Let the memory live again
"Cats" may be one of stage's most successful musicals, but it has all the roar of a newborn kitten in this taping of a 1997 London production. Sure, it's great to hear Elaine Paige deliver the show stopper, "Memory," but if I want to watch a bunch of cats scurry around each other for no reason, I'll throw some scraps in the alley and watch the neighborhood critters go nuts. 8 p.m. Friday, TPT, Ch. 2
The hunger games
As if Thanksgiving Day wasn't already making our stomachs growl. Now we've got to contend with "Eat: The Story of Food," a three-night miniseries that covers everything from how cavemen threw the first BBQs to how technicians are perfecting the crunch of the potato chip. Wear your big-boy pants. 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, National Geographic Channel
She shall be released
Bob Dylan's unfinished tunes may draw you into "Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued," but it's the heart of Rhiannon Giddens, singer and fiddler for the Carolina Chocolate Drops, that steals the show. She's one of five artists commissioned by T Bone Burnett to take lyrics from the Minnesota bard and turn them into new tunes. Giddens initially seems intimidated by the others, including Marcus Mumford and Elvis Costello, but she eventually soars above the rest in this intimate documentary that expertly shows off the challenges of collaboration. 8 p.m. Friday, Showtime
Next to normal
Amazon's first venture into a live-action kids series examines "Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street," an adventure created by preschool teacher and first-time writer David Anaxagoras. It's a coming-of-age story about a boy and his two best friends exploring what appears to be an ordinary suburban neighborhood. Now streaming at amazon.com/primeinstantvideo
Neal Justin
