Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bet

Two-hour series finale of Everwood (WB, 7pm – 9pm)

News & Notes

Don’t forget to visit DVD.TVPicks.net, which is now the home for all my TV DVD ramblings. You’ll find a list of TV on DVD (no longer hand-coded by me as I just couldn’t keep up with all the releases; I’ve been hand-coding that list since season 1 of The X-Files was first released on DVD, it was the first list of its kind). I’ll try to point out any particularly good TV DVD deals (there are a bunch of them at amazon.com right now and I’ve listed them on the site). I get a small percentage of any money you spend via links over there and I greatly appreciate that. There’s lots more stuff to come this summer, including an index of my TV DVD reviews and the return of my list of upcoming releases.

If you haven’t yet checked out the Fall 2006 Schedule Grid preview, it’s worth a look. It should always be accessible from the Schedule Grids page.

Times listed are for the Central timezone, please adjust accordingly if you’re in a different timezone.

Primetime Grid

Primetime / Featured Pick

Usually if I ramble at any length about a particular bit of programming, I’ll call that my “featured pick” and it will be separate from the “Primetime” section where I mention anything noteworthy about primetime programming and make my recommendations. Today, I decided to combine the two sections because I sincerely think there’s only one thing on TV tonight that’s worth talking about and recommending and that’s the series finale of Everwood (WB, 7pm – 9pm).

This past weekend I had a mini-Everwood marathon as I watched the eight episodes that lead up to this one– they’d accumulated on my Tivo (I’ve been busy, burnt out, not well, etc). These episodes were great and reminded me just how much I love this show. I was sad while watching them knowing that there are only two hours left, that the CW (the network the WB and UPN are merging to form) chose not to renew the show for 2006. Actually, it made me angry. It’s hard to fathom the fact that One Tree Hill made the schedule and 7th Heaven was resurrected (after a series finale, no less!). Argh. ‘Cuz Everwood is lightyears ahead of those two shows in many ways. It’s by far the best family drama on TV right now.

It may not be “cool” to like Everwood, but it’s a cool show. I love that the important characters of the show cover such a big range of ages: younger folk (kids, pre-teens, teens) and their parents and grandparents are all vital to the story being told here. I pulled out my season 1 DVD set and watched the first two episodes of the show before I turned on my computer to write this– my how far the characters have come in four short seasons. While I do think it’s time for certain characters to get together romantically (or move on), I think this series could’ve had a viable fifth season as there is still so much that could be explored with these outstanding characters. It’s rare to see a cast this good have such great chemistry and wonderful material to work with. Even the not-great episodes can’t be called downright bad because there’s usually some juicy bit of characterization or some wonderful performance in there somewhere.

I haven’t seen the series finale yet, I’ll be watching it tonight and it may be the rare case of a show that I will watch live (and not wait to watch on Tivo later). I hate saying goodbye to these characters. And I really hate that the showrunners didn’t know if they were getting a fifth season or not when they wrote and filmed this episode (though I’ve read reports that they filmed two versions of some of the final scenes, with an eye to one version being for a series finale). Here’s hoping they wrapped some storylines up and that the show gets a good end with some closure for the fans. I don’t want it to end, I hate to say goodbye– the folks who worked so very hard to create and make this show can be very proud of it. Oh the places this show has gone– when I watched those first episodes I remembered seeing them for the first time and being unsure of this little show and where it would go, but I knew I had to watch. I’m so glad I was right and that we got four wonderful seasons.

The ten episodes I watched this weekend made me laugh and cry and think– what more could you want from a show? Tonight’s finale is titled “Foreverwood” and I really like that. I’m gonna miss the Abbotts and Browns and the town of Everwood more than I can say.

The series finale of Everwood airs tonight from 7pm ’til 9pm (central time) on the WB.

Can Everwood be saved?

While it’s extremely unlikely at this point that the show can be saved, I do agree with a couple of suggestions made at Project: Save Everwood. If you want to support the show, the most important thing to do is to watch the series finale tonight (WB, 7pm – 9pm) and pester any Nielsen Families you might know to do so. Other shows of support that might get someone’s attention: buy the season 1 Everwood DVD set and/or the Everwood soundtrack (preferably today) at amazon.com or other retailers. If you already own them and have extra cash, you might consider buying them as gifts or to donate to your local library. Warner Brothers has not shown any interest in releasing any more DVD sets, so buying the first DVD set might also help encourage them to release the later seasons on DVD (plus season 1 is a steal right now at amazon.com for $17.99 and would make a great Father’s Day gift).

It really does seem like the show is dead, though. The sets have been struck and people who worked on the show are moving on to other jobs. There’s good news for a couple of other shows that I like: so far some of the very talented people behind Everwood have taken jobs on Gilmore Girls and What About Brian.

‘Course it can’t hurt to try and show the CW what a huge mistake they made, I know I’ll feel better for having done so.

Late Night

Check out Sue Trowbridge’s late night talk show listings.