Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

Cary Grant movies on TCM during the day
New Journeyman (NBC, 9:01pm)
New Saving Grace (TNT, 9pm and midnight)

News & Notes & Deals

Today’s Deal of the Day at Amazon is on The Sopranos – The Complete Series (Seasons 1-6.2) for $200 which is half the price Amazon was selling the set for yesterday. Really great deal given how expensive the individual sets have been. Individual seasons are also available at a discount if you don’t need them all. Of course someday they may very well put out a fancy complete series gift set, so you might want to keep that in mind.

Other HBO DVD sets are still on sale; my favorite deal is on Carnivale – The Complete First Season and Carnivale – The Complete Second Season which are each currently going for about $20.

Amazon also still has Stargate SG-1 – The Complete Series Collection on sale for $190. And Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection for $161. Plus lots of other DVD sales and other sales going on that are worth a look. I’ve been shopping at Amazon since at least 1998 and have been an affiliate of theirs since at least 2000; I link to their stuff a lot because Amazon is one of my favorite stores.

My favorite recent non-DVD deal is on iGo Stowaway Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard for Blackberry and other PDA/ Handhelds for just $30; I bought this keyboard at full price a good year or more ago to use with my Palm TX and I love it, my husband ordered one for himself at this price and a number of my friends have as well. You gotta love any deal which saves you $100 or more!

Thanks once again to everyone who has been shopping via the links here on this site, it really does help. Usually it means I receive $1 – $10 per purchase depending on the item; big thanks to whoever it was who ordered a TV at Amazon through one of my links– it means $60 or so is heading my way.

There’s still time to send me a little holiday cheer if you find this site useful. Make a donation, send me an email, send me a Christmas card or gift, or show your support in some other way. Please take the time to thank people whose websites make a difference for you; I know I try to do that at this time of the year.

Daytime

Turner Classic Movies is airing some nifty Cary Grant movies today: The Toast of New York (TCM, 5am), Penny Serenade (TCM, 7am), Once Upon A Honeymoon (TCM, 9am), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (TCM, 11am), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (TCM, 1pm), Every Girl Should Be Married (TCM, 3pm), and Dream Wife (TCM, 4:30pm).

Primetime Grid

Primetime

Note for folks in Minneapolis & surrounding environs: KSTP Channel 5 (our local ABC affiliate) is airing a Vikings Pre-Game Show tonight at 7pm and then they’re airing the Vikings – Bears Game (which is airing on ESPN everywhere). They’re pre-empting the ABC shows I’m mentioning here. It looks like Duel will air at 11:36pm, Notes from the Underbelly will air at 3:06am, and October Road will air at 3:36am. These times are only approximate though because there’s no way to tell how long the football game will run so if you want to record any of these, you’ll probably want to pad your recording.

Olive, the Other Reindeer (My Network TV, 7pm).

Series premiere of Clash of the Choirs (NBC, 7pm – 9pm). This is a “four-night event series” where celebrities assemble choirs who then compete. Or something like that. The choir leaders are Michael Bolton, Patti LaBelle, Nick Lachey, Kelly Rowland, and Blake Shelton who each travel to their hometowns to recruit choir members. The choirs will perform everything from current pop hits to holiday classics; viewers at home get to vote and play judge.

Mike Greenberg hosts the series premiere of Duel (ABC, 7pm – 8:30pm). First of six episodes that all air this week. This is “high-stakes tournament-style game show” where you players compete head to head (in duels). Interesting as game shows go, but they don’t manage to get through all that many questions in an episode (at least not in the first one, which I’ve seen). Players fates are determined not just by if they know trivia, but also by how they play the game and which opponents they pick.

Rerun of the “Bachelor Party” episode of How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 7pm).

Marshall: It’s my bachelor party—no strippers.
Barney: Awww, he thinks he has a choice.
  from How I Met Your Mother

Rerun of House (FOX, 7pm) from season one, it’s the episode that follows the one that FOX reran last week. Cool! Vogler (Chi McBride) tries to get House fired. The patient is a pregnant woman who ends up having to make a very tough choice. Marin Hinkle guest stars; you probably know her from Two and a Half Men and/or Once and Again.

Football: Bears at Vikings (ESPN, 7:30pm; preceded by pre-game at 7pm).

No word yet on whether the season finale of K-Ville (FOX, 8pm) will also have to serves as a series finale; FOX hasn’t yet picked up the show for more episodes, but they also haven’t cancelled it. Boulet and Cobb reluctantly show a journalist around New Orleans for a story on the city post-Katrina; things get a bit too interesting when they end up responding to a call that involves a shooting.

Jami Gertz and Dylan Walsh star in Lost Holiday: The Jim and Suzanne Shemwell Story (Lifetime, 8pm – 10pm; also on Sunday at 4pm). An estranged couple gets stranded in a blizzard.

Cooper thinks that Lauren is becoming too wrapped up in baby stuff, so he decides to make a new friend on Notes from the Underbelly (ABC, 8:30pm).

Katie’s sister pays her a visit on Journeyman (NBC, 9:01pm) and Dan ends up in the past helping some folks who are barely hanging in there. And, well, there’s a lot more angst and drama in this “romantic mystery-drama” (that’s what NBC calls it). The final episode filmed (thus far) airs on Wednesday; NBC did order three additional scripts back in October, but they haven’t been filmed and NBC hasn’t picked the show up. It doesn’t look good for this show which makes me sad. If you’re a fan, watch tonight and Wednesday and pester your friends to do so as well. Melinda McGraw guest stars; she may be playing Katie’s sister on this show, but she’ll always be Scully’s sister to me.

A high profile lawyer comes to town to work a high profile case on Saving Grace (TNT, 9pm and midnight). Dirt is dug up on everybody, prompting Grace to wonder if she’s got a scarlet letter on her. The season finale of this show airs tomorrow (special night) and is amazing.

It amuses me that the press release refers to one character simply as “Pizza Girl” and she’s part of the plot in tonight’s new October Road (ABC, 9pm).

Tonight’s new episode of CSI: Miami (CBS, 9pm) involves the murder of a young woman, a meth lab, and an unscrupulous FBI agent.

Late Night

Check out the Late Night Lineups Page by Sue Trowbridge for talk show guest listings. The late night talk shows are all in reruns right now.

The rerun of The Late Show with David Letterman is from July 2001 with guests Julia Roberts and Travis, with a Top 10 list presented by Sean “Diddy” Combs.