Foxworthy returns (as if he ever left)
Life consists of collecting stuff. And getting rid of it. ‘Round about the turn of the 21st century, the popularity of “Antiques Roadshow” and the explosion of eBay seemed to make people obsessed with stuff. Half of Americans seemed convinced they had some hidden treasure in their attic, and the other half were trying to buy it for next to nothing.
We’re a couple of a decades of “Pawn Stars” away from that now, but that hasn’t stopped A&E from embarking on the new series “What’s It Worth?” (9 p.m., TV-PG). If that weren’t familiar enough, “Worth” is hosted by genial comedian Jeff Foxworthy, who sends teams of appraisers and experts to folks’ homes and attics in search of anything with monetary, cultural or historical value.
No stranger to TV, Foxworthy came to many people’s attention with his “You might be a redneck if …” jokes that were codified into a best-selling comedy album in 1993. That success led to “The Jeff Foxworthy Show,” which ran a single season each on ABC and then NBC in the mid-’90s. By the early 21st century, his references to “rednecks” must have seemed too harsh for TV, and he was teamed up with Larry the Cable Guy, Ron White and Bill Engvall on the WB’s “Blue Collar TV.” Even back then, I thought TV culture had mashed up redneck and blue-collar, sociological concepts that both overlap and diverge in ways that might inspire a shelf full of books and Ph.D. dissertations.
More recently, Foxworthy has hosted “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” on Fox and in syndication, and “The American Bible Challenge” on the Game Show Network.
› Cable’s most fractious father-and-son team reunite for another helping of an “American Chopper” (9 p.m., Discovery, TV-14) special. Faced with news of their old location’s demolition, Pauls Sr. and Jr. decide to make one more custom bike together.
› “The Swamp” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-14) looks at the Congressional culture of Washington, D.C., where insurgents are elected to “fight the system” or “drain the swamp” and end up running full-time fundraising efforts.
The documentary focuses on Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, and Ken Buck, R-Colorado, as they become enmeshed in the system they were elected to change. As one expert observes here, the language of debate has become more heated because nothing gets fundraisers excited like “the politics of hate.” “The Swamp” can also be streamed on HBO Max.
› “Statecraft: The Bush 41 Team” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) recalls the years between 1989 and 1992, when the Bush administration reacted to the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, and the Tiananmen Square uprising that changed Chinese society as well as its relation to the world.
› TV-themed DVDs available today include the AMC drama “Dispatches From Elsewhere.”
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) looks back at 15 seasons.
› Contestants prepare a meal for a good cause on “Hell’s Kitchen” (8 p.m., Fox, repeat, TV-14).
› “American Experience” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) repeats its 1998 profile of Ronald Reagan.