Weekend TV: 'Shakespeare,' Goodnight, 'Makeover'

by Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

Posted January 24, 2013

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Hallmark Hall of Fame gives George Bernard Shaw's 'Pygmalion' a 'Makeover' -- only this time, it's a man on the business end of the beautification project. HALLMARK HALL OF FAME'S "THE MAKEOVER" - The all-star cast for Hallmark Hall of Fame's "The Makeover" premieres SUNDAY, JANUARY 27 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. In the film, Hannah Higgins (Julia Stiles) is a smart, driven education consultant. She's so driven, in fact, that she runs for Congress to advance the cause of education reform. But Hannah is not a likable candidate, as her elitism turns off Boston voters big-time. However she and her business partner, Colleen Pickering (Camryn Manheim), don't give up easily, and in the next election they recruit a candidate who definitely is a man of the people, beer vendor Elliot Doolittle (David Walton). (HALLMARK/ABC/ERIK HEINILA) JULIA STILES, DAVID WALTON, CAMRYN MANHEIM (Credit: Erik Heinila Hallmark, ABC)

Shakespeare Uncovered | PBS, Friday, 9 ET/PT

Don't let the possibly confusing title fool you: This six-part PBS series is not some Shakespeare exposé. Instead, it's an examination of the story of, and history behind, his plays, told through interviews with actors and scholars, visits to key locations (from London to the fields of Agincourt), clips from films, and play excerpts staged for the show at Shakespeare's Globe. Up first, Ethan Hawke takes on Macbeth, followed in Friday's second hour by Joely Richardson's look at women's roles in the comedies.

Goodnight for Justice: Queen of Hearts | Hallmark Movie Channel, Saturday, 8 ET/PT

There may be a good deal fewer Westerns on TV than there once were, but the genre has never completely disappeared - and it has never lost its ability to pull in an audience, as witness the popularity of Luke Perry's series of Hallmark movies about John Goodnight, a circuit judge in the Old West. Saturday's third installment, Queen of Hearts, adds a romantic twist to the story, as Judge Goodnight falls for a con-woman (Katharine Isabelle) on the run from a vengeful mark (Ricky Schroder).


The Makeover | ABC, Sunday, 9 ET/PT

There was a time when the Hallmark Hall of Fame actually did plays by George Bernard Shaw, including a production of Pygmalion that starred the great Julie Harris as Eliza Doolittle. While those days, as you may have noticed, are long gone, Shaw does arrive in a fashion Sunday in this role-reversal update that stars Julia Stiles as Hannah Higgins, a smart but socially obtuse education advocate who grooms beer vendor Elliot Doolittle (David Walton) to be a congressional candidate in her stead.