Tim Allen Shifts Gears, ‘Abbott’ and ‘Sunny’ Philly Crossover, Remembering Elvis at 90, Celebrity Boot Camp
Tim Allen returns to ABC with Kat Dennings as his wayward daughter in Shifting Gears. It’s time for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to get schooled when the cast of the irreverent sitcom guests on the Philly-set Abbott Elementary. Turner Classic Movies salutes Elvis Presley on his 90th birthday. A cast of sort-of celebs takes part in a grueling boot camp in Wales in a new season of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
Shifting Gears
Tim Allen is home again, on the network that launched his stardom with Home Improvement and later with Last Man Standing. He’s in full grumpy grandpa mode as Matt, an opinionated widower who owns a vintage-car restoration shop and whose empty nest suddenly becomes crowded when his long-estranged daughter, snarky Riley (2 Broke Girls’ Kat Dennings), moves in with her two kids. Ranting about everything from pickleball to the news (“like I’m too stupid to form my own angry opinions!”), Matt needs to bring it down a notch — and so does Riley — to make the new arrangement work. As domestic sitcom engines go, this runs mighty smooth.
Abbott Elementary
“Does anybody else think there’s something seriously off about these volunteers?” wonders Gregory (Tyler James Williams) when the halls of Abbott are invaded by the unrepentant schnooks of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in an inspired crossover. It’s hardly a spoiler to suggest that when principal Ava (Janelle James) introduces her staff to the new community volunteers — Mac (Rob McElhenney), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Charlie (Charlie Day), Dee (Kaitlin Olson), and Frank (Danny DeVito) — they’re not there altogether willingly. Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) sees through them almost instantly, and the only one instantly charmed is, naturally, the optimist Janine (Quinta Brunson), but even she’s in for a rude awakening when the Sunny troupe shows their true colors.
Live a Little, Love a Little
Long live the King. On what would have been his 90th birthday, TCM salutes Elvis Presley with a 24-hour marathon of movies and documentaries, starting with 1968’s Live a Little, Love a Little. Highlights include the 1981 documentary This Is Elvis (noon/11c), the restored concert film Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (11:15 pm/10:15c) and, in the prime-time slot, his 1957 black-and-white breakthrough Jailhouse Rock (8/7c) and 1964’s iconic Viva Las Vegas (9:45/8:45c) with Ann-Margret.
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test
Those wails you’re hearing from Wales are the grunts and groans of (mostly) celebrities participating in the third season of the grueling boot-camp reality series. This year’s location: Wales, the home of British Special Forces Selection, training ground for challenges taken from the Special Forces playbook. In the two-hour opener, the cast immediately gets down to business when tasked to jump from a moving boat onto a helicopter, then tread water as a group and do a bungee jump off a 12-story viaduct. Easy peasy, right? Among the more recognizable recruits: Stephen Baldwin, Brody Jenner, Kyla Pratt, Denise Richards, and original Bachelorette Trista Sutter alongside athletes Nathan Adrian, Alana Blanchard, Landon Donovan, Carey Hart, Marion Jones, Cam Newton, Golden Tate, and Jordyn Wieber.
Chicago Med
The hospital rallies to save one of its own — presumably administrator Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson), last seen being stabbed by a patient’s grieving wife — as the medical drama returns from holiday hiatus. Elsewhere at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center, Asher (Jessy Schram) treats a devout woman with an ectopic pregnancy. Followed by Chicago Fire (9/8c), where Severide (Taylor Kinney) preps an arson class at the academy, and Chicago P.D. (10/9c), in which the Intelligence unit faces bureaucratic hurdles while investigating a kidnapping.
INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:
- The Price Is Right at Night (8/7c, CBS): Drew Carey returns in the prime-time edition of the game show, followed by a new season of Raid the Cage (9/8c).
- Celebrity Jeopardy! (9/8c, ABC): The third season’s quarterfinals open with The Neighborhood’s Max Greenfield, Grey’s Anatomy’s Camilla Luddington and comedian W. Kamau Bell playing for charity and the ultimate $1 million prize.
- UFOs: Investigating the Unknown (9/8c, National Geographic): The docuseries’ second season begins with whistleblower testimony on UFOs leading to a new outcry for government transparency.
- Aaron Hernandez and the Untold Murders of Bristol (9/8c, Investigation Discovery): A two-hour documentary traces the tragic history of the NFL’s Aaron Hernandez (recently the subject of an FX docudrama) back to his high school years in Connecticut, where two of his teammates also would go on to commit murder.
- Ozark Law (10/9c, A&E): A true-crime docuseries follows the Lake Ozark and Osage Beach police departments as they patrol Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks region during the annual surge of summer tourism.
- Dark Side of the Cage (10/9c, VICE TV): The first episode of an MMA exposé explores the life and sudden death in 2016 of MMA superstar Kimbo Slice.