friday
Picks for Saturday and Sunday follow Friday’s picks (scroll down).
Plenty of fuss is always made about the women of China Beach (History Channel, 1pm and 6pm), but I always felt the men on the show were just as important (and cool). The episode “China Men” shines a spotlight on them a bit. How great are Ned Vaughn, Jeff Kober, Brian Wimmer, Michael Boatman, and Robert Picardo? Really great.
The fifth season premiere of Babylon 5 (Sci-Fi, 6pm, letterboxed) finds a lot of folks in flux on ye olde station. Introduces a new character or two and all things considered, isn’t a bad episode.
Do you enjoy Celebrity Deathmatch (MTV, 6:30pm – 10pm)? Well, you can watch a lot of episodes tonight. It’s a party just waiting to happen. For somebody (not me).
Television premiere of the newly restored silent film classic The Lost World (TCM, 7pm). From 1925. Based, of course, on Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel.
Rae Dawn Chong and Adrian Pasdar star in a new episode of Mysterious Ways (NBC, 7pm). A misfit teen seeks help from another teen that he thinks is a superhero. I kinda like this show.
Summer of Sci-Fi Pick: New episodes of Invisible Man (Sci-Fi, 7pm and 10pm); Farscape (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 11pm); and Lexx (Sci-Fi, 9pm and midnight). I don’t need to tell you that Farscape is the one to watch, do I?
Miss The Mists of Avalon (TNT, 7pm-11pm) miniseries earlier this week? You could watch or record all four hours tonight. Based on a novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Julianna Marguiles, Joan Allen, and Anjelica Huston star.
That’s Life (CBS, 8pm) finally returns, moving into it’s new timeslot where it will reside this fall. Many were surprised this show was picked up for another season, but those who watch it were surely pleased. Heather Paige Kent stars as a young woman who has split with a longtime boyfriend and who decides to return to college. Her parents are played by Paul Sorvino and Ellen Burstyn, her best friend is played by Debi Mazar. Sure, it’s a little like Providence, but with an italian, blue collar twist. Or something. Early episodes are merely okay, not bad, but nothing particularly new that grabs you, but the series improved a lot as the season wore on. More grounded than Providence or Judging Amy. I don’t much care for Kent, but the writing and supporting characters are good enough that I can get past it. The pilot episode is rerun tonight.
Barenaked Ladies (the band, that is) guest star on Charmed (WB, 8pm).
For the next six weeks, 48 Hours (CBS, 9pm) will do a series they’re calling Murder, They Wrote. Each episode will focus on a real life crime that became the basis for a bestselling true crime book. The writers will, of course, figure prominently in telling the stories. Tonight’s book is While Innocents Slept by Adrian Havill.
Sure, it’s no Simon & Garfunkel-type event (big understatement, I know), but The Go-Gos in Central Park (VH1, 9pm) is new and features music in the park and could be fun. . .
A 7-year-old shoots another student and that’s just the beginning of a case that is, of course, more complicated than you’d think. I refuse to say it has a “shocking Law & Order twist” because that would be telling and because I don’t remember if it does or not. Suffice to say, it’s a rerun of Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit (NBC, 9pm). A series that improved a lot in it’s second season (Thank God).
The original classic King Kong (TCM, 9pm) is better than you remember. Assuming you’ve actually seen all of it before (and if not, what’s stopping you?). It’s followed by Son of Kong (TCM, 11pm) which I’ll assume isn’t very good ‘cuz I’ve not heard much about it (it’s about Kong’s “albino offspring”).
New episode of Stargate SG-1 (Showtime, 9:30pm).
“Happy To Be Here” is another fine episode of Homicide: Life on the Street (Court TV, 10pm).
Billy Crystal on The Late Show w/ David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).
Vince Vaughn on The Late Late Show (CBS, check your local listings).
Dolly Parton, Donal Logue on a rerun of Late Night w/ Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:35pm).
Saturday, July 21, 2001
Beware: this weekend’s “fandemonium” marathon features Welcome Back, Kotter (TV Land, 5am Saturday – 5am Sunday).
Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Sci-Fi, 9am).
Peter Frampton c/o/m/e/s/ a/l/i/v/e/ guest stars on Black Sheep Squadron (History Channel, 10am).
Yet another airing of all four hours of The Mists of Avalon (TNT, 11am-3pm).
Did you know that David Hasselhoff wants to star in a new Knight Rider series? Be afraid. Of course, new versions have been tried in the movies and as series. Catch two of the movies if you dare: Knight Rider 2000 (Sci-Fi, 3pm), which aired originally in 1991 and Knight Rider 2010 (Sci-Fi, 5pm).
VH1 shows some episodes of Miami Vice. Vanity and Melanie Griffith guest star in the first episode (VH1, 3pm), the second episode features James Brown (VH1, 4pm), the third has Ted Nugent in it (VH1, 5pm), the fourth has Bruce Willis (VH1, 6pm) and the fifth one has Phil Collins (VH1, 7pm).
It’s hard to believe, but the Rugrats have been on TV for ten years now. Nick celebrates with a special called All Growed Up (Nick, 7pm-8pm). This is also actually a pilot for a proposed Rugrats spinoff that would focus on the kids as tweenagers.
It’s followed by a half-hour special Making of the Rugrats: Still Babies After All These Years (Nick, 8pm).
I finally got around to watching the pilot episode of The Chronicle (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 11pm) and I really liked it. It’s a fun series. Chad Willett stars as a journalism school grad who gets a job with a tabloid paper. Jon Polito plays his boss, Rena Sofer plays another reporter there, and Reno Wilson plays a photographer. Oh yeah, Curtis Armstrong plays the researcher known as “Pig Boy”. Really! The catch is, of course, that the stories printed in the tabloid are true. In tonight’s new episode, they investigate a dragon that’s appeared underneath Chinatown. The series was inspired by (or based on) the News from the Edge books by Mark Sumner.
“Pantry Raid 4: Comb Alone” (a.k.a. the honey episode) of Good Eats (Food Network, 8pm and 11pm).
Jeremy London stars in a new episode of The Outer Limits (Sci-Fi, 9pm and midnight).
The poster is more famous than the movie. Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. (AMC, 9pm).
“Yellow Iris” episode of Poirot (A&E, 10pm).
Katherine Hepburn is torn between Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, and some other guy in one of my favorite movies: The Philadelphia Story (TCM, midnight).
Sunday, July 22, 2001
Two episodes of Duckman (Comedy Central, 6am and 6:30am).
Retired action heroes (played by Pat Harrington and John Ashton!?) visit the island, and an unsympathetic husband (played by Arye Gross) becomes pregnant on Fantasy Island (Sci-Fi, 8am).
Ella Fitzgerald is profiled in Forever Ella on Breakfast with the Arts (A&E, 8am-10am). Includes Ella’s last interview and all sorts of cool stuff.
Collections of vacuum cleaners, antique dolls, and the belongings of Mae West on The Incurable Collector (A&E, 11am).
I guess you could celebrate Christmas in July with Flintstones Christmas Carol (Cartoon Network, 11am-12:30pm); ‘Tis The Season to Be Smurfy (Cartoon Network, 12:30pm); Toonheads Christmas (Cartoon Network, 1pm); Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (Cartoon Network, 2pm); Christmas Flintstone (Cartoon Network, 4pm); A Jetsons Christmas (Cartoon Network, 4:30pm); and Yule Toons (Cartoon Network, 5pm).
Marilyn Monroe and Sir Laurence Olivier in The Princess and the Showgirl (TCM, 1pm).
More Miami Vice: With Glenn Fry (VH1, 3pm); Sheena Easton (VH1, 4pm); Sheena Easton and Iman (VH1, 5pm); and more and more Sheena Easton (VH1, 6pm and 7pm).
Another film essential: Dial M For Murder (TCM, 5pm).
“Head Games” (cabbage) episode of Good Eats (Food Network, 5:30pm).
Bender falls for another robot in the “Bendless Love” episode of Futurama (FOX, 6pm).
New episodes of Strong Medicine (Lifetime, 7pm) and Any Day Now (Lifetime, 9pm).
When we last saw Buffy (if you’re only watching the Sunday reruns, that is; the Wednesday reruns are showing episodes from earlier in the season), she was slumped on the ground and nonresponsive after Glory took Dawn. On this Sunday’s rerun of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (WB, 7pm), the Buffster is still nonresponsive and Willow forms a plan which includes going into the Slayer’s mind to try and snap her out of it. Meanwhile, Spike and Xander team up (always good for a laugh) and the rest of the Scooby Gang tries to figure out what they can do to save the world and/or Dawn.
New episodes of Sex and the City (HBO, 8pm) and Six Feet Under (HBO, 8:30pm). Six Feet Under has been picked up for a second season, in case you were wondering.
E!’s True Hollywood Story (E!, 8pm) turns its attention towards Beverly Hills, 90210. Ohboy.
Mulder is buried at the beginning of the “Deadalive” episode of The X-Files (FOX, 8pm), but– as it turns out– he isn’t dead.
New episode of Huntress (USA, 9pm).
Part 2 of the pilot episode of Crime Story (A&E, 10pm). Sadly, the pop songs originally used in the show are absent from the episodes airing on A&E. I hate that.
Funniest talk show ever hosted by an animated character: Space Ghost: Coast to Coast (Cartoon Network, 11pm).
