Great Performances (TV Program)

Subterms

    Latest story

    138 Shares139 Views

    Jac Venza, Who Delivered Culture to Public Television, Dies at 97

    by

    By making entertainment as well as education part of its mission, he gave the world “Great Performances” and other enduring programs. Jac Venza, a shoemaker’s son who almost single-handedly delivered to the proverbial “vast wasteland” that was American television in the 1960s and ’70s an oasis of cultural programming, including “Great Performances” and “Live From Lincoln Center,” died on Tuesday at his home in Lyme, Conn. He was 97. His death was confirmed by his spouse, Daniel D. Routhier.Mr. Venza never attended college. As an actor, he pronounced himself “dreadful.” As an aspiring artist, he began his career in Chicago by designing scenery for the Goodman Theater and window displays for the Mandel Brothers department store. But while still in his 30s, he began playing a vital role in bringing art to public television.He was working as a television producer when he was asked to collaborate with other TV innovators assembled by the Ford Foundation in the early 1960s to transform a limited service that generated no original programming into National Educational Television, the forerunner of the Public Broadcasting Service.While his fellow producers and other media experts were mulling how best to educate the viewing public through a nonprofit network, Mr. Venza recalled, he volunteered, “Why don’t we entertain them, too?”In the 1960s and ’70s, he introduced “NET Playhouse,” “Theater in America,” “Live From Lincoln Center,” “Great Performances” and, at the suggestion of the National Endowment for the Arts, “Dance in America.” He also imported popular BBC productions like “Brideshead Revisited.”He collaborated with choreographers like George Balanchine and Martha Graham, composers like Leonard Bernstein and playwrights like Tennessee Williams. Dustin Hoffman had his first starring role on television in a 1966 NET production of Ronald Ribman’s play “The Journey of the Fifth Horse.” A decade later, Meryl Streep appeared onscreen for the first time in the William Gillette play “Secret Service” on “Great Performances.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    More stories

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Television

      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Great Performances’ and ‘In the Heights’

      by

      PBS’s “Great Performances” debuts a Halloween-themed episode. And “In the Heights” airs on HBO.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Oct. 25-31. Details and times are subject to change.MondayPOV: THINGS WE DARE NOT DO 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). A teenager pushes against gender expectations in a small village in western Mexico in this documentary from the filmmaker Bruno Santamaría. The film follows a young Ñoño, who begins exploring femininity, leading to difficult conversations with conservative family members, and challenges from others in the community.TuesdayTHE LAST O.G. 10 p.m. on TBS. In the Season 3 finale of this comedy series, Tray (Tracy Morgan) was the victim of a violent attack. In Season 4, which will debut with a pair of new episodes on Tuesday night, Tray returns to his Brooklyn community determined to better his life. This season will be the first without Morgan’s original co-star, Tiffany Haddish. It’s something of a mirror of the series’s first episodes: The show started with Tray returning home after 15 years of incarceration.WednesdayPOLTERGEIST (1982) 7 p.m. on AMC. Channels have spent the month of October airing an array of spooky movies. Take advantage of the final week with a double feature of horror classics: “Poltergeist,” about a suburban family plagued by ghosts, and THE EXORCIST (1973), about a possessed child, which airs on AMC at 9:30 p.m.ThursdayFrom left, Bill Murray, Chloë Sevigny and Adam Driver in “The Dead Don’t Die.” Abbot Genser/Focus FeaturesTHE DEAD DON’T DIE (2018) 5:30 p.m. on FX. The undead take their flesh with coffee and chardonnay in “The Dead Don’t Die,” Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy. Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny star as members of a small-town police department. In this world, a climate change driven apocalypse is set in motion by “polar fracking,” which disrupts the earth’s rhythms and causes the dead to awaken. There are familiar faces among the living and undead alike: Jarmusch assembled an unusually recognizable ensemble that includes Tilda Swinton, Selena Gomez, RZA, Steve Buscemi and Iggy Pop. “This is an end-of-the-world party with an appealing guest list and inviting, eccentric décor,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times. “The consumption of human flesh just keeps it interesting,” Scott added, “and the crepuscular light — shot by the ghoulishly gifted cinematographer Frederick Elmes — gives it a bewitching, Halloween ambience.” In this apocalypse, even the beheading of a ghoul manages to feel coolly understated.WALKER 8 p.m. on the CW. Cordell Walker, the fictional Texas Ranger played by Chuck Norris in the 1990s show “Walker, Texas Ranger,” supplements his badge, cowboy hat and belt buckle with a smartphone in a saddle brown leather case in this modern-day reboot. The Season 1 finale saw this new version of Walker (played by Jared Padalecki) revisit the site of his wife’s murder along the U.S.-Mexico border, and gave a shocking revelation about who killed her. The second season debuts on Thursday night. In an interview with The New York Times in August, Padalecki hinted at what the show’s second season might have in store for his character. “Now he realizes he needs to be there for his kids, for his parents, for his brother, for his work partners, and for himself,” Padalecki said. “We’ll see in Season 2 that Walker has found some degree of closure.”FridayGREAT PERFORMANCES: NOW HEAR THIS 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The violinist and conductor​​ Scott Yoo brings a group of musicians to a historic manor home in the Berkshires to record works by Beethoven in this latest entry of PBS’s “Great Performances” series. But like any Halloween-weekend program worth its candy corn, this one has some spooky twists: The group performs a seasonally-appropriate piece in Beethoven’s Op. 70, No. 1, the so-called Ghost Trio, and the episode also brings in dramatized fictional conversations between Beethoven and Sigmund Freud. (Apparently nothing is scarier than confronting one’s inner demons.)SaturdayMelissa Barrera and Anthony Ramos in “In the Heights.”Macall Polay/Warner Bros.IN THE HEIGHTS (2021) 8 p.m. on HBO. Since this movie adaptation of the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical “In the Heights” debuted in July, Miranda’s best-known work, “Hamilton,” has returned to Broadway. For those who enjoy the comforts of a sofa, “In the Heights” can bring a taste of Broadway-scale spectacle to your living room. Directed by Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”), this lavish movie musical stars Anthony Ramos as Usnavi, a New Yorker who runs a bodega in Washington Heights. Usnavi dreams of returning to the Dominican Republic, where he lived as a child. He sings about the pursuit of that dream, and his neighborhood harmonizes with him. Though the musical opened on Broadway in 2008, the film version feels “as permanent as the girders of the George Washington Bridge,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times. “It’s a piece of mainstream American entertainment in the best sense — an assertion of impatience and faith, a celebration of communal ties and individual gumption, a testimony to the power of art to turn struggles into the stuff of dreams.”SundayDOCTOR WHO 8 p.m. on BBC America. Jodie Whittaker will return for her third and final season as the protagonist of this long running British sci-fi show on Sunday night. The new season will kick off with a Halloween-themed episode, and is also set to be the final one for the show’s current lead writer, Chris Chibnall. He has taken on a new challenge for the occasion: This season will tell a single story in six episodes. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      What’s on TV This Week: 9/11 Specials and ‘American Crime Story’

      by

      Several networks will air specials timed to the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11. And “American Crime Story” will return for a third season.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Sept. 6-12. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTHE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (1968) 10:15 p.m. on TCM. Clint Eastwood is slated to return to theaters this month with “Cry Macho,” a modern-day western. The role gives Eastwood an opportunity to dust off one of his signature looks: grizzled man with a cowboy hat. The quintessential example of that look can be found in this Sergio Leone odyssey, in which Eastwood plays a bounty hunter caught up in a plot that involves buried treasure and betrayal. While the movie — and its score, by Ennio Morricone — has become a classic, initial reception was mixed. This “must be the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre,” Renata Adler wrote in her review for The New York Times in 1968. “If 42nd Street is lined with little pushcarts of sadism,” she added, “this film, which opened yesterday at the Trans-Lux 85th Street and the DeMille, is an entire supermarket.” Critical opinion regarding “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” has improved since — though the same cannot necessarily be said of 42nd Street.TuesdayBeanie Feldstein in “Impeachment: American Crime Story.”Tina Thorpe/FXIMPEACHMENT: AMERICAN CRIME STORY 10 p.m. on FX. After dramatizing the trial of O.J. Simpson and the murder of Gianni Versace, the anthology series “American Crime Story” turns to the events leading up to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton for its third season. This telling focuses on the perspective of the women involved, with Beanie Feldstein starring as Monica Lewinsky, Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp, Annaleigh Ashford as Paula Jones and Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton. Clive Owen plays President Clinton. Lewinsky is a producer of the season, and discussed her involvement with it in a recent interview with The Times. “The reality is that this story has been part of a collective conversation for 20 years,” she said, “and as I evolve, as the world evolves, it comes to have different meanings.”BITCHIN’: THE SOUND AND FURY OF RICK JAMES (2021) 8 p.m. on Showtime. The life of the funk singer Rick James is revisited in this documentary, which aims to give a holistic view of James’s complicated legacy. Directed by Sacha Jenkins (“Fresh Dressed”), “Bitchin’” looks at James’s roots — including his enlistment in the Navy — his music and his famously wild lifestyle while also examining his relationships with women. The film is one answer to a question that the critic Candice Frederick asked in a recent article in The Times: “How do you reckon with the man who is just as famous for committing sexual assault and perpetuating misogyny in the music industry?”WednesdayWOMEN OF 9/11: A SPECIAL EDITION OF 20/20 WITH ROBIN ROBERTS 9 p.m. on ABC. Women who were affected by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, share their experience in this two-hour special hosted by Robin Roberts. Among those interviewed is Genelle Guzman-McMillan, who spent more than 24 hours buried in the rubble of 1 World Trade Center before being rescued. Also at 9 p.m., Vice TV will air TOO SOON: COMEDY AFTER 9/11, which explores the impact of the attacks on the work of comedians. Interviewees in that documentary include David Cross, Ahmed Ahmed, Janeane Garofalo, Hari Kondabolu, Cedric the Entertainer, and Marc Maron.ThursdayBenedict Cumberbatch in “Doctor Strange.”Disney/MarvelDOCTOR STRANGE (2016) 8 p.m. on TNT. If you watched the just-released “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” over the weekend and are in the mood for more Marvel, here’s a chance to revisit “Doctor Strange.” The actor Benedict Cumberbatch plays a neurosurgeon who goes on a spiritual journey, while Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tilda Swinton and Rachel McAdams also have major roles. Manohla Dargis called the film “giddily enjoyable” in her review for The Times. “Doctor Strange,” she wrote, “is part of Marvel’s strategy for world domination, yet it’s also so visually transfixing, so beautiful and nimble that you may even briefly forget the brand.”FridayDATELINE 10 p.m. on NBC. On Friday night’s special episode of NBC’s “Dateline,” Lester Holt interviews the family members of passengers and crew members who died on United Airlines Flight 93. Several other networks will also air programming timed to the 20th anniversary of 9/11. On History Channel, 9/11: THE LEGACY, airing at 7 p.m., looks at stories of children whose lives were impacted by the attacks. At 8 p.m., CBS will air THE RACE AGAINST TIME: THE C.I.A. AND 9/11. And at 9 p.m., the documentary DETAINEE 001 (2021) on Showtime looks at the case of John Walker Lindh, who became known as the “American Taliban.”ILANA GLAZER PRESENTS COMEDY ON EARTH: NYC 2020-2021 11 p.m. on Comedy Central. For some counterprogramming, consider this hourlong comedy special, which brings together an array of stand-up performances that riff on life during the pandemic, with Petey DeAbreu, Alison Leiby, Larry Owens, and Sydnee Washington.SaturdayYannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Met Orchestra in 2019. Nézet-Séguin will lead the orchestra in Verdi’s “Requiem” to recognize the 20th anniversary of 9/11, in a performance that will air on PBS.Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Met Orchestra in 2019. Nézet-Séguin will lead the orchestra in Verdi’s “Requiem” to recognize the 20th anniversary of 9/11, in a performance that will air on PBS.GREAT PERFORMANCES: VERDI’S REQUIEM: THE MET REMEMBERS 9/11 8 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). Saturday programming recognizing the 20th anniversary of 9/11 includes this special episode of PBS’s “Great Performances,” which features Verdi’s “Requiem.” Misty Copeland will host. The Met Opera’s music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, will conduct the orchestra, which will be joined by the singers Ailyn Pérez, Elina Garanca, Matthew Polenzani and Eric Owens.Sunday2021 MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS 8 p.m. on MTV. The rapper and singer Doja Cat is slated to host this year’s edition of the MTV Video Music Awards. Nominees for the top prizes include Justin Bieber, Megan Thee Stallion, Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift; performers are to include Olivia Rodrigo, Camila Cabello, Lil Nas X, Foo Fighters and Kacey Musgraves. More

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in Television

      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ and ‘Genius: Aretha’

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Grammy AwardsGrammys: What HappenedWinners ListBest and Worst MomentsBeyoncé Breaks RecordRed CarpetAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat’s on TV This Week: ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ and ‘Genius: Aretha’Revisit the 2011 adaptation of John le Carré’s “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” Or see Cynthia Erivo play Aretha Franklin in National Geographic’s “Genius: Aretha.”Gary Oldman in “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”Credit…Jack English/Focus FeaturesMarch 15, 2021, 1:00 a.m. ETBetween network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, March 15-21. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY (2011) 8 p.m. on HBO2. John le Carré, who died in December at 89, made a name for himself writing espionage novels with spy characters that are flawed and fallible. If they order vodka martinis it’s probably to stave off loneliness, not to look suave. Such is the case with the MI6 officer George Smiley, a recurring character in le Carré’s novels and the focus of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” which concerns an aging Smiley’s efforts to weed out a double-agent in the service’s ranks. Gary Oldman plays Smiley in this film version, which was directed by Tomas Alfredson and which, in her review for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis called a “superb” adaptation of le Carré’s novel. Oldman, she wrote, gives “a fascinatingly gripping performance that doesn’t so much command the screen, dominating it with shouts and displays of obvious technique, as take it over incrementally, an occupation that echoes Smiley’s steady incursion into the mole’s lair.”ROBIN AND MARIAN (1976) 6 p.m. on TCM. Five years after ostensibly hanging up his James Bond tux with “Diamonds Are Forever,” Sean Connery starred opposite Audrey Hepburn in this swashbuckling take on the Robin Hood legend. Connery plays an aging Robin Hood, who, after the death of Richard the Lionheart (Richard Harris), returns to Sherwood Forest to discover that Maid Marian, who has become the mother superior of a convent, has come under threat from Robin Hood’s nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham (Robert Shaw). The adventure is set to a score by John Barry, who also wrote the musical accompaniment for a slew of James Bond movies, including most of Connery’s.TuesdayMAYANS M.C. 10 p.m. on FX. This “Sons of Anarchy” spinoff has offered a distinctive blend of gasoline and adrenaline since its debut in 2018. The third season, which premieres on Tuesday night, continues the story of Ezekiel “E.Z.” Reyes (J.D. Pardo). It picks up after the events of the show’s intense Season 2 finale, which included a consequential murder.WednesdayThe singer Leon Bridges performing in 2016. Bridges is one of several artists slated to appear in the TV special “A Grammy Salute to the Sounds of Change.”Credit…Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressA GRAMMY SALUTE TO THE SOUNDS OF CHANGE 9 p.m. on CBS. The hip-hop artist Common will host this two-hour special, which will pay tribute to music’s ability to catalyze social change. Artists slated to appear include Yolanda Adams, Andra Day, Cynthia Erivo, John Fogerty, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Brad Paisley, Leon Bridges, Billy Porter and Gloria Estefan. The ongoing criticism of the Grammys’ lack of diversity, including its poor record of recognizing people of color, is bound to create some dissonance — but the power of the artists, including those involved here, was never in question.FINIAN’S RAINBOW (1968) 5:30 p.m. on TCM. Four years before “The Godfather,” Francis Ford Coppola helmed this film adaptation of the 1947 fantasy musical “Finian’s Rainbow.” The story follows an Irish father (Fred Astaire) and daughter (Petula Clark) who steal a leprechaun’s pot of gold, then flee to the United States. While the film has its fans — including the Coen Brothers, who have expressed a love for it — it was largely panned by critics, including Renata Adler, who in her review for The Times in 1968 referred to the film as a “cheesy, joyless thing.”ThursdaySHREK (2001) 6 p.m. on Freeform. This spring marks 20 years since Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz teamed up in the original, animated, tongue-in-cheek “Shrek” fairy tale. Its original audience might enjoy revisiting it for a dose of nostalgia — or perhaps to show it to their own children.FridayRenée Fleming and Robert Ainsley in “Great Performances at the Met.”Credit…Metropolitan OperaGREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The New York performing arts venue the Shed announced last week that it will be reopening for indoor performances next month, with a lineup that includes a concert from the soprano Renée Fleming. But even most people who feel ready to return to indoor performances won’t get to go — the size of the virus-tested audience will be limited. Instead, they can get their Fleming fix remotely on Friday, when PBS airs this episode of “Great Performances at the Met.” The recorded program includes arias by Puccini and Massenet, plus works by Handel and Korngold. PBS is pairing it with “Live From Lincoln Center Presents: Stars In Concert” with Andrew Rannells, which airs at 10 p.m.SaturdayRELIC (2020) 8 p.m. on Showtime. Emily Mortimer, Bella Heathcote and Robyn Nevin play three generations of women haunted by one case of dementia — and perhaps more — in this horror debut from the director Natalie Erika James. The plot revolves around Edna (Nevin), an octogenarian who goes missing from her rural home. When Edna’s daughter (Mortimer) and granddaughter (Heathcote) go looking for her, they discover a sinister presence within the home’s dusty walls. In her review for The Times, Jeannette Catsoulis wrote that the film creates a “surpassingly creepy atmosphere and a patiently ratcheting unease.” The story, she added, “deftly merges the familiar bumps and groans of the haunted-house movie with a potent allegory for the devastation of dementia.”SundayCynthia Erivo in “Genius: Aretha.”Credit…Richard DuCree/National GeographicGENIUS: ARETHA 9 p.m. on National Geographic. The first two seasons of this National Geographic anthology series focused on the lives of Pablo Picasso (Antonio Banderas) and Albert Einstein (Geoffrey Rush). The third season, debuting Sunday night, dramatizes the life of Aretha Franklin (Cynthia Erivo). It was originally slated to air in May of last year, but was pushed back after the pandemic caused production delays. The new timing offers an interesting opportunity for viewers — the playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who was the showrunner for this season of “Genius,” also wrote the just-released historical drama “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” Watch both back to back to see Parks revisit the lives of two giants in 21st century music.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More