All times Eastern.
MONDAY, Oct. 31
Paranormal Lockdown Halloween Special
Ghosthunters Nick Groff and Katrina Weidman investigate England’s Black Monk House, universally feared as the home of the most violent poltergeist activity in history (9 p.m., TLC).
People of Earth
This new out-of-this-world comedy series centers on a small-town support group run by a therapist (Ana Gasteyer) and hosted by a local priest (Oscar Nuñez) for people who think they’ve been abducted by space aliens (9 p.m., TBS).
TUESDAY, Nov. 1
Married at First Sight Reunion Special
Following last week’s season four finale of the network’s No.1 rated series, contestants—who all agreed to get married to a stranger the moment they first met, when they walked down the aisle—come back together for catch-ups and confessions (8:45 p.m., FYI).
Your Brain on Video Games
Meet gamers, programmers, psychologists and scientists who are building a surprising case about the positive effects of gaming on our brains (9 p.m., Science Channel).
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 2
CMA Awards
Superstars Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood return as cohosts for this star-studded, live-from-Nashville, 50th annual gala honoring the year’s top artists and achievements in country music, with performances by Keith Urban, Eric Church, Maren Morris and many more (8 p.m., ABC).
Salem
The supernatural thriller is back for its second season with the triumph of the witches’ wicked plan to remake the New World by bringing the devil to Earth and making Salem the seat of his reign—and shock-rocker Marilyn Manson debuting in a new guest-starring role as bloody barber surgeon Thomas Dinley (9 p.m., WGN America).
THURSDAY, Nov. 3
Impractical Jokers Live: Nitro Circus Spectacular
Joe, Murr, Q and Sal bring down the curtain on their fifth season with this grand finale of hijinks, which includes two high-stakes live “punishments” and a four-part obstacle course done in partnership with Nitro, the youth and action sports entertainment brand, at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. (8 p.m., truTV).
The Great Indoors
Clark (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Emma (Christine Ko) and Mason (Shaun Brown) must intervene when Jack (Joel McHale) decides to try online dating and creates a terrible profile for himself (8:30 p.m., CBS).
FRIDAY, Nov. 4
Dana Carvey: Straight White Male, 60
The former Saturday Night Live star and Emmy winner performs his outrageously funny standup act live, filmed at the Wilbur Theater in Boston, Mass. (streaming today on Netflix).
Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
Host Guy Fieri travels from Portsmouth, N.H., to Portland, Ore., for coast-to-coast flavorings including outrageous octopus, a pig’s head platter and a polenta sandwich (9 p.m., Food Network).
SATURDAY, Nov. 5
Uprooted
Host Sarah Sharratt finds ways to celebrate Thanksgiving in France, enlisting her local butcher, vegetables from a market and visiting family members to help her make a Ratatouille to accompany butternut squash soup, stuffed turkey and pumpkin pie (9 a.m., Food Network).
Where Are They Now?
Oprah Winfrey catches up with former guests Jamie Lynn Sigler of The Sopranos, Kim (The Facts of Life) Fields, chef Rocco Di Spirito and David Otunga, the ex-pro wrestler who was once married to actress Jennifer Hudson (10 p.m., Own).
SUNDAY, Nov. 6
M*A*S*H Marathon
SundanceTV kicks off its new daytime programming block of classic television with a 48-hour slab of the award-winning 1972-1983 series, with all the episodes shown back-to-back, in chronological order, beginning with the pilot—a format the network will repeat on weekday mornings with All in the Family, The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Andy Griffith Show (6 a.m., SundanceTV).
Mighty Planes
Take flight with the third season of the series spotlighting the world’s most extraordinary aircraft—this episode takes you aboard the CP 140 Aurora, Canada’s amazing “James Bond 007” spy plane (8 p.m., Smithsonian Channel).
READ ALL ABOUT IT
We all know how important music is, and can be. Now find out about the stories behind five decades of songs that changed and shaped the world—or at least the movements of pop culture—in Marc Myer’s terrific Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock R&B and Pop (Grove Press). Hop aboard the literary jukebox and find out the back stories of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” Merle Haggard’s “Big City,” R.E.M’s “Losing Me Religion” and many other familiar tunes from the artists who wrote and recorded them.
If you think Star Wars was just a movie, oh, my, you’re about a galaxy a couple of a few epic battles behind the times. In Star Wars Propaganda (Harper Design), Pablo Hidalgo presents a wonderful array of authorized images—including 10 collectible posters—from the “world” of the iconic film franchise, depicting the history of the ravages of war, the struggles for power, the rise of the Empire, the surges of the Rebellion and the many other shifts of politics and public opinion that shaped the characters and events seen in the movies, TV series and other pop-cultural spinoffs.
Fans of TV’s hit series Mr. Robot can hack into the mind of its main character Elliott Anderson (Rami Malek) in Mr. Robot: Red Wheelbarrow (Abrams) by the series’ creator Sam Esmail and its writer Courtney Looney. Styled like Elliott’s journal in the show, it’s an actual composition book filled with his “handwritten” thoughts—with insights into the show’s second season and hints of what’s still to come—and sketches, and also holding seven removable artifacts: a newspaper clipping, a mysterious envelope, a religious tract, and more.
NEW ON DVD
Celebrate five decades of magic and memories with the rare footage and behind-scene interviews with cast and crew—including the last full interview with the late Leonard “Spock” Nimoy—on 50 Years of Star Trek (Lionsgate Home Entertainment).
And speaking of Star Trek, the latest big-screen installment of the franchise arrives on DVD and Blu-ray with Star Trek Beyond (Paramount Home Video), featuring an all-star cast of Chris Pine (Capt. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), the late Anton Yelchin (Chekov) and newcomer Idris Elba (as the villainous mutant Krall). And earlier this fall, the movie was “beamed up” to make its extraterrestrial debut for the astronauts aboard the International Space Station!
Spark your Christmas sprit with Bob Hope: Hope for the Holidays (Time Life), a single-DVD best-of compilation of monologues culled Hope’s USO holiday tours; skits from his annual network holiday specials, which began in 1950; musical performances; clips of comedy sketches with an array of guest stars, and more.
Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn are Bad Moms (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), three wives and mothers who’ve had enough and decide to cut loose from stuffy PTA meetings, cheating husbands and stressful jobs. The hit R-rated comedy, which features appearances from Jada Pinkett Smith, Christina Applegate and Jay Hernandez, arrives on Blu-ray with an hour of bonus features, including deleted scenes, gags and gaffes, and interviews with cast members and their moms.
Rock on! The rousing “girl rockumentary” My Way (MVD Entertainment Group), an award-winning, film-festival favorite, chronicles the odyssey of Rebekah Starr, a small-town Midwestern gal who shucks her going-nowhere corporate job—and her floundering marriage—and hits the highway to pursue her dream of musical stardom.
AT THE MOVIES
Benedict Cumberbatch is Doctor Strange, the latest Marvel Comics character to make the jump from page to screen, in a tale about a masterful neurosurgeon whose career is destroyed in a tragic accident, only to discover that fate has much bigger plans for him. With Rachel McAdams and Tilda Swinton.
Mel Gibson is behind the camera as director of Hacksaw Ridge, a WWII drama based on the true story of Army medic Desmond T. Doss (Andrew Garfield), who served during the Battle of Okinawa but refused to carry a weapon and became the first Conscientious Objector in American history to be awarded the military’s Medal of Honor.
The whimsical and song-filled Trolls, from the creators of Shrek, features the voices of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Russell Brand, James Corden, Gwen Stefani and others, in an animated adventure based on the iconic “good luck” dolls, which originated in Demark in the late 1950s.
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