Ever wonder where director/star "Beat" Takeshi Kitano got the idea of the big tap-dancing finale for his 2003 remake of the samurai classic "Zatoichi"? It came to him after he saw the American dancer Savion Glover, who the program information says influenced Michael Jackson's Moonwalk.

This week on "Takeshi Art Beat" (NHK-G, Mon., 10 p.m.), Japan's king of all media finally meets Glover at the latter's studio in New York. Kitano himself studied tap dancing when he was younger, but quit after he became a successful comedian in the 1970s. Glover is said to have the fastest feet in the history of the terpsichorean arts, and so Kitano brings along a high-speed camera in order to study his amazing footwork up close.

If NHK's New Year's Eve song contest doesn't interest you, but live television still provides a thrill, there are three alternatives.