Angela Lansbury appears on ‘Jury’
“Law & Order: Trial by Jury” (10 p.m., NBC) may have been cancelled, but the spin-off series was not overlooked by the Emmy judges.
Tonight’s repeat “Trial by Jury” features Angela Lansbury in the guest-starring role that earned her a 17th Emmy nomination.
Lansbury, who was nominated 12 times for her performances on the long-running mystery series “Murder, She Wrote,” has never won an Emmy. “Murder” is precisely the kind of safe and popular show that rarely gets Emmy recognition.
Lansbury already has become the Susan Lucci of prime time.
In tonight’s “Trial by Jury,” Lansbury plays the protective wealthy mother of a suspected serial rapist (Alfred Molina). This role clearly echoes her famous performance in the original “The Manchurian Candidate,”(1962) in which Lansbury played the mother of all manipulative mothers.
Lansbury has been starring on stage, screen and television since the 1940s. Lansbury may owe her career longevity to the fact that she was almost immediately cast as characters much older than herself.
She was only 23 when she played a manipulative political matron in the 1948 drama “State of the Union” starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, and she was only three years older than Laurence Harvey when she played his mother in “Manchurian.”
Viewers who only associate Lansbury with her “Murder, She Wrote” character or with the voice of Mrs. Potts, the singing teapot in “Beauty and the Beast,” would do well to examine her entire body of work. In addition to edgy fare like “Manchurian,” she won a Tony Award for her performance in the blood-soaked Broadway musical “Sweeney Todd” and received an Emmy nomination for its 1982 PBS adaptation, but did not win.
Few actresses have shown such versatility. She has done Disney films and adaptations of William Inge plays “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs”. She appeared in the bawdy adaptation of “The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders” and in the biblical epic “The Greatest Story Ever Told” in the same year. And she even worked with Elvis, in “Blue Hawaii” (1962).
For a truly different Lansbury film, don’t miss “The Company of Wolves,” director Neil Jordan’s deeply symbolic 1984 adaptation of “Little Red Riding Hood.” Lansbury plays a granny that will make you forget all about “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.”
Other highlights
Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (8 p.m., CBS): dubious medical experiments; speed skiing; Candice Bergen.
Worried that they offer their fiances too much “to have and to hold,” five prospective brides endure the “Bridal Diet Challenge” on “Dateline” (8 p.m., NBC), vowing to shed 50 pounds before the big day.
An ensemble cast including Ice Cube, Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer stars in the 2002 comedy “Barbershop” (8 p.m., Fox).
Tara Reid stars in the 2003 shocker “Devil’s Pond” (8 p.m., UPN).
The six-part 12-hour epic Western series “Into the West” (8 p.m., TNT), produced by Steven Spielberg, wraps up with the massacre at Wounded Knee.
A couple likes to throw parties, but their outdoor deck can’t accommodate their friends. Who are they gonna call? “Toolbelt Diva” (9 p.m., Discovery Home).
Fears of a wrongful prosecution on “Numb3rs” (10 p.m., CBS).
Scheduled on “20/20” (10 p.m., ABC): Deadly beaches, riptides and unusual family bonds.
A Cylon boarding party threatens the entire fleet on “Battlestar Galactica” (10 p.m., Sci Fi).
Cult choice
A nightclub musician hitchhikes his way to serious dame trouble in the low-budget 1945 B-movie classic “Detour” (7 p.m., Turner Classic Movies), directed by Edward G. Ulmer.
Series notes
A tennis court connection on “8 Simple Rules” (8 p.m., ABC) … The nonceremony continues on “What I Like About You” (8 p.m., WB).
An hourlong soap opera reunion on “Hope & Faith” (8:30 ABC) … Fights on “Blue Collar TV” (8:30 p.m., WB).
Van becomes a right-hand man on “Reba” (9 p.m., WB) … David Cassidy and Danny Bonaduce guest-star on “Less Than Perfect” (9:30 p.m., ABC) … Charles Shaughnessy (“The Nanny”) guest-stars on “Living with Fran” (9:30 p.m., WB).