Lady Bird’s Audio Diaries, Kelly vs. Michelle in ‘Barmageddon,’ Colbert Visits Streisand, The BlackBerry Story
A documentary relives the turbulent years of the Johnson White House through the audio diaries of Lady Bird Johnson. Wacky bar games return in Blake Shelton’s Barmageddon, with Kelly Clarkson and Michelle Rodriguez the first guests. Stephen Colbert leaves the studio to chat with Barbra Streisand at her Malibu home. Over three nights, AMC presents a movie about the rise and fall of the BlackBerry, the precursor to the iPhone.
The Lady Bird Diaries
Documentary Premiere
“I was walking onto a stage for a part I had never rehearsed,” says Lady Bird Johnson, the accidental First Lady who redefined the role in her own folksy yet elegant way. She is heard in excerpts from more than 100 hours of personal audio diaries recorded following the assassination of John F. Kennedy 60 years ago and throughout the embattled administration of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson. These were years marked by social progress with the signing of the Civil Rights Act but also by turmoil over the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. “Are we a sick society?” she wonders.
Barmageddon
Season Premiere
Air Cannon Cornhole, Keg Curling, Sharts (“Shelton Darts”) and the life-size foosball invention Fool’s Ball are just some of the bananas bar games orchestrated by Blake Shelton at his Nashville watering hole Ole Red when he invites celebrity friends to play along. Carson Daly and Nikki Garcia return for Season 2 as co-hosts, with Kelly Clarkson and Michelle Rodriguez the combative guests on opening night. We’ll drink to that.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Take a break from reading Barbra Streisand’s mammoth My Name Is Barbra memoir to check out her interview with the late-night host. She’s not appearing in his New York studio, instead welcoming Colbert to her Malibu digs for an extended visit. One can only hope he gets a tour, as Gayle King recently did on CBS Sunday Morning, of the personal shopping mall she created in her basement.
BlackBerry
Series Premiere
Before there were iPhones, there was the BlackBerry, “a cell phone and an e-mail machine all in one thing,” pitches co-creator Doug Fregin (writer-director-star Matt Johnson) in this breezy docudrama about the rise and fall of the once-ubiquitous handheld device. AMC airs the 2023 movie, with 16 extra minutes of footage, over three nights (it can be binged on AMC+ in its entirety), featuring Jay Baruchel as Doug’s co-founder, Mike Lazaridis, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Glenn Howerton almost unrecognizable as their predatory business partner, salesman Jim Balsillie.
INSIDE MONDAY TV:
- Monday Night Football (8 pm/ET, ABC and ESPN): Denver Broncos take on Buffalo Bills in the weekly simulcast.
- Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test (9/8c, Fox): The remaining recruits endure a helicopter survival drill to test their mental resolve.
- A Town Called Victoria (9/8c, PBS): A three-part documentary airing over two nights, concluding Tuesday, depicts a small Texas town in turmoil after the local mosque is destroyed in an arson fire.
- Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God (9/8c, HBO): Airing over three weeks (available to binge on Max), a docuseries explores the world of Amy Carlson, aka “Mother God,” a self-proclaimed messiah who led the New Age movement Love Has Won until her mysterious death in 2021.
