blue glow
SALON'S TV PICKS FOR
WEEKEND, JAN. 15-17, 1999
BY JOYCE MILLMAN

S P E C I A L S

The new "Wonderful World of Disney" TV movie Selma, Lord, Selma (7 p.m. Sun., ABC) dramatizes the civil rights struggle, as seen through the eyes of two African-American schoolgirls. Clifton Powell stars as Martin Luther King Jr.; King's daughter Yolanda plays a schoolteacher. The 1995 drama Dead Man Walking (9 p.m. Sun., CBS), starring Sean Penn as a death row inmate and Susan Sarandon (who won an Oscar for her performance) as the nun who counsels him, has its broadcast premiere. The two-hour documentary Unmentionables: A Brief History (9 p.m. EST/10 PST Sun., A&E) chronicles the history of underwear from the hair shirt to the thong.

S E R I E S

Tom Brokaw plugs his WWII book on Dateline NBC (9 p.m. Fri., NBC). The discovery of a corpse prompts the reopening of a 10-year-old murder investigation on Homicide: Life on the Street (10 p.m. Fri., NBC). Also, Giardello orders Ballard and Falsone to stop seeing each other or one of them will have to transfer. Can it be Falsone? Please? James "Dawson" Van Der Beek hosts Saturday Night Live (11:30 p.m. Sat., NBC) with music from Everlast. On The Simpsons (8 p.m. Sun., Fox), the kids of Springfield are put under a curfew after the school is vandalized, but a drunken Homer and his pals are the ones who really did the damage. Cyndi Lauper has a voice cameo. On the second episode of The Sopranos (9 p.m. Sun., HBO), Christopher and Brendan make another bonehead move, Tony gets a live-in companion for Livia and Miami Steve Van Zandt does the first of many Al Pacino impersonations. Martin Scorsese has a cameo. Long time, no see: Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) makes a rare appearance on The X-Files (9 p.m. Sun., Fox). The bad news is, he's been infected with something nasty and has 24 hours to live. The new sitcom Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane (9 p.m. Sun., WB) is the Dubba Dubba's attempt at a verbose, angst-filled teen comedy to match its verbose, angst-filled teen dramas. What, "Buffy" isn't funny enough for ya? On The Practice (10 p.m. Sun., ABC), Gamble prosecutes a TV producer (Roger Corman) as an accessory to murder after his show airs a tape of a Kevorkian-type right-to-die advocate administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill patient.

S P O R T S

Football:
NFC Championship: Falcons at Vikings (12:30 p.m. Sun., Fox)
AFC Championship: Jets at Broncos (4 p.m. Sun., CBS)

T A L K

Rosie O'Donnell (syndicated) Val Kilmer, Patricia Arquette
David Letterman (CBS) Patricia Arquette, Jack Hanna
Jay Leno (NBC) Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr.
Politically Incorrect (ABC) Nicholas Brendon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), Mackenzie Phillips
Conan O'Brien (NBC) James Van Der Beek
SALON | Jan. 15, 1999

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Blue Glow for Thursday, Jan. 14, 1999