Tuning in: on TV this week
Saturday 11/15
Croc Hunter Exposed: They Shoot Crocodiles, Don't They? (Animal Planet, 8-10 p.m.): For once, the camera crew get their due when the most famous animal expert on TV, Steve Irwin, introduces us to the guys who get in trouble almost as deep as he does.
JFK: A Presidency Revealed (The History Channel, 8-11 p.m.): A stirring documentary tells what went on behind the scenes in the White House during the Camelot era. When Kennedy told us to ask not what our country could do for us, but what we could do for our country, many were moved by the call to unselfish service. Despite the president's leadership, he was guilty of personal indiscretions, though the media were more reluctant in those days to expose them. But what the press never quite realized was just how ill Kennedy was. He seemed so vigorous and lively; who could doubt his fitness for office?
Mystery! (PBS, check local listings): "Mystery!" continues with "Coyote Waits," another Tony Hillerman special starring dignified Wes Studi and dashing Adam Beach as Navajo reservation police. When another cop is killed, an old man is found wandering with an open whiskey bottle, a gun in his belt, and tragedy written all over him. The storytelling is a tad confusing, the murders are the least interesting element, and sometimes the acting misses realism by a hair. Where the story scores, though, is in its look at modern tribal life.
The Simpsons (Fox, 8 p.m.): It was, perhaps, in-Evita-ble. The blond folks of Springfield take on Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical about Eva Perón in an all-singing, all-dancing affair when Lisa is elected student-council president. It's not long before she rallies students to strike against corrupt teachers.
