Netflix is hardly immune to TV’s paranormal obsession. Based on a best-selling book by Leslie Kean, the new Netflix series “Surviving Death” avoids the obvious “Ghost-Hunters” cliches and offers interviews with those who have come close to death and returned, scientists studying the outer limits of human consciousness and those who claim to “communicate” with the departed.
Periods of mass death often inspire a popular desire to communicate with the beyond. During and after the Civil War and World War I, America was awash with mediums and seances. Magician Harry Houdini was so offended by their charlatanism that he dedicated his career to disproving and debunking their claims.
It was during World War II, another time of staggering death tolls, that Noel Coward wrote “Blithe Spirit,” one of the most popular and enduring comedies to play with the notion of ghosts, seances and mediums.
So it comes to no surprise that our current COVID plague inspires interest in programs like “Surviving Death” and the Pixar film “Soul,” a highly conceptual meditation on death, life and the enduring nature of human personality.
— I long wondered when broadcast and cable television would become radio. When a once-dominant medium would diminish into a throwback and an afterthought. We’re getting there.
For decades, radio comedies and dramas entranced Americans and delighted advertisers. Then television arrived, and radio “soap operas” seemed old-fashioned. Radio entertainment staggered through the 1950s, giving up the ghost on Sept. 30, 1962, when “Suspense” and “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar” aired their last episodes.
It’s easy to think that broadcast television has entered its final rounds. As streaming fare devours the audiences for both TV and now movies, the networks have retreated to extraordinarily safe and predictable offerings. Look at tonight’s schedule. “The Price Is Right at Night” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) and three hours of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG). Fox has resurrected a series that dates back to the age of radio: “Name That Tune” (9 p.m., TV-PG), hosted by Jane Krakowski.
You’d think networks would use these desperate days to offer something innovative. During radio’s death spiral, two original voices emerged.
The brilliant satirist Stan Freberg was given his own series. WOR, one of New York’s oldest and most staid radio stations, offered an iconoclastic humorist free rein to blend word jazz, high-concept advertising spoofs and mythic tales of his Midwestern youth.
Indiana’s Jean Shepherd would entertain audiences well into the 1970s. His stories inspired the 1983 comedy “A Christmas Story.” Despite appearing on a “dying” medium, Shepherd influenced a new generation of storytellers and comedians. Jerry Seinfeld has cited him as a major influence and even named his son Shepherd.
— Folks from the eensy-weensy tip-toppermost sliver of the 1% are parachuted into cities without apparent resources and forced to fend for themselves and build businesses from scratch on season two of “Undercover Billionaire” (8 p.m., Discovery, TV-PG).
— Students of generational differences in comedy could organize Ph.D. theses around tonight’s movie offerings. Start Boomer Humor 101 with “National Lampoon’s Animal House” (8:30 p.m., Showcase), “The Blues Brothers” (6:15 p.m., Showcase) and the 2020 documentary “Belushi” (10:30 p.m., Showcase, TV-MA). For extra credit, compare and contrast them with films aimed at later generations, such as “The Breakfast Club” (7 p.m., Freeform, TV-14), “Knocked Up” (9 p.m., E!, TV-14) and “Wedding Crashers” (9 p.m., Paramount, TV-14).
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— A patient harbors a mystery on “Chicago Med” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— Group B performs on “The Masked Dancer” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG).
— After retreating to Europe for some soul-searching, a woman meets a handsome prince in the 2017 romance “A Royal Winter” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— A hook-and-ladder mishap on “Chicago Fire” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— “When Disaster Strikes” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) recalls efforts to rescue cyclone victims in Mozambique.
CULT CHOICE
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke and Albert Finney star in the 2007 thriller “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” (9 p.m., MoMax), directed by Sidney Lumet.
SERIES NOTES
Jughead broods on “Riverdale” (8 p.m., CW, r, TV-14) … CalTech dreams on “Young Sheldon” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … A race against time on “Nancy Drew” (9 p.m., CW, r, TV-14) … Second ceremonies on “The Neighborhood” (9:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … Hondo helps Street get his brother off the street on “S.W.A.T.” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … A runaway’s home is a mass murder scene on “Chicago P.D.” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
LATE NIGHT
Thomas Middleditch appears on “Conan” (11 p.m., TBS, r) … Samantha Bee and Paul Mescal drop by “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS) … Regina King, Jake Tapper and Best Coast are booked on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC).
