TV: What's On Tonight?: Figure out what it would be like if you had never been born by watching It's A Wonderful Life

Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Friday, November 30, and Saturday, December 1. All times are Eastern.

TOP PICK
It’s A Wonderful Life (NBC, 8 p.m., Saturday): On a quiet weekend for original network programming, with Grimm and Saturday Night Live in repeats and Fringe pre-empted, this is probably your best bet, as NBC hauls it out of the vault for the first time this year. Hell, the Capra classic would be your best bet most weekends, but it’s particularly a good bet for this weekend, especially if you need to get in the holiday spirit, like we do. Jimmy Stewart is a guy who spends his life getting more and more frustrated. Donna Reed is the wife who can’t quite save him. Then there’s an angel and Christmas songs and… it’s darker than you think it is! We swear! (Look for our thoughts on this a little closer to Christmas Day.)

TV CLUB CLASSIC
The X-Files (1 p.m., Saturday): It’s time for the occasionally awful, usually tired seventh season of The X-Files, the season we have to get through to get to the surprisingly inspired eighth season. Todd VanDerWerff kicks things off by following Mulder into his very own Last Temptation of Christ riff.

WHAT ELSE IS ON
CeeLo’s Magic Moment (TV Guide Network, 8 p.m., Friday): So. CeeLo Green has a holiday special all to himself, complete with lots of fun guest stars and the Muppets, and it’s airing on TV Guide Network?! Somebody at NBC has really fallen down on the job to allow this to happen is all we’re saying.

Killer Karaoke (TruTV, 9 p.m., Friday): We’ve been examining our screeners for this show, and we’re concerned it’s not really about people singing, and then the best singers being allowed to stalk the others in some sort of Battle Royale/Hunger Games ripoff. We see the word killer, we want blood!

Phineas And Ferb (Disney Channel, 9 p.m., Friday): Allow us to acknowledge this show exists very briefly, before you try to convince us it’s really as good as every 10-year-old we know keeps saying. Silly readers! You told us that about Gravity Falls, and it… mostly turned out to be completely right, actually.

Jay And Silent Bob Go Down Under (Epix, 10 p.m., Friday): Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith head to Australia, to offer up a night of comedy, antics, and, presumably, song. If you’re a big Kevin Smith fan, well, this is your best chance at watching some new Kevin Smith content this weekend. You’re welcome!

Dragonwasps (Syfy, 9 p.m., Saturday): Dragonwasps! Say that name. Let it roll around on your tongue. Think about what it might mean, and think about what Syfy’s made-for-TV movie department might do with those two nouns awkwardly smashed together as they are. Then watch! DVR it and watch again!

The Greatest (VH1, 9 p.m., Saturday): With the help of Ivan Reitman’s daughter (no really), VH1 has been counting down the top 100 child stars of all time. In tonight’s installment, you’ll get to find out who stars 40-21 are, which is just about the least helpful segment you could possibly watch. You’re welcome!

The Family Man (ABC Family, 8 p.m., Friday): Brett Ratner did his level best to demolish the It’s A Wonderful Life legend with this movie about a businessman who discovers what might have happened had he chosen his college girlfriend instead, but Nicolas Cage is there to crazy everything up, as always.

Zookeeper (Encore, 8 p.m., Friday): Kevin James is a sadsack zookeeper who’s unlucky in love. A bunch of poor visual effects play the animals who reveal they can talk and try to help him find a woman who will love him, even through his tears. We can hear all of you setting your DVRs for this already!

Sullivan’s Travels (TCM, 8 p.m., Saturday): If you don’t think this Preston Sturges classic about a Hollywood director who decides to see how the common folk live is one of your favorite movies ever made, you’ve either never seen it, or you’re not the kind of person we can abide reading this article!

Pac-12 Football Championship: UCLA at Stanford (Fox, 8 p.m., Friday): Sure, there might be better college football games this weekend, and you might not care about our shenanigans on the West Coast, but we here in California are excited to see these two teams meet for the second time in six days.

NBA Basketball: 76ers at Bulls (WGN, 8 p.m., Saturday): The 76ers bumped off the Bulls in last year’s NBA playoffs, but that was when the Bulls were plagued by injury. Now, presumably, they will rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes, and devour the Philadelphians whole. That’s just our best hypothesis.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Last Resort (Thursday): Look, we know ABC canceled this show, but it says it will air all 13 episodes it produced, and we’re going to hold it to that promise by reviewing every single one of them. Scott Von Doviak realizes that knowing a show is dead on its feet makes some subplots seem completely pointless.

that an A.V. Club account is good for more than just commenting?

Log in with Facebook Receive notifications of updates to your favorite TV showsFollow your Facebook friends and favorite AV commentersGrade TV shows, films, music, and moreDownload the TV Club iPad App

View the original article here

TV: What's On Tonight?: Can we entice you into watching The Hour by promising you Q from Skyfall is in it? No?

Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Wednesday, November 28. All times are Eastern.

TOP PICK
The Hour (BBC America, 9 p.m.): Did you enjoy Ben Whishaw in Skyfall? Then you might also enjoy him in this excellent BBC drama, about a TV news magazine in the 1950s, which returns for its second series tonight. Okay, that was a pretty weak pitch, because we’re not really sure what the Venn diagram intersection between “James Bond fans” and “The Hour fans” is. But we assure you that you will probably enjoy this if you enjoy good things! And who doesn’t enjoy good things? Todd VanDerWerff, for one, though we’re hopeful he can be sucked in by the wonders of Romola Garai as ahead-of-her-time news producer Bel Rowley.

REGULAR COVERAGE
Arrow (The CW, 8 p.m.): For whatever reason, Oliver hasn’t revealed his secret identity to everybody he knows yet, which is too bad. Alasdair Wilkins is waiting for that to happen so that everybody on the show will sneer “Arrow!” derisively at him, just like when Alasdair whispers when he watches the show.

Survivor (CBS, 8 p.m.): We’re at the point in the season where the episode descriptions say things like, “Another castaway is voted out of the game,” so we’re just going to assume that in this episode, something crazy will happen involving Michael Skupin. Carrie Raisler is giving us good odds on that bet.

Modern Family (ABC, 9 p.m.): Mitchell and Cameron struggle to save an old tree in a park, while Gloria and Claire visit a big-box store, which will likely terrify them. Donna Bowman’s favorite big box is Home Depot; she doesn’t care who knows it! (This What’s On Tonight was sponsored in part by Home Depot.)

Supernatural (The CW, 9 p.m.): We’re glad we lived long enough to see an episode of television in which all of the mysterious deaths are taken from Looney Tunes cartoons. Phil Dyess-Nugent keeps chasing after that damnable bird, and all of his gadgets just keep backfiring on him. What a chump!

Suburgatory (ABC, 9:30 p.m.): Some of George’s friends from New York visit and find both his suburban makeover and his new girlfriend to be a source of general mirth and amusement. Brandon Nowalk would never make fun of you for your new look, baby. He knows how hard you work to look so good.

American Horror Story (FX, 10 p.m.): This week’s episode is called “Dark Cousin,” because everybody knows that the relative you least want to turn out to be evil is your cousin. Todd VanDerWerff once had an evil cousin, and he had to have that cousin exorcised. It wasn’t a fun process, but he got the job done.

Nashville (ABC, 10 p.m.): It’s only taken what feels like seven years—in which time, several Nashville mayoral elections have been run and won—but Rayna and Juliette are finally facing off again. If somebody doesn’t get slapped, Todd VanDerWerff is going to take this episode back for a refund.

Top Chef (Bravo, 10 p.m.): Perhaps in honor of the return of The Hour—okay, perhaps because of a complete coincidence—Top Chef is getting into a ‘50s mood, as the chefs recreate menus from the era. Emily Withrow would like to remind them they’ll have to cook everything in lard for true accuracy.

Key & Peele (Comedy Central, 10:30 p.m.): The second season is over as of tonight, and one of the sketches involves the last two men on Earth. Steve Heisler is willing to bet those two men will be played by Key and Peele, but wouldn’t it be cool if they were Andre Braugher and Jon Hamm instead?

TV CLUB CLASSIC
The Sopranos (1 p.m.): Christopher and Tony take a car ride together, and that ends in something completely unexpected. And that’s just in the first 10 minutes of this episode, which is one of the best Sopranos hours of all time. Todd VanDerWerff suspects he’ll be saying that a lot in the coming weeks.

WHAT ELSE IS ON
A Charlie Brown Christmas (ABC, 8 p.m.): The Peanuts Thanksgiving special aired just last week, but it’s already time for ABC to haul out this seminal Christmas special, which just might be one of our very favorite works of art ever made. Still, can’t we give Thanksgiving a little breathing room, ABC? Huh?

Christmas In Rockefeller Center (NBC, 8 p.m.): As it turns out, NBC doesn’t care about rushing the Christmas season either, as it takes this opportunity to light up the big-ass tree in front of Rockefeller Center while the light from November sweeps still shines. Don’t worry, giant tree. We still love you!

Ferrets: The Pursuit Of Excellence (PBS, 10 p.m.): This apparently first aired in 2007, which is too bad, because if it hadn’t, we could have dedicated several articles to its title alone. We’re still not sure how exactly the word “ferrets” gets followed by “the pursuit of excellence,” but PBS evidently knows.

Love You, Mean It With Whitney Cummings (E!, 10:30 p.m.): Whitney Cummings now has three TV shows, airing on three different networks. You have no TV shows, airing on no networks. Please note that this is only true, unless you are Chuck Lorre, in which case, hi, Chuck! How’s it going? We’re good!

District 9 (G4, 8 p.m.): Aliens live in South Africa, segregated from the human population in the titular district. When a human is infected with some sort of alien mutagen, things get out of hand, in this unexpected box-office hit that also proved surprisingly successful at the Oscars. Check this one out.

The Time Machine (TCM, 8 p.m.): Or you can scratch that science fiction itch through this film adaptation of H.G. Wells’ famous tale of Morlocks and Eloi living on a far-future Earth. It’s ostensibly all about British social strata or whatever, but we’re just glad this version doesn’t star Samantha Mumba.

College basketball: Michigan State at Miami (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.): What with the way they’re at opposite sides of the country, you’d expect Michigan State and the University of Miami to be natural college basketball rivals, and you’d be completely wrong about that. Still, this is the best game on tonight.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Vegas (Tuesday): If you’re still watching this and you’re under the age of 50, congratulations! CBS has a prize for you, as you’re the only one left. We’re not going to spoil what it is, but it involves “windsurfing,” “Dennis Quaid,” and “Phil Dyess-Nugent.” You lucky duck, you! Enjoy your double date!

View the original article here