Celebrity karaoke: Make it stop!
Call me a killjoy. I recoil from the forced frivolity of James Corden’s celebrity singalongs. Tonight on “The Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke Primetime Special” (10 p.m., CBS), the actor-turned-host shares favorite musical moments from “The Late Late Show” with guests Christina Aguilera, Allison Janney, Anna Faris, Kunal Nayyar and Iain Armitage.
I guess I’m old-fashioned, but Corden and Jimmy Fallon just try too darn hard to be nice. Nice is appropriate for a child’s birthday party, and perhaps morning television, which seems to be one unending children’s birthday party.
I prefer the weird tension that arises when relatively chilly hosts try to coax “entertainment” out of guests by keeping them at a distance and on their toes. Nobody ever accused Johnny Carson or David Letterman of being “friendly” human beings, but they created some memorable television. Corden’s celebrity concoctions are custom-made for YouTube and as such, have the resonance and shelf life of a Chicken McNugget.
OLD-SCHOOL COMEDY
For more than a generation, comedians have felt compelled to be angry, edgy, topical and controversial. Perhaps the rise, celebrity and precipitous decline of Louis C.K. demonstrated the outer limits of our tolerance for comics as disturbed and disturbing purveyors of the “uncomfortable.”
In contrast, someone like Jim Gaffigan has carved out a niche for himself by professing to be a nice guy with kids who even goes to church. Or at least talks about it.
But no one has been more successful with an old-school, un-edgy routine than Jeff Dunham, the subject of the 2017 profile “Jeff Dunham: Birth of a Dummy” (8 p.m., A&E, TV-14).
At a time when the acerbic, profane and whipsmart Jon Stewart was the face of Comedy Central, Dunham still scored some of that network’s highest ratings with his ultra-throwback ventriloquist dummy specials.
Proof that old-fashioned techniques can still appeal, Dunham remains one of the top-grossing comedians on the road and has attracted more than a quarter-billion hits with his YouTube clips.
Speaking of throwbacks, A&E dusts off an old “Biography” (10 p.m., TV-PG) to profile Roseanne, whose eponymous sitcom reboot has delighted ABC with ratings that hearken back to those seen in the 1990s.
The distinctions between Roseanne Conner and Roseanne Barr are as deep as those between sitcoms and reality television. When done well, the ratings (and affection) for the former will always exceed the latter.
SEASONS OF CHANGE
PBS’ “Independent Lens” documentary “Look & See: Wendell Berry’s Kentucky” (TV-G; 11 p.m. Tuesday on GPB, 4 a.m. Wednesday on WTCI, ) uses the naturalist and essayist’s poetic observations to narrate a cinematic take on the shifting landscapes of a rural America setting over the course of four seasons.
It also examines the changes in Berry’s lifetime, a span that has seen the abandonment of the values of small farmers for the profit-driven motives of corporate industrial agriculture.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› Ballet can be murder on “Lucifer” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
› Spontaneous combustion on “The Resident” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
› An 800-mile trek begins on an empty stomach on “The Terror” (9 p.m., AMC, TV-14).
› The gals balk at Rio’s request on “Good Girls” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
› Hannah’s past comes to light on “The Crossing” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› The top 12 perform on “The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
› Ryan Seacrest hosts “American Idol” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› Cosmic chaos on “Supergirl” (8 p.m., CW, TV-14).
› A nervous Natasha on “Mom” (9 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› The grass is greener in the other pew on “Living Biblically” (9:30 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).