Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets:

New Doctor Who (Sci-Fi, 7pm and 11pm)
New Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 10pm)
New Men in Trees (ABC, 8pm)
New Law & Order (NBC, 9pm)
New Numb3rs (CBS, 9pm)
Daniel Craig, Teri Horton, Elvis Costello, Rosanne Cash, Jorge Garcia on Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm)
Meredith Vieira, Greg Grunberg, Old Crow Medicine Show on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm)

News & Notes:

Studio 60 has been picked up for a full season.

I recently updated the current grid to reflect recent changes to the schedule (the pulling of Six Degrees for instance).

Like watching poker on TV? A regular reader of this site has put together an excellent weblog which lists poker television programming.

A ton of great TV DVD sets are due to hit stores on Tuesday, there’s still time to pre-order them from amazon.com (at a substantial discount, usually with free shipping) and other retailers: 3rd Rock from the Sun season 6, The Adventures of Superman seasons 5 & 6, The Adventures of Superman seasons 1 - 6, Black Books series 2, Black Books series 1 & 2, Looney Tunes Golden Collection volume 4, C.S.I. season 6, Columbo seasons 6 & 7, DuckTales volume 2, Family Guy volume 4, Friends Complete Series Collection, Golden Girls season 6, Gunsmoke Director’s Collection, Home Improvement season 5, Homicide: Life on the Street Complete Series Megaset, Little Britain series 3, Lois & Clark season 4, Lois & Clark seasons 1-4, NCIS season 2, Northern Exposure season 5, Quantum Leap season 5, Reba season 4, Six Feet Under Complete Series Gift Set, and That Girl season 2.

My review of the Homicide: Life on the Street Complete Series Megaset is only over at dvd.tvpicks.net in case you haven’t checked it out yet. It’s a great set with really cool packaging.

The Complete Get Smart is released on Tuesday as well: Get Smart - Get the 5 complete seasons! Exclusively at TimeLife.com

Some of these complete series sets really are awesome, with great packaging and nifty extras. Great gifts for TV fans, that’s for sure (I’ll have a holiday gift guide for TV fans online one of these days). I know I’ve got lots of these things on my wishlist!

Remember that if you buy via my links, you help support this site as I get a percentage of the money you spend. You can also shop for other stuff at amazon.com or other stores via these shopping links and I get a cut (you don’t have to just buy the things I link to). Thanks to anyone who starts their online shopping trips via my links, I couldn’t keep this site online without your support.

Primetime Grid:

Primetime:

The Doctor travels to London circa 1953 where the coronation of Elizabeth II is about to take place as there are rumors of monsters in the streets on Doctor Who (Sci-Fi, 7pm and 11pm).

NBA action on ESPN.

Senator Collins holds a press conference on Vanished (FOX, 7pm). Reed Diamond guest stars (he was “Mike Kellerman” on Homicide).

Jason Gedrick turns up on Ghost Whisperer (CBS, 7pm). Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) helps someone who set a fire or something, she also flashes back to the night she met her husband (David Conrad).

Most of the men go camping, the women deal with all manner of stuff at the hospital in the “Where The Boys Are” episode of Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 7pm). There’s a storyline involving a transgendered character, the bartender and his boyfriend of many years also end up going on the camping trip.

Cristina (about the camping trip): “Prestons do not go into the woods. A guy named Preston is gonna get his ass kicked by a squirrel.”
  from Grey’s Anatomy

Baltar finds himself tortured (literally, that is) in the conclusion of a two-part episode of Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 10pm; also airs on Monday at 10pm). The Cylons try to find out what caused the disease.

Jewel’s car breaks down in Elmo and she ends up reunited with a former bandmate (that would be the waitress at the local bar) on Men in Trees (ABC, 8pm). Yeah, I’m talking about the musical artist Jewel, not some other person named Jewel. A chapter from Marin’s new book is published in a magazine and the man of Elmo (one in particular) may not be wild about having their lives talked about quite so publicly. And the characters played by Cynthia Stevenson and Lauren Tom duke it out over who is the best Mom to Patrick. This show has been picked up for a full season and I’m surprised by how much I look forward to new episodes each week. It’s just a nice cute fun show, you know?

A minister is found dead and his wife and the church secretary are suspects on Close To Home (CBS, 8pm).

Adam Carolla helps Mary conquer her biggest fear on Las Vegas (NBC, 8pm; airs again on Wed 11/22 at 10pm on TNT). Is it a fear of Adam Carolla? ‘Cuz I could understand that. And Sam finds herself in financial trouble. While there’s still no word on when Crossing Jordan will return to the schedule, two characters from the show (Jordan and Woody) will appear on Las Vegas next week.

The FBI (and some college professors, of course) investigate the death of a minor-league baseball player on Numb3rs (CBS, 9pm). Could his death have something to do with a fantasy baseball league? Bill Nye (the Science Guy) makes another appearance on the show.

Someone is found dead on a party bus used for a series of tapes called “Babes Being Bad” on Law & Order (NBC, 9pm). C’mon, if you’re gonna ape “Girls Gone Wild” you gotta use a funnier name– I’m partial to the one used on Arrested Development: “Girls with Low Self-Esteem”. Did you know that right now you can buy all three season of Arrested Development on DVD for just $55? That’s less than $20 per set– what a deal! Sometimes I think it may be the funniest series ever, it’s certainly the funniest of the last ten years. And the DVD sets have cool extras including commentary tracks and deleted scenes.

Two teenage boys break into a mortuary ‘cuz they want to see a dead body, but they end up being attacked by a vampire (Michael Ironside) on a new episode of Masters of Horror (Showtime, 9pm). Directed by Ernest Dickerson.

Working mothers balance family and employment, understanding teen violence and dating, behind the scenes of the Broadway musical Mary Poppins on 20/20 (ABC, 9pm).

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

Late Night

Journalist Candy Crowley, author Salman Rushdie, actor Rainn Wilson on Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO, 10pm).

Rebroadcast of the most recent episode of Dexter (Showtime, 10pm).

Rebroadcast of the latest episode of Nip/Tuck (FX, 10pm - 11:05pm).

Miss the first episode of House (USA, 10pm) with special guest star David Morse? It airs again on USA. Morse is going to be on the show for a while, though I’m not sure I care for this storyline. Also in this episode: a young couple ends up in the hospital with some rather awful symptoms (of course). I’m still troubled by the fact that FOX mailed me a thermometer the day after this episode originally aired.

Tritter: “You don’t introduce yourself?”
House: “Sorry, I thought you were waiting two hours, didn’t know you wanted to chat. Hi, I’m Greg! How ’bout that local sports team?”
  from House

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

Daniel Craig (the new James Bond), Teri Horton (of Who the $#%& is Jackson Pollock?), Elvis Costello, Rosanne Cash, and a Top Ten List with Jorge Garcia (”Hurley” on Lost) on Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Grunberg Alert: Meredith Vieira, Greg Grunberg, Old Crow Medicine Show on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).