Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

Lots of interesting reruns of season finales and other key episodes (see below)
Series premiere of The Underground (Showtime, 9pm)
Norm MacDonald on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight)
The Who, the 26-year-old mayor of Pittsburgh on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm)
Chris Elliott, Rachel Bilson, LeToya on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, check your local listings)

News & Notes

I was quoted in an article in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader today along with Sarah Bunting of Television Without Pity. Excellent! Welcome to anyone checking out the site ‘cuz they heard about it in the Argus Leader. The article mistakenly identifies me as an “Augustana grad,” though I attended Augie off an on between 1989 and 1995 or so, I never did actually graduate (whoops!). I did live in Sioux Falls for a while after I left school, then spent a little time in Sioux City before moving back to the Twin Cities. A couple of years ago I spent a year+ in Mitchell, South Dakota. And now I’m happily living in Minneapolis, Minnesota; I still sometimes return to Sioux Falls and Mitchell for visits and I like to check out the Corn Palace cam (alas, it appears to be broken right now).

If you’ve got a high speed internet connection and don’t mind watching TV on your computer, you can catch streaming video of some new (and returning) shows; some are already available, others will be available soon.
ABC: ABC.com (click on “Video” in the menu bar)
CBS: video.google.com/cbs.html
CW: cwtv.com/video (no full shows yet, alas, just clips)
FOX: fox.com/streaming
NBC: nbc.com/Video/

Some shows and individual episosdes of shows are available for download at iTunes (some for free, some for a fee).

If you have DirecTV, some network previews have been airing repeatedly on special channels; if you have Tivo, some fall previews may have been available on your Tivo as well as options to easily record premieres.

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

In tonight’s season premiere of Survivor: Cook Islands, tribes are assembled based on race. There’ll be an African-American team, an Asian-American team, a Hispanic team, and a Caucasion team. I know some people who are very offended by this, others who are intrigued, others who don’t care so long as the show remains interesting. I’m not sure how I feel, but I’m not sure it matters given I haven’t watched more than an episode or two each season (and only ‘cuz it’s part of my job). I do think it’s worth noting that this means only 1/4 of the cast is white so this will be, to the best of my recollection, the first time a major reality series has had a cast that has minorities in the majority (am I wrong? I’d like to know). It seems like a lot of the times reality shows have casts with just one competitor or team of competitors to represent a given minority and that’s it (the token black team, the token gay guy, etc.): is this progress? Or is any progress it might represent mitigated by the fact that the teams are divided up based on race? Happy to hear what my readers think of this, I also totally understand if everyone is sick of hearing about Survivor!

The two women end up offering special, um, “favors” to the men in an effort to get new furniture on a new episode of ‘Til Death (FOX, 7pm). Um . . . okay.

Chris tries to raise cash for a class trip by selling cookies; his Dad buys tickets for Dreamgirls for his Mom, but then can’t go himself when the kids get the chicken pox in the “Everybody Hates Jail” episode of Everybody Hates Chris (UPN, 7pm). One of my favorite new shows from last season.

Reruns of the first ever episode of My Name Is Earl (NBC, 7pm – 7:40pm, 7:40pm – 8:20pm) and the final episode from this past season. This is a funny show, it’s worth giving these episodes a shot if you haven’t seen ‘em before. Earl tries to right the wrongs he made in the past ‘cuz Carson Daly taught him about karma. In the final episode from last season, Earl tries to cross off the first thing on his list but things don’t go so well; Max Perlich (“Brodie” on Homicide) guest stars. DVR/VCR Alert: NBC is doing that weird scheduling thing again with three comedies airing from 7pm – 9pm; each episode runs 40 minutes.

Randy: “I’m starving Earl. Maybe we should go steal some food. You know I get angry when I’m hungry. Like the Hulk, only I don’t get all green and muscle-y, I just get dizzy and snap at people that don’t deserve it.”
  from My Name Is Earl

Back to back reruns of Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 7pm, 8pm). The episodes are “Damage Case” and “17 Seconds” which are the last two episodes before the final two episodes of last season (does that make sense?). Frances Fisher, Dan Marino, and Sydney Tamiia Poitier are among the guest stars. The season premiere airs next Thursday and it will be preceded by one of those specials meant to catch new viewers up on the show; the final two episodes of this past season air next Wednesday.

“Love means never having to use your girlfriend as a human shield!”
  from Grey’s Anatomy

Rebroadcast of the most recent episodes of Queer Eye (Bravo, 7pm) and Project Runway (Bravo, 8pm) in case you missed them earlier this week.

A ghost visits the Kents with a warning in the “Oracle” episode of Smallville (WB, 7pm). Second-to-last episode of this past season. James Marsters (“Spike” from Buffy) continues his guest stint on the show as Professor Fine.

Chloe: “I can’t exactly search for a file named ‘My Evil Scheme’.”
  from Smallville

The new guy finds a mix CD that belongs to his new roommate when he tries to free up some space for his stuff on Happy Hour (FOX, 7:30pm). And then he quizzes the folks who know his roomie best to try and find out the significance of the mix CD. Or something. And one of the female characters freaks out a bit when her gynecologist cancels on her.

Six more celebrities perform with “superstar recording artists” on a new Celebrity Duets (FOX, 8pm). Judges are David Foster, Marie Osmond, and Little Richard; Wayne Brady hosts.

Rerun of both parts of last season’s two-part season finale of C.S.I. (CBS, 8pm). I think it’s safe by now to say that Brass is shot and that causes a whole heap of angst. His daughter returns (played by Teal Redman of Gilmore Girls). Patrick Breen (of Kevin Hill) is among the guest stars.

Meg kills John’s friends and he and his sons head to where he thinks the demon will strike next on Supernatural (WB, 8pm). Second-to-last episode of last season; it opens with a “story so far” sort of montage. Jeffrey Dean Morgan stars as John, the father to the two brothers (Dean Morgan plays “Denny” on Grey’s Anatomy).

In last season’s finale of The Office (NBC, 8:40pm), it’s Casino Night. Oh-oh. More importantly: will Pam and Jim finally get together?

Damon Wayans, his son Damon Jr, and Aries Spiers (of Mad TV) star in the series premiere of The Underground (Showtime, 9pm; presumably airs again and again). It’s a new sketch comedy series.

Primetime (ABC, 9pm) takes a look at mean girls. “Girls with computers, cell phones and other technology demonstrate ruthless teenage behavior.” I’m shocked! (Or, um, not).

Rerun of last season’s dramatic finale of ER (NBC, 8:59pm). Prisoners head to the ER and cause, well, a lot of trouble. From all accounts this is a very angst-filled episode that ends with a cliffhanger. Dum-dum-DUM! (Anyone still watching ER? I gave up a few seasons back, though I still check in occasionally as I do with all the shows. Did you like last season? I heard some good things about it.)

Late Night

“Berry from Another Planet” (eggplant) episode of Alton Brown’s Good Eats (Food, 10pm and 1am).

Norm MacDonald on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

Bill Simmons on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).

The Who, the 26-year-old mayor of Pittsburgh on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (of New Adventures of Old Christine), Jude Law, Bob Seger on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Al Franken, air guitar “expert” Bjorn Turoque on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Gary Sinise (of CSI:NY), Whitley Strieber, Chris Isaak on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).

Chris Elliott (of Get A Life, Late Night with David Letterman), Rachel Bilson (of The OC), LeToya on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, check your local listings).

Basketball player Stephon Marbury, Landon Pigg on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).

Friday Daytime

Usher, guest co-host Wilmer Valderrama (of That ’70s Show) on Live with Regis and Kelly (check your local listings).

Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher on The View (ABC, check your local listings).

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, John Mayer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

“Secrets for Sensational Skin” on The Tyra Banks Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

The new season of Oprah stars on Monday and most of the other daytime talk shows (including some new ones) debut next week as well (stay tuned for my Sunday and Monday picks for all the details).