Monday TV: November Christmas Specials
Reba McEntire hosts the “CMA Country Christmas” (ABC, 9 p.m.) from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville with holiday songs from Luke Bryan, Kelsea Ballerini, 3B30, Dan + Shay, Brett…
Sunday TV: Soul Train Awards, Springsteen
Erykah Badu hosts the “Soul Train Awards” (BET, VH1, 8 p.m.) Jessi J, Toni Braxton, Tank, Tamar Braxton, 112, Kirk Franklin, Luke James, Keyshia Cole, SWV, Le’Andria Johnson, Ro James,…
Saturday TV: Opie’s Fab Four on PBS
A holiday weekend is the perfect time for the broadcast premiere of Ron Howard’s lively “The Beatles: Eight Day a Week — The Touring Years” (PBS, 8 p.m., check local…
Friday TV: Trolling the Christmas Specials
The Christmas special floodgates open, with the one new one “Dreamworks Trolls Holiday” (NBC, 8:30 p.m.), based not on internet scoundrels but on the candy-colored dolls and movie. Along with…
Thursday TV: ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ Series
Spike Lee updates his signature 1986 directoral debut “She’s Gotta Have It” (Netflix, streaming) for the modern day, with DeWanda Wise playing the the new Nola Darling, whose bold sexual…
When David Cassidy Met Donald Trump
The last time I talked to David Cassidy, the forever young teen idol who died this week at 67, we chatted a bit about the unlikely guy who would become…
‘Poor Kids’ Still in Poverty on ‘Frontline’
Before we sit down to overfilled holiday tables and gorge, it’s time to remember the poor. And it was hard to forget the children caught in poverty’s bleak trap portrayed…
Also Wednesday: Babs, New Western
Barbra Streisand pages through her past, singing songs from her No. 1 albums and telling a lot of stories from her most recent tour in “Barbra: The Music …The Memories…The…
Tuesday TV: More Marvel: ‘Runaways’
Teenagers at some point suspect their parents are villains. On “Marvel’s Runaways” (Hulu, streaming) it’s really true. And it’s up to the kids, with their various powers, to defeat them. It…
Death of a Terrible Rocker
The death of Charlie Manson this week reminds me of the thwarted artist theory that may have triggered his mania in the first place. Just as Hitler may have been…