weekend
Picks for Saturday and Sunday follow Friday’s picks (keep on scrollin’).
Braves at Cubs (WGN, 2pm). You’ve gotta enjoy summer pleasures like a day game at Wrigley Field while they last.
Sinead O’Connor is profiled on Behind The Music (VH1, 2:30pm).
Gene Kelly in Cover Girl (AMC, 2:30pm), Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding (TCM, 4pm).
Shazam! Yes, this year’s Ultimate TV Fan has scheduled two episodes of Shazam (TV Land, 4pm and 4:30pm) to air this afternoon. Be afraid. I remember liking this show way back when (though not as much as Isis), but I watched an episode or two the last time an Ultimate TV Fan picked them and wow . . . very scary stuff. Captain Marvel never looked so . . . creepy.
What if NewsRadio (A&E, 5:30pm) were set on The Titanic? The “Sinking Ship” episode answers that question (and more!).
K.C. (Marg Helgenberger) and Cherry (Nan Woods) encounter some nasty black marketeers in Da Nang, McMurphy (Dana Delany) and Natch (Tim Ryan) continue their flirtation, and so on in the “Hot Spell” episode of China Beach (History Channel, Noon and 6pm).
“Deathwalker” episode of Babylon 5 (Sci-Fi, 6pm, letterboxed).
New episode of Invisible Man (Sci-Fi, 7pm and 10pm).
Diagnosis Murder (CBS, 7pm) does Rear Window.
More TV celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (ABC, 7pm-9pm).
Funniest. Movie. Ever. That would be Bringing Up Baby (TCM, 7:30pm). Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant (and a leopard) star in this Howard Hawks’ screwball classic. It’s among my favorite comedies of all time and on some days (like today!), I think it’s the funniest movie ever.
Patrons of the new family restaurant see the Virgin Mary in the window on That’s Life (CBS, 8pm).
Sid Caesar on Larry King Live (CNN, 8pm and 11pm).
Season premiere of Encounters With the Unexplained (PAX, 8pm). Jerry Orbach hosts.
New episode of Stargate SG-1 (Showtime, 9pm).
Eugene Levy, Rich Hall on The Late Show (CBS, 10:35pm).
Tom Hanks, Allison Kraus and Union Station on The Tonight Show (NBC, 10:35pm).
Topher Grace, They Might Be Giants on Late Night w/ Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:35pm).
Don’t miss the Nightline (ABC, check your local listings) series that starts tonight about what’s really going on in the Congo. It’s heartwrenching and it’s all true.
Lewis (Clark Johnson) shocks everyone when he announces his plans to get married that very evening in “The Wedding” episode of Homicide: Life on the Street (Court TV, midnight). Gee (Yaphet Kotto) and Kay (Melissa Leo) end up working a case while the rest of the gang gets ready for the wedding. And Bayliss and Kellerman both pay a lot of attention to Kay’s visiting sister (also played by Melissa Leo). It’s a fun fun episode.
Saturday, September 8, 2001
Yet another TV Land marathon, this one features “Crimestoppers”. That is, episodes of Baretta, Mannix, Ironside, Adam-12, Barney Miller, Andy Griffith, Get Smart, Switch, and The A-Team (TV Land, 5am Saturday – 5am Monday).
Star Trek marathon (Sci-Fi, 8am – 7pm).
Now that’s self-referential. True Hollywood Story (E!, 10am) looks at . . . True Hollywood Story. Alrighty then.
Another airing of the “Hot Spell” episode of China Beach (History Channel, 10am). Which aired on Friday at Noon and 6pm.
Another airing of the Video Awards Pre-Show (MTV, 11am), followed by this year’s MTV Video Awards (MTV, 1pm; 7pm).
Cool! Showtime has a marathon of episodes of Stargate SG-1 (Showtime, 11:30am – 8pm). Set those VCRs and Tivos, people. There’s a new episode at 7pm.
A Wizard of Oz collection, Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, and other cool stuff on The Incurable Collector (A&E, 5pm).
The “Cool Beans” episode of Good Eats (Food Network, 8pm and 11pm).
New episodes of The Chronicle (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 11pm) and Outer Limits (Sci-Fi, 9pm and midnight).
New episode of Strange Frequency (VH1, 9pm).
Sunday, September 9, 2001
Scooby Doo Meets Dick Van Dyke (Cartoon Network, 11am). I just report these things, okay?
Totally Tube (E!, 11am) is “a look at upcoming shows slated for the 2001 fall television season.” Oh-kay. Like, totally.
Designer clothing, I Love Lucy collectibles, and rubber duckies (yay!) on The Incurable Collector (A&E, 11am).
Robert Preston is The Music Man (AMC, 11:30am).
A little Law & Order marathon (TNT, 3pm – 8pm).
I always feel a little bad for the technicians who don’t get to be part of the Big Emmy broadcast. So hey– thanks to E!, you can watch The Creative Arts Awards (E!, 5pm-7pm).
The tea episode of Good Eats (Food Network, 5:30pm).
Roseanne on a new episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio (Bravo, 7pm and 11pm).
New episodes of Strong Medicine (Lifetime, 7pm) and Any Day Now (Lifetime, 9pm).
Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (AMC, 7pm). I love this movie. She’s a nun, he’s a G.I. and they’re stranded together on an island occupied by the Japanese during World War II.
Series premiere of Ponderosa (PAX, 8pm-10pm). It’s the pilot movie for this new series which is a pre-quel to Bonanza (really!). This new series “chronicles the early years of widower Ben Cartwright and his three teen-age sons, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe, as they settle the land that will someday become their ranch.” In the pilot movie, Hop Sing arrives at ye olde (or should I say “new”) Ponderosa.
New installment of Band of Brothers (HBO, 8pm-10pm).
Scully gives birth under what have to be just about the worst conditions imaginable on The X-Files (FOX, 8pm). Somehow, it all works out, though. Yeah, it’s a rerun of the season finale (which many feel might as well be the series finale).
NBC airs reruns of Law & Order (NBC, 8pm) and Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit (NBC, 9pm).
New episode of Huntress (USA, 9pm).
Don’t miss the new “Adult Swim” block of cartoons on the Cartoon Network. I really like The Brak Show (Cartoon Network, 9:30pm; 9:45pm) and of course I’m thrilled to see new episodes of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast (Cartoon Network, 10:30pm). I liked last week’s Harvey Birdman show, this week you’ll want to check out Aqua Teen Hungerforce (Cartoon Network, 10pm) and Sealab 2021 (Cartoon Network, 10:15pm). And of course Cowboy Bebop (Cartoon Network, 11pm and 11:30pm) sure looks cool cool cool, man.
Eli feels torn between his girlfriend and his family in the excellent “Moving On” episode of Once and Again (Lifetime, 10pm). It’d be so cool if Lifetime could air a Once and Again marathon one of these days so folks who haven’t watched the show much could catch up.
