‘American Masters’ and Fauci legacy
“American Masters” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) leaves its comfort zone to profile Dr. Anthony Fauci. “Masters” is most associated with artists, performers and the cultural scene. This segment offers a look at a scientist, doctor and government official who has been at the center of public health policy for decades.
Few artists or public figures have had such an enduring impact. Fauci helped shape the federal government’s response to the AIDS crisis during the Reagan administration and can tick off any number of public health emergencies, from bird flu to SARS to Ebola that he has dealt with over the past four decades.
Dr. Fauci became best known when the COVID-19 contagion swept the globe, claiming more than a million lives in this country alone.
This film is the product of time spent following the doctor in the months after Jan. 2021. Cameras capture him alone in his kitchen, fielding frantic phone calls and preparing for endless Zoom conferences.
Along the way, he reflects on his humble roots and impressive education in his deep Brooklyn accent. He expresses fears for the future, stemming from the inevitability of future public health dangers as well as the deeply divided response to combating COVID, developing vaccines and the need for public health policy.
Figures in both politics and the media made Fauci a convenient scapegoat for lockdown-related frustrations, and spread lies that have put the life of the doctor and his family in danger.
› Can you really make a postapocalyptic cartoon comedy for kids?
Netflix streams the animated series “We Lost Our Humans,” featuring a group of frantic pets who wake up the morning after some worldwide technical catastrophe to discover that every person on Earth has vanished. I’m not sure I’d want to meet kids who don’t find this concept terrifying.
A new segment of “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel” (10 p.m., HBO, TV-PG) profiles longtime baseball manager Dusty Baker. A two-time All-Star as a player, the 73-year-old Baker was hired by the Houston Astros to return
that team to stability and perhaps respectability after a sign-stealing scandal in 2017 tainted the team and made some wonder if the World Series had been stolen. Some think it’s the greatest scandal in the major leagues since the White Sox threw the World Series in 1919.
Gumbel interviews Baker about the pressures he felt when he took the job with Houston in 2020 and the exhilaration (and relief) the team experienced when they won the 2022 World Series, seemingly on the up-and-up.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
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Evidence grows cold on “FBI” (8 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› Dan wades into the baby end of the dating pool on “Night Court” (8 p.m., NBC, repeat, TV-PG).
› The acclaimed and respected 1962 adaptation of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” (8 p.m., TCM, TV-PG) includes the screen debut of Robert Duvall as the scary shut-in neighbor, Boo Radley.
› The 2022 documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” (8 p.m., HBO2, TV-MA) profiles photographer and activist Nan Goldin.
› A surrogacy arrangement becomes a missing person’s case on “FBI: International” (9 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› Hana’s efforts to aid a vulnerable girl put her in peril on “FBI: Most Wanted” (10 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).