Laurel’s TV Picks

Stay tuned . . . regular picks resume on Monday.

Best Bets

Excellent rerun of Everybody Hates Chris (UPN, 7pm)
Four reruns of My Name Is Earl (NBC, 7pm – 9pm)
Jessica Alba hosts MTV Movie Awards: 2006 (MTV, 8pm)
NBA Basketball: Finals, Game 1 (ABC, 8pm)
Rather good rerun of Without A Trace (CBS, 9pm)
Meredith Vieira, Jeremy Piven on Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm)
Kevin Kline, Lewis Black on Late Night with Conan O’Brian (NBC, 11:37pm)

News & Notes

I’ve posted some fabulous TV on DVD deals (and fixed some broken links on the page, oops).

Fall 2006 Schedule Grid Preview.

I’ll be on the radio today not long after 11:40am Central time, as I am most Thursdays; you can listen online or on 107.1 FM in the Twin Cities.

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

Primetime Grid

Primetime

Baseball: Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees (ESPN2, 6pm).

Jimmie Walker (of Good Times), Loretta Devine (of Boston Public), Ernest Thomas (of What’s Happening), and Antonio “Huggy Bear” Fargas (of Starsky & Hutch) all guest star on a excellent rerun of Everybody Hates Chris (UPN, 7pm). Rochelle’s Dad dies and she handles it differently than anyone expects. Now that Everwood is gone, this may be the best family series on the air.

If you haven’t been watching My Name Is Earl (NBC, 7pm – 9pm), you’ve missed a funny show. Check out these four reruns and you’ll see what I mean.

Darnell (talking about Y2K): “All the computers will go berserk and things like electricity, water, gas will be out. The banks will be out of money, stores will be out of food, all the high scores on video games will be reset.”
Randy: “Even Centipede?”
  – from My Name Is Earl

Lance Bass, Paige Davis, Tim Meadows, and Leslie Nielsen dress up and compete in a Press Your Luck edition of Game Show Marathon (CBS, 7pm). Ricki Lake hosts.

The 4400: Unlocking the Secrets (Bravo, 7pm).

Clark is shot (and that’s kind of a big deal since he still doesn’t have his “powers”) on a rerun of Smallville (WB, 7pm).

NBA Basketball: Finals, Game 1 (ABC, 8pm; pre-game at 7pm).

Jessica Alba hosts MTV Movie Awards: 2006 (MTV, 8pm; pre-show at 7:30pm).

The top 20 are revealed on So You Think You Can Dance (FOX, 8pm).

A reality series follows the team around as they track a serial rapist on a rerun of CSI (CBS, 8pm).

Cameraman: “Do you think forensic shows are just teaching the criminals how to get away with crimes?”
Grissom: “Everyone learns from science. It all depends on how you use the knowledge.”
  from C.S.I.

There’s a “phantom traveler” on an airplane on a rerun of Supernatural (WB, 8pm).

Drew Carey’s Sporting Adventures: Real Madrid vs. Barcelona (Travel, 8pm).

20 friends and acquaintances become overnight millionaires on the series premiere of Windfall (NBC, 9pm). Luke Perry, Lana Parilla, Jason Gedrick, Sarah Wynter, D.J. Cotrona, Jon Foster, and Malinda Williams are among the stars. I wish I could tell you more, but NBC didn’t send me a review copy so all I can go on is the press release. Check Metacritic and TV Tattle for links to reviews elsewhere. (I can tell you the reviews I’ve seen haven’t been positive).

Laurie Metcalf (of Roseanne, Matt Craven, and Andrea Bowen guest star on a rerun of Without A Trace (CBS, 9pm).

Rerun of the series premiere of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency (Oxygen, 9pm).

Late Night

Meredith Vieira, Jeremy Piven on Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Al Gore, Maya Rudolph, Rihanna on The Tonight Show (NBC, 10:35pm).

Kevin Kline, Lewis Black on Late Night with Conan O’Brian (NBC, 11:37pm).

Check out Sue Trowbridge’s Late Night TV Page to see who the scheduled guests are for the various late night talk shows (and some daytime ones, too).