Rock on TV: Grease
Jonesing for music on your television set? You’ve come to the right place, rockers! Check out our shortlist below. For more extensive listings, read VH1’s Rock on TV schedule daily.
Saturday Night Live, Saturday, September 15, 11:30 p.m. (EST), NBC: The long-running show’s 31st season kicks off with musical guest Kanye West, with whom there’s always a 50-50 chance of mega-drama, since he’s a bigger diva than Mariah, Whitney and Diana all thrown together. Ignore the music and tune in for the host, Steve Carell. Why? Because he’s funny, that’s why. Start laughing. Now.
Singles, Sunday, September 16, 6:15 a.m. (EST), HBO 2: Like most of Cameron Crowe’s films, this paean to Seattle during the idyllic, nu-bohemian, quasi-hippie-punk days of the early ’90s was great the first time we saw it. These days it’s a little tough to take, since it seems like it’s taken a bath in sentimentality and then dried off with a towel made of nostalgia, but maybe that’s just because we’re jaded fools who couldn’t put a metaphor together if we tried. Regardless, the ensemble cast film features a hilarious turn by Pearl Jam as fictional band Citizen Dick, and a number of other Seattle types make appearances, too, including former Soundgardener Chris Cornell, who now owns a restaurant in Paris.
Grease, Monday, September 17, 9 p.m. (EST), VH1 Classic: If you see one musical this fall . . . this one’s not a bad way to go. Olivia Newton-John retains all her cuteness, and it’s so nice to see John Travolta before he became strange. If you haven’t seen this in a while, it’s like a ray of sunshine spun out of sugar the color of pure gold. Smiley faces all around!
