PBS Memorial Day Concert returns
A television tradition for 33 years, the National Memorial Day Concert 2022 (8 p.m. Sunday, PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) returns to observe a somber holiday. Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise are back as hosts. Jean Smart, Gil Birmingham, Mary McCormack, Dennis Haysbert, Lea Salonga, Norm Lewis, Craig Morgan, Rhiannon Giddens, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Pia Toscano and the National Symphony Orchestra will also participate in this 90-minute tribute to the fallen soldiers of America’s wars.
Special remembrances will include a tribute to the late Gen. Colin Powell, a longtime participant in the annual event. Another presentation will honor soldiers who died in the Vietnam War. Next January marks the 50th anniversary of the Paris Peace Accords, which ended American combat operations in South Vietnam.
A tribute to Gold Star families will reflect on the grief endured by those who lost a loved one to military operations. Another tribute presentation will recall women’s roles in both military service and on the home front during World War II, a generation whose surviving members are now well into their 90s. Recipients of the Medal of Honor will be recognized, and a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln Memorial will look at the enduring legacy of the 16th president as well as the memorial’s place in historic gatherings over the past century.
› The History Channel observes Memorial Day weekend with a marathon airing of the 2001 epic HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers” (9:30 a.m. Friday through 4 a.m. early Monday, TV-14). Based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s popular book, “Band” was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who had collaborated on the 1998 D-Day epic “Saving Private Ryan.”
“Band” follows the “Easy” Company regiment from training through the Normandy invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of concentration camps and the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
The series gathered additional resonance, as it debuted on Sunday, September 9, 2001. Between the broadcast of the first and second episodes, a whole new era had begun, bringing a new awareness of service and sacrifice.
› A family vacation at a secluded beach takes a cosmic twist when the secluded spot causes people to age rapidly, reducing their lifespan to a single day, in the 2021 shocker “Old” (8 p.m. Saturday, HBO). Talk about a timeshare from hell!
Based on a French graphic novel, “Old” is adapted, directed and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, whose series “The Servant” is streaming its second season on Apple TV+. Released last summer amidst the challenges of COVID restrictions, “Old” received mixed reviews, with many praising its premise and cinematography, and others slamming the pace of exposition and less-than-believable characters.
The sixth episode of the compelling Watergate saga “Gaslit” (8 p.m. Sunday, Starz, TV-MA) shifts the focus from the Mitchells and Deans to settle on the fate of Frank Wills (Patrick R. Walker), the security guard who discovered the break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters.
Unassuming to a fault, he finds himself engulfed by a fame he never sought, a notoriety that left him jobless, misunderstood and often alone with his orange tabby cat, Tuffy.