Reliving Elvis’ Comeback Special, ‘Murders’ Sings, ‘Justified’ Spirals, Sports Doping’s Hall of Famer

Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback

Nearly 50 years after the King of Rock ’n’ Roll’s death this week in August of 1977, a music documentary goes behind the scenes of the 1968 TV special that revived Elvis Presley’s career, reminding fans of the explosive power of his earliest TV appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. TV director Steve Binder, who convinced Elvis to perform a full-blown concert instead of the cheesy Christmas special his manager Colonel Tom Parker had arranged, narrates this retrospective. Watching Elvis reprise his early hits in a black leather outfit never gets old. As long as these video memories remain, his legend will never die.

Only Murders in the Building

No one said putting on a show would be easy. “Welcome to hell! And you’re your own Satan!” screams agitated director Oliver Putnam (the hysterical Martin Short) during a less-than promising early run-through of his new Death Rattle Dazzle musical. His mandate of “no investigating during rehearsals” means Mabel (Selena Gomez) is on her own looking into the question, “Who would want to kill (leading man) Ben (Paul Rudd) enough to kill him twice?” While she and hunky videographer Tobert (Jesse Williams) snoop, Oliver pitches the revamped show to his producers, with Loretta (Meryl Streep) providing an assist with her lovely rendition of a touching lullaby co-written by Sara Bareilles and the Dear Evan Hansen team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. But will the newly discovered actress stay with the show, or leave for the TV spinoff Grey’s New Orleans Family Burn Unit?

Justified: City Primeval

U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) is losing sleep over his inability to bring down psycho “Oklahoma Wildman” Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook)—and he’s not the only one, with Detroit bar owner Sweetie (Vondie Curtis-Hall) also plotting against the remorseless killer who’s roped him into his extortion schemes. The double crosses keep piling up as Raylan and the local authorities engineer a trap for the madman.

Untold

The sports anthology delves into a dark chapter from the early 2000s, when the doping scandal blew open, implicating superstars including baseball’s Barry Bonds and track’s Marion Jones and her former partner Tim Montgomery. At the center of the intrigue was Victor Conte, founder of the Bay Area’s BALCO Laboratories, which began as a nutrition supplement company before becoming a leading distributor of illegal steroids. Conte tells his story, with commentary from Montgomery and the anti-doping and IRS officials whose investigations sent him to prison.

INSIDE TUESDAY TV:

• Good Bones (9/8c, HGTV): Indianapolis-based real estate pro Mina Starsiak Hawk and her lawyer mom Karen E Laine are back with more home redos and flips, starting with a cluttered duplex whose attic would make a perfect rental unit. Later this season, they’ll help Mina’s sibs spruce up their own new homes.

• The Love Experiment (10/9c, MTV): A dating app comes to life as three Atlanta BFFs are presented with an array of eligible single guys, each choosing three men to date. What appears to be a dating utopia could become a nightmare as they have to make some tough choices, guided by The Spicy Life’s Mari Waugh.
• Puffs (streaming on BroadwayHD): The oft-produced Harry Potter parody never made it to Broadway, but its off-Broadway charms are on display in this performance before a live audience.