Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
Best Bets
New Pushing Daisies (ABC, 7pm)
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (NBC, 7pm)
New Criminal Minds (CBS, 8pm)
New Life (NBC, 8pm)
New Law & Order (NBC, 9pm)
New Dirty Sexy Money (ABC, 9:01pm)
New Friday Night Lights (The 101 on DirecTV, 8pm and 11pm)
Jeff Goldblum, David Gregory, Charlie Viracola on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm)
News & Notes
Looking for a really nice gift for a TV fan? These complete series DVD sets are all excellent:
Alias – The Complete Collection (Seasons 1-5 + Rambaldi artifact box)
Angel – Seasons 1-5 30-Disc DVD Set
Batman – The Complete Animated Series
Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Collector’s Set (40 discs)
The Dick Van Dyke Show – The Complete Series
The Flintstones: The Complete Series
Freaks & Geeks: Yearbook Edition
Generation Kill
Gilmore Girls – The Complete Series Collection
The Job – The Complete Series
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – The Complete Series
M*A*S*H – Martinis and Medicine Complete Collection
My So-Called Life – The Complete Series (w/ Book)
Northern Exposure – The Complete Series
Newsradio: The Complete Series
The O.C. – The Complete Series Collection
Sports Night: The Complete Series 10th Anniversary Edition
Twin Peaks – The Definitive Gold Box Edition (The Complete Series)
The West Wing – The Complete Series Collection
The Wild Wild West: The Complete Series
The Wire: The Complete Series
The X-Files: The Complete Collector’s Edition
Not a complete list, of course, there are many others out there that’d make great gifts; this is just a selection of them. Today’s the last day for free super saver shipping at Amazon in order for gifts to arrive by Christmas.
Daytime
Tina Fey and Will Smith on a rerun of Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings).
Primetime Grid
| Wed | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Pushing Daisies | Private Practice | Dirty Sexy Money | |||
| CBS | Old Christine | Gary Unmarried | Criminal Minds | CSI: NY | ||
| NBC | A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa | Life | Law & Order | |||
| FOX | Secret Millionaire | Bones Rerun | Local Programming | |||
| CW | Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Rerun | Stylista Season finale | Local Programming | |||
Primetime
Vivian wants to hire Emerson Cod to find Dwight Dixon (Stephen Root), but for obvious reasons, he doesn’t take the case in this new episode of Pushing Daisies (ABC, 7pm). Emerson’s bitter Norwegian rival Magnus Olsdatter does take the case and as he and his Norwegian cohorts investigate Dwight’s disappearance, they may find out some of Ned’s big secrets. Orlando Jones guest stars as Olsdatter because this show is awesome.
Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and the gang accidently prevent three letters from reaching Santa in the new holiday special A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (NBC, 7pm). Can the Muppets deliver these letters to Santa in time to save Christmas for the three letter writers? The press release promises that this special will be “filled with songs, mayhem, and heaps of holiday high spirits” so I’m guessing they do. The Muppets are the stars of the special, but the following folks also appear in it: Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Griffiths, Jane Krakowski, Nathan Lane, Jesse L. Martin, Petra Memcova, Steve Schirripa, Tony Sirico, Uma Thurman, Madison Pettis, and Mayor Bloomberg of New York City.
Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw host Christmas in Washington 2008 (TNT, 7pm, 10pm, 1am) with performances by Casting Crowns, Kristin Chenoweth, Julianne Hough, Darius Rucker, and Straight No Chaser.
New hour-long episode of Time Warp (Discovery Channel, 7pm and 11pm).
When Christine and Barb lose their gym franchise, they decide to open a spa in this new episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS, 7pm).
The BAU profiles a serial killer who kills luxury car owners while they’re driving on highways in southern California in this new episode of Criminal Minds (CBS, 8pm). Guest stars in this episode include: Mitch Pileggi (of The X-Files), Faith Ford (of Murphy Brown), Gina Torres (of Firefly), and Elaine Hendrix. Reruns will air over the holidays, the next new episode is scheduled to air on Wednesday, January 14th.
Three Russians are found dead and the investigation leads Crews and Reese to a Russian mobster in this new episode of Life (NBC, 8pm). And it turns out the mobster might have a connection to the framing of Crews himself. This is the last episode of this show ’til February and it sounds like there are some major developments in it.
Not long after Pete gets close (ahem) to Violet, Meg (Jayne Brook) returns to town in this new episode of Private Practice (ABC, 8pm). The two clinics continue to compete with each other. Jay Harrington and David Sutcliffe continue their guest stints on the show. Starting tomorrow this show will be moving to Thursday nights at 9pm after Grey’s Anatomy, though the next new episode isn’t scheduled to air air ’til Thursday, January 8th.
New episode of Friday Night Lights (The 101, 8pm and 11pm; also airs on Friday at 8pm and 11pm). The 101 is a station that’s only available on DirecTV. There are two more episodes for this season after this one, the season finale will air on The 101 on Wednesday, January 14th. This season of the show will begin airing on NBC on Friday, January 16th.
Former President Bill Clinton is Elvis Costello’s guest in a new episode of Spectacle (Sundance Channel, 8pm; also on Thursday at 10pm and Sunday at 1pm).
Season finale of Stylista (CW, 8pm).
New Inside the NFL (Showtime, 8pm).
Ned Beatty (of Homicide: Life on the Street) and Sherry Stringfield (of ER) guest star in this new episode of Law & Order (NBC, 9pm). Beatty plays a judge and Stringfield is his clerk. I’ve seen this episode and it’s pretty darn good, with Beatty doing fabulous work as always– it’s nice to see him on TV again. The next new episode probably won’t air ’til sometime in January. DVR Alert: It looks like Zap2It doesn’t think this is a new episode which means TiVos and other DVRs might not think this is a new episode and as a result might not record it. Trust me, it is a new episode, it was just originally scheduled to air earlier this season (but didn’t). So you may need to tell your DVR to record this episode even if normally it records all the new episodes for you.
We find out who was shot and how everyone is doing after the events of the last episode in tonight’s new episode of Dirty Sexy Money (ABC, 9:01pm). I guess I could say more about the storylines, but that’d give away how things played out. There aren’t any more episodes on the schedule at this point, though there are at least three more episodes that have been filmed which I hope will air sometime in the new year.
A murder suspect is impaled while being pursued by the police in this new episode of CSI: NY (CBS, 9pm). I’d say this should be an open and shut case, but then how would they fill the hour? Reruns air during the holidays, the next new episode will probably air on Wednesday, January 14th.
New Christmas episode of Top Chef (Bravo, 9pm, 10:15pm, 12:30am, 1:45am). DVR/VCR Alert: This episode has a run time of 75 minutes.
New episode of Prototype This! (Discovery Channel, 9pm, 11pm, 1am).
Two new episodes of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (TBS, 9pm, 9:30pm).
New episode of Parking Wars (A&E, 9pm and 1am).
David Alan Grier stars in a new episode of Chocolate News (Comedy Central, 9:30pm and 11:30pm; also on Sunday at 10:30pm).
Late Night
Don Rickles on a rerun of The Daily Show (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).
Kevin Bacon, Charlie Kaufman on a rerun of The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).
Jennifer Aniston, Broken Social Scene on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).
Scarlett Johansson, Kenneth Branagh, Staind on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).
Jeff Goldblum, David Gregory, Charlie Viracola on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).
Samuel L. Jackson, Death Cab for Cutie on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).
Keri Russell, Steve Martorano, the Fray on Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, check your local listings).
Aisha Tyler, Panic at the Disco on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).
