Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

Season finale of House (FOX, 8pm)
New The Universe (History Channel, 8pm and midnight)
New In Treatment (HBO, 8:30pm)
Matthew McConaughey, Gary Mule Deer, Sheryl Crow on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm)
Amy Ryan, Terry Crews, Sebastian Maniscalco on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm)

News & Notes

If you missed the post-Super Bowl House or missed part of it, you’ll be pleased to learn that FOX will rebroadcast that episode on Friday, February 15th.

The Sci-Fi Channel will air season four of Doctor Who starting in April, they’ve also acquired the rights to air the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Daytime

Sci-Fi Channel marathon du jour is of Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital (Sci-Fi, 7am - 3pm).

George Stephanopoulo and his wife Alexandra Wentworth, Sheryl Crow, Room A Day Giveaway winner on The View (ABC, check your local listings).

floral designer Oscar Mora, chocolatier Chuck Siegel, designer Ariane Goldman, Martha shows how to embellish a heart-shaped box on The Martha Stewart Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Peter Lawford star in Little Women (TCM, 1pm).

A special Mardi Gras edition of The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

“Dr Oz Reveals the Ultimate Checklist for Great Aging” on Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings).

Primetime Grid

Primetime

Expect political coverage on various stations tonight. I find it interesting that as I write this ABC is planning three hours of coverage in primetime, CBS is planning two hours of coverage, and NBC plans to just air one hour of coverage in primetime. Huh. Of course this is subject to change, it’s possible that sometime today a network will add more coverage or drop some.

College basketball: Michigan at Ohio State (ESPN, 6pm), Florida at Tennessee (ESPN, 8pm), Butler at Valparaiso (ESPN2, 8pm). Here’s some Laurel-trivia for you: my brother attended and graduated from Valparaiso.

Tonight TCM puts the spotlight on Oscar-nominees and winners from the 1940s: The Best Years of Our Lives (TCM, 7pm, has a runtime of 170 minutes), All The King’s Men (TCM, 10pm), Casablanca (TCM, midnight), Rebecca (TCM, 1:45am), and Body and Soul (TCM, 4am). When all else fails this month, I recommend watching Oscar-nominees from years past on Turner Classic Movies.

Still more auditions on American Idol (FOX, 7pm), this time they’re in Atlanta, Georgia.

A couple of good reruns of Alton Brown’s Good Eats: “Pretzels Logic” (Food Network, 7pm and 2am) and “Tort(illa) Reform” (Food Network, 7:30pm and ). I highly recommend this show even to folks who don’t normally watch cooking shows. It’s educational, entertaining, and funny.

The team investigatesa mysterious death on a top-secret research ship in this rerun of NCIS (CBS, 7pm). Could it be a ghost ship? Well, this episode did first air on the night before Halloween, but somehow I doubt it.

McGee: I’m dealing with my boat-phobia, Tony’s dealing with his rat-phobia, and Ziva’s dealing with her ghost-phobia.
Abby: So, what’s Gibbs dealing with?
Gibb: Them.
  from NCIS

Rebroadcast of last night’s new episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (Travel Channel, 7pm and 11pm). Chef Bourdain visits New Orleans. There’s also a rerun of the Tuscany episode tonight (Travel Channel, 10pm).

Rerun of the “Dark Matter” episode of The Universe (History Channel, 7pm and 11pm).

The vessel in this rerun of Reaper (CW, 7pm) is a sweater. Weird! And the bad guy is a chemical company CEO turned “toxic revenger”.

Sock: All right, listen to me. I’m not advocating violence here, but if you need to, uh..take care of Greg, I know some people.
Sam: Yeah? I know the Devil. I think that trumps your people.
  from Reaper

The team treats a woman who collapsed at her own wedding on the season finale of House (FOX, 8pm). And House continues to harass Wilson as he’s disturbed by who Wilson’s dating.

A new episode of The Universe (History Channel, 8pm and midnight) covers space travel. Specifically: “Scientists pursue bizarre technologies to speed up space travel; examining the science behind the concept of warp-drive and a theoretical particle that can travel faster than the speed of light.”

Lots of people confront lots of other people on a new One Tree Hill (CW, 8pm). Whatever.

A kitchen does not match the Craftsman-style house so the team from Desperate Spaces (HGTV, 8pm and midnight) steps in to help in this new episode.

Cranberry Farmer is the job featured on a new Dirty Jobs (Discovery, 8pm and midnight).

Alex (Blair Underwood) returns for a second session with Paul (Gabriel Byrne) on a new episode of In Treatment (HBO, 8:30pm and 11pm). If you missed the first session, it’s rerun tonight (HBO, 8pm). These episodes also air at 10pm and 10:30pm on HBO2 and plenty of other times on various HBO stations. Alex is one intense guy, isn’t he? And is it me, or does it seem like Blair Underwood doesn’t age? He’s also getting a lot of TV work these days, what with recurring roles on New Adventures of Old Christine and Dirty Sexy Money as well.

A new National Open House (HGTV, 8:30pm and 12:30am) features homes in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; Maui, Hawaii; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Joan Van Ark and Donna Mills both guest star on tonight’s new episode of Nip/Tuck (FX, 9pm, 10pm; also on Fri at 10pm and Sun at 9pm). It’s a Knots Landing reunion! Well, kinda. John Schneider (of Dukes of Hazzard and Sharon Gless (of Cagney & Lacey) also guest star. I guess they wanted guest stars who were on hit shows during the ’80s for this episode.

“The Man in the S.U.V.” is the title of the second-ever episode of Bones (TNT, 9pm). See how this fun show began. Jose Zuniga guest stars, it seems like he’s guest starred on every crime drama in recent years. Okay, my curiosity got the best of me, I went and looked up Mr. Zuniga in the IMDB. He’s guest starred on: Ghost Whisperer, Saving Grace, NCIS, Numb3rs, Prison Break, Law & Order, Dexter, 24, CSI, Bones, The Shield, Alias, ER, Century City, Law & Order: SVU, Karen Sisco, Dragnet, CSI: Miami, and Crossing Jordan. Plus The O.C. and Touched By An Angel. I’m just covering stuff since 2000. He’s a busy guy.

Booth: I prefer if we would just stay on point and talk about things that you like to talk about, like dead people. Dead bodies?
Brennan: (upset) Sure, sure. You’ve killed a lot of people, right? When you were a sniper?
Booth: Maybe we shouldn’t talk at all.
Brennan: Right, cause you’re angry.
Booth: I’m not angry. Not.
  from Bones

Brian Unger and that other guy continue to find out how things are made on a new Some Assembly Required (Discovery, 9pm and 1am). In this one they have a look at the perfect golf club, a BMW diesel engine, and blasting salt out of a mine.

Kat tattoos a portrait of Orbi’s father (Roy Orbison), Pixie and Kim try speed-dating on a new L.A. Ink (TLC, 9pm, 10pm).

A couple more new episodes of Parking Wars (A&E, 9pm and 1am, 9:30pm and 1:30am).

A new episode of The Millionaire Matchmaker (Bravo, 9pm, 11pm, 1am) is preceded by reruns of the first two episodes (Bravo, 7pm, 8pm).

Darlen’s alcohol abuse spins out of control; Cordelia drinks to cope with dumping Taylor on a new Bad Girl’s Club (Oxygen, 9pm, 10:30pm). There’s a big marathon of this show earlier in the day (9am - 4pm; also 7pm - 9pm, though I’m not recommending it as I’m not a fan.

Tensions escalates between Janice and her partner; a secret meeting happens; Janice and the models head to South Beach on a new Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency (Oxygen, 9:30pm, 11pm, 1am). Preceded by reruns from 4pm ’til 7pm. As you might’ve guessed, this also is not a show I usually watch. Always happy to hear from you guys about shows you watch; if you watch these, I’d like to hear your take.

Late Night

Ingrid is “on the hunt for the right man” on a new 10 Items or Less (TBS, 10pm and 1am). It sounds like she wants to have sex for the first time (ever) with one of the guys at the store. Eek!

Matthew McConaughey, Gary Mule Deer, Sheryl Crow on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Amy Ryan (Oscar nominee for Gone Baby Gone, she plays “Beadie” on The Wire), Terry Crews (who plays the Dad on Everybody Hates Chris), Sebastian Maniscalco on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).

The Tonight Show (NBC, 10:35pm) and Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm) will air new episodes, but the guests won’t be announced ’til late this afternoon (if at all). And, of course, they’re working without writers.

Looks like tonight there aren’t new episodes of the late night shows that air on ABC or Comedy Central.