“The Orville” (8 p.m. Sunday, Fox, TV-14) sails into its second season with the crew trying to save a dying planet, and Bortus (Peter Macon) developing an unhealthy fixation on the ship’s simulation chamber.
Creator and star Seth MacFarlane appears to have found his touch with this series. Faithful readers of this column know my indifference and disdain for “Family Guy” and MacFarlane’s other cartoons, efforts that continually sacrifice character on the altar of the gag and offer little more than pop culture satire both easy and obvious.
With “The Orville,” MacFarlane has used his celebrity to produce thoughtful entertainment, unafraid to use pulpy, sometimes goofy stories to explore the mob mentality of social media.
When “The Orville” first arrived, some snarky critics dismissed it as MacFarlane’s cosplay ego trip. But he’s clearly trying to use his technical toybox to emulate “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry’s efforts to infuse television with big ideas. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Speaking of thoughtful, topical television, Syfy returns to its tradition of ringing in the new year with the 23rd “Twilight Zone” marathon, beginning Sunday night at 11 p.m. For a complete schedule of episodes, go to syfy.com.
Created and hosted by Rod Serling, “The Twilight Zone” debuted in 1959. So the “dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity” will turn 60 this year.
A new, or newer, version of “The Twilight Zone” will stream on CBS All Access in 2019, helmed by Jordan Peele (“Key & Peele”).
Television, a medium born in the late 1940s, is always rebooting and reinventing itself. Not bad for a 70-year-old.
You can’t blame networks for feeling a tug of nostalgia as the year comes to a close. ABC’s prime-time offerings this weekend are comprised of “Mickey’s 90th Spectacular” (8 p.m. Saturday, r, TV-PG) and three helpings of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (8 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. Sunday, r, TV-PG). Much like the word “video,” “America’s Funniest” is a relic of an analog era, having debuted in 1989. It’s as old as “The Simpsons,” celebrated on Fox last Sunday with a repeat of its very first episode.
Network television has spent much of the past year in the wayback machine. “Roseanne” was a huge success for ABC until it blew up in its face. CBS’s new “Murphy Brown” never found much of an audience, and viewer enthusiasm for NBC’s “Will & Grace” reboot has faded. Fox, on the other hand, has had a modest Friday night success with the reincarnation of the Tim Allen vehicle “Last Man Standing,” which airs, incidentally, against an update of “MacGyver.”
Two network hits hearkened back to the familiar. NBC’s “Manifest” invited comparisons to “Lost,” and CBS’s “FBI” offered viewers a slightly amped-up variation on the Dick Wolf formula that dates back to “Law & Order” from 1990.
You can’t blame networks for playing it safe when their corporate fates seem so uncertain. Fox will be folded into Disney. Leslie Moonves, the face of CBS and a fairly arrogant pitchman of its ratings success, has left in considerable disgrace. In September, just as new shows (including “Manifest”) were being launched, NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt suddenly resigned, and Disney-ABC TV President Ben Sherwood announced he wouldn’t be around to see how things worked out with the company’s merger with Fox.
Viewers have to wonder: If highly paid executives aren’t sticking around to see how network efforts pan out, why should we?
The number of cord cutters continues to grow, and most new TVs are “smart,” enabling viewers to stream Netflix, Amazon and Hulu without buying extra equipment.
Whenever people ask about the future of television, I think of the line from “The Godfather, Part II,” when Michael Corleone says gangster Hyman Roth has been “dying from the same heart attack for the last 20 years.”
If network television is confused, the rest of the industry has never been so busy. But is proliferation a sign of dynamism? Or nervousness? Cancer is a form of growth too.
According to a report on “peak TV” released annually by FX, there were 495 original scripted streaming, cable and broadcast series released in 2018. Every year, that number is dismissed as unsustainable. And every year it grows larger.
There are “Stranger Things” to come.
SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— An atheist podcaster gets a special request on “God Friended Me” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG).
— A party planner has to organize a New Year’s Eve bash for a tech tycoon on very short notice in the 2018 romance “A Midnight Kiss” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G). Notable for the absence of “Christmas” in its title.
— An expectant girlfriend jumps at the chance to accompany her lover to a posh resort, only to find his ex also there with murder on her mind, in the 2018 shocker “Killer Vacation” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).
— Reeling from the death of a friend and colleague, a mother worries when her daughter makes a friend who seems more cruel than kind in the 2018 shocker “Psycho Prom Queen” (10 p.m., Lifetime Movies Network, TV-14).
— Gloria Allred and Regina King appear on “The Alec Baldwin Show” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Repeat reports scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7:30 p.m., CBS): an Italian chef known for his pasta, an island famous for its single-malt scotch whiskies and a profile of Paul McCartney.
— Ryan Seacrest hosts the first night of the “iHeartRadio Music Festival” (8 p.m., CW, r, TV-PG).
— Brianna copes with tragedy on “Outlander” (8 p.m., Starz, TV-MA).
— The Tennessee Titans host the Indianapolis Colts in “Sunday Night Football” (8:20 p.m., NBC).
— Emily finds a new target on “Counterpart” (9 p.m., Starz, TV-MA).
— Staten Island authorities chase Ray on “Ray Donovan” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).
— On the run on the series finale of “Escape From Dannemora” (10 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).
CULT CHOICE
Director Orson Welles saw his 1942 adaptation of Booth Tarkington’s “The Magnificent Ambersons” (2:15 p.m. Saturday, TCM) taken over by RKO, with a new ending and a re-edit by Robert Wise, who went on to direct “West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music.”
SATURDAY SERIES
A two-hour “Dateline” (8 p.m., NBC) … Halloween horrors on “9-1-1” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) … Two episodes of “48 Hours” (9 p.m. and 10 p.m., CBS) … A change of suppliers on “The Resident” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) … A vintage helping of “Saturday Night Live” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
SUNDAY SERIES
“Football Night in America” (7 p.m., NBC) … On two episodes of “The Neighborhood” (CBS, r, TV-PG), new neighbors (8:30 p.m.), bad plumbing (9 p.m.) … Three ways of looking at the same scene on “Family Guy” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) … Miles gets the cold shoulder on “God Friended Me” (9:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … A familiar situation on “Rel” (9:30 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) … An heiress is held hostage on “S.W.A.T.” (10:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
(Kevin McDonough can be reached at [email protected].)
