Hues Prevues - TV Weekend! (10/7-10/9).

It's the weekend, baby!  Who has time for TV?  No one, right?  That's why we have TIVO.  Bold means I'm recording it and intending to watch it.  As always, this is only those programs that have new episodes tonight.

[SEASON-TO-DATE]

PICKED UP FOR A FULL SEASON:
Everybody Hates Chris
My Name Is Earl
Prison Break
Supernatural

PICKED UP FOR A 2ND SEASON:
The Andy Milonakis Show
Beauty and the Geek
Dancing With The Stars
Extras
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Rome

CANCELED
The Comeback
Head Cases
Just Legal
The Law Firm
Starved
Taradise

October 7, 2005

10/9am
USA - Made in the U.S.A. (01/04)
Uh...  is anything really made in the U.S.A. anymore?  I worked for a manufcaturer who opted to shut down all his plants in mid-America to open ones in Northern Mexico so he could get away with paying twelve cents a day to them rather than decent wages in small town America.

8/7pm
ABC - Supernanny (02/04)
See, I hate it when there are such blatant copycat shows on different networks.  Take this show and Nanny 911 on whatever network it's on.  What happens usually is I don't watch either one.  Same thing with The Contender and the other one that was just like it.  I hate shameless rip-offs.  Sue me.  Well, they're usually busy suing each other, aren't they?

CBS - Ghost Whisperer (01/03)
Cheesy and hokey and cheesy and dorky and cheesy as all hell, but I still enjoy watching Jennifer Love Hewitt.  And I don't mean her acting.  I just like watching her, you know... walk... and jog... and bend over... and laugh... and...  and... I hope my wife isn't reading this.  Or you know what, screw that.  She has a life-size cardboard cutout of Legolas and we have to have silence everytime a preview for an Orlando Bloom movie comes on, so I can have my little cheesecake show every Friday night if I want to.

FOX - The Bernie Mac Show (05/03) | Malcolm In The Middle (07/02)
These are shows I would watch and will watch in reruns, but Malcolm kind of lost it's charm for me.  I still love Bernie, though.  Maybe I suffer from short attention span.

NBC - Three Wishes (01/03) - 2 hour special episode
For my first wish, I wish this show wasn't on the air.  For my second wish I wish it wasn't two hours.  For my third wish I want someone to explain to me why this is going to be a big hit.  I know, I know... it's that feel-good reality thing.  Damn you Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  By the way, since Extreme Makeover, the parent show, is long canceled, do we still need to call it The Home Edition?  Isn't it basically the only Extreme Makeover now?

WB - What I Like About You (04/04) | Twins (01/04)

9/8pm
ABC - Hope & Faith (03/03) | Hot Properties (01/01) - Premiere!
I like Kelly Ripa and so I watched an episode of this in its first season.  It's not bad, but kind of vapid.  But then again, so are most sitcoms.  Maybe that's what the American public wants.  Maybe that's what Hot Properties is.  Honestly, I think it's the one that's trying to be Sex and the City for network television.  Unlikely to work.

CBS - Threshold (01/05)
While falling slowly into the inevitable "monster-of-the-week" formula that has hurt such shows as The X-Files and Smallville, and even slowed the momentum of The 4400, for much of its second season, there is still a great deal of potential in the overarcing storyline and premise to keep me interested and hopeful... for a little while longer.  As long as they give me a bit more and advance things a bit in each episode, I'll be cool with it.

FOX - Killer Instinct (01/04)
Hey, lookie here! Another crime series.  This one looks at the most disturbed criminals.  Because, you see, what we needed was a forensics crime drama series that was even more grisly and twisted than the various CSI's and their demonspawn of spin-and rip-offs.

WB - Reba (05/04) | Living With Fran (02/04)
How great is it that American Idol's Mikalah Gordon (sp?) appeared as a niece to Fran Drescher's character on Living With Fran.  If they're not related, than it is frightening that two women could develop such similar vocal abilities.

10/9pm
BRAVO - Great Things About Being... (Part 5 of 5)
Over.
CBS - Numb3rs (02/03)
Damn you and your impossible to pronounce name for taking my girl from Rescue Me.  I know, I know, you were able to offer more money, but she was such a great dynamic to that stellar cast, I can only hope they can find a reasonable replacement for Season 3.  That said, this is another procedural drama, this time focusing on math and codes.  We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here with new angles for the same show.

HBO - Real Time With Bill Maher (03/19)
Bill Maher bugs me.  I don't know if it's his attitude or how badly his hair is looking as his hairline recedes and he still tries to sport the wild caveman 'do of yesteryear.  I think it may be more of the latter than the former, though.  He's a smart guy and I respect his opinions, but I can't make the time to watch real time.

IFC - Hopeless Pictures (01/07) | Greg The Bunny (02/07)
Man, I must have missed this.  I didn't even know the Independent Film Channel had original programming.  I see that Hopeless Pictures is a satire featuring the likes of Michael McKean, Lisa Kudrow and Jonathan Katz chronicling the ups and downs of an independent film studio.  This could actually be good!  As for Greg The Bunny, the IFC website teaches me that this started out on cable access and moved to IFC doing film parodies, before being picked up for an ill-conceived and ill-received FOX series in 2002.  With that canceled, Greg and the gang are back at IFC.  I may have to give this hour of power a chance...  Fridays are light for me anyway.

October 8, 2005

12p/11a
BRAVO - The Law Firm (01/07)
A competition reality show featuring twelve attorneys who will compete in a real law firm environment for $250,000.  I guess it was just a matter of time, wasn't it.  And what a killer time slot!  What a weird-ass timeslot.  And apparently no reruns at any other times.  Bravo has a lot of faith in this one, kiddies.  Must be an NBC reject.

4/3p
FOX - MLB Playoffs (Sports)
Looks like Houston is going to win the series and we'll have to deal with them again.  Hopefully we can take them out again and then face someone who's not a Boston team who'd just defied all the odds and set a new comeback standard by coming back from 0-3 and then just letting them steamroll us in four straight.

8/7p
FOX - MLB Playoffs - 8:30/7:30p (Sports)
Yeah, what he said!  Meanwhile, all the other networks are reairing their hot (read: expensive) shows from the week for those of you who missed them or were busy watching their hotter competition.  I don't know how long this can last, but Saturday is well known as a TV wasteland, and it's a great option for conflicted timeslots (like Tuesdays!!), so I hope it sticks around for a bit.

9/8p
SCIFI - Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath Of The Dragon God (Telefilm)
While I respect SciFi's efforts to have more original programming and make their own films, I wonder about a sequel to a poorly received and poorly made film such as this.  That said AD&D has a large audience base and the odds of them watching SciFi on anything close to a regular basis are... oh, I'd say about... 1:1, so maybe it's not such a bad idea after all.

October 9, 2005

7/6p
ABC - America's Funniest Home Videos (16/02)
I can't believe there is still an audience for this.  Most of the best home video stuff is on the web these days.  At least Bob Saget and his horrible voiceovers are gone.  I much prefer his voiceover work on How I Met Your Mother.  At least there's no falsettos when dogs are on screen.  And someone else writes his jokes.  Which he needs.  Desperately.

FOX - MLB Playoffs - 7:30/8:30p (Sports)

8/7p
ABC - Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (03/04)
As much as I love the idea behind this show, I can't jump on board watching it as it just doesn't seem like a primetime network show to me.  It feels like it should be on with Trading Spaces and While You Were Out.  That and I'm a bitter, cynical bastard, I don't want TV to help me feel good.

CBS - Cold Case (03/03)
My wife prefers Cold Case Files on A&E, which chronicles real cold cases.  After all, here it's just another niche angle on those damned procedural/forensics crime dramas.  Enough already.  What we really need is more police, hospital and lawyer shows.  Did I just say that?

I - Palmetto Pointe (01/03)
So "i" used to be PAX.  So this is going to be a drama with a touch of spiritualism and a heaping helping of "feel good."  Didn't you read what I just said?  Still, I was a big fan of Early Edition, back in the day, and apparently PAX/i  reair it every night.  Actually, I had no idea it lasted four seasons... but I bet it ended without answering how the hell he got tomorrow's paper today.

NBC - The West Wing (07/03)
They announced that they're going to do a live episode featuring a debate between the two candidates for president (Alan Alda & Jimmy Smits) on November 6.  I may have to watch this.  In fact, Commander-In-Chief has me digging White House drama so much, I may pick up The West Wing this season to see how they usher out Martin Sheen and see if the show will follow a new president into a new season.  That should be quit a juggling act.

WB - Charmed (08/03)
And with this season, Alyssa Milano has now had two series make it eight seasons.  So we've watched her for sixteen different years on these two shows.  And you know, I could watch her for sixteen more.  Well, that is, until she starts to slip.  But you know, that hasn't happened yet.  She's still freaking hot.  I've watched a few of these, and the show is okay, and taps into that teen soap drama with a twist of supernatural that seems popular on the WB, so there's that going for it.  I think this is the last season though.

9/8p
ABC - Desperate Housewives (02/03)
I might actually enjoy this if I bothered to watch it, but I've already missed the whole first season, and I know I'll never get around to watching it on DVD unless it becomes the greatest show on television.  But I do like Teri Hatcher, and I did catch the pilot in reruns and found it entertaining, at least.

CBS - The Hunt For The B.T.K. Killer (Telefilm)
But they already found him.  And he admitted to it.  And I hope he and his family are not cashing in on this.  I really don't like these quick to TV movies based on horrific events that come out within months of an arrest or whatever.  It's cashing in on tragedy.  My two cents.

HBO - Rome (01/07)
I really need to sit down and watch these.  I have them all TIVO'd.  I expect it will be really good.  I expect a lot, I know.

LIFETIME - Strong Medicine (06/15)
It's nice to know Rick Schroder continues to have a career after his short stint on NYPD Blue.  It's still always gonna be Silver Spoons for me, though.  Hopsital show on Lifetime.  You do the math.

NBC - Law & Order: Criminal Intent (05/03)
So we have three Law & Orders and three CSIs.  Do we really need three series under each of these franchises.  Remember when shows were about the characters rather than the format.  Ah, good times.  Good times.  Well, maybe not Good Times specifically.

VH1 - The Surreal Life (05/12) - Season Finale!
It is getting more and more surreal that this show continues to be on the air.  They've moved from C-level actors/wannabes to, I think they're at G-level actors/wannabes now.  Pretty soon it'll be film and television extras in the house.

WB - Blue Collar TV (02/03)
Sketch comedy featuring Bill Engvall, Larry The Cable Guy and Jeff Foxworthy and quite frankly, all I can think is... eh.  I know there's a huge audience for it, because I live in the country and their CDs and DVDs are available at every checkout stand in our Wal-Mart.

10/9p
ABC - Grey's Anatomy (02/03)
Hey look... A hospital show.  There's too many of them and I honestly have no interest in any of them.  I don't even watch Scrubs.  Nothing personal, you understand.

E! - Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive (01/08) - Season Finale!
Uh-huh.  Well, it's over with anyway.
HBO - Curb Your Enthusiasm (05/03) | Extras (01/03)
I don't know if Curb would be my cup of tea, but after Ricky Gervais impressed with the original The Office, I had to try out Extras, and I've not been let down as of yet.  His character is every bit as shallow and pathetic as his "boss" was in his former show, but now he's at the bottom of the rung, as a film extra who wants to believe he's an actor.  Great casting, great fun work from guest actors (Kate Winslet was hilarious) and a costar who has to be seen/heard to be believed.  Another gem from this master of subtle comedy.

NBC - Crossing Jordan (05/03)
Five seasons later people are still watching this show.  Just not me.  Do TV critics actually watch everything the networks put on the air?  How much time do they spend in front of their televisions?

SHOWTIME - Barbershop (01/09)
Liked the first one, got bored with the second one and don't know if it needs to be  a series.  But, that said, I've not seen the series, and there've been some good TV come from films in the past (All In The Family, MASH, In The Heat Of The Night), so who knows.  Maybe this is the best new comedy of the season.

VH1 - My Fair Brady (01/05) | Breaking Bonaduce (01/05)
I know these celebreality shows aren't the best of the new fall season.  I sometimes wish MTV and VH1 and MTV2 would just go back to the good old days when they played videos.  Most of their shows suck.  And these hold zero appeal.  ZERO!