Freedom Riders (PBS) — It’s been 50 years since the nonviolent Freedom Riders took their interracial bus trip through the segregated South, and this documentary covers the nonviolent protesters who deliberately violated Jim Crow laws at the risk of their personal safety. Preview embedded below. (Pictured: James Zwerg after being beaten by a racist mob. You can learn more about him here.)

Castle (ABC) — Season 3 finale. A character that has been around since the beginning of the show will die tonight. How much you wanna bet it’s a black or Hispanic guy?

Chuck (NBC) — Season finale. It’s the long-awaited wedding of Chuck and Sarah. Honestly, I never understood the passion for this show. The little bit of charm that it has is more than negated by some of the hokiest action scenes on TV.

Real Housewives of New Jersey (Bravo) — Season premiere. Coke whore felon Danielle Staub is no longer part of the cast; she’s been replaced with two other women that I’m sure I’d hate if I ever wasted an hour of my life sitting through an episode.

OTHER SEASON FINALES: “Gossip Girl” (CW), “Hawaii Five-0″ (CBS), “How I Met Your Mother” (CBS), “Mad Love” (CBS), “90210″ (CW), and “Wedding Wars” (VH1).

LATE NIGHT GUESTS: Julianna Margulies and uber-douche Andy Cohen on Letterman; Eva Mendes on Leno; Zach Galifianakis on Conan; Eva Longoria and Ellie Kemper on Lopez; and Howie Mandel and Cee-Lo Green on Fallon. Why did we start using Cee-Lo’s last name? Are there other Cee-Los I should know about?

Read the rest of this entry »

Saving Pelican 895 (HBO) — A documentary about the effort that went into cleaning a brown pelican from the BP oil spill and the attempt to re-introduce it to the wild. Why do I get the feeling this is gonna be super depressing?

Happy Endings (ABC) — Back-to-back episodes play at 10 Eastern. There’s a lot of potential for this show — the cast works well together, and I thoroughly enjoyed the pilot last week. The second episode, however, immediately fell into rote sitcom clichés. I guess I’ll hope for the best.

Ghost Hunters (Syfy) — Season 7 finale. Seven f*cking seasons this has been on the air. ZERO GHOSTS. This is the Matt Millen of reality shows.

American Idol (Fox) — Contestants sing songs from the 21st century. Such difficult constraints. I don’t know how they do it every week.

Justified (FX) — For weeks on end, I repeatedly said that I would eventually not include “Justified” in the listings to mix things up. And so I finally did it last week, and people predictably freaked out. Listen, people. I’m just trying to get through my workday here. There’s no science to this. And most importantly, the exclusion of a show from “What’s on Tonight” does NOT have the power to preclude a show from airing. Otherwise I’d never mention “American Idol.”

[AP Photo via The Big Picture]

For the last two decades, Ken Burns has entertained and educated people without cable by interviewing men with beards. Having already made documentaries about the Civil War and World War II, he’ll next tackle the American conflict in Vietnam. But don’t get too excited just yet — the new doc isn’t scheduled to air until 2016.

The series will explore the military, political, cultural, social, and human dimensions of what has been called “the war of lost illusions.” It will focus primarily on the human experience of the conflict, using eyewitness testimonies of so-called “ordinary” people – Americans as well as Vietnamese – whose lives were touched by the war. Parallel to the unfolding military narrative, the series will also tell the story of the millions of American citizens who became deeply opposed to it, taking to the streets in some of the largest protest demonstrations the nation has seen.

Whew, that’s a relief. Finally, someone is going to give baby boomers a chance to talk about Woodstock. Hey Ken Burns, can you sell this project by talking down to me?

Read the rest of this entry »

The Kansas City Star has put together an excellent discussion about reality television, featuring commentary from four people who make unscripted television. The whole thing is worth your time, because it provides some great arguments and balanced commentary, but the highlight has to be Ken Burns’s angry rant (via NY Mag):

The notion that this is reality is beyond the pale. What it does is just become a vehicle for the same shallow consumerist mentality that is driving our country into the dirt.

There is an aspect of voyeurism that is interesting, but what we’ve done — and it’s the definition of decadence — each generation of reality shows has to up the ante. So now we’re watching the Kardashians get bikini waxes with the appropriately fuzzed-out areas. What does this say to our children when we’re falling behind in math and science?

Dude. Burns. Don’t make me defend reality television. Our country was falling behind in math and science long before reality TV happened. Furthermore, I’d argue that reality TV hasn’t upped the ante: “Bridalplasty” notwithstanding, nothing on today’s reality slate is as despicable as “Temptation Island” and “Joe Millionaire,” and those last aired some seven years ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

Restrepo (National Geographic) — The television premiere of Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger’s critically acclaimed documentary about a U.S. Army platoon holding remote outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley (where Sal Giunta won his Medal of Honor). I haven’t watched this yet, but I’ve yet to hear anything bad about it. (Photo credit: Tim Hetherington. Trailers embedded below.)

Skating with the Stars (ABC) — Yeah, watch this instead of the documentary about American servicemen fighting the Taliban. That’s cool.

Chuck (NBC) — Linda Hamilton and Timothy Dalton guest star, making this the biggest episode of the season for time travelers from 1987.

Cake Boss (TLC) — Season finale. Tune in for a new season in, like, three weeks.

The Buried Life (MTV) — Season finale. Next on the young people’s bucket list: make $1 million from $25,000. Ooooh, I hope they put it in a mutual fund! This should be fascinating!

Read the rest of this entry »