With the possible exception of fireflies (or is that lightning bugs?), nothing says summer quite like the MLB All-Star Game (8 p.m., Fox).
The best players in the National and American leagues, as chosen by players, fans and management, put on an exhibition game for fans. Time was, it may have been the only chance viewers got to see stars from other teams and leagues. But the proliferation of interleague play and 24-7 cable sports coverage have solved that problem.
In fact, it’s interesting to note that the decline in viewership for the mid-summer classic may actually date to the advent of ESPN in 1979.
Last summer’s All-Star Game was watched by just over 7 million fans. A mere fraction of earlier audiences, but it remains the most-watched All-Star Game of any sport. The All-Star Games of 1976 and 1980 attracted more than 36 million fans.
As an exhibition game, the All-Star Game has always been a bit of a paradox. It’s both a sought-after honor and a meaningless game.
Just because the game has no effect on team standings doesn’t mean players can’t get hurt. In one of the All-Star Game’s most infamous moments, Pete Rose barreled into home plate in 1970, injuring the Cleveland Indians catcher Ray Fosse.
The intensity of Rose’s play would cement his reputation as one of baseball’s most polarizing figures. Many admired him for his trademark “hustle,” others despised him as a bully who seemed to appeal to bullies. Rose’s belligerence was on full display during the 1973 National League playoffs, when he punched the Mets’ diminutive shortstop Bud Harrelson (1944-2024).
Rose will be the subject of the HBO docuseries “Charlie Hustle & the Matter of Pete Rose,” airing July 24 and streaming on Max.
— News of Shelly Duvall’s (1949-2024) recent death inspires memory and reflection. Perhaps no actress better summed up the quirky nature of filmmaking during the “New Hollywood” era. A muse to director Robert Altman, she appeared in many of his offbeat productions, from “Brewster McCloud,” about a misfit (Bud Cort) trying to become a living bird while sequestered in the Houston Astrodome, to “3 Women,” Altman’s homage to Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona.”
Woody Allen, another director under Bergman’s spell, cast Duvall as a memorable one-night-stand in “Annie Hall.” Her character memorably told Allen’s Alvy Singer, “Sex with you is truly a Kafkaesque experience.”
Duvall may be best remembered as Jack Nicholson’s brutalized wife in director Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Shining.”
If Duvall was embraced in the 1970s as a symbol of moviemaking at its most offbeat, her eventual exit from films offered a kind of turning point. In an infamous and well-documented moment, a Hollywood producer working on Altman’s “Popeye” described her lack of sex appeal in the crudest possible terms. She was cast as Olive Oyl at the time.
After her New Hollywood heyday, Duvall turned to television, where she produced “Faerie Tale Theatre” for Showtime in the mid-1980s. Made for children with a knowing nod to parents and grownups, “Tale” attracted A-list talent from Francis Ford Coppola to Robin Williams. Sets and backdrops were inspired by classic paintings from Norman Rockwell to Maxfield Parish and Gustav Klimt.
While “Tale” isn’t officially streaming anywhere, it can be found on YouTube.
RIP Shelly Duvall.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— Agents assume some latitude on “FBI: International” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— Grovel-to-grovel coverage of The Republican Convention (8 p.m., PBS; 10 p.m., CBS, NBC, ABC).
— A federal judge is gunned down on a city street on “FBI: Most Wanted” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
Posing as a society type, a burlesque queen (Ginger Rogers) woos and weds an Austrian baron (Walter Slezak) before an intrepid American radio correspondent (Cary Grant) can reveal his Nazi ties in the 1942 wartime romantic comedy “Once Upon a Honeymoon” (6 p.m., TCM, TV-G).
SERIES NOTES
“America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14) … “Judge Steve Harvey” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14) returns for the second half of its second season.
LATE NIGHT
Elizabeth Warren and Loudon Wainwright III are booked on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Rachel Maddow, Bobby Flay and Orlando Leyba on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC) will probably carve out some time to talk about the convention.
Natalie Portman, Noah Kahan and Ramin Setoodeh visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
