Diane Sawyer Talks to Matthew Perry, World Series Begins, ‘High School’ Finale, Louis Armstrong and All That Jazz

Matthew Perry: The Diane Sawyer Interview

Over 10 seasons, Matthew Perry’s Chandler Bing was always one of our favorite Friends, ready with a quip for any occasion. In the nearly two decades since the hit sitcom left NBC, Perry’s life hasn’t been quite so rosy, including a struggle with addiction that led to a near-death experience putting him in a coma for almost two weeks. Perry sits with ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer to discuss life during and after Friends and other subjects covered in his forthcoming book Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir. (Will Keanu Reeves come up?)

The World Series

The Fall Classic pits #1 American League seed Houston Astros, following their sweep of the Yankees to clinch the pennant, against the upstart Philadelphia Phillies, celebrating their first National League pennant win since 2009. The battle begins on Houston’s home turf at Minute Maid Park.

High School

The acclaimed teen drama, an origin story for twin musicians Tegan and Sara Quin (played by TikTok’s Railey and Seazynn Gilliland), reaches its Season 1 finale with back-to-back episodes. Complicated personal entanglements take a temporary back seat to music as the sisters prepare to play their first live show, which could take their careers to the next level.

Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues

The legacy of jazz pioneer and music icon Louis Armstrong is celebrated in director Sacha Jenkins’ revealing documentary, featuring archival home recordings and taped conversations shedding new light on a superstar who emerged from a segregated South to become a global force of cultural change. His fame spread to TV and films, including Hello, Dolly! (whose title song, recorded earlier, became one of his biggest hits, knocking The Beatles off the top of the charts).

Cabinet of Curiosities

The anthology saved one of its best for last, with The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln and The Babadook’s Essie Davis starring in “The Murmuring,” based on an original story by del Toro and directed by The Babadook’s Jennifer Kent. They play married ornithologists who head to a remote island in 1951 to record the murmuration patterns of birds in flight. Their devotion to science and to each other is colored by tenderness and also sadness, with a past tragedy triggered by frightening visions within the abandoned house they occupy. Less garish than other Cabinet entires, it’s also the most truly haunting.

Inside Friday TV:

• Monster High (7/6c, Nickelodeon): Teen monsters rule the high-school halls as the franchise returns in an animated series, opening with Clawdeen Wolf scheming her way into Monster High, then working with Frankie Stein to subdue a magical tater tot when Draculaura’s witchcraft goes awry.
• A Cozy Christmas Inn (8/7c, Hallmark Channel): Full House’s Jodie Sweetin is a real-estate exec who heads to Alaska during holiday season to close on a B&B that’s coincidentally owned by her ex (David O’Donnell). What are the odds mistletoe is hanging somewhere?
• Capital One College Bowl (8/7c and 9/8c, NBC): Returning champ Columbia University defends its title during the semifinals and championship round of the quiz show.
• Shock Doc: Ghosts of Flight 401 (8/7c, Travel Channel, streaming on discovery+): Paranormal investigators head to Florida’s Everglades 50 years after Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed, with more than 100 souls lost, to make contact with the spirits of those aboard the ill-fated airliner.
• True Crime Watch: ABC’S 20/20 (9/8C) reports on the 2019 murder of former Arkansas State Senator Linda Collins-Smith, in which her ex-husband and former judge Philip Smith was the initial prime suspect, until new evidence pointed toward her best friend and business manager Becky O’Donnell. On Dateline NBC (10/9c), a suburban Toronto house fire exposes a murder-for-hire plot.
• Dia de Los Muertos (9/8c, PBS): The Mexican Day of the Dead tradition is celebrated in a concert from Tennessee’s subterranean The Caverns, featuring Los Lobos, Ozomatli and Flor de Toloache.
• Blue Bloods (10/9c, CBS): The latest dilemmas for the Reagans: Erin (Bridget Moynahan) worries about charging a man who could be innocent, and Frank (Tom Selleck) reopens a case in which an officer involved was previously acquitted.
• Urban Legend (10/9c, Travel Channel, streaming on discovery+): Horrormeister Eli Roth oversees this anthology series recreating classic urban legends that have been known to generate many a nightmare.

On the Stream:

• All Quiet on the Western Front (streaming on Netflix): Director Edward Berger’s grim adaptation of the iconic Erich Maria Remarque WWI novel is Germany’s official Academy entry for the Best International Film Oscar. Also new to Netflix: Drink Masters, a competition series for innovative mixologists, and for animation fans, the sixth season of the raucous coming-of-age comedy Big Mouth, and the premiere of Wendell & Wild, from director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Jordan Peele, a stop-motion fantasy about demon brothers (Peele reunited with Keegan-Michael Key) who bedevil a tough teen (This Is Us’s Lyric Ross) when she summons them to the Land of the Living.
• The Devil’s Hour (streaming on Prime Video): Jessica Raine stars in a six-part thriller as Lucy, whose spooky visions wake her every night at 3:33 am—the so-called devil’s hour—and then her days become nightmares when she’s linked to a series of murders. Doctor Who veteran Peter Capaldi co-stars.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 (8/7c, 5 pm/PT, streaming on the Gizmoplex): In their first Halloween special, Jonah (Jonah Ray) and the Bots are subjected to 1961’s The Mask 3D (viewable with any red and blue 3D glasses, but also available in non-3D). Winners of a Halloween cosplay contest will also be revealed.
• Garcia! (streaming on HBO Max): Based on a graphic novel, this offbeat six-part spy series revolves around a secret agent from the 1960s (Francisco Ortiz) who is accidentally defrosted from his cryogenic freezer by a reporter (Veki Velilla), and both are immediately swept into a conspiracy to overthrow the Spanish government.