Thursday , March 28 2024
More Hitchhiker's! We're aboard our ship with our paranoid android, and the one and only Zaphod Beeblebrox... aren't we lucky?

PBS Primetime Programming for the Week of May 31

The Vogon poetry reading is one of those moments from Hitchhiker's that I wouldn't dare want to lose in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ride, so the big question there for me was how to bring it about. We have, after all, not quietly entered the Hitchhiker's universe in the same fashion as the book, radio show, TV program, film, etc. I think Zaphod is the perfect answer.

 

Sunday, May 31:

8:00 – 9:30PM

Magic Moments: The Best of '50s Pop. You've got your live performances, you've got your archival footage, you've got your hosts – Phyllis McGuire, Pat Boone, and Nick Clooney. If that doesn't make for some magic moments of '50s pop, just pretend you're in the '60s and watch it while high.

9:30 – 11:00PM

David Garrett: Live in Berlin. Imagine a violinist playing AC/DC. Now imagine that the same violinist is of the virtuoso sort. Now imagine that the virtuoso violinist who is playing AC/DC plays a lot of other stuff too. That's a lot of imagining on your part, what are you, an Imagineer?

 

Monday, June 1:

8:00 – 11:00PM

Dr. Wayne Dyer: Excuses Begone!. Don't you just wish it were that easy? "Begone!" Bills begone! Mortgage begone! Extra weight begone! Sure, excuses are self-defeating, that's what Dyer will tell us, but a lack of income is just plain defeating. I wonder if he'll cover that.

 

Tuesday, June 2:

8:00 – 11:00PM

America's Home Cooking: Easy Recipes for Thrifty Cooking. Simple ingredients? Inexpensive? Nourishing and filling meals? Man, this special could be too good to be true. I just hope that it's not filled with old-time family favorites like stone soup, TiVo soufflé, and the ever popular braised shoe

 

Wednesday, June 3:

7:00 – 8:30PM

Josh Groban, An Evening in New York City. I spent an evening once or twice (or even three times) in New York City with Josh. Usually the evenings were pretty good, but then, I do enjoy spending time with me. Oh… Groban… Josh Groban. Yeah, I've never spent any time with him. That could be fun, especially if he sings like he does here.

8:30 – 10:30PM

Great Performances – “Stevie Wonder: Live at Last.” Stevie Wonder helps celebrate the 50th anniversary of Motown Records in this performance at London's 02 Arena. I've always liked Stevie Wonder, the man has written some catchy tunes. I'm assuming that he'll play many of them here. I doubt he'll play them all, but I'm hoping for a pretty solid selection.

 

Thursday, June 4:

8:00 – 9:30PM

Freedom Songs: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement. Music played a large part in the civil rights movement. You don't have to have seen Forrest Gump to know that (though it may help, that movie had a rockin' soundtrack). This special explores some of the songs of the time, how they were created, and how they relate back to the movement itself.

9:30 – 11:00PM

Paul Simon: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. The title here really says it all, and how could it not, because, after all, it’s quite a long title. If you were wondering though, the award is for a body of work, not a specific song (though, let’s face it, if it were for a specific song it would have to be “You Can Call Me Al”… I LOVE that video).

 

Friday, June 5:

8:00 – 8:30PM

Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal #4848. Another whole week has gone by and good old Gwen Ifill and National Journal are here to fill us in. For the record, I like to pretend the National Journal is a sidekick, like Robin to Batman, Starsky to Hutch, or chocolate sauce to chocolate ice cream.

8:30 – 9:00PM

NOW on PBS #523. It’s the Emmy award-winning weekly newsmagazine. It looks at issues facing our democracy. The show is hosted by David Brancaccio. And, even better, they still send me e-mails (I think that makes me cool and them nice). Thanks, Now, you guys are awesome!

9:00 – 10:00PM

Bill Moyers Journal #1308. It’s Bill Moyers. It’s his 1,308th journal (not really, but I’m not going to explain to you the way in which TV shows are numbered at this point in time, maybe later if you’re nice). He’s a good journalist so I assume this will be good journalism (at least the odds are it will).

10:00 – 11:30PM

Victor Borge: 100 Years of Music & Laughter! Rita Rudner narrates this little ditty, which goes through a bunch of Borge's best skits. You'll see great stuff like "Phonetic Punctuation," "Inflationary Language," and "The Opera Singer" among others.

 

Saturday, June 6:

11:00P M – 12:00AM

Austin City Limits – "Bloc Party/Ghostland Observatory." So, here's what I wonder. Is the Observatory in Ghostland, is it an observatory of Ghostland, or both? Then, does the Bloc Party take place inside the Observatory itself or outside it? Did they have to rent out the Observatory for the party? These are the sorts of things I wonder.

 

Zaphod shipping us off to a have a Vogon read us poetry makes complete sense. Zaphod is on the run in his ship, he doesn't want us there, and we're supposed to be dead anyway. Oh, not just dead, killed by Vogons. There's a certain sense to having us be murdered via Vogon poetry then. How, oh how, will we escape?

About Josh Lasser

Josh has deftly segued from a life of being pre-med to film school to television production to writing about the media in general. And by 'deftly' he means with agonizing second thoughts and the formation of an ulcer.

Check Also

GalaxyCon Richmond: Tara Strong

"Perfect is boring and you're going to make mistakes. If you learn from them, let them go."