Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

Lotsa marathons & lotsa sporting events (see below)
The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS (CBS, 8am – 11am)
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (NBC, 9am – Noon)
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (ABC, 7pm)
New Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends movie (Cartoon Network, 7pm, 8:30pm, 10pm, 11:30pm)
Dave’s Mom, Denis Leary, John Mayer, Chris Botti on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm)
Tony Curtis, Megalyn Echikunwoke on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm)

News & Notes

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you have a pleasant day, however you choose to spend it. And also Happy Birthday to my Mom! It’s a big birthday for her this year– we have a lot to celebrate today.

It looks like ABC soaps air as usual, but CBS and NBC soaps aren’t on today.

The WB is currently featuring Thanksgiving episodes of Everwood, Friends, Gilmore Girls, and The O.C. on their website. You can watch complete episodes there, which is very cool.

Advance warning: special new Christmas episodes of Psych and Monk air tomorrow night.

There are lots of excellent movies on Turner Classic Movies today, I suggest you check out their full schedule. A lot of these could very well be “Best Bets” for you.

When doing holiday shopping online, I appreciate it when you start your shopping trips via the links and banners on this site. When you do that, a little bit of the money you spend comes back to help keep this site online. Thanks so much to those of you who support the site in this way.

Just a reminder that by default times listed are for the Central timezone, there’s a gizmo in the sidebar on the website you can use to adjust the timezone to the more common Eastern one.

Daytime

Two Thanksgiving episodes of Malcolm in the Middle (FX, 6am, 6:30am).

Back to back Thanksgiving episodes of The Bernie Mac Show (FX, 7am, 7:30am).

Chef Tyler Florence prepares Thanksgiving dinner on Today (NBC, 7am).

A preview of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade coverage; military veterans home for the holidays; evangelist Billy Graham on The Early Show (CBS, 7am).

Chef Sarah Moulton answers questions about turkey on Good Morning America (ABC, 7am).

The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS (CBS, 8am – 11am). Highlights of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade along with other parades.

Live from Chicago, it’s the McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade (WGN, 8am).

Five Thanksgiving episodes of The Hughleys (TV One, 8:30am – 11am).

Meredith Vieira, Matt Lauer, and Al Roker host NBC’s coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (NBC, 9am – Noon). It’s not Thanksgiving to me if I don’t watch at least a little of this parade.

Dear Food Network: Thanksgiving Disasters (Food Network, 9am).

Back to back Thanksgiving episodes of Hope & Faith (WE, 9am, 9:30am). Kelly Ripa and Faith Ford starred in this series. Robert Wagner and Lynda Carter guest star in the first episode.

Lorelai and Rory try to attend four different Thanksgiving dinners in the “A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving” episode of Gilmore Girls (ABC Family, 10am). Jared Padalecki (of Supernatural), Milo Ventimiglia (of Heroes), and Adam Brody (of The O.C. all appear in this episode.

Luke: “Shouldn’t we say thanks first?”
Jess: “For what?”
Luke: “Well, that we’re not Native Americans who got their land stolen in exchange for small pox infested blankets.”
Lorelai: “Amen.”
  from Gilmore Girls

“The Legend of the Lost Art” episode of Magnum, P.I. (Sleuth, 10am). This episode was inspired by the fact that Tom Selleck was the first actor asked to play Indiana Jones. The fabulous Margaret Colin guest stars.

Dear Food Network: Thanksgiving Turkey (Food Network, 10am).

A look Inside the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (History Channel, 11am and 5pm).

Dear Food Network: Thanksgiving Desserts (Food Network, 11am).

College Basketball: Siena vs. Tennessee (ESPN2, 11am).

Folks who live or have lived in Chicago may enjoy Bozo, Gar, & Ray: WGN TV Classic (WGN, 11am – 1pm) which is a look back at Bozo’s Circus, Garfield Goose and Friends, and Ray Rayner and His Friends.

NFL Football: Titans at Lions (CBS, Noon).

The National Dog Show (NBC, Noon).

Dear Food Network: Thanksgiving Leftovers (Food Network, Noon).

College Basketball: Georgetown vs. Wichita State (ESPN2, 1:30pm).

Miracle on 34th Street (NBC, 2pm).

NFL Football: Seahawks at Cowboys (FOX, 3:30pm).

College Basketball: Cal State Fullerton vs. Wake Forest (ESPN2, 3:30pm).

Thanksgiving episodes of Friends were always great fun, you can see a bunch of them this evening on TBS (TBS, 5:30pm – 9pm).

College Basketball: Maryland at Michigan State (ESPN2, 6pm).

Marathons

America’s Best Dance Crew (MTV2, 6am – 3:30am).

The Bad Girls Club (Oxygen, 6:30am – 6pm).

Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern (Travel Channel, 8am – 8pm).

The Blue Planet: Seas of Life (Animal Planet, 1pm – 5am).

Chowder (Cartoon Network, 11am – 10pm).

Clean House (Style Network, 5am – 2am).

The Closer (TNT, 9am – 7pm).

Cold Case Files (A&E, 7am – 7pm).

Cool Tools (DIY, starts at 6am Thursday and runs all day and night Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).

The Cosby Show (TV Land, 5pm – 1am).

CSI: NY (Spike, 8am – 5pm).

Dirty Jobs (Discovery, 8am – 2am).

Dominick Dunne: Power, Privilege, & Justice (Tru TV, 8am – 5pm).

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (TBS, 8am – 2pm).

Gavin and Stacey (BBC America, 10am – 6pm).

The Golden Girls (Lifetime, 7am – ).

House (USA, 5am Thursday – 5am Friday).

House Hunters (HGTV, Noon – 4pm).

I Love Lucy (TV Land, 9am – 5pm).

Jon & Kate Plus 8 (TLC, 5am – 2am).

Keeping Up with the Kardashians (E!, Noon – 5pm).

Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is (BET, 8am – 1pm).

My Super Sweet 16 Reunion (MTV, 6am – 11am).

Newhart (WGN, 1pm – 9pm, 10pm – 2am).

Planet of the Apes movies (FOX Movie Channel, 6am – ).

Rocky Horror Picture Show (Chillder, 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm).

Run’s House (MTV, 1:30pm – 5pm).

Tom & Jerry (Cartoon Network, 6am – 11am).

Windshield America (Fine Living Network, 6am – 11am).

Primetime Grid

Primetime

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (ABC, 7pm).

The gang must venture into a crazy imaginary world to rescue Frankie when she disappears inside a mysterious box in this new Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends movie (Cartoon Network, 7pm, 8:30pm, 10pm, 11:30pm).

The Cool Tools marathon continues with some new episodes: “Holiday Special” (DIY, 7pm – 9pm, 11pm – midnight), “Paint” (DIY, 8pm adn midnight), “Make the Cut” (DIY, 8:30pm and 12:30am), and “Top 25 Countdown” (DIY, 9pm – 10pm, 1am – 2am).

NBA Basketball: Magic at Wizards (TNT, 7pm). How magical sounding!

College Football: Texas A&M at Texas (ESPN, 7pm).

Rerun of the season premiere of Smallville (CW, 7pm). Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Aquaman go searching for Clark. And Chloe has been kidnapped.

Most shows are reruns or are pre-empted for special programming, but there is a new episode of Survivor: Gabon (CBS, 7pm) tonight.

NFL Football: Cardinals at Eagles (NFL Network, 7:15pm).

In the 1800s, a wealthy woman tries to reconnect with her estranged, widowed daughter and four grandchildren in An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving (Hallmark, 8pm). Jacqueline Bisset stars in this movie.

Rerun of the two-hour season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 8pm – 10pm). Mariette Hartley, Bernadette Peters, and Kathy Baker guest star in this episode. Kevin McKidd (of Journeyman) makes his first appearance on the show. There’s an ice storm and multiple accidents.

The gang battles the flu as they work a big case in this rerun of CSI (CBS, 8pm) from last season.

Hodges (after Nick coughs): “You know, in China people wear masks when they’re sick. It’s considered impolite to infect your coworkers.”
Nick: “Maybe you should go work in China.”
Hodges: “Maybe you should wear a mask.”
  from CSI

Rerun of the season premiere of Supernatural (CW, 8pm). Wherein a certain character comes back from the dead.

Kid Rock on Storytellers (VH1, 8pm and 10pm).

I’m not sure I approve of the name of this special, but I guess it gets the point across: Most Christmasy Places in America (Travel Channel, 8pm and midnight).

CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute (CNN, 8pm).

College Basketball: Gonzaga vs. Oklahoma State (ESPN2, 8:30pm).

A new special Christmas to the Extreme (Travel Channel, 9pm and 1am).

Rerun of the series premiere of Eleventh Hour (CBS, 9pm). I’ve enjoyed this remake of the shortlived U.K. series, though it’s uneven.

South Park: Imaginationland: The Trilogy (Comedy Central, 9pm – 10:30pm).

A search for a home in St. Paul on a new House Hunters (HGTV, 9pm and 1am).

I loved the series Get Smart, but the Get Smart movie The Nude Bomb (Sleuth, 9pm and 1am) is better left forgotten. I only mention it because I know there are some who may want to see it anyway.

A special Thanksgiving episode of Paris Hilton’s My New BFF (MTV, 9pm and 2am).

Late Night

Thanksgiving episodes of Will & Grace (Lifetime, 10pm, 10:30pm) and Frasier (Lifetime, 11pm, 11:30pm).

NBA Basketball: Hornets at Nuggets (TNT, 10pm).

No Daily Show or Colbert Report, instead we get yet another airing of A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! (Comedy Central, 10:30pm – 11:30pm). It’s fun. Featuring Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Elvis Costello, Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, John Legend, and Feist. It also airs again on Friday at 2pm.

College Basketball: Baylor vs. Providence (ESPN2, 10:30pm).

Dave’s Mom, Denis Leary, John Mayer, Chris Botti on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Michelle Obama, Chris Rock, Darius Rucker on a rerun of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).

Rerun of the season finale of Sons of Anarchy (FX, 11pm).

Adam Sandler, Werner Herzog, Jewel on a rerun of Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Tony Curtis, Megalyn Echikunwoke on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).

Kristin Chenoweth, Cloris Leachman, Alkaline Trio on a rerun of Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, check your local listings).

Kevin Smith, Harmon Leon, Apocalyptica on a rerun of Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).