Laurel’s TV Picks

Info on Friday daytime TV is available in the tomorrow section, full picks should be online at or around Noon.

2004 MTV Movie Awards (MTV, 8pm; preshow at 7:30pm)
Celebrity Poker Showdown (Bravo, 8pm – 10pm; 11pm – 1am)
Part 4 (of 4) of 5 Days to Midnight (Sci-Fi, 8pm, 9pm, 10pm)
The First 48 (A&E, 9pm and 1am)

Woohoo! You can now pre-order Season 1 of Everwood on DVD; the set hits stores on September 7th. It’s a great season of a great show. [More TV on DVD]

My PC may have a bad motherboard. Humina. Thanks to the five swell people who made donations yesterday– you rock! I’m definitely starting a fund for computer repairs (and/or upgrades).

Special coverage of the death of former President Ronald Reagan may still cause last minute changes to the schedule or schedule changes that aren’t reflected in your local listings (or on Tivo and other PVRs).

I’ve updated my Fall 2004 Schedule Grid Preview a few times since it was originally posted, to reflect announced schedule changes from CBS & the WB, and also add some more information. You can even jump right to the grid for the Central timezone or for Eastern/Pacific. In addition to the schedule for next season, those pages also include lists of midseason series and of those that won’t be returning.

Turner Classic Movies airs 15 Ronald Reagan movies today: Love is On the Air (TCM, 7am); Accidents will Happen (TCM, 8am); Angels Wash Their Faces (TCM, 9:15am); Tugboat Annie Sails Again (TCM, 10:45am); Santa Fe Trail (TCM, 12:15pm); One for the Book (TCM, 2:15pm); Night Unto Night (TCM, 4pm); Prisoner of War (TCM, 5:30pm); Kings Row (TCM, 7pm); Desperate Journey (TCM, 9:15pm); The Last Outpost (TCM, 11:15pm); John Loves Mary (TCM, 1am); An Angel from Texas (TCM, 2:45am); Sergeant Murphy (TCM, 4am); and Hell’s Kitchen (TCM, 5am).

Sci-Fi mini-marathon du jour: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (Sci-Fi, 10am – 3pm).

Burt Reynolds, Nick Cannon on a rerun of The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

Donny Osmond, Kiele Sanchez, Avant on a rerun of The Sharon Osbourne Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

Martin Short, Carrot Top, Chris Cuomo, more of America’s best teachers on The Wayne Brady Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

“A Family Divided” on Dr. Phil (syndicated, check your local listings).

Rerun of the “Decorating on a Budget with Nate” episode of Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings). With designers Nate Berkusm Vern Yip (of Trading Spaces), and Rebecca Cole.

Baseball: Atlanta Braves at Detroit Tigers (TBS, Noon).

Bill Murray & brothers golf on The Sweet Spot (Comedy Central, 1pm, 1:30pm).

Baseball: St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs (WGN, 1pm).

“Sleeper” and “Never Leave Me” episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (FX, 3pm, 4pm).

“Blind Date” episode of Angel (TNT, 4pm).

“Dead Irish Writers” episode of The West Wing (Bravo, 6pm and 10pm).

“Steak Your Claim” episode of Good Eats (Food Network, 6pm). This was the first episode of this now-fabulous series.

Dips & Dippers Unwrapped (Food Network, 6:30pm).

Ronald Reagan movies: Kings Row (TCM, 7pm); Desperate Journey (TCM, 9:15pm); The Last Outpost (TCM, 11:15pm); John Loves Mary (TCM, 1am); An Angel from Texas (TCM, 2:45am); Sergeant Murphy (TCM, 4am); and Hell’s Kitchen (TCM, 5am).

Peers, staff, and family on Ronald Reagan in Ronald Reagan: The Man They Knew (History Channel, 7pm – 10pm; 11pm – 2am).

God tells Joan to do some work with kids on Joan of Arcadia (CBS, 7pm). I think it’s smart of CBS to air reruns on this night and time, I do hope more people check out this fine show. Russ Tamblyn guest stars as “dog walking God” in this, he’s series star Amber Tamblyn’s real life Dad.

Fez studies U.S. history to prepare for a meeting with the I.N.S, Donna and Eric accidently let Kelso’s van roll off a cliff on two episodes of That ’70s Show (FOX, 7pm, 7:30pm). Jim Gaffigan, James Avery, and Shannon Elizabeth guest star. Funny stuff.

Alanis Morissette, Maroon 5, Joss Stone and Morrissey perform on Pepsi Smash (WB, 7pm).

Friends (NBC, 7pm – 7:32pm) is a rerun of “The One With The Late Thanksgiving.”

Steve Carell is up to something on Come To Papa (NBC, 7:32pm).

Lindsay Lohan hosts the 2004 MTV Movie Awards (MTV, 8pm; preshow at 7:30pm; post show follows the awards and then they air the awards again). Will be rerun plenty on MTV in coming weeks. The Beastie Boys are among the performers. Plenty of details on the official site.

NBA Basketball: Los Angeles Lakers at Detroit Pistons (ABC, 8pm; pregame at 7:30pm). Game 3 of the NBA Finals, series is tied 1-1.

Part 4 (of 4) of 5 Days to Midnight (Sci-Fi, 8pm, 9pm, 10pm; also tomorrow at 7pm). All four parts air again on Sunday.

Michael Ian Black (of Ed), Star Jones (of The ViewA Minute with Stan Hooper), Adam Rodriguez (of CSI: Miami), and Jeremy Sisto (of Six Feet Under) play poker on a new episode of Celebrity Poker Showdown (Bravo, 8pm – 10pm; 11pm – 1am). Dave Foley (of NewsRadio, Kids in the Hall) hosts.

Rerun of the episode of Summerland (WB, 8pm; also airs Sunday) that first aired on Tuesday night, it’ll also air again on Sunday. C. Thomas Howell guest stars and there are references to The Outsiders in this okay episode of an okay show. I find the characters and cast likeable enough, but feel the WB hurt my enjoyment of the show by airing a preview immediately before the episode that gave away almost all major plot points. And as if that wasn’t enough, each time they went to a commercial they’d show scenes from upcoming scenes that also gave everything away! I mean, I’m not expecting a ton of suspense from this show, but this sort of show is predictable enough without that!

A groom begs for a moment alone with his dead bride; but when Tru & Davis catch him tampering with the body, he shoots Davis! So then Tru tries to save both the bride and Davis on Tru Calling (FOX, 8pm).

A young woman who wanted to be a showgirl goes missing and the main suspect in the case is creepily infatuated with Catherine on C.S.I. (CBS, 8pm). Martin Donovan guest stars.

James Earl Jones and Blythe Danner guest star on Will & Grace (NBC, 8pm).

Another airing of Lifetime original movie Perfect Romance (Lifetime, 8pm). Kathleen Quinlan stars in this movie that involves online matchmaking.

Julie Warner and Embeth Davidtz guest star on Scrubs (NBC, 8:30pm). They come to town to comfort Jordan (Christa Miller Lawrence) after the death of her brother, but having all those women in the apartment drives Dr. Cox nuts. And Carla teaches a class about sexual harassment.

D-Day: Reflections of Courage (Discovery, 8pm – 10pm; 11pm – 1am).

The First 48 (A&E, 9pm and 1am) premiered last week, is a series that follows the first 48 hours of murder cases. In this episode, they follow Miami homicide detectives as they race against time to find the evidence necessary to charge two suspects in a brutal murder case.

Malone puts his psychiatry training to good use when he deduces that the missing person they’re looking for is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia on Without A Trace (CBS, 9pm). Jerry O’Connell guest stars as the missing person.

Neela treats “fun-seeking Amish teenagers” on ER (NBC, 8:59pm).

Jennifer Love Hewitt on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

The fabulous “Anthology of Interest 2″ episode of Futurama (Cartoon Network, 10pm and 1am).

Graham Norton, Marc Maron, Keith Robinson, Judy Gold on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).

Matthew Broderick, Jamie Cullum on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Vin Diesel, Nicole Richie, Julie Roberts on The Tonight Show (NBC, 10:35pm).

Jennifer Love Hewitt, Steve Irwin, Indigo Girls on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:35pm).

Chris Webber, Anthony Michael Hall (of The Dead Zone), Gerald and Linda Polley on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, check your local listings).

Patrick Stewart, Barry Manilow on a rerun of The Late Late Show (CBS, check your local listings).

Michael Chiklis (of The Shield), Oscar De La Hoya, Robbers on High Street on a rerun of Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).

“Sleeper” and “Never Leave Me” episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (FX, 6am, 7am).

Coverage of the memorial service for President Ronald Reagan on Today (NBC, 7am – 10am).

The latest on funeral preparations for President Ronald Reagan on Good Morning, America (ABC, 7am – 9am).

Jennifer Love Hewitt, Glenn Close on The Early Show (CBS, 7am – 9am).

Rerun of the two-hour pilot movie for Touching Evil (USA, 7:30am).

Live with Regis and Kelly (syndicated, check your local listings) may be pre-empted for coverage of Ronald Reagan’s funeral, if not the schedule guests are Jennifer Love Hewitt, Vin Diesel, and Kathryn Morris (of Cold Case).

The Funeral of President Ronald Reagan will air on most of the major networks and on all the news stations, starting at 9am or 9:30am in most cases (I believe MSNBC’s coverage starts at 8am). May run as late as 1pm on the networks, later on the news channels.

The View won’t air on Friday because of coverage of former President Ronald Reagan’s funeral.

Sci-Fi mini-marathon du jour: Star Trek (Sci-Fi, 10am – 3pm).

Robert Downey Jr., Mary J. Blige on a rerun of The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

Bachelor Bob Guiney, Leah Remini on a rerun of The Sharon Osbourne Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

Kathy Griffin, Gail O’Grady. more of America’s best teachers on The Wayne Brady Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

“Take It Away!” (people who are addicted to their gadgets) on Dr. Phil (syndicated, check your local listings).

Rerun of the “Notorious Trials: The Inside Story” episode ofOprah (syndicated, check your local listings).

“Bring on the Night” and “Show Time” episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (FX, 3pm, 4pm).

“To Shanshu in L.A.” episode of Angel (TNT, 4pm). Season One finale.

“Sausage: A Beautiful Grind” episode of Good Eats (Food Network, 6pm).

Chicken Unwrapped (Food Network, 6:30pm).

In Friday primetime expect: coverage of President Ronald Reagan’s funeral (this time it’s the private internment at the Reagan Presidential Library). There isn’t much else on, definitely a good night to go out or else watch any TV you’ve recorded and haven’t found the time to watch. I’ll have full coverage (and maybe will find some other viewing possibilities for y’all) in my picks for Friday, which should be online sometime after midnight and before Noon Friday.

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