Holiday TV: 'A Capitol Fourth,' 'The Music Man'
- Barry Manilow%2C Darren Criss and American Idols team up for %27Capitol Fourth%27
- %27The Music Man%27 is the perfect holiday musical
- %27Walking Dead%27 returns to its black-and-white roots
A Capitol Fourth
PBS, Thursday, 8 ET/PT
You'll find bigger stars over on NBC's celebration from New York, but the better bet is PBS's reliably classy, obviously less commercialized celebration from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. Tom Bergeron hosts the special, which is slated to include performances by Barry Manilow, Darren Criss, Megan Hilty, and Idol winners Scotty McCreery and Candice Glover, along with the National Symphony Orchestra and the U.S. Army Herald Trumpets and Ceremonial Band. Fireworks are always better seen live than televised, of course, but if you can't get out, PBS's Capitol Fourth is always a wonderful alternative.
The Music Man
TCM, Thursday, 8 ET/5 PT
There are a host of marathons and holiday salutes on Thursday, including Military Channel's timely multi-day run of The Revolutionary War (from Wednesday at 8 pm to Friday at 5 a.m.). But for sheer entertainment value, it's hard to top a TCM stretch of movie Americana that starts with Yankee Doodle Dandy (5:30 ET/2:30 PT) and concludes with Ah, Wilderness (10:45 ET/7:45 PT) and 1776 (1:30 a.m. ET/10:30 p.m. PT). The prize, however, comes in the middle with The Music Man, one of Hollywood's best and most faithful adaptations of a Broadway musical. And just like 1776, it climaxes on the Fourth of July.
The Walking Dead
AMC, Thursday, 8 ET/PT
Looking for a darker holiday delight? AMC has a four-episode stretch of Walking Dead episodes shown in glorious black and white. Think of it as the zombie genre going back to its Night of the Living Dead roots.