Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

Train movies on Turner Movie Classics
“Idol Gives Back” special episode of American Idol (FOX, 6:30pm - 9pm)
New Criminal Minds (CBS, 8pm)
New Top Chef (Bravo, 9pm, 11pm, midnight, 1am)
Primetime: The Last Lecture: A Love Story for Your Life (ABC, 9pm)

Daytime

“A New Earth Phenomenon: An Hour That Can Change Your Life” on Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings).

Primetime Grid

Primetime

NBA hoops: Celtics at Wizards (ESPN, 6pm) and Suns at Spurs (ESPN, 8:30pm).

Baseball: Phillies at Mets (ESPN2, 6pm).

DVR/VCR Alert: Tonight’s “special two-hour” episode of American Idol starts at 6:30pm and runs ’til 9pm. Which is actually two and a half hours, but who am I to argue with a FOX press release? Math is hard. It’s a special “Idol Gives Back” edition of the show, hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Ellen DeGeneres, with appearances by Bono, Brad Pitt, Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Fergie, Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox, John Legend, Snoop Dogg, and possibly others. It’s a “music celebration raising awareness and benefiting various U.S. and international charities.”

Turner Classic Movies is featuring train movies (or movies that involve trains in a memorable way) on Wednesdays during the month of April. Excellent! Tonight’s features: The Narrow Margin (TCM, 7pm), Terror On A Train (TCM, 8:15pm), Berlin Express (TCM, 9:30pm), The Cassandra Crossing (TCM, 11pm, letterboxed), North By Northwest (TCM, 1:15am, letterboxed), and Spy TrainRiding on the Rails spotlight on the TCM website.

It’s a return to the Amazon on Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures (PBS, check your local listings).

“Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun” on American Masters (PBS, check your local listings).

If you live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, you’ll be able to watch tonight’s Twins-White Sox game on WFTC Channel 29 starting at 7pm. I figured it worth a mention since usually on weeknights you’d find the game on FSN North, but not this time (as they’re airing a Timberwolves game). I (and some others) blog about the Twins at WinTwins.net. Elsewhere I suppose it’s available as part of the MLB Extra Innings package, on MLB.TV and Gameday on mlb.com, and wherever White Sox fans watch games.

Two episodes of MI-5 (BBC America, 7pm and 10pm and midnight, 8pm and 11pm and 1am).

Thrill to “never before seen footage from cycle 10″ on America’s Next Top Model (CW, 7pm). In other words, no actual competition this week, just outtakes from previous episodes if I read this right.

HGTV airs new episodes of Designed to Sell (HGTV, 7pm and 11pm), Get It Sold (HGTV, 7:30pm and 11:30pm), Deserving Design (HGTV, 8pm and midnight), Design on a Dime (HGTV, 8:30pm and 12:30am), and House Hunters (HGTV, 9pm and 1am).

The BAU investigates a series of deaths in Pittsburgh that appear to be suicides on a new Criminal Minds (CBS, 8pm). Here’s a name I have’t heard in a while: Renee O’Connor guest stars, you know her best for playing Gabrielle on Xena, Warrior Princess.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.); Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) are scheduled to appear on a new Larry King Live (CNN, 8pm, 11pm, 2am).

Falacci and Logan investigate the murder of a judges wife in this episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC, 8pm) which debuted on USA back in November, but may be new to you if you’ve only watched the show on NBC. Steve Guttenberg guest stars.

Rerun of the “Air Plane Hour” episode of Mythbusters (Discovery, 8pm and midnight).

Two episodes of John Ratzenberger’s Made in America (Travel Channel, 8pm and midnight, 8:30pm and 12:30am). The first episode covers Viking Ranges and the Sears Tower, the second looks at landmarks of the French Quarter and United Record Pressing in Nashville.

A new episode of Chefography (Food Network, 8pm and 11pm) looks at “the transformation of the Food Network.”

New episodes of Ghost Hunters (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 10pm) and Destination Truth (Sci-Fi, 9pm and 11pm). I tend to not usually mention these shows because they aren’t my cup of tea, but figure I should mention them once in a while in case they are something you’re interested in.

“Super Moms” is the name of a new episode of Big Cat Diary (Animal Planet, 8pm, 11pm, and 3am). Around these parts, one of us will sometimes remark that my cat Inky is a “big cat” and then the other will say “he should have a diary.” It’s all because of this show, which is about truly big cats.

The case in this rerun of Law & Order (NBC, 9pm) starts with a simple (as these things go) hit-and-run, but ends up involving a title company and all sorts of stuff. It’s a good episode. Jim True-Frost, who played “Prez” on The Wire, guest stars. But the main guest star who gets the most to do is January Jones, who plays “Betty Draper” on Mad Men. She’s great in this episode. In case I haven’t made it clear, I’m really loving this season of Law & Order, it’s the best the show has been in a while.

Jack McCoy: You’re a grownup … you’re on your own. I’m getting off the train.
Michael Cutter: How about you?
Connie Rubirosa: All aboard.
  from Law & Order

The chefs compete in a complex taste test and the chefs cater an upscale charity event on a new Top Chef (Bravo, 9pm, 11pm, midnight, 1am).

Cartman ends up serving as a substitute teacher somehow on a new South Park (Comedy Central, 9pm and 11pm). Yikes!

Diane Sawyer reports on Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer last August, and on his “last lecture” which has become an internet phenomenon viewed by millions of people on Primetime: The Last Lecture: A Love Story for Your Life (ABC, 9pm). You can watch the entire lecture on YouTube and read more about it on the CMU website.

Season finale of HIgh School Reunion (TV Land, 9pm, 10:30pm, midnight). There were six episodes of this season, some of you may recall this show from when it aired on the WB way back in 2004-2005. It’s been successful on TV Land and will be back for another season.

The team conducts interviews and analyzes video footage shot after strange lights began appearing in the skies over Texas in December 2007 on a new UFO Hunters (History Channel, 9pm and 1am).

The season finale of Smash Lab (Discovery, 9pm and 1am) is titled “Bomb Proof Plane” so that should give you some idea what they’ll be up to in this episode.

There’s a fire in the building where Stella lives on a new CSI: NY (CBS, 9pm). The team investigates, of course.

Two more new episodes of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (TBS, 9pm, 9:30pm).

Two episodes of Cash and Treasures (Travel Channel, 9pm and 1am, 9:30pm and 1:30am). First one’s new, second one isn’t.

“Paris Hilton vs. Dick Cheney” on Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil (Comedy Central, 9:30pm and 11:30pm).

Late Night

Steve Coll on The Daily Show (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

Jeff Gore on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).

Will Ferrell, Michael McDonald on a rerun of The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm) from February.

Ellen Page (of Juno), Donny & Marie Osmond, Angie Stone on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).

Tapes ‘N Tapes, other guests still TBA on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Roseanne Barr, Kaley Cuoco (of The Big Bang Theory), Counting Crows on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).

Tom Arnold, Bret Michaels, Human Giant on Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, check your local listings). Is anyone else amused that Arnold and Barr are both guests on late night talk shows on the same night? Maybe it’s just me.

Andrew Zimmern (of FM 107 here in the Twin Cities and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern) on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings). Other guests still TBA. Last Call has a picture of Zimmern on their website, but refer to him there as “Andrew Zimmerman”. Oops!