Premieres and Notables, April 21-27, 2008

Monday, 4/21

Robin's "previous life" as Robin Sparkles comes back to haunt her again when old flame James Van Der Beek shows up on How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 7:30 CST).

Return:
Gossip Girl (CW; 7 pm)

Season Finale:
America's Prom Queen (ABC Family, 8 pm CST)


Tuesday, 4/22

The Pixar Story; Starz. 9 pm. Movie.
Documentary that charts the history of the famed studio. How many other studios have as high quality a "batting average" like they do? I'll tell you: none.

Wednesday, 4/23

Secrets of the Dead; PBS. 7 pm CST (check local listings). 7th season premiere.

National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth; PBS. 8 pm & 9 pm (check local listings). 2nd season premiere.

And I wanted to point you in the direction of 'Til Death (FOX, 7 pm), which has really taken off (or gotten some) in hilarity with the addition of J.B. Smoove. Good stuff.

And Jesse L. Martin ends his 9 year (almost 200 episodes) run on Law and Order (NBC; 9 pm). I've never seen the show, but that's an impressive tenure-- and it's been getting lots of press, so it might be worth checking out.

Season finale:
Pussycat Dolls Presents: Girlicious (CW, 8 pm).


Thursday, 4/24

Michael and Dwight hit the NYC clubs with Ryan on The Office (NBC; 8 pm). I know I'm going out on a limb here, but I expect some awkward fish-out-of-water moments.

Returns:
Ugly Betty (ABC; 7 pm)
Grey's Anatomy (ABC; 8 pm)
Supernatural (CW; 8 pm)
Lost (ABC; 9:02 pm)


Friday, 4/25

Return:
Moonlight (CBS; 8 pm)


Saturday, 4/26

The Mighty B!; Nickelodeon. 9:30 am. Series Premiere.
Amy Poehler voices this 9 year old tween who only needs 4584 more Honeybee troop badges to turn into a superhero. The commericals have been funny, so who knows?

And I want to point you in the direction Phineas & Ferb (Disney; 7:30 pm-- don't let the DVR scheduler fool you, it hasn't been on at 7:00 in a month). This show is awesome-- even if you're not a kid. Just sit back and marvel at the way the writers can wind three plots together that all converge by the end of the 12 minutes. (Nearly) every ep follows the same formula, but how they get there is pretty amazing-- every single time. And it's full of funny lines. Highly Recommended.

Robin Hood; BBC America. 8 pm. 2nd season premiere.

And if you're lucky enough to have the Monsters HD Channel, check out the Bruce Campbell triple feature of Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Bubba Ho Tep that begins at 7 pm.


Sunday, 4/27

Carrier; PBS. 8 & 9 pm (check listings). Mini-series.
A 10-part series airing from tonight to Thursday looks at life on the USS Nimitz.

Celebracadabra; VH1. 8 pm. Series premiere
I normally avoid even mentioning VH1 shows, but this one I think just encapsulates why I think this network sucks ass. Here is a show about seven celebs (as defined by VH1 standards: C. Thomas Howell, ANT, Chris "Kid" Reid, Hal Sparks, Lisa Ann Walter-- who?--, Carnie Wilson, and Kim Wyatt-- who again?) who train as magicians. You know that VH1 barely considers these people celebs when their own damn website won't even list all the names on the front page of the show (I had to go to tvguide.com for the info).

Return:
Aliens in America (CW, 7:30). Hey, check this awesome show out; it needs the ratings.

Season Finale:
Tracey Ullman's State of the Union (Showtime, 9 pm). I like Tracey and all, but this show was not funny (unless it got way better after the first 20 minutes of the first episode, which is all I could watch).