Attention, tube raiders. Fire up the telly for another busy weekend (even if you're not into the Stanley Cup playoffs). Here are the highlights:
Twice In A Lifetime (tonight at 8 p.m. on CTV) wraps for the season with Al Waxman's swan song. The revered Canadian actor died last January following elective heart surgery.
In a bizarre twist, tonight's story centres on a confused, medical student (Wil Wheaton) who is guilt-ridden because he forced his unwilling father to have heart bypass surgery, rendering him physically and mentally incapacitated.
When the student kicks of a heart attack, celestial Judge Othniel (Waxman) grants him a chance to live again and convince his younger self to not push his father. Creepy!
There's still no word as to whether Twice will return for a third season without Big Al.
Liography (tonight at 8 p.m. on The Comedy Network) takes all those Biography and Life & Times shows and turns them on their ear. Leslie Nielsen is perfectly cast as host, goofing on his old pal Peter Grave's deadpan introductions.
The 13-part, Halifax-based series kicks off with a bogus profile of The Friendly Giant, a could-be-funnier poke at a Canadian kiddie TV icon. Future stories spoof teen heartthrobs Boyz 'R' Us, football great Joe "Pigskin" MacLaren and a writer named Simon Duke.
Maritime jokers Bette MacDonald, Jackie Torrens, Sherry Lee Hunter work the stories. A bit of a stretch as a series, but still fun for anyone (like me) who would stand in line to see Nielsen read a phone book.
Trailer Park Boys (premiering tomorrow night at 9:30 on Showcase) is a new six-part mockumentary about two ex-cons and their goofy trailer park shenanigans.
Ricky (Robb Wells) and Julian (John Paul Tremblay) play two trailer toughs who return to the park after an 18-month stint in the joint. They are shocked to find that they're no longer kings of the trailer turf, having been usurped by some guy named Cyrus (Bernard Robichaud) who has moved into Julian's trailer. Jonovision's Jonathan Torrens steals scenes as the trailer park's resident gangsta, J-Rock.
The whole thing has a very hand-held, low budget feel, which is probably the only way to shoot a mockumentary about trailer parks. While not for everyone, it's a nicely unhitched, politically incorrect romp through hoser heaven.
Murder On The Orient Express ((tomorrow at 9 p.m. on Global and CBS) is the kind of big-budget TV movie that used to score big in the ratings in those forgotten days before too much reality set it.
Alfred Molina (Chocolat) is well cast as Agatha Christie's dapper Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. He's backed by the usual gang of miniseries headliners, including Meredith Baxter, Leslie Caron and Peter Strauss.
The classic murder mystery has been updated since the last time this train left the station (1974's version starred Albert Finney). Poirot's task is to uncover who bumped off wealthy American businessman Strauss on board the Express.
CBC should put him to work on an ever greater mystery: Why are networks still making these corny remakes when audiences haven't watched them in years?
Kiss My Act (tomorrow at 9 p.m. on CH and Monday at 8 p.m. on ABC) features new mom Camryn Manheim (The Practice) as a barmaid at New York's hottest joke joint, cleverly called The Joke Joint. Besides serving drinks, she feeds lines to rising comedy star Jennie Jameson (Party Of Five's Alexondra Lee) who is trying to impress a big comedy scout (Scott Cohan from Gilmore Girls).
Before you can say, "a funny thing happened on the way to the bar," the smart scout falls for the brainy barmaid. Dabney Coleman also stars as a legendary comic who makes a surprising comeback.
The whole thing plays like Touched By A Joke Writer, with Coleman stuck with schtick that would have had him ducking ashtrays in any real club.
More Artists
