Laurel’s TV Picks

Series premiere of Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends (Cartoon Network, 6:30pm – 8pm; 9pm – 10:30pm)
XXVIII Summer Olympics: Opening Ceremonies (NBC, 7pm – 11pm or so)
Stargate SG-1 (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 10pm)
Monk (USA, 9pm and 11pm)
Stargate: Atlantis (Sci-Fi, 9pm and 11pm)

Some of the cool TV DVDs newly available for pre-orders: Seasons 1 & 2 of Seinfeld, Season 3 of Seinfeld, special Seasons 1-3 Seinfeld gift set, Season 2 of SCTV, Greg The Bunny, Season 4 of Dawson’s Creek, Season 1 of That ’70s Show, and Season 1 of The O.C.. Please do check out the TV on DVD page. Thanks to everyone who orders DVDs or signs up for Netflix via that page.

I’m ba-ack from vacation. Still very busy for all of August, so updates may come at odd times and I may have to do abbreviated versions of ye olde picks. Things should settle down in September. Thanks so much for your patience and understanding.

TCM Star of the Day is Doris Day: The Glass Bottom Boat (TCM, 5am); Love Me Or Leave Me (TCM, 7am); Billy Rose’s Jumbo (TCM, 9:15am); My Dream Is Yours (TCM, 11:30am); Romance on the High Seas (TCM, 1:15pm); Please Don’t Eat The Daisies (TCM, 3pm); Send Me No Flowers (TCM, 5pm); Lover Come Back (TCM, 7pm); Pillow Talk (TCM, 9pm); The Man Who Knew Too Much (TCM, 11pm); Midnight Lace (TCM, 1:15am); and Julie (TCM, 3:15am).

“Beauty and the Beasts” episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (FX, 6am). Werewolves and vampires, oh my!

Sci-Fi mini-marathon du jour: The Outer Limits (Sci-Fi, 7am – 3pm).

Nia Vardalos, chef Jim Boutsakis on Today (NBC, 7am – 10am).

Black Eyed Peas, chef Emeril Lagasse on Good Morning, America (ABC, 7am – 9am).

Health Watch, Anne Hathaway on The Early Show (CBS, 7am – 9am).

Jamie Foxx, Claudia Cohen on Live with Regis and Kelly (syndicated, check your local listings).

Rerun of “The View on Teens” episode of The View (ABC, check your local listings).

Rerun of the “White Light” episode of The 4400 (USA, 11am). Billy Campbell (of Once and Again) guest stars.

James Caan, Peri Gilpin, Meredith Phillips, and Ian McKee on a rerun of The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

Amy Smart, Kevin Bacon, the Bacon Brothers on a rerun of The Sharon Osbourne Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

“Kick ‘em Out!” on Dr. Phil (syndicated, check your local listings).

Rerun of the “Oprah’s Ugliest Room in America Makeover” episode of Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings). Nate Berkus and Ty Pennington (of Trading Spaces).

“Homecoming” episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (FX, 1pm).

No Angel rerun on TNT this afternoon ‘cuz of golf (PGA Championship, Second Round ).

“A Chuck for Chuck” episode of Good Eats (Food Network, 6pm).

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

Baseball: St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves (TBS, 6:30pm).

Parts 1-3 (of 3) of the series premiere of Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends (Cartoon Network, 6:30pm – 8pm; 9pm – 10:30pm). From the creator of Powerpuff Girls. A boy is forced to give up his imaginary friend and he takes his friend to “a very special home.” Yup, it’s a home for imaginary friends. Review: I thought I might post a lengthy review after I screened the pilot, but all I really need to tell you is that it’s cute (in a good way) and pretty entertaining. There’s a lot to set up, I imagine regular episodes will be even more fun.

XXVIII Summer Olympics: Opening Ceremonies (NBC, 7pm – 11pm or later; rerun after local news and Tonight Show and Late Night). Will almost certainly run long (and as a result push back your local news as well as The Tonight Show and Late Night). From Athens, Greece. Lots and lots of athletes from all over the world parade in and there’s much rejoicing (or something). Is it that time already?

TCM Star of the Day is Doris Day: Lover Come Back (TCM, 7pm); Pillow Talk (TCM, 9pm); The Man Who Knew Too Much (TCM, 11pm); Midnight Lace (TCM, 1:15am); and Julie (TCM, 3:15am).

Rerun of AFI’s 100 Years . . . 100 Songs (CBS, 7pm – 10pm). Featuring clips from movies and little interview snippets from celebrities.

“People answer trivia based on magazine, CD and DVD covers” in the new game show On The Cover (PAX, 7pm).

A look at some What Not To Wear firsts (TLC, 7pm – 10pm; 10pm – 1am). In other words: some reruns!

A Bug’s Life (Disney, 7pm and 8:40pm).

Get a “Taste of Polynesia” on Emeril Live (Food, 7pm and 11pm).

Walt Disney World Resort: Behind the Scenes (Travel, 7pm and 10pm).

Rerun of last night’s The Graham Norton Effect (Comedy Central, 7pm and 11pm). I’m pretty sure Seth Green was a guest, but then he’s everywhere promoting Without A Paddle.

From the “I wish I were making this up” file: FOX airs reruns of two specials where animals compete against humans: Man vs. Beast (FOX, 7pm) and Man vs. Beast 2 (FOX, 8pm). Ew. Guess I’d rather watch athletes parade into a stadium. Or, um, like, anything else.

“Teal’c gets trapped in a virtual-reality training scenario” in a new episode of Stargate SG-1 (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 10pm).

Lance Henriksen (of Millennium), Tim Meadows on Dennis Miller (CNBC, 8pm and 11pm).

Brian Wilson on Larry King Live (CNN, 8pm, 11pm, 2am).

Monster Games (Discovery, 8pm – 10pm; 11pm – 1am).

Tom Arnold guest stars on a rerun of Hope & Faith (ABC, 8pm).

Parts 1 & 2 of “The Best Of Both Worlds” episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Spike, 8pm, 9pm). You know the one: with the big Borg cliffhanger. Part 1 rocks, the second part disappoints but is still kinda cool.

Owen and Ramona think Claude should spruce up her apartment before she has her boyfriend over on Less Than Perfect (ABC, 8:30pm).

New episode of Monk (USA, 9pm and 11pm) titled “Mr. Monk and the Game Show.” Monk goes to L.A. to help his father-in-law. It looks like Monk’s old neighbor helps out.

“The Atlantis team discovers a tribe of children whose beliefs lead them to ritual suicide” in a new episode of Stargate: Atlantis (Sci-Fi, 9pm and 11pm).

Savvy (We, 9pm) is a new newsmagazine sort of show about how to be, well, savvy in a number of different ways. Premiered last week.

Rerun of the latest episode of Dead Like Me (Showtime, 9pm).

Rerun of the championship game of this latest round of Celebrity Poker Showdown (Bravo, 9pm – 11pm).

D.L. Hughley, Michelle Malkin, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, former Sen. Gary Hart on Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO, 10pm).

Rerun of the most recent episode of the excellent Rescue Me (FX, 10pm).

Rerun of the new profanity episode of Penn & Teller: BS! (Showtime, 10pm).

A casino heist and a murder at a remote convenience store may be connected on a rerun of C.S.I. (Spike, 10pm).

Halle Berry, Todd Hamilton, Maria Mena on a rerun of The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

TCM Star of the Day is Doris Day: The Man Who Knew Too Much (TCM, 11pm); Midnight Lace (TCM, 1:15am); and Julie (TCM, 3:15am).

Rerun of the latest Nip/Tuck (FX, 11pm).

Luke Perry, Josie Maran on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, check your local listings).

Ashanti, Anthony Mackie, Lloyd on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (CBS, check your local listings).

Pamela Anderson, the winner of Last Comic Standing, Mase on The Tonight Show (NBC, almost certainly later than usual ‘cuz of the Olympics).

Darrell Hammond, Blanchard Ryan, They Might Be Giants on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, probably later than usual ‘cuz of the Olympics).

Last Call with Carson Daly isn’t on at all (‘cuz of the Olympics).

XXVIII Summer Olympics: Basketball, Fencing, Rowing, Shooting, Soccer, Softball, Volleyball, Weightlifting (CNBC, 1am – ). Live!

TCM Star of the Day is Humphrey Bogart: Dead End (TCM, 5am); Crime School (TCM, 6:45am); The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (TCM, 8:15am); Tokyo Joe (TCM, 10:30am); The Black Legion (TCM, Noon); The Maltese Falcon (TCM, 1:30pm); They Drive By Night (TCM, 3:15pm); High Sierra (TCM, 5pm); Casablanca (TCM, 7pm); Passage to Marseille (TCM, 9pm); The Enforcer (TCM, 11pm); In A Lonely Place (TCM, 12:30am); The Petrified Forest (TCM, 2:15am); and San Quentin (TCM, 3:45am).

I’m still working on the rest of my picks for Saturday, hope to have them online by late Friday night.
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