One of my favorite Hollywood anecdotes involves the funeral of the much-disliked Columbia Pictures mogul Harry Cohn. Interviewed about the size of the crowd at the 1958 event, genial funnyman Red Skelton is said to have quipped, “Give the people what they want, and they’ll turn out in droves!”
Giving the people what they want is always a good policy for entertainers. Knowing what they’re after is the tough part. One thing has been certain over the course of much of this century. Some people can’t get enough of the military legal procedural, “NCIS.”
Over the years, it has continued to attract enviable audiences, sometimes even bigger than NFL games. Some 25 years back when “American Idol” was dubbed the “Death Star” of ratings, eclipsing all in its orbit, “NCIS” held its own. It is the most-watched scripted show on Earth right now. Tonight’s special celebratory episode “NCISverse: The First 1000” (9 p.m.) is sandwiched between two repeat helpings of “NCIS” (8 p.m. and 10 p.m.).
The good folks at CBS remind us that all these episodes add up to 42,722 minutes, or pretty much a solid month of Mark Harmonizing.
The actual 1000th episode, titled “A Thousand Yards,” will air next Monday. So you’ll have to wait another 10,800 minutes for that!
Celebrations are also being held on the subscription service Paramount+ as well as the FAST (Free Advertising Supported Television) service Pluto, where an NCIS marathon is always in progress.
— For the most part, TV news informs us of events beyond our own horizons, not of the view from our own windows. Today, for millions of Americans, that will not be the case. “Eclipse Across America” (2 p.m. to 4 p.m., ABC and National Geographic) offers breathless coverage of today’s celestial event.
“World News Tonight” anchor David Muir and “ABC News Live Prime” anchor Linsey Davis will serve as co-hosts. Look for live remote reports from 10 different locations, including Mazatlan, Mexico; Del Rio, Texas; Carbondale, Illinois; and Niagara Falls, New York.
— From the time of the bobby sox riots that engulfed Frank Sinatra’s concerts to our own era’s Taylor Swift-besotted youth, pop culture has a way of putting its stamp on particular eras. Some 50 years ago, it was pretty much impossible to ignore the massive popularity of the music of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, the singer and songwriters celebrated with “The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings).
Their first No. 1 hit, “Your Song,” arrived in the fall of 1970, when many pop fans were just coming to grips with the breakup of the Beatles. And the John-Taupin collaboration appeared ready to fill that void.
How dominant were they? In a 1991 “Simpsons” episode, Homer and Marge flash back to their 1974 prom, which was branded with a “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” theme, named after the popular 1973 Elton John Album.
You can’t get more official than that!
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— A woman strives to save her husband’s Italian restaurant in the 2022 romance “Always Amore” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— A quest for a tax break turns the treatment center into a religious cult in the second installment of “The Synanon Fix” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).
— A tip leads to a possible suspect in the case of the Clear Lake Massacre on “The Interrogation Tapes: A Special Edition of 20/20” (10 p.m., ABC).
— Three people face a grim diagnosis in their own particular fashion on the “Independent Lens” (10 p.m., PBS, check local listings) documentary “Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s.”
CULT CHOICE
TCM continues its 100th anniversary salute to the MGM studio with the beloved 1939 musical fantasy “The Wizard of Oz” (8 p.m., TCM, TV-G), a troubled production completed in the wake of the sudden 1936 death of MGM’s irreplaceable visionary Irving Thalberg. The 1992 documentary miniseries “MGM: When the Lion Roars” (10 p.m., TV-MA) follows, with a glance at the studio from 1936 to 1946, when it was known for Jimmy Stewart, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn and Clark Gable.
SERIES NOTES
“The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … “MasterChef” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG) … “American Idol” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … “So You Think You Can Dance” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) … “Deal or No Deal Island” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Jim Parsons, Kaia Gerber and Heart on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Jessica Lange and Corey Stoll visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
