What’s the deal with TV and hotels? Two new reality shows — “Hotel

What’s the deal with TV and hotels? Two new reality shows — “Hotel Impossible” (Travel Channel, premiered Monday) and Gordon Ramsay’s “Hotel Hell” (June 4, Fox) — concern themselves with trying to turn around down-on-their-luck lodging. And in Starz’s new “Mad Men”-ish drama “Magic City,” a key player is the ritzy hotel modeled on Miami Beach’s legendary Fontainebleau. With this in mind, let’s check in with these five other TV shows in which a hotel has a starring role.

v “Hot L Baltimore” (1975): Controversial TV adaptation (by Norman Lear) of the Off-Broadway play set at the seedy Hotel Baltimore.

v“Fawlty Towers” (1980): “Monty Python’s” John Cleese starred in this beloved Britcom that aired on PBS as Basil Fawlty, inept, short-tempered proprietor of a country hotel. (The series was Americanized in 1983 with the short-lived “Amanda’s” starring Beatrice Arthur.)

v“Hotel” (1983-88): James Brolin and Connie Sellecca starred in this prime-time soap set at San Francisco’s St. Gregory Hotel, which was based on Arthur Hailey’s bestselling novel (and 1967 movie).

v“Hotel Malibu” (1994): Summer soap opera set at the titular hostelry on the southern California coast. Notable in the cast was a relatively unknown Jennifer Lopez as a Mexican-American bartender named Melinda Lopez.

v“Paradise Hotel” (2003): Fox reality show that was basically “Survivor” set at a luxurious tropical resort.

“Glee” (8 p.m., fox): The wait is over, “Glee” fans. The show finally returns from hiatus with an episode that features Matt Bomer (“White Collar”) as Blaine’s (Darren Criss) older brother. More importantly, we want to learn the fate of Quinn (Diana Agron), who was last seen getting into a brutal car accident.

“justified” (10 p.m., fx): Yet another gripping season of “Justified” comes to an end tonight as an incensed Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) goes on a vengeful rampage against those responsible for the death of his friend. The title of the episode is “Slaughterhouse,” which may tell you just how brutal things get.

TV listings, B6

ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

Retired YSU prof’s film to air on PBS

KENT

“Ash and Smoke: The Holocaust in Salonika,” a documentary by retired Youngstown State University history professor Saul S. Friedman, airs at 9 p.m. Thursday and 1 a.m. April 23 on PBS Channel 45.1. The documentary is produced and written by Friedman and Robert D. Ault, a librarian at Maag Library. The film is edited by Dan McCormick, network administrator at YSU, and narrated by Brian Bonhomme, YSU history professor.

The documentary examines Salonika, Greece. According to records, 56,500 Jewish citizens lived in the city on the eve of the Holocaust. By the end of December 1944, only three remained. Filmed on location in Thessaloniki (as Salonika is now known) and at the Auschwitz concentration camp, the documentary examines factors contributing to the demise of a Jewish community that had thrived for a thousand years.

Friedman is a Jewish Studies scholar and Holocaust expert.