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CBS "Early Show" Presents "Colon Cam," Billed as "First TV Anchor to Undergo Live TV Colonoscopy"
It happened Wednesday morning on the CBS "Early Show." Co-anchor Harry Smith, promoting prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer, underwent what CBS billed as "First TV Anchor to Undergo Live TV Colonoscopy." Mabel, pass the doughnuts... (more)
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
HUMAN TARGET Fox, 8 p.m. ET Tonight’s return episode of this series, after a few weeks off to avoid NBC’s Olympics, features Mark Valley at his playful best. He reunites with an old lover, who still bears a grudge – so much so that she’s disgusted when his head touches her shoulder. “What are you, eight?” he complains. Very funny. |
AMERICAN IDOL Fox, 9 p.m. ET Tonight, it’s time for the young to do what the women did last night: sing, once again, for their survival. Eight of them sing tonight. Six of them survive after tomorrow’s latest cut. |
MODERN FAMILY ABC, 9 p.m. ET Judy Greer guest stars in tonight’s episode, playing an old girlfriend of Ty Burrell’s Phil who resurfaces (clearly a perennially popular TV plot). But there’s other stuff afoot, as always, including a manufactured “crime scene” involving a family pet. |
LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT NBC, 9 & 10 p.m. ET Among the guest stars in tonight’s doubleheader: Lena Olin, who usually stars in movies, and who hasn’t done much TV since cutting such a fine, scary figure on ABC’s Alias. |
TOP HAT TCM, 10 p.m. ET Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers star in this most stylish of black-and-white romantic musicals. Made in 1935, it’s still clever, still sexually playful, and, with its display of talent and stardom, about as sparkly and impressive as it gets. |
USA, 10 p.m. ET Alfred Hitchcock fans will get a particular kick out of tonight’s episode. A killer sets out to murder Shawn and his colleagues, but in a stylized way that borrows its methods from old Hitchcock movies. Wow. The guy must be a real Psycho. Or, in this case, a real Psych-O. |
PSYCH
DVD THIS WEEK: Polyester cheese!
READ THIS: Oscar mania accelerates
DVD THIS WEEK: Alice's TV wonderland
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FOR BETTER OR WERTS
Sometimes you just need to watch something awful. Shut down your brain. Let the recycled plots, banal dialogue and bad acting wash over you. Maybe even mock it madly, MST3K-style. What you need is Matt Houston. The first season of ABC's 1982-85 private eye romp arrives on DVD this week as the ne plus ultra of the Aaron Spelling school of celeb-stuffed cheese. Here it is in a nutshell: Mustachioed wisecracker Lee Horsley channels Smokey and the Bandit-era Burt Reynolds, playing a Texas oil gazillionaire moved to Hollywood to solve murders among his famous friends. He flies his own helicopter from his rodeo ranch . . . 
Just like the Super Bowl, there's always overkill when it comes to the Oscars. Which take place this coming Sunday (8:30 p.m. ET on ABC), in case you missed the 7,000 promos, ads, pre-shows and other assorted hype/hoopla. But this story about the Oscars caught my eye because it seems even wackier than usual . . . 
Those wacky DVD distributors, always looking for a bandwagon to jump on. This week, it's the one led by Tim Burton's phantasmagorical movie Alice in Wonderland starring Johnny Depp, which hits theaters Friday. At least four TV versions of Alice are new on DVD, coming from networks, cable, even Britain. The choices span five decades, two chromatics, high-tech/low-tech, period pieces and contemporary settings, straightforward and reimagined. Here's a look at the lot . . . 
NEW and RECOMMENDED
People went a little crazy when rock 'n' roll living legend Elvis Presley died unexpectedly on Aug. 16, 1977 at the age of 42. Elvismaniacs went into shock and hysteria, extolling their idol into some kind of god-like icon. Elvis skeptics hit back, mocking his cheesy Vegas jumpsuits, cookie-cutter '60s flicks, prosaic post-Army music output, and wasted potential. There wasn't much middle ground -- until John Carpenter's Elvis miniseries hit ABC on Feb. 11, 1979. Nobody expected much. The 31-year-old director was coming off a low-budget frightfest called Halloween. The star had been a child actor known for Disney drivel like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. But Kurt Russell turned around his own image by turning the iconic/insipid emblem into a full-bodied human being . . . CLASSICS TO CONSIDER Unauthorized TV DVD releases are a bad thing. They're often low quality. The sellers can be dodgy. They violate the legal rights of those who own the show. And they discourage official releases by diverting revenue into the hands of pirates. Now here's why I'm making an exception for The Nostalgia Merchant's two-set release of Amos 'n' Andy. The transfers from the sitcom's vintage film prints aren't bad. This particular video distributor has a 30-year track record. And it's that rare case where the show's ownership simply can't release an authorized version. There's just too much lingering controversy over this 1950s hit -- TV's first major network series with a black cast -- for rights-owning corporation CBS to go there . . . |
