Worth Watching: Laugh With Garry Marshall and ‘Kimmy Schmidt,’ ‘For Life’ Finale, Socially Distanced ‘Game Night’
A selective critical checklist of notable Tuesday TV:
The Happy Days of Garry Marshall (8/7c, ABC): On screens big and small, producer Garry Marshall delighted in making audiences laugh. This two-hour tribute to the creator of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy, and director of smash hits including Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries, includes memories from Ron Howard, Marion Ross, Henry “the Fonz” Winkler, Cindy Williams, Pam Dawber, Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway, among many more devoted colleagues. Revealing Marshall’s personal side are his wife, Barbara, and offspring Scott, Kathleen and Lori
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend (streaming on Netflix): You can’t keep a sweetheart like Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper) down, and while the series may be over, a new interactive special lets fans decide her next moves. The dilemma: She’s days away from marrying her fiancé (Daniel Radcliffe) when she discovers the Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne (Jon Hamm at his most irreverent) may have stashed another bunker of women out there. Kimmy to the rescue? That’s up to you.
For Life (10/9c, ABC): Expect legal fireworks in the season finale of the gripping prison drama, as jailhouse lawyer Aaron Wallace (Nicholas Pinnock) fights back against corrupt prosecutor Glen Maskins (Boris McGiver) and warden Cyrus Hunt (Chance Kelly) as they try to prevent him from getting the retrial he deserves. Aaron’s desperate measures make him a marked man as the election comes to a head.
Hollywood Game Night (10/9c, NBC): The games must go on, even at a time of social distancing. And so ringleader Jane Lynch convenes a gathering of her famous friends, remotely, to play a round of games for a special charity: the Red Nose Day campaign (in advance of NBC’s sixth annual Red Nose Day special on May 21). On one team: Kristen Bell, Nick Jonas and Kenan Thompson; on the other, Sean Hayes, John Legend and Retta, facing off via interactive teleconference in games including “Dance in Your Pants,” “Trading Faces” and “Song Sung Wrong.” Viewers can even play home with games they can download at nbc.com/HGN.
Inside Tuesday TV: Streaming highlight: A strong cast led by Martin Freeman (Sherlock), Siobhan Finneran (Downton Abbey series) and Imelda Staunton (Downton Abbey movie) makes the Britbox true-crime drama A Confession a must-watch. Freeman plays Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who fails to follow proper police procedure in a kidnapping/murder case, and the fallout affects his career and the lives of two grieving families… Coach John Legend performs his new single “Bigger Love” in the penultimate results show of NBC’s The Voice (8/7c). The top vote-getter in each coach’s team moves into the finals, and in a first, the remaining singers compete in a five-way “Instant Save” to earn the fifth spot… It’s Barry (Grant Gustin) to the rescue as usual on the sixth-season finale of The CW’s The Flash (8/7c) as he makes a risky plan to save Iris (Candice Patton) from the Mirrorverse… A two-hour special edition of Fox’s Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back (8/7c) finds Ramsay pulling out the stops to salvage three businesses damaged by devastating floods in Ellicott City, Md. Among the heavy-hitters he enlists for help: legendary Orioles slugger Cal Ripkin, former Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith, designer Nate Berkus and (drum roll) the Maryland National Guard… Shay (Tiffany Haddish) gets a career boost on TBS’s The Last O.G. (10:30/9:30c), so naturally Tray (Tracy Morgan) and her family start worrying about what this means for the rest of them.
