Discovery revisits ‘American Chopper’
Discovery returns to a golden oldie with “American Chopper” (9 p.m., TV-14). Will viewers follow? After all these years, Paul Teutul Jr. and Sr. return to the site of their original Orange County Choppers to retrieve a few items before it faces demolition.
The two Teutuls are so well known for fussing, fighting and feuding that their images were featured in a viral internet meme “American Chopper Argument,” augmented in a million different ways.
Filled with stories about their old building, business and countless shenanigans, tonight’s “Chopper” sees the two men and rivals working together on yet another motorcycle. Just for old times’ sake.
› A fixture of Discovery since 2003, “Chopper” has been revived more than once (see below).
› “American Experience” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) revisits “Stonewall Uprising” from 2011, a documentary history of the summer nights in 1969 when a group of fed-up gay men revolted against a system that consigned them to a shadow existence.
Gathered in a popular Greenwich Village watering hole called the Stonewall, a crowd of gay customers was confronted with a police raid and, for the first time, simply fought back.
The Stonewall was run by the Mafia, an organization well suited to serve a population consigned to illegal status by the prevailing legal and social norms. Until that time, it was common for police in New York and virtually every other city to arrest homosexuals for the simple act of assembling. Once arrested, gays were subject to dismissal from their jobs, public disgrace and blackmail. The practice of police entrapment and payoffs was prevalent. Much like prohibition, which had ended 36 years earlier, the official, if arbitrary, oppression of homosexuals provided ample opportunities for police corruption.
Like many installments of “American Experience,” “Stonewall” includes period photographs and interviews with participants. But since period footage is so rare, much of the film involves dramatic reenactments, shot in black-andwhite to evoke a moment of ferment and liberation.
The resistance would last for days and nights and accomplish what some have considered the “Rosa Parks moment” of the gay civil rights movement.
The Stonewall rebellion took place on June 28, 1969, and ever since, June has been associated with gay history and gay pride commemorations. In the years since the event (and since the first airing of this “American Experience,”) Stonewall has become more about gay pride and has become a central facet of American history.
Curiously, when this documentary first aired on April 25, 2011, Discovery was already reviving the Teutuls’ psychodrama, beginning the second season of “American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior”
› Betty (Amanda Peet) takes increasingly desperate measures to save her marriage in “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story” (10 p.m., USA, TV-14), the guilty pleasure of the year!
› Britbox begins streaming “Sticks & Stones,” a paranoid office dramedy from the U.K.
› The CW enters summer with a “Happy Hour” (9 p.m., TV-14) schedule of standup specials. First up: “Jim Gaffigan: Noble Ape.”
TV-themed DVDs available today include “Modern Family: The Complete 11th Season.”