7pm PST - You’ll Never Get Rich (1941) A Broadway dancing team splits up when the male dancer is drafted. Cast: Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Robert Benchley, John Hubbard Dir: Sidney Lanfield BW-89 mins, TV-G

Those 63 seconds say more about this charming film than any number of words ever could. Astaire and Hayworth were giants because in a simple scene with simple choreography, simple costumes, a simple setting and simple dialogue they still somehow managed to completely win you over. The way Hayworth looks at Astaire for those first few seconds is absolutely priceless. You can’t write chemistry and you can only barely direct it. What you need are movie stars, and Fred and Rita are immortals.

Television is often treated like the unloved step-child of the arts.  It’s been called a vast wasteland and worse.  And vast it certainly is.  It’s on all the time and on hundreds of channels, so it’s no surprise that most of it is just awful.  The surprise is how much of it is worthwhile, and I’m not just referring to the artsy-fartsy stuff that shows up on Masterpiece Theatre. 

Of course everyone’s list is going to seem eccentric to other people.  My own is no exception.  For one thing, there have been very popular shows that I never even tuned in.  I’m thinking of “Beverly Hillbillies,” “Bonanza,” “Green Acres,” “Gilligan’s Island,” “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” “Knott’s Landing,” “Peyton Place,” “L.A. Law,” “Six Feet Under,” “ER,” “Chicago Hope,” “CSI,” “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” “Ally McBeal” and “Sex and the City.”  There were a few I watched once or twice to see what all the fuss was about, but I didn’t care for “Star Trek,” “Picket Fences,” “The X Files,” “Boston Legal,” “Touched By An Angel,” “Monty Python” or “N.Y.P.D. Blue.”  (more…)