Musical Salute to Black Broadway, ‘Night Court’ Has Faith (Ford), Even More ‘FBI,’ ‘La Brea’ Finale

Special

8/7c

Even when you might wish for more context, this concert of Broadway songs written for and/or performed by Black entertainers is a rousing showcase of memorable music, a great way to end Black History Month. Filmed last October at Howard University’s Cramton Auditorium with the American Pops Orchestra, highlights include The Wiz’s original Dorothy, Stephanie Mills, performing a vocally busy version of “Home,” Norm Lewis singing “I’ve Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’” from Porgy and Bess and a gender-swapped “Waiting for Life” from Once on This Island, and Nikki Renée Daniels belting “Being Alive” from Company—she broke the Broadway color barrier when she played Bobbie in the recent revival as understudy. Bringing down the house, twice, Nova Payton delivers showstoppers from The Color Purple (“I’m Here”) and Dreamgirls (“And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going”). A choir of students from Howard and Morgan State University close the show with “Brand New Day” from The Wiz, said to be Broadway bound again next year.

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Murphy Brown’s Faith Ford is well cast as Gina, Abby’s (Melissa Rauch) equally perky mom—at least on the surface. When she visits her daughter for the first time in the court where her late husband Harry served, turns out she’s harboring secrets from the past that Dan (John Larroquette) is also in on. This reunion plays out during a blood moon, when wackier cases than usual (including a female werewolf and a vampire couple) clog the docket.

9/8c

The admirably diverse crime-drama anthology goes inside a Navajo community near Phoenix, where a group of Native American protesters get in deep legal trouble when they concoct a plan to shut down a Uranian mine poisoning their community. Or are they being set up by the FBI? The episode is co-written and directed by Tazbah Chavez (Rutherford Falls).

Season Finale

9/8c

TV’s most fascinatingly awful fantasy series is something I probably would have devoured as a kid, back in the era of Land of the Giants. (Look it up.) So cheesy it should come with pepperoni, the time-tripping adventure wraps its second season with back-to-back episodes in which the heroes face new perils when they discover yet another portal-guarded by a giant lizard monster!—in their quest to leave 10,000 B.C. and return home. The cliffhanger makes even less sense than usual, but there will be a third season, said to be abbreviated, because on La Brea, less is definitely more.

Series Premiere

9/8c

For those seeking to add even more FBI-based shows to their Tuesday diet, the streamer complies with a real-life docuseries companion to the fictional franchise airing on CBS. In 10 half-hour installments, FBI True features surveillance videos, interrogations with perps and insights into famous and infamous cases including the Waco conflagration, the manhunt for Beltway snipers in Washington, D.C. and the search for Boston mobster Whitey Bulger.

On CBS’s faux FBI shows, the death of an off-duty diplomatic security agent occupies the team on FBI (8/7c), while the FBI: International (9/8c) Fly Team heads to Morocco to find a missing American traveler on a grounded flight, and FBI: Most Wanted (10/9c) investigates a triathlete’s murder.

INSIDE TUESDAY TV:

• 9-1-1: Lone Star (8/7c, Fox): Owen’s (Rob Lowe) undercover adventure with the biker terrorists has led to this: a bomb threat at the State Capitol.
• Catfish: The TV Show (8/7c, MTV): The series about online deception returns with new episodes, followed by a new season of Help! I’m in a Secret Relationship (9/8c), whose title explains itself.
• American Auto (8:30/7:30c, NBC): When the auto company’s younger employees protest Payne Motors’ donations to anti-choice candidates, the tone-deaf C-suite sets up a Payne Women’s Committee, made up of all men. Directed by Lara Everly as part of NBCU’s Female Forward program.
• Will Trent (10/9c, ABC) GBI detective Will (Ramón Rodríguez) takes his latest case personally, when the victim turns out to have been through the foster system as well. Elsewhere, Angie (Erika Christensen) investigates a magician’s murder.
• The Traitors (streaming on Peacock): The cast of the murder-mystery reality competition reunites, with Bravo’s Andy Cohen hosting. Peacock has renewed Traitors for a second season.