Worth Watching: ‘Laugh-In’ Tribute, ‘FBI’ and ‘Amsterdam Finales, Enjoy ‘Kids’ While You Can
A selective critical checklist of notable Tuesday TV:
Still Laugh-In: The Stars Celebrate (streaming on Netflix): You bet your sweet bippy it’s a big deal to reunite original Laugh-In performers Lily Tomlin —reprising her classic Ernestine and Edith All characters in brief vignettes — Ruth Buzzi (whose old-lady Gladys shtick gets a double-take update) and Jo Anne “Chicken Joke” Worley as part of a starry salute to the revolutionary late-1960s sketch-comedy series. Tiffany Haddish and Neil Patrick Harris host the scattershot festivities from Hollywood’s cavernous Dolby Theatre, with show creator George Schlatter and sitcom legend Norman Lear beaming from the audience. Contemporary comics and other celebrities recreate gags in the iconic “cocktail party” and “joke wall” set-ups, and before it’s over, someone will be doused in “sock it to me” fashion. The whole special is so retro at times I was tempted to walk across the room to change the channel — that’s how we did it back then. And when the hourlong tribute buffers new material with vintage clips and outtakes, guess which ones are funnier?
FBI (9/8c, CBS): Things get personal in the first-season finale of the Dick Wolf procedural — which is already spawning a Most Wanted spinoff for next season. While Agent Maggie Bell (Missy Peregrym) follows leads that her late husband’s auto-accident death may have been murder, a woman with intel on the case is kidnapped. Dana (Sela Ward) puts her own career in jeopardy by letting Maggie run with the case despite the personal stakes.
New Amsterdam (10/9c, NBC): Another freshman series that has been renewed for a second season, the hospital drama signs off until the fall with oncology chief Helen Sharpe (Freema Agyeman) seeking a creative new treatment for Dr. Max’s (Ryan Eggold) throat cancer. Chemotherapy treatments have taken their toll on the earnest medical director, and as the staff rallies around their hero, there’s also time for some other personal subplots to leave us hanging.
The Kids Are Alright (8:30/7:30c, ABC): Few of the many cancellations confirmed in recent days were much of a surprise — but ABC really blundered by scrapping this terrific family sitcom, its best hope to fill the void left by The Middle, after just one season. The victim of studio politics within the newly combined Disney/Fox empire, Kids is a riot, with well-defined and hilarious characters among each of the eight boys (excepting the baby) being raised by sardonic parents (Michael Cudlitz and Mary McCormack at the top of their game). In the next-to-last original episode, Peggy (McCormack) goes on a tirade when she learns that donations are down at their church. (It’s also the rare sitcom that treats religion seriously, albeit with great humor.) Kids was perfectly on brand for ABC and will be missed.
Inside Tuesday TV: The much-chronicled life of an outspoken sports icon gets another retelling, courtesy of director Antoine Fuqua and executive producers LeBron James and Maverick Carter, in the HBO documentary What’s My Name/Muhammad Ali (8/7c), both parts airing back to back. The film uses Ali’s own words and archival footage to chart his career and activism… The fifth season of The CW’s The Flash (8/7c) ends with Barry (Grant Gustin) going up against his nemesis, Reverse Flash (Tom Cavanagh)… A health crisis looms on FX’s Fosse/Verdon (10/9), as overextended director Bob Fosse (Sam Rockwell) juggles multiple projects while starting rehearsals for Broadway’s Chicago starring his estranged soulmate, Gwen Verdon (Michelle Williams). What happens next was dramatized in Fosse’s autobiographical All That Jazz… Streaming highlight: Britbox presents the comedy Living the Dream, starring Life on Mars’ Philip Glenister and Lesley Sharp as heads of a British family that relocates to sun-soaked Florida to run an RV park. Clouds soon form on the horizon. Co-stars include sitcom veterans Kim Fields and Leslie Jordan.
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I just watched about 1/2 of the laugh in special, writer had it right guess if the old clips or new people were funnier. It got just to painful, I did get up and turned Netflix off. It could have been called laugh off. also guess i know why goldie hawn was not on it, looked at anything that was written and said no thanks.
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Watched Game Show Network's Must Watch: The Chase with James Holzhauer as a contestant...
He not only beat "The Beast" (the show's "expert")...but scored "28" in the final...(where the previous highest score "ever" had been a "22")...
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I saw it too. The show seems oddly familiar especially The Beast guy. Was it ever on another network in prime time?
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I, myself, had never even heard of The Chase before yesterday...
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Finally watched a couple State Of The Union 10 minute episodes (on Sundance)…
WOW!!! Chris O'Dowd is every bit as ENGAGING in this as he was on Get Shorty (the TV series)...
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ABC blunders again, eh? Figures. That network's a total sideshow. Anyway, Kids, Blackish, DVR also getting a work out
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Nothing much on at 8, so I guess I'll watch NCIS. Then the FBI finale. Generally I don't like "personal" cases on these law enforcement shows; I find them grating. But I suppose that's how it is.
I don't get Netflix, but I wonder how the Laugh-In thing will be received. I remember watching that, back in the day. You rarely see it in reruns these days. To me, watching with a 2019 eye, I don't find it all that, well, all that, but it really was something at the time. I suppose one could see it as a crude ancestor of SNL
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FBI for me also. This show rarely gets personal, but when it does it is usually handled very delicately. It's a true procedural with just a touch of serialization. As opposed to Enemy Within that is almost always focused on the personal lives of the agents and is heavily serialized. Quantico was like that as well
Law & Order SVU gets very personal this week. The previews look quite good. I might watch that one.
I'll also try and watch the ABC comedies and 1969 focusing on Woodstock. -
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This show has gotten personal a number of times. At least one other time a case had something to do with the girl's (Maggie's) husband--or maybe it was that she saw a guy who was in a photo she took of her husband before he died? And just last week a friend of hers was murdered and she investigated that. And the guy (O.A.?), in one episode his sister was a student at a college that had a crime. And then he had personal feelings about protecting the leader of Egypt. And let's not forget his old buddy who died of an overdose-- that one had personal stuff for our friend Jubal, too. (Both guys were addicts.)
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Yes, but there were 22 eps and the vast majority didn't focus on personal matters.
Meanwhile I'm watching it live right now and for the first time that I recall Jubal isn't yelling out orders and we don't see the smarty computer tech girl and guy looking for clues on their computers. I always notice the minor details on this show.' -
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Not really a spoiler, but do you think Sela Ward as Dana is being written off? If so, next season we will have a third high ranking agent/profiler. There was a blonde actress portraying a similar role from the pilot that was never seen again.
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Yeah, I wondered that too, if she was (is) leaving the show. When she was first introduced, I thought she was strictly a profiler, and NOT the head of the office/department. But sometimes characters' roles get morphed from one thing to another, and I assumed they wanted her in the "boss" role rather than the "profiler/advisor" role. I notice her character didn't say anything to Jubal about "I recommended you to take my place as boss" or anything. :-P
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Would be great to see Jubal take on a different role. His shouting is annoying and monotonous.
Not a great season finale, I fell asleep in the middle and had to catch up later via DVR.
That doesn't happen often with other 9:00PM shows I watch. -
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Just once I'd like to see a procedural in which a main character is told "you have to stand down, you're too close to it, conflict of interest, etc." and actually have the character stand down and take a behind-the-scenes role. BTW, I've never heard of law enforcement agencies who can watch body-camera LIVE. I'm sure the technology probably exists, but I doubt it's either common or inexpensive.
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The technology their smart tech characters use for facial recognition and personal details seems far too quick and easy. But I guess they can't waste time waiting when the entire episode is closed in (not serialized) in 42 minutes.
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Yes, my tech-loving son used to laugh at shows in which cops take a photo of, say, a getaway vehicle. The good guys get a photo of the license plate but it's not readable. They 'zoom in' and magically clear it up--which is impossible. When you zoom in on an indistinct image, all you get is a more indistinct (very pixilated) image. And yet just about every cop procedural had done it.
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Like zooming in on video which is done all the time on TV. Is that even possible? It wasn't a few years ago.
Anyway these shows are fun to watch and I'm hoping the new spin-off Most Wanted is watchable too. -
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Just read Sela Ward had a one year contract and is leaving. Truth is I love her looks and her acting abilities, but she really wasn't given all that much to do. They never delved into her personal life. Like is she married , have children.....
Hopefully she can find a role that properly displays her talents. I always admired her back in the day on other shows. -
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I don't know about zooming in on a video. But obviously you can do a screenshot from the video and zoom in. I've done it myself. But yeah, most of what we see on TV is purely technology fiction. As you say, not that some of it is impossible, but they accomplish it instantaneously on TV, when that's just not realistic.
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I'm talking about when they show a moving picture video zoomed in. I don't think that was possible a few years back. Maybe now it is.
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MasterChef Jr., The Flash, New Amsterdam, and Fosse/Verdon to watch tonight! Housewife and The Kids later On Demand!
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1969 features Woodstock tonight. Just in case you have time to catch it.
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Thanks, but since I've seen the movie and several documentaries about it, I doubt it will offer anything new to me. I'm already watching one and recording one at that time, and that's my limit.
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Still awaiting word about the status of Enemy Within! NBC is taking so long on this one.
Easily one of my favorite new dramas this season. -
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Sad that ABC axed Kids, but ratings were awful and lost too many fans of American Housewife which is moving to Fridays in the Fall.
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Maybe they're waiting until after the final episode airs. They do that sometimes.
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Yeah because some people wont continue watching if they know it's canceled.
Or they delete remaining episodes from DVR. I don't subscribe to that tactic.
I watch my favorite shows until the bitter end. Why miss out on terrific episodes just because it wont return?1
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They didn't lose that many from Housewife. Both shows have been rather low in the ratings all season, but what do you expect when they're up against NCIS?
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Considering American Housewife is older and pulled higher ratings than newbie Kids, Disney figured they need to cut their loses.
Speechless also was canceled because they felt it lost too many viewers from Fresh Off The Boat. What surprises many is that they renewed Single Parents. It didn't retain enough of Modern Family's audience. They must feel it has more potential to grow.
I read a lot about ratings on various sites..1
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I like some of the stars especially Michael Ealy whose Almost Human was one of my favorite shows.
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