Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

Season premiere of Hell’s Kitchen (FOX, 7pm – 9pm)
Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman (A&E, 7pm – 9pm, 11pm – 1am)
Season premiere of The Closer (TNT, 8pm and 10pm)
Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family (Bravo, 8pm – 10pm)
Series premiere of Saved (TNT, 9pm)

News & Notes

There are still some efforts being made to “save Everwood” in case you were curious and want to participate, check out Project: Save Everwood. For whatever it’s worth, I don’t believe it’s possible to save the show at this point and think efforts should be focused on getting Warner to release seasons 2-4 on DVD (and the best way to encourage that is to buy the season 1 set). Reruns of Everwood will begin airing on ABC Family in the fall.

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

Primetime Grid

Primetime

Baseball: Chicago White Sox at Texas Rangers (ESPN, 6pm) followed by Baseball Tonight (ESPN, 9pm or so).

Two hour series finale of Monster Garage (Discovery, 7pm – 9pm, 11pm – 1am).

Kevin Spacey narrates Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman (A&E, 7pm – 9pm, 11pm – 1am). We watched this special this weekend and really liked it– it’s a good look at the history of Superman which includes some rare footage of TV series and specials (some of which never aired). Of course the special is also about promoting the new Superman movie, but that stuff doesn’t really enter the picture until the end of the special (which is as it should be).

Gordon Ramsey and company return for the second season premiere of Hell’s Kitchen (FOX, 7pm – 9pm). Once again, Ramsey will challenge wanna-be chefs on this reality show. I kinda liked the first season and I’m not much for reality shows. The winner of this year’s competition will get to be executive chef at the new Red Rock Casino Resort Spa in Las Vegas.

Rerun of the series premiere of Windfall (Bravo, 7pm) which debuted on NBC on Friday night. Primetime soap opera about people who win the lottery.

Lily and Marshall try to act grown-up at a wine & cheese party while Ted and Barney and Robin hit a hot club on a rerun of How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 7:30pm). Samm Levine (of Freaks and Geeks) makes a brief appearance. This is one of my favorite new series of the past season and I’m happy it will be back for another year.

Lily: (seeing Barney’s shiny shirt) “Hey, we wore the same the shirt! No, wait, that’s just my shirt reflected in yours.”
Barney: “One of the 24 ways women and fish are alike is that they’re both attracted to bright objects. Don’t you ever read my blog?”
  – from How I Met Your Mother

Kyra Sedgwick returns for a second season of The Closer (TNT, 8pm and 10pm). A cop is found dead in the season premiere and of course the case is anything but simple. Brenda (Sedgwick) is still “thank yew”ing all over the place, but this time around her team respects her. In addition to running interrogations and her team as they work this particularly tough case, she also has her fair share of personal stuff to deal with (Jon Tenney returns this season as her FBI agent love interest and J.K. Simmons as her former-paramour and boss). I liked season one and I enjoyed this premiere episode, definitely a summer series to watch.

Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family (Bravo, 8pm – 10pm) is a fascinating documentary about two men and a woman who are all in love with each other and live together as a family for thirteen years. They were filmed over eight years and the story is at times heartwarming and at other times heartbreaking.

New episode of Falcon Beach (ABC Family, 8pm and 11pm).

Martin Sheen (of The West Wing) guest stars on a rerun of Two and a Half Men (CBS, 8pm).

Andy Richter guest stars on a rerun of The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS, 8:30pm).

Tom Everett Scott stars in the series premiere of Saved (TNT, 9pm; airs again on Wednesday at 10pm) as an EMT. He’s got a father who is a successful surgeon who has high expectations for him, an ex-girlfriend that he still likes a lot (and who works in the ER), and a gambling addiction. I watched the pilot a while ago and liked it ‘cuz hey– it’s got medical drama with the ambulance drivers and EMTs and stuff, plus personal drama. Hard to tell if it will hold up for future episodes, will depend a lot on whether the cast gels and on the writing, of course. It’s worth a look as it has the potential to be another good TNT summer series.

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations: Korea (Travel, 9pm and midnight).

Series premiere of How to Get the Guy (ABC, 9pm). From the award-winning producers of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The press release says: “Shot docu-soap style at over 150-locations throughout San Francisco, the one-hour series will follow four single women over six episodes as they take hold of their own romantic destinies and declare to the world that they are ready, willing and able to do anything and everything they have to in order to find true love.”

Late Night

Sara Rue, Anthony Michael Hall, Secret Machines on Late Late Show (CBS, 11:37pm).

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

Tomorrow

Paris Hilton, Janice Dickenson on Live with Regis and Kelly (syndicated, 9am).

Denis Leary, Dr. Drew Pinsky on The View (ABC, 10am).

More talk show lineups.