Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

Season finale of Ugly Betty (ABC, 7pm)
Two-hour season finale of Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 8pm – 10pm)
Summer premiere of Reno 911! (Comedy Central, 9:30pm and 11:30pm)
Kevin Spacey, Cynthia Nixon, Brian Kiley on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm)
Steven Wright, Tricia Helfer (of Battlestar Galactica) on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm)

News & Notes

Are you on Facebook? Like this site? There’s now a page for Laurel’s TV Picks on Facebook if you’d like to “become a fan” there. Not yet sure how much I’ll do with it.

Lost doesn’t air tonight, but next Thursday ABC will air a rerun of part one of the Lost finale (at 7pm) followed by the two-hour season finale (ABC, 8pm – 10pm). I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait!

The Fall 2008 Schedule Grid Preview is linked prominently in the sidebar so I hope it’s easy to find when you need to refer to it or want to point someone else to it.

Thanks to reader Matthew who made a donation yesterday using the “annual subscription” option! I really appreciate it.

Daytime

Rerun of the “Nate Builds a Dream House” episode of Oprah (syndicated, check our local listings) which originally aired back in February. He totally renovates a house and yard for a young couple who took their three nieces into their home. It’s a neat episode, if you like this sort of thing.

Primetime Grid

Primetime

NBA playoff action: NBA Shootaround (ESPN, 7pm), Pistons at Celtics (ESPN, 7:30pm).

Mode takes on ELLE in the “softball event of the season” in the season finale of Ugly Betty (ABC, 7pm). Wow! Naomi Campbell and Elle editors Joe Zee And Robbie Myers appear as themselves or at least fictionalized versions of themselves. Eddie Cibrian and Lindsay Lohan also guest star. Ugly Betty returns next season on the same night and at the same time (Thursdays at 7pm on ABC).

The auditions begin in the season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance (FOX, 7pm – 9pm). The next episodes will air next Wednesday and Thursday. Auditions take place in Dallas, Charleston, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and Washington D.C.

Leonard asks out co-worker Leslie Winkle (played by Sara Gilbert) in this rerun of the third ever episode of The Big Bang Theory (CBS, 7pm). Gilbert and series star Johnny Galecki played opposite each other on Roseanne.

Sheldon: (to Leonard) “I think that you have as much of a chance of having a sexual relationship with Penny as the Hubble telescope does of discovering at the center of every black hole is a little man with a flashlight searching for a circuit breaker.”
  from The Big Bang Theory

New episodes of Designed to Sell (HGTV, 7pm and 11pm), Myles of Style (HGTV, 7:30pm and 11:30pm), Divine Design (HGTV, 8pm and midnight), and House Hunters (HGTV, 9pm and 1am).

A 1956 Bel Air convertible is restored on a new Overhaulin’ (TLC, 7pm and midnight). Sweet! I love cars from the ’50s.

Today’s afternoon Twins-Rangers game is not televised in the Twin Cities, but if you get FOX Sports Net North, you can watch Twins Squeeze Play (FSN North, 7pm, 10pm, 1:30am) which is a condensed version of the game. See all the important plays in just a half-hour– it uses video from the Dome with audio from the KSTP AM 1500 / Twins Radio Network broadcasts by John Gordon, Dan Gladden, and Jack Morris. I went to two games this week: the crazy extra-innings game on Monday night and last night’s rather awful (for the Twins) game.

Rerun of the “Ten Sessions” episode of How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 7:30pm). It was the first episode for guest stars Sarah Chalke (of Scrubs) and Britney Spears (of many many things). Ted requires ten sessions to remove his tattoo and realizes he quite likes his doctor.

The special two-hour season finale of Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 8pm – 10pm) is titled “Freedom” and I’m sure it’s not just because of a case where a boy is trapped in a hardening block of cement. Meredith and Derek work on/with another patient in their clinical trial and Alex has his hands more than full as he tries to help Rebecca. Plus lots more, to be sure. So many characters, so little time. And Meredith is still seeing the psychiatrist played by Amy Madigan. Grey’s Anatomy will be back next season, on the same night and time (Thursdays at 8pm).

Shia LeBeouf is profiled in a new episode of Biography (Biography Channel, 8pm and midnight).

George follows orders from a voice in a seashell and a volcano threatens to erupt because things are getting kinda boring (!?) on a new George of the Jungle (Cartoon Network, 8pm; also will air on Saturday at 7pm and next Wednesday at 6:30pm).

Residents of the Texas Yearning for Zion Ranch tell their side of the story on Larry King Live (CNN, 8pm, 11pm, 2am).

The “super skyscraper” Taipei 101 is featured on Engineering Connections (National Geographic Channel, 8pm and 11pm; also on Saturday at 5pm). It’s a look at elements it has in common with bird cages, sports cars, bamboo, racing yachts, and seat belts.

A look at the Gangster Disciples in a new episode of Gangland (History Channel, 8pm and midnight). They’re based in Chicago and have more than 30,000 members.

Bill Bellamy hosts the season premiere of Last Comic Standing (NBC, 8:30pm – 10pm; airs again on Saturday on NBC and Monday on Bravo). Fearne Cotton will serve as a “special correspondent” this season. They’ll search for comedians in the U.S. and in twenty other countries. This season, a revolving group of celebrity talent scouts will audition candidates for the show. In tonight’s premiere, the scouts are Richard Belzer (of Law & Order: SVU, Homicide: Life on the Street), Steve Schirripa (of The Sopranos), Fred Willard (of Back To You), and Kathy Najimy (of King of the Hill). Auditions in this episode are in New York City and Tempe, Arizona. The next new episode will air next Thursday at 7:30pm.

Geo Beach witnesses the challenges of keeping the electric power on in a state where more than half of the population lives off the grid in a new Tougher in Alaska (History Channel, 9pm and 1am). If you’re curious about this show, the History Channel will air the three episodes that have aired thus far again on Saturday (History Channel, 1pm – 4pm Saturday). That includes this episode, plus the ones about salmon fishing and gold mining. Next week’s new episode will cover logging.

A new Naked Earth (National Geographic, 9pm and midnight; also Saturday at 1pm) has a look at the destructive power of cyclones and specifically at Cyclone Nargis and the devastation in Myanmar.

A young woman is found dead from gunshot wounds in a ransacked apartment on a new Crime 360 (A&E, 9pm and 1am).

The five remaining dancers work together to create their own version of a popular music video on a new Step It Up and Dance (Bravo, 9pm, 10pm, 1am). I’ve heard from a couple of fans of this sort of show who think this one is pretty awful– if you watch it, what do you think?

Rebroadcast of the special two-hour “Steven Spielberg: An Empire of Dreams” episode of Biography (Biography Channel, 9pm – 11pm, 1am – 3am). An oldie, but goodie.

Ami teaches an art class at a children’s hospital on a new Miami Ink (TLC, 9pm and 11pm).

The deputies reach out to Jackie the Pickle-Throwing Hooker, who is now facing a life-threatening disease in the summer premiere of Reno 911! (Comedy Central, 9:30pm and 11:30pm).

MLS Soccer: Houston Dynamo at San Jose Earthquakes (ESPN2, 9:30pm).

Late Night

John Harwood on a rerun of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

Dr. Mehmet C. Oz on a rerun of The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).

Piedmont Bird Callers, Sarah Jessica Parker (of Sex and the City), Republic Tigers on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

First Lady Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna Bush, the winner of this season of American Idol, Tristan Prettyman on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).

Kevin Spacey, Cynthia Nixon (of Sex and the City), Brian Kiley on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Steven Wright, Tricia Helfer (of Battlestar Galactica) on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).

Johnny Knoxville, Death Cab for Cutie on Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, check your local listings).

Marissa Miller, Jasper Redd, Ben Harper on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).