Streaming ‘Moonlighting,’ BET Hip Hop Awards, ‘Dancing’ to Motown, ‘Frontline’ on Musk’s Twitter Takeover

The show that put Bruce Willis on the map and revived Cybill Shepherd’s career with a pivot to TV, the innovative romantic comedy-mystery hybrid that captivated fans from 1985 to 1989 finally makes its streaming debut, with all 67 episodes remastered in HD. Though Moonlighting was infamous in its time for significant production delays and reports of backstage tension between the glamorous stars, what’s on screen in Glenn Gordon Caron’s sophisticated version remains a high point of broadcast TV in its heyday. The set-up: Shepherd is struggling ex-model Maddie Hayes, whose few assets include the Blue Moon Detective Agency, where the cocky David Addison Jr. (Willis) works. Together, they solve quirky cases with the requisite romantic tension, often breaking the fourth wall and indulging in fantasy and musical sequences. Worth a binge for new and old fans.

Special

9/8c

Taped last week from Atlanta’s Cobb Energy Center, the annual ceremony celebrates the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, with highlights including a salute to record label So So Def on its 30th year. Fat Joe hosts, with performers including Nelly, DaBaby, GloRilla, Tip “T.I.’” Harris, DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Holiday, D-Nice and many more. Cardi B and 21 Savage lead the nominees with 12 each.

8/7c

It’s a throwback to classic R&B when the dancing competition stages “Motown Night,” with Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan moonlighting as a guest judge. The show opens with the pros showing how it’s done to “Dancing in the Street,” followed by the 12 remaining contestants attempting the Cha Cha, Jive, Quickstep, Rumba, Tango, and the night’s most popular dance, the Foxtrot, which gets assigned to Alyson Hannigan, Xochitl Gomez, Charity Lawson, Tyson Beckford, Harry Jowsey and Mauricio Umansky.

Documentary Premiere

10/9c

Those who still cringe at calling Twitter “X” (which doesn’t lend itself to becoming a verb) may be especially interested in a two-hour edition of Frontline examining billionaire Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social-media platform and its implications for free speech and misinformation heading into a pivotal election year. In Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover, a production team that previously investigated Amazon and Facebook interviews journalists, authors, academics and former Twitter employees to depict the controversies and disarray that ensued since Musk’s acquisition of the pervasive app.

Documentary Premiere

9/8c

A potentially more alarming documentary revisits the terror of 2017’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which resulted in the death of counter-protestor Heather Heyer and lasting physical and emotional trauma among others standing up to the racist mob. Filmmaker Kristi Jacobson’s focus is on a civil lawsuit against 17 white nationalist leaders and organizations, charging a conspiracy of orchestrated violence that would be decided in a courtroom.

INSIDE TUESDAY TV:

• FBI True (9/8c, CBS): The docuseries looks back at two cases: the 2016 search for the so-called “Chelsea Bomber” after a bomb exploded in Manhattan, with more found in the region; and the 2013 hostage rescue in Idaho of 16-year-old Hannah Anderson, whose mother and brother were murdered by her abductor.
• Found (10/9c, NBC): In the fictional missing-persons drama, Gabi (Shanola Hampton) and her team look for a missing sex worker who was being stalked and may not want to be found.
• The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs (10/9c, AMC, streaming on Shudder and AMC+): The horror host screens the original 1978 Halloween, marking its 45th anniversary.
  
• Welcome to Wrexham (10/9c, FX): An exhilarating episode of the soccer docuseries finds the resurgent Welsh team from Wrexham participating in the FA Cup, where underdog Davids like the Red Dragons seek to prove they’re worthy of competing against Goliath-like Championship teams.
• Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders (streaming on Paramount+): A five-part true-crime docuseries revisits the panic in 1982 when seven people in the Chicago area died after exposure to cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules. The series follows the long investigation into what is still officially considered an unsolved crime.
• Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe (streaming on Prime Video): Canada’s answer to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and an early collaborator with Fred Rogers, the late Ernie Coombs spent nearly 30 years tapping into his inner child as Mr. Dressup for Canadian TV. A documentary profile captures his gentle charm, with testimonials from Michael J. Fox, Eric McCormack and The Kids in the Hall’s Bruce McCulloch and Scott Thompson.
• 2023 iHeartRadio Music Festival (streaming on Hulu): A three-hour special features highlights from the two-day extravaganza in Las Vegas, with performances by Kelly Clarkson, Foo Fighters, Travis Scott, Kane Brown, Lil Wayne, Lenny Kravitz, Miguel, Public Enemy, Sheryl Crow, Tim McGraw, TLC and many more.