Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets:

New Doctor Who (Sci-Fi, 7pm and midnight)
Season premiere of Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi, 8pm - 10pm, 10pm - midnight)
New Men in Trees (ABC, 8pm)
New Law & Order (NBC, 9pm)
New Numb3rs (CBS, 9pm)
Amy Sedaris on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm)
Alex Trebek, Barenaked Ladies on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm)

News & Notes:

Some good TV news: Eureka has been renewed for a second season (of 13 episodes). And Heroes has been picked up for a full season. Yay! Most new shows only have small orders for episodes to start with; we’ll be getting more news along these lines as the season wears on. We’ll soon be hearing which shows have had their orders extended– the real lucky ones get full season pick ups (as Heroes just did, which pretty much guarantees it one full season).

Kidnapped will only get 13 episodes to tell their story this season (darnit) as the show just isn’t getting enough viewers I guess. Bummer. I like it a lot. But at least it sounds like they’ll be able to wrap things up and it sounds like NBC will air all thirteen episodes– so that’s something.

The CW is already shuffling things around their schedule: Seventh Heaven and Runaway are moving from Mondays to Sundays. The Sunday block of shows that starts with Everybody Hates Chris is moving to Monday nights.

FOX is also moving some things around, but there’s no real need to worry about that yet– not until baseball has ended. I’ll eventually post an updated grid for fall and (of course) will have updated grids each day as part of the picks.

I created a new page yesterday named Rebroadcasts which is where you’ll find a list of current series that air on the major networks which are also available later in the week online or on cable. I hope you find it useful. If you find any broken links or think I’ve missed anything, please get in touch.

Fellow Vidiot Steve Lutz interviews Michael Nelson (of Mystery Science Theater 3000) in the latest TeeVee podcast. Check it out! The latest pieces from TeeVee are linked in the sidebar on the main page at this site (I’m not just a contributor to TeeVee, I’m also a longtime fan of the site).

Times listed are for the Central timezone, add an hour for Eastern/Pacific.

Primetime Grid:

Primetime:

New episode of the new Doctor Who (Sci-Fi, 7pm and midnight). The Doctor and Rose travel back to 1879 where they encounter Queen Victoria, warrior monks, and other sure to be fun stuff. From season two, which already aired in the UK, but is airing in the US for the first time. I think I like the new Doctor for this season so far, though I find myself missing the one from last season. I’m sure this guy will grow on me. Still a fun show (I never was much of a fan of the “old” Doctor Who, but I’m liking this incarnation so far).

Rerun of last night’s Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 7pm).

More Tigers vs. Yankees on ESPN at 7pm. Baseball playoff action continues on ESPN today.

At long last, it’s finally here: the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi, 8pm - 10pm, 10pm - midnight, plenty more airings this week). If you still haven’t checked out this new incarnation of the show, you probably think it’s a little nutty that so many people are so into it (especially given how the original series was). I liked the miniseries from a couple years back, but it’s the series itself that won me over and continues to get better and better. Surely I’m not alone, this weeks episodes of both Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars featured references to this show! If you’ve been watching, I don’t need to tell you to watch this. Things changed rather dramatically at the end of last season when the show jumped forward in time. I can’t wait to see what happens. If you haven’t yet checked out the shorts on the Sci-Fi channel website, I’m told they’re worth a look as they’re something of a prequel to this season. If you haven’t watched this show, I wouldn’t recommend jumping in with the new episodes– you should really track down the DVDs and give them a look first.

There’s a record heat wave in Elmo, Alaska (not that we’ve seen this on other shows like Northern Exposure and Everwood before) and Marin fears her energy bars are making that darn raccoon sick on Men in Trees. Whenever I describe this show, it sounds lame, but honestly– I really do look forward to new episodes. It’s fun Friday fluff. Anne Heche and company in a quirky Alaskan town: hijinks ensue.

Reruns of this week’s new episode of Weeds (Showtime, 8pm, 8:30pm). Snoop Dogg guest stars (I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked!).

Annabeth prosecutes a man for the assault and attempted murder of his teenage neighbor on Close To Home (CBS, 8pm).

A multimillion-dollar painting is stolen from a museum on Numb3rs (CBS, 9pm). I’m guessing they solve the case using math. Guest stars include Gene Rowlands and Armin Shimerman (of Deep Space Nine, Brooklyn Bridge).

The detectives investigate the cause of an explosion that destroyed a brownstone on the Upper East Side (which just happened to also kill an 8-year-old girl) on Law & Order (NBC, 9pm).

Slacking on the job, motivating lazy teenagers, history of slackers on an episode of 20/20 (ABC, 9pm) they’re calling “Sloth: Goofing Off in America”.

Rebroadcast of the most recent new episode of The Wire (HBO, 9pm).

Rebroadcast of the series premiere of Dexter (Showtime, 9pm).

Late Night

National-security specialist Richard Clarke, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, actor Robin Williams, talk-show host Chris Matthews, Sen. Lincoln Chafee on Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO, 10pm).

Rerun of the latest episode of Nip/Tuck (FX, 10pm). Rosie O’Donnell guest stars as “Dawn Budge” a lottery winner.

Dawn: “I look gorgeous; almost as gorgeous as my house. My very own McMansion, just like I always dreamed. Don’t you just love the place?”
Christian: “Looks like Liberace took a dump in here.”
  from Nip/Tuck

House won’t work in his office ‘cuz of a change to the carpet, the case involves an autistic child on a rerun of a recent episode of House (USA, 10pm).

Wilson: “You’re not autistic. You don’t even have Asperger’s. You wish you did, it would exempt you from the rules. Give you freedom, absolve you of responsibility. Let you date 17-year olds. But most important it would mean you’re not just a jerk.”
House: “At what point does a person endlessly lecturing someone make him a jerk?”
  from House

Amy Sedaris, Trey Anastasio on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm). Sedaris is always a hoot when she’s on this show. Yes, I just said “a hoot”.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (TCM, 11pm).

Another airing of the “Make Love, Not Warcraft” season premiere of South Park (Comedy Central, 11pm) followed by a rerun of the series premiere of Freak Show (Comedy Central, 11:30pm).

It’s Canadian-tastic: Alex Trebek, Barenaked Ladies on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Complete late night talk show listings are now linked to in the sidebar on the right (on the website).