SALON

Friday, Jun 1, 2001 5:42 PM UTC

Blue Glow

Salon's TV picks for Weekend, June 1-3, 2001

By

Topics: Alan Ball, George Clooney, Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Tony Awards, Television,

Series

Fox pulls Freakylinks (9 p.m. Fri., Fox) out of mothballs for a few weeks. This is the sci-fi series about a guy who maintains a Web site chronicling paranormal happenings. Can’t wait for the next “Survivor”? Here’s the kiddie version of “Survivor,” Bug Juice 3 (8 p.m. Sun., Disney Channel), a reality series in which 12- to 14-year-olds tackle summer camp in New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Let us return now to the mid-’80s, when pastel linen menswear was cool and Philip Michael Thomas was a household name. Yes, it’s the long-awaited “Miami Vice” episode of E! True Hollywood Story (9 p.m. Sun., E!). Carrie greets her 35th birthday wondering if she’ll ever find her soul mate on the season opener of Sex and the City (9 p.m. Sun., HBO). A second episode follows (9:30), in which Carrie is asked to model in a charity fashion show and Charlotte finally takes a good long look at herself. Six Feet Under (10 p.m. Sun., HBO), the new series from “American Beauty” writer Alan Ball, is a one-hour comedy-drama about a family that runs a Southern California funeral home. Death, family secrets and suburban existential angst run through this series, which has a fine cast (Peter Krause as the screwup prodigal son and Frances Conroy as the odd, repressed mom are especially affecting) and a habit-forming tone of quiet desperation. Unfortunately, Ball laces the show with the kind of surreal flourishes — fantasy sequences, dead character who hangs around offering advice to the living — that have become an overworked staple of “quality” TV; and, hey, this isn’t supposed to be TV, it’s HBO! It’s still a decent piece of work, though, that will do nicely as a Sunday nightcap.

Specials

The new documentary Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days (7 p.m. PST/ 8 p.m. EST, Fri., American Movie Classics) takes a close look at the making of Marilyn’s last movie, the never completed “Something’s Got to Give,” which also starred Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse. Friday would have been Monroe’s 75th birthday. The 2001 ALMA Awards (8 p.m., Fox) salutes the achievements of Latino performers over the past year. The marathon June Bugs (beginning 11 p.m. Fri., Cartoon Network) unspools 176 Bugs Bunny cartoons and runs until midnight Sunday. That’s a whole lots of wabbits. Before she was Buffy’s meddling little sister, Michelle Trachtenberg was the meddling title character of Harriet the Spy (7 p.m. Sun., ABC), an adaptation of the book about a preteen who can’t keep her nose out of other people’s business. Chazz Palminteri plays former Gambino crime family capo Paul Castellano in the new TV movie Boss of Bosses (8 p.m. Sun., TNT). Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick host the 55th Annual Tony Awards (9 p.m. Sun., CBS). Lane and Broderick are also up for Tonys themselves, as is their toast-of-Broadway musical, Mel Brooks’ “The Producers.” Fix! Iron Chef 21st Century Battle (9 p.m. Sun., Food Network) is a rematch between the formidable Masahiro Morimoto and American challenger Bobby Flay, who maintains he wuz robbed in their last pan-to-pan meeting. Biography: The Impressionists (9 p.m. Sun., A&E) is a two-part, four-hour special profiling Degas, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and other painters who shocked the art world in mid-19th century Paris. (Concludes Monday.)

Sports

Baseball:
Braves at Pirates (7 p.m. Fri., 7 p.m. Sat., 1:30 p.m. Sun., TBS)
Tigers at White Sox (7 p.m. Sat., FX)
Reds at Cardinals (8 p.m. Sun., ESPN)

NBA playoffs:
76ers at Bucks, Game 6 (9 p.m. Fri., NBC; Game 7, if necessary, 7:30 p.m. Sun., NBC)

Stanley Cup Championship:
Avalanche at Devils, Game 4 (8 p.m. Sat., ABC)

Talk

Rosie O’Donnell (syndicated) Meredith Vieira, Vicki Lewis (rerun)
David Letterman (CBS) Carson Daly, CBS Giant Orchestra (rerun)
Jay Leno (NBC) George Clooney, Tracey Ullman (rerun)
Dennis Miller (HBO) George Carlin
Politically Incorrect (ABC) Dave Matthews, Ann Coulter
Conan O’Brien (NBC) Christopher Walken, Mr. T (rerun)
Craig Kilborn (CBS) Carmen Electra, Esai Morales (rerun)

All times Eastern unless noted.

Joyce Millman is a writer living in the Bay Area. More Joyce Millman.

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