Tonight on the tube: Chuck, Life and 100 Great Hip-Hop Songs

NBC

8:00p/7:00 Central

• Based on Chuck’s great ratings this year,  NBC has … wait, isn’t this the sophomore premiere? How the hell did Chuck already get a full season pick-up? I bet Do Not Disturb is so pissed. “If only we could have secured a full season before anyone saw what shit we were!”
• Sara Gilbert joins the cast of CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, reprising her Leslie Winkle role, as Penny and Leonard compete to move on first from their short relationship.Then, on How I Met Your Mother, Regis Philbin needs some more air time, so he joins Marshall on a quest for “The Best Burger in New York.”
• We finally get to learn more about Cameron’s past on FOX’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. That means Summer Glau showing a little more range than her role generally allows. Unfortunately, it may be too late as the ratings on this aren’t as pretty as she is!
• Fashion and design invade The CW’s Gossip Girl this week, while on ABC, Dancing with the Stars, settles down to one elimination and two episodes per week.
• Or tune into the continuously horrible coverage by ESPN as the Ravens tackle the Steelers on Monday Night Football at 8:30p/7:30 Central.

9:00p/8:00 Central

• For a different type of tackling, flip over to USA and tune into WWE Raw. And for a different type of yelling and posturing, skip the wrestling and watch Intervention on A&E. I’ve only caught a few of these, but it’s always raw and emotional. Though, I wonder how an addict would take it.
• CBS continues the funny with Two and a Half Men, which is the most critically acclaimed unfunny comedy on television right now. Critically acclaimed and funny, though, is the new Worst Week. I’m not sure how so much bad stuff can happen to one guy, and now I see why other critics wonder how they’ll maintain that level of horrible luck. Tonight’s shenanigans involve Dick’s prized birds.
• Will Nathan go pro? Don’t watch One Tree Hill on The CW? Then I bet that first question flew right over your head. How about this one: what secret does Peyton learn about her new artist? Nothing? Ah well. Maybe you’re more the Prison Break type. The quest for key cards continues for the gang while sweet Gretchen has what’s sure to be a touching and beautiful family reunion.
• NBC continues to try wooing viewers back to Heroes with tons of crazy plotlines. Suresh transforming, HRG and someone surprising tracking down the escaped Level 5 baddies and the return of a certain Hatian. Sure, you have to suspend disbelief almost as much as with Prison Break but this is basically a comic book on television. There’s always a huge suspension of disbelief in comics. Is mainstream America able to take that kind of leap?
• With the Discovery Channel scared to air it, so as not to impact their IPO (isn’t it always about money), HBO stepped in to air the critically acclaimed Taxi To the Dark Side, chronicling the torture and killing of an innocent Afghan cab driver by US officials.

10:00p/9:00 Central

• On a much lighter note, MTV continues to make stars out of rich people with a new installment of The Hills. Then they take rich people and make them suffer on My Super Sweet 16 Presents: Exiled. The latter almost makes up for the former. To see how a lot of those girls got to look that way, and what they do as they get older, jump over to E! for Dr. 90210. Boob jobs, lipo and injections galore!
• A&E continues pursuing the paranormal in the latest Paranormal State. I think they need to investigate TNT because something paranormal had to have happened there to get the horrid Raising the Bar renewed. Or maybe TNT hired the network executive who thought Saved by the Bell: The College Years was a sure-fire hit and he feels he owes Mark-Paul Gosselaar. CSI: Miami tackles a real problem on CBS: gas prices. More specifically, people killing over the high prices, but I think a jury of peers would almost have to let that one go. We’re all going temporarily insane over gas prices.
• NBC’s Life returns with Donal Logue joining the cast. Aside from the murder case of the week, Crews tries to track down the lone survivor of the family he was falsely accused of murdering. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to see him.
• Did anyone else notice last week the lack of people running around Crane, Poole and Schmidt in the season premiere of Boston Legal on ABC. It’s like their running a skeleton crew on the show for this final season. Maybe the budget doesn’t have room for extras anymore. Other than that, though, the writing and acting is top-notch, though Jerry seems to have made huge strides in social settings all of a sudden.
• But none of that is nearly as important as the single greatest accomplishment of the twenty-first century so far. VH1 has compiled a list (I know. A list on VH1. It’s a stretch.) of the 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs. As long as Biz Markie’s “You Got What I Need” is number one, I’ll be happy. Tune in every night this week for the entire list!

Clacked by Jason Hughes
on Sep 29, 2008 @ 13:00 EST5EDT