone in Gypsy, the imaginative reworking of Sunday in the Park with George -- terrific, terrific, terrific. And this telecast will give you a free taste of all three, and also of such thoroughly modern musicals as Passing Strange and In the Heights. And, of course, the non-musical plays.

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The lineup is so strong, it ought to make for a very memorable show. I'm rooting for O'Hara -- and, by the way, I recorded an interview with her recently for Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and it's scheduled to run Monday. I'll be hosting that day, and also talking to Jenji Kohan, creator of Showtime's Weeds, which returns for a new season that night. So please tune in.

And please check out Diane's Father's Day overview, also, and add her blog -- which you can find beneath the daily BEST BETS, or by clicking Diane Werts in the navigation bar -- to your daily reading habit. Oh, and speaking of the navigation bar -- we've added a Best Bets button there as well. So if you want to read the daily BEST BETS in a larger, easier-to-read format, click on that button, too.

Oh, and all you dads out there: Happy Father's Day. If my now-grown kids are reading this, don't you forget it. Or me...

3 Comments

 

Gregg B said:

For those in the New York area WPIX is celebrating on Saturday it's 60th anniversary with a pre-Father's Day gift. From 12pm to 9pm they will be showing classic television. Little Rascals, Abbott and Costello, Three Stooges, Adventures of Superman, Get Smart, My Favorite Martian, I Dream of Jeannie, Odd Couple, Honeymooners followed by a celebration special at 9pm. All the shows I loved as a kid (only show missing is F-Troop).
Happy Father's Day David and to all your readers.

Comment posted on June 13, 2008 11:07 AM


Sally W. said:

The WPIX 60th anniversary special marathon was fun! I didn't realize how good "My Favorite Martian" was (does TV Land even show it? Hmmm!).

The special on WPIX history was also pretty decent; learned stuff I didn't know about Channel 11. I was happy they didn't forget that they had broadcast "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (WPIX had been my introduction to the entire Star Trek franchise; they forgot to mention "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"!) and how they made a nice tip of the hat to Marvin Scott. It felt weird that they kind of glossed over the WB years, but they did salute "Seventh Heaven" and "Dawson's Creek."

Comment posted on June 18, 2008 12:05 AM


Sally W. said:

Oh, regarding the Tony awards, I did liked seeing the samplings from "South Pacific," and "Sunday in the Park with George," plus the enthusiasm of "Passing Strange" and "In the Heights." Plus, I liked the poignancy of the "Rent" reunion. But, I thought the ending seemed too rushed (well, that does happen with award shows!), and would have liked to have seen more about the plays. I didn't think the sight gags for "Lion King" and "Mary Poppins" were necessary (even if Whoopi Goldberg did it with the intent of trying to get humor and to get people to go to see shows), but a pretty good night nonetheless.

Comment posted on June 18, 2008 12:10 AM

 
 
 
 
 
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