Show of the week
If you want facts and figures on Chinese immigration to the United States, this program is not for you. The sketchy historical background can be frustrating, as when an interviewee mentions "the exclusion days" without adequate explanation. But while it stints on hard information, The Chinese Americans is rich in observations and anecdotes.
Playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) remembers his childhood search for Chinese role models in the American media. "You didn't want to grow up to be the cook on Bonanza," he says. Connie Chung of ABC News recalls using defensive humor to ward off cracks about slanty eyes and "yellow journalism," though it's clear the gibes still stung. Former California state treasurer Matt Fong tells of culinary culture shock as an Air Force Academy cadet: potatoes, not rice, on the plate.
The subjects shift from religion to cuisine to careers, but the theme of the hour is quiet ethnic pride. As immigrants who looked inescapably "different," the Chinese thrived by keeping tradition and assimilation in balance. Chinese and American. No hyphen, please.
Bottom Line: Low-key but inspiring success story
E! (Sun., Aug. 8, 9 p.m. ET)
Hmpf. The E! cable network has a rather disrespectful way of marking the centennial of a legendary director. This two-hour True Hollywood Story is fixated on the idea that Alfred Hitchcock (born Aug. 13, 1899; died April 29, 1980) was a severely repressed, deeply neurotic individual whose movies offered a rear window on his dark secrets. Happy birthday, Hitch, you old nutcase.
"There was an area of him that enjoyed disgusting people, shocking people," actress Anna Massey observes here. Seen Psycho or Frenzy (in which she played a murder victim)? Enough said. There's value in exploring how Hitchcock's sexual fantasies and violent urges influenced his filmmaking choices, such as his determination to mold Tippi Hedren into a star or his insistence that Evan Hunter write a rape scene for Marnie. But in concentrating on the director's psyche, the program tends to relegate his art to a supporting role. The sight of young Hitchcock playfully pawing women in home movies doesn't make up for a shortage of clips from the 53 films he made for public view.
Bottom Line: Unbalanced view of the trouble with Hitch
HBO (Thurs., Aug. 12, 10 p.m. ET)
Mexico City, 1968. The American track team garners a dozen gold medals in the Summer Olympics. Yet the big story is not "red, white and blue triumph" but "black power." On the victory stand after the 200 meters, first-place sprinter Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos raise black-gloved fists in a gesture of racial protest. The sports establishment, personified by international Olympic czar Avery Brundage, reacts with outrage.
This estimable documentary uses interviews and carefully chosen archival footage to capture the tension and turmoil of a time when no athlete, however fleet, could run from social unrest. Unfortunately, Carlos declined to be interviewed, and his absence is conspicuous.
Bottom Line: Comes up just short of gold
PBS (check local listings)
Her repertoire stresses Stephen Sondheim sophistication rather than mass-appeal pop, so you'll probably never see Bernadette Peters on a VH1 Divas Live special. But with her emotive singing style and "hey, look at me!" personality, the two-time Tony winner has the D-word written all over her. This concert, taped in London last September, includes a large helping of Sondheim, from the playfully seductive "Sooner or Later" to the thoughtfully cautionary "Children "Will Listen." At one point in the love-is-hell lyric of Sondheim's "Not a Day Goes By," Peters seems almost too choked up to go on. Diva dramatics? Maybe, but she had me buying it.
Bottom Line: Strong showing by a Broadway baby
>Sunday, Aug. 8 GERALDO RIVERA REPORTS NBC (7 p.m. ET) Serious journalism alert: Geraldo tackles the topic of "Women Behind Bars."
Monday, Aug. 9 LENNY BRUCE: SWEAR TO TELL THE TRUTH HBO (10:15 p.m. ET) Robert De Niro narrates an Oscar-nominated documentary on a comedian who courted controversy.
Tuesday, Aug. 10 BIG TOOTH Discovery Channel (9 p.m. ET) Quit your jawing and get to know the prehistoric megalodon, the largest shark that ever lived.
Wednesday, Aug. 11 SILENT HEARTS Lifetime (9 p.m. ET) John Shea and Tricia Vessey star in this drama about a troubled teen and her widower dad.
Thursday, Aug. 12 FRASIER NBC (9 p.m. ET) Belly up, boys. Woody Harrelson guest-stars in this repeat as his old character from the Cheers bar.
Friday, Aug. 13 UNSOLVED MYSTERIES CBS (9 p.m. ET) A woman gets an exorcism in a devil of a rerun.
Saturday, Aug. 14 IN THE ARMY NOW ABC (9 p.m. ET) Too darn hot to use your brain? There's always this 1994 comedy with the incomparable Pauly Shore.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
