Here’s All the TV You Need to Catch Up on This Weekend

Screengrab: WIRED

The two hardest things to say goodbye to in pop culture are: 1) Yesterday and 2) TV shows that you love. Broad City and Brooklyn Nine-Nine have wrapped their inaugural seasons, which B99‘s Gina Linetti would probably classify as a frowny face shedding a single tear, but as television taketh away, it also giveth! We saw a return to form of the eternally spry Sharon Jones on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, and the return of Kevin Bacon’s can’t-stop, won’t-stop dancing rebel Ren on The Tonight Show. Even the somewhat staid Simpsons—the eldest of elder statesmen—made us laugh!

The old dogs showed us their best tricks still work, and the newbies reminded us that the future of small screen is getting brighter all the time. Here’s what you may have missed, or may just want a double dose of, from this week.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — Kevin Bacon’s Footloose Entrance

Jump back! Jimmy Fallon has gone all Reverend Shaw Moore and outlawed dancing on the Tonight Show, and in order to keep one of America’s most beloved institutions from going full Beaumont, Kevin “Ren McCormack” Bacon must right this heinous wrong! All he had to do was scream “Let’s daaaaaaaance!” one more time and we would have appreciated the nod to history, but Kevin Bacon loves us more than that. Instead, he goes H.A.M. to some Kenny Loggins in the NBC hallways with a small army of backup dancers. Bacon clearly stayed fit in the 30 years since dancing into our hearts with Footloose, making us feel no shame when that maroon blazer and bowtie combo gives us nostalgia vapors. Let’s hear it for the boy!

Broad City — Adrenaline!

It’s Abbi’s birthday in the Broad City season finale, and how could Ilana call herself a BFF if she wasn’t willing to put her life on the line for a pricey seafood dinner despite having a lethal shellfish allergy? Ilana is packing an EpiPen in case of emergency, but as you can imagine that adrenaline shot doesn’t end up where it’s supposed to. Thank the gods that Veep‘s new season starts on April 6. With Abbi and Ilana on break, we’ll need you Selena Meyer!

Jimmy Kimmel Live! — Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: People Don’t Get What They Deserve

Sharon Jones is a force of nature. Her debut album, Dap Dippin with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, came out in 2002 when she was just a 45-year-old spring chicken, and in the years since her throwback soul jams and James Brown-esque stage presence have brought Motown back to life for anyone at her live shows. But 2013 was rough on Jones. She was diagnosed with cancer and as a result had to delay the release of Give the People What They Want, her latest LP, to undergo surgery and chemotherapy. That was last year, though, and since finishing her final round of treatment on New Year’s Eve, Jones has finally been able to release her new album, and put on those hard dancing shoes again! Welcome back to the fold, Sharon. We hope we look half this good at 57.

Billy on the Street — Lindsay Lohan and Billy Eichner Destroy a Car

Billy Eichner is on a roll this week, and we hate to laugh at someone else’s pain, but his extreme anguish at the “premature” “cancellation” of How I Met Your Mother is just too good. He started out with a familiar on-the-street segment, running around screaming at pedestrians with Neil Patrick Harris in tow, but Billy’s hurt runs deeper than shouts into the void—so for this clip he’s taking it to the junkyard for some old-fashioned demolition therapy. Because a grown man beating the hell out of a car to mellow his fury at HIMYM leaving him emotionally desolate isn’t weird enough on its own, he recruits Lindsay Lohan to exorcise those demons with him. Everyone wins with this sketch. You. Me. Billy. Lindsay. Mayim Bialik … yeah, mostly Mayim Bialik.

Modern Family — Just the Jokes

This scene from Modern Family is so quietly dense with material we wanted to stand up and applaud by the end. This team has been working together so successfully for so long, the cast and writers have unshakable confidence in each other to execute every detail. And being a show that can get Fred Armisen, Patton Oswalt and Stephen Merchant—a standout in this episode playing as semi-obsessive hotel employee Leslie Higgins—is definitely a huge bonus. The Dunphys are in Vegas for this episode and Phil’s got one more chance to prove to he belongs in secret magician’s society. There’s a human-sized dog woman in a French maid’s outfit. Gloria’s in a towel. And there might be a smoke bomb. We’ll leave it at that.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine – Gina Speaks Emoji

It was a downer of a week for comedy fans, as Broad City and Brooklyn Nine-Nine both said their Season 1 farewells. Our lovable band of fools from the 99th precinct will be back, of course, especially after becoming a surprise awards-season darling, but that doesn’t mean we’ll miss them any less. As a parting shot, here is officer Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti) showing the squad how to communicate via verbal emojis, and a deeper look at the sordid dating history of Captain Ray Holt.

The Simpsons — Greetings from Isla Verde

Maybe it’s the caper wearing a bowler hat and carrying a knife. Maybe it’s the use of “Lose Everything” as a sales slogan. Maybe (definitely) it’s Max von Sydow’s intoxicating voice. But the way this advertisement for a life-destroying liquor called Strupo doubles as a destination vacation advertisement is amazing. For a whole minute the spectre of a society consumed by this “brine of madness” unfolds before you, only getting worse every time you expect the music to pick up and turn that frown around. It’s so bleak it almost makes you want to see what this fictitious “angel’s urine” is capable of IRL.

Bonus Track: Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge — Inside the Creature Shop

Getting a chance to go inside the practical effects Mecca that is Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is beyond a dream come true. Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Where the Wild Things Are, Sesame Street—the “stars” of these projects were all born on the foam- and felt-laden work benches of Jim Henson’s namesake company, which is now presided over by his son, Brian. In this behind-the-scenes clip, we get to meet some of the actual men and women behind the masks. The contestants on Creature Shop Challenge would be left with lifeless mounds of feathers and fur if not for these veteran puppeteers, who put gallons of sweat—and probably some blood and tears, too—into making these intricate costumes the living and breathing creatures we’ve loved and feared.