Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

New Pushing Daisies (ABC, 7pm)
Part 4 of Rise of the Video Game (Discovery, 7pm, 10pm, 11pm)
New Criminal Minds (CBS, 8pm)
New MythBusters (Discovery, 8pm and midnight)
New Project Runway (Bravo, 9pm, 10pm, midnight, 2am)

Recommended Rerun

Series premiere of Dirty Sexy Money (ABC, 9:02pm)

News & Notes:

Just wanted to say “hello” to anyone who wandered over here via the link at MacWorld.com: welcome! I’ve been posting my TV Picks most days since 1999 and weblogging since 1998 (one of the first bloggers ever; we didn’t even call it “blogging” then). I’ve had webpages on the net since 1993. In case you don’t know, that Jason Snell character who sent you over here also edits and writes stuff over at TeeVee which is one of my favorite TV websites.

Thanks to Jackie, Felicia, and Sharon for their donations yesterday toward the Laptop for Laurel fund. You guys rock!

ABC is pulling Big Shots from their schedule for the next few weeks and I really don’t mind. There are five episodes that have been filmed which haven’t yet aired, I’m sure (given the strike) they’ll probably air eventually.

Bionic Woman and Life have both aired their last existing episodes, which is why they aren’t on the schedule tonight; instead NBC is opting to air new episodes of Deal or No Deal and Dateline NBC.

Six Feet Under - The Complete Series Gift Set is going to be an Amazon “Lightning deal” today. Should be on sale for around $100 again, they’ll be selling 750 sets at that price starting around Noon (check the “Deals” page at Amazon to be sure of the time).

Primetime Grid

Primetime

ESPN has NBA action: Pistons at Rockets, Jazz at Suns.

Ned is desperate to make amends to Chuck after revealing a rather big secret to her last week on Pushing Daisies (ABC, 7pm). Meanwhile, Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) just wants to work a case and earn some money (which he’ll then sock away in his desk in cozies that he knits). Oscar Vibenius (Paul Reubens) returns to sniff Chuck and Digby some more because, well, they just don’t smell right. And, um, lots more stuff happens. This is the “fall season finale” of the show, the last episode filmed before the WGA strike began; this show was among the first to be renewed for a full season so we will be seeing more of it once the strike ends. Grant Shaud (of Murphy Brown) is among the guest stars. This is one of my favorite new shows of the season, if not my favorite (it’s hard to choose between it and Journeyman and Chuck).

The kids try to prove that they’ve put together a working society on the season finale of Kid Nation (CBS, 7pm). There are surprises in store for the pioneers in this final episode (let’s hope they’re good ones).

The final three use all they’ve learned as they are filmed and photographed for a commercial and a national print ad on America’s Next Top Model (CW, 7pm; also on Sun at 7pm). Jaslene returns to offer some advice. The final two compete during a Seventeen cover shoot and another walk down a challenging runway.

Part four (a.k.a. “Level Four”) of Rise of the Video Game (Discovery, 7pm, 10pm, 11pm). I wasn’t as wild about the third installment as the others, here’s hoping this fourth installment is a good one. “Video games begin simulating entire worlds and allow players to experiment with sometimes-troubling cause-and-effect scenarios.”

Brian Baumgartner, Angela Kinsey, and Oscar Nunez (of The Office) appear on a special two-hour Deal or No Deal (NBC, 7pm - 9pm).

The BAU investigates a series of murders in rural Virginia on Criminal Minds (CBS, 8pm). These murders are remarkably similar to a case from two decades ago– wouldn’t it be convenient if that was a case that Rossi worked? I don’t know that it is, I’m just saying is all. Joe Mantegna plays David Rossi. This new episode was written by Debra J. Fisher and Erica Messer; directed by John Gallagher.

Jamie and Adam test if a person with no flight training can safely land an airplane; they also take a look at Hollywood-inspired sky diving myths on a new MythBusters (Discovery, 8pm and midnight).

New episodes of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (TBS, 8pm, 8:30pm, 9pm).

Rerun of the first regular episode of Private Practice (ABC, 8pm - 9:02pm). Addison (from Grey’s Anatomy) moves to a new job and life in L.A. You needn’t have seen Grey’s Anatomy to follow and enjoy this show; I think it started out a bit rough, but has been steadily improving. Still making some missteps, but the show has a likeable cast and that helps a lot. If you don’t have anything else to watch at this time, you might want to give this show a try. The cast includes Kate Walsh, Tony-winner Audra McDonald, Tim Daly (of The Nine, The Fugitive, Wings), Amy Brenneman (of Judging Amy), Taye Diggs (of Kevin Hill), and Chris Lowell (of Veronica Mars). Doctors who work in an interesting practice who have sometimes complicated personal lives. This episode was written by series creator Shonda Rhimes.

Addison (getting a tour of the practice): You didn’t tell them you hired me.
Naomi: Oh, they’ll get over it. It’s fine. Scrub sinks are over there . . .
Addison: You know, Nay, I don’t think it’s fine to them. To them I am the interloper. I don’t lope.
Naomi: I own 55 percent of the practice, I made a decision.
Addison: And they have to live with that decision. And I–
Naomi: They will get over it. (opens a door) And here is your birthing suite.
Addison: But, I deliver babies in a hospital.
Naomi: You used to deliver babies in a hospital. And now, unless it’s a C-section, you deliver babies here. It’s very popular with the patients.
Addison: Okay . . . soooo I guess I should meet my staff. (pauses) I don’t have a staff. (laughs) Okay, um… let me see if I understand this. I left a hospital with a state-of-the-art OBGYN wing and a staff of 60 . . .
Naomi: But, you’ll have Dell. He’s studying to be a midwife.
Addison: The cute boy who answers the phone?
Naomi: Plus you’ll have Pete. Laboring moms love Pete.
Addison: The alternative medicine guru? Do you know how many babies I deliver a day?
Naomi: Well, here you’ll be lucky if you deliver one.
Addison: One patient the entire day?
Naomi: I told you, we do things differently here. This may be a big city, but this co-op is about practicing small-town medicine. Every patient is special, every patient gets our full attention. It’s not about surgeries. It’s about connecting. I told you this.
Addison: I know… I know. I just– I just didn’t think that it would be one patient the entire day.
Naomi: You wanted change, this is it.
  from Private Practice

Eleven mother-daughter teams prepare to compete in a beauty pageant on the series premiere of Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants (CW, 8pm; also on Sun at 8pm). The winning team will get $100,000 and a couple of crowns (of course). The judges are Carson Kressley (of Queer Eye), former Miss U.S.A. Shanna Moakler (of Dancing with the Stars), and Cynthia Garrett.

The remaining designers are “faced with a challenge that is all about transformation” on a new Project Runway (Bravo, 9pm, 10pm, midnight, 2am).

Dirty Sexy Money (ABC, 9:02pm) has been a pleasant surprise this season. I knew I loved series star Peter Krause (of Six Feet Under, Sports Night) and that he’d be a good anchor for this show about an odd ridiculously wealthy family, what I hadn’t counted on was how much I’d grow to like the family. This is a rerun of the series premiere which is provides decent set-up, but it’s in later episodes when the characters will really win you over. There’s a mystery at the heart of this series. It’s quirky and sometimes tawdry, but pretty darn entertaining. Donald Sutherland, Jill Clayburgh, Samaire Armstrong, and William Baldwin are other castmembers. Written by Craig Wright, directed by Peter Horton.

Nick George: All right listen, this has been a massive misunderstanding, and I can assure you my client is going to be found innocent of all charges brought against him, so there’s no story here. Please excuse us.
Female Reporter: Is it true you won the Yacht in a poker game, Jeremy?
Male Reporter: Jeremy, how long have you been smuggling people into the country?
Jeremy Darling: I don’t know . . .
Nick George: Don’t answer that.
Female Reporter: Is it true you were planning to harvest their organs?
Nick George: You know, that is just dumb. Why say things like that?
  from Dirty Sexy Money

Dr. Phil and his wife Robin host Christmas in Washington 2007 (TNT, 9pm, 10pm, 1am). Performers include Andrea Bocelli, Katharine McPhee, Heather Headley, Vanessa Hudgens, and Alan Jackson.

Clues in a case lead the team to “an infamous seller of killer pranks” on CSI: NY (CBS, 9pm). And Danny works on a case involving a kid from his neighborhood.

Ann Curry makes her eleventh exclusive report on the McCaughey septuplets on Dateline NBC (NBC, 9pm). The full hour is devoted to the septuplets; with some looks back at previous coverage, and extensive interviews this time around.

Series premiere of Party Mamas (We, 9pm; second episode at 9:30pm). This show follows “out-of-control mothers who plan some of the most extravagant and over-the-top parties for their children.” Oh-oh.

Winter premiere of Newport Harbor: The Real Orange County (MTV, 9:30pm and 12:30am).

Late Night

Sue Trowbridge’s Late Night Lineups page lists the guests for the late night talk shows; because of the WGA strike, all the late night talk shows are in reruns except for Last Call.