ABC/Giovanni Rufino
Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong
These songs have got a catchy beat—and you can learn to it. ABC celebrates the enduring appeal of Schoolhouse Rock!, 50 years after these earworms invaded Saturday morning TV in 1973, in a prime-time singalong hosted by “headmaster” Ryan Seacrest. If you’ve yearned to hear “Three Is a Magic Number” interpreted by Black Eyed Peas or Ne-Yo take a spin on “Verb: That’s What’s Happening,” this is your show. Other highlights include the Muppets teaming with comedian Fortune Feimster on “Unpack Your Adjectives,” stars from Disney stage musicals collaborating on “A Noun Is a Person, Place or Thing,” and Shaquille O’Neal joining the Boys & Girls Club of Atlanta on the classic “Conjunction Junction.”
Annette Brown /© Marvel / © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Nominated for five Oscars, including Angela Bassett (Queen Ramonda) as supporting actress (though missing the cut for best picture), the sequel to 2018’s Black Panther is clouded by the death of Chadwick Boseman (the first film’s T’Challa), but still dominated at the box office, becoming the sixth highest-grossing movie of 2022 in a year of blockbusters. Now it’s available for streaming, just three months after it hit theaters.
Aleksandar Letic/Ark TV Holdings, Inc./SYFY
The Ark
Think Poseidon Adventure in orbit, which only scratches the surface of mayhem in this proudly cheesy sci-fi survival thriller. It’s one calamity after another aboard the exploratory Ark One, which is interrupted midflight by a catastrophe that wipes out all of the ship’s elite command. Those left behind, squabbling over leadership, deal with limited food and water, oxygen deprivation, hallucinations, a hurtling asteroid and painfully inane dialogue (“I won’t lie to you: We’re in a tight spot.”) What this Ark needs is a good Noah.
ABC/Scott Heins
Soul of a Nation
ABC News’ Soul of a Nation docuseries returns with a new installment, kicking off Black History Month with a history of the Black entertainers who have seen their name in lights above the Las Vegas strip. The special also details cultural and political breakthroughs, including how headliners like Frank Sinatra demanded that Black colleagues including bandleader Quincy Jones and Sammy Davis Jr. (seen in a vintage interview) stay in his same hotel, and the 1971 federal consent decree demanding that Black casino/hotel workers be given front-of-house opportunities. Among those interviewed: Smokey Robinson, Usher, Ne-Yo, comedian George Wallace and the Fifth Dimension’s Florence LaRue.
INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:
- Name That Tune (8/7c, Fox): The celebrity match-ups pit two former American Idol contenders—Jordan Sparks and Clay Aiken—against each other, followed by a Glee contest between cast members Amber Riley and Chris Colfer, all playing for charity.
- The Price Is Right at Night (8/7c, CBS): More fun and games when Price Is Right superfans are invited to “come on down” and play.
- My 600-Lb. Life (8/8c, TLC): A new season opens with Houston-based bariatric surgeon Younan Nowzaradan using tough love and charm to treat Geno, whose overeating is life-threatening. Geno’s cousin Nico pledges to lose weight with him.
- The Proud Family: Prouder and Louder (streaming on Disney+): The revival of the animated series returns for a second season of vignettes about the Black family experience, with guest stars including Gabrielle Union, Chance the Rapper, Leslie Odom Jr., Anthony Anderson, Courtney B. Vance and gymnasts Dominique Dawes, Gabby Douglas and Laurie Hernandez.
- Gunther’s Millions (streaming on Netflix): Meet the dog whose multi-million trust fund allows him, and his human entourage, to live large. A four-part docuseries investigates what’s behind this not-so-shaggy dog story.
- The Great British Baking Show: The Professionals (streaming on Netflix): Teams of top British pastry chefs compete in the sixth season of the GBBS spinoff.
- Sam & Kate (streaming on Peacock): It’s all in the family when Oscar winners Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek co-star with their offspring—his son Jake and her daughter, Schuyler Fisk—in a 2022 multi-generational romantic comedy.
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