Widescreen tidbits: Quadruple quarantine feature, essential 'Star Wars'
If you're still lucky enough to have Turner Classic Movies in your cable lineup after Xfinity inexplicably moved it to a sports package, you can enjoy a rare Saturday when you won't mind being under a stay-at-home order. Set your DVRs, this is a spectacular lineup:
• 12:30 p.m.: "My Darling Clementine," director John Ford's 1946 retelling of the O.K. Corral gunfight starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp and Victor Mature as Doc Holliday.
• 2:15 p.m.: "On The Waterfront," 1954's Best Picture winner that gave us the immortal "I coulda been a contender" line from Marlon Brando's boxer who gets mixed up with the mob.
• 4:15 p.m.: "2001: A Space Odyssey," Stanley Kubrick's far-out sci-fi trip, probably best enjoyed with a gigantic projection screen and something intoxicating from your favorite essential business.
• 7 p.m.: "Singin' in the Rain," in which Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor dance their way through one of the most iconic Hollywood musicals of all time. (That "Good Morning" scene!)
If you didn't like 'Rise of Skywalker' ...
... may I suggest last week's episode of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"?
The animated series that ran from 2008 to 2014 was resurrected for a final season on Disney+, and there are two episodes left, premiering Friday, May 1, and next Friday. The storyline now overlaps with the final movie in George Lucas' prequel trilogy, 2005's "Revenge of the Sith," and last week's installment brings back that trilogy's most famous villain.
"The Phantom Apprentice" pits the animated show's main protagonist, young Jedi Ahsoka Tano (voice by Ashley Eckstein) against Darth Maul (Sam Witwer), the horned, tattoo-faced demon from "The Phantom Menace." ("Wait, didn't he die in that movie?" Well, we thought so, but he was saved by a witch and given robot legs ... it's complicated.)
Their lightsaber duel is as thrilling as anything in J.J. Abrams' Episode IX, and even enlisted original Maul actor Ray Park for some motion-capture sparring. The writing is even better - "Clone Wars" impresario Dave Filoni does Maul justice while also enriching the back stories of Chancellor Palpatine (aka The Emperor) and Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader). It is essential "Star Wars."
The hosts will be back
The third season of HBO's "Westworld" ends at 8 p.m. Sunday, and it won't be a series finale.
The sci-fi mindbender has been renewed for a fourth go-round, and showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy say they can go six seasons, if HBO will have them.
Here's hoping all of that formidable cast - Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Aaron Paul, Tessa Thompson, Ed Harris and Jeffrey Wright - is invited, too.
• Sean Stangland is an Assistant News Editor who is still grappling with what he thought of "The Last Jedi" and "The Rise of Skywalker."