Blue Glow

Salon's TV picks for Weekend, May 14-16

Published May 14, 1999 4:00PM (EDT)

Series

Homicide (10 p.m. Fri., NBC) has an episode where Sheppard and Ballard
team up to investigate the murder of a female gang member. On the season finale of Nash Bridges (10 p.m. Fri., CBS), Nash is accidentally frozen in a time capsule and sent back to 1967, where he enters into a gentleman's bet with Austin Powers over who can shag the most birds in the space of 24 hours. Or not. On the two-hour season finale of Profiler (9 p.m. Sat., NBC), Sam learns that Jack may be freed on a technicality on the eve of his trial. Sarah Michelle Gellar hosts the season finale of Saturday Night Live (11:30 p.m. Sat., NBC), with music from the Backstreet Boys. The Simpsons (8 p.m. Sun., Fox) has its last new episode of the season, in which Homer and brood are stranded in Japan (don't ask) and must appear on a Japanese game show to try to win plane tickets home. Masterpiece Theatre (check local times, Sun., PBS) reruns its two-part adaptation of "Moll Flanders," starring Alex Kingston, back before "ER" fans knew her as Dr. Elizabeth Corday. The X-Files (9 p.m. Sun., Fox) closes the season with a sharp turn back onto the mythology route, with the discovery of ancient artifacts that seem to prove that life originated on Mars. Bonus: The Cigarette Smoking Man, Krycek and Diana Fowley crawl out from whetever holes they've been hiding in since February sweeps. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are the stars of Behind the Music (9 p.m. Sun., VH1) and Storytellers (10 p.m. Sun., VH1).

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Specials

Jon Favreau ("Swingers") swings at opponents in the title role of the new cable movie Rocky Marciano (8 p.m. Sat., Showtime). Leelee Sobieski stars in the miniseries Joan of Arc (9 p.m. Sun., CBS), which also features (among others) Peter O'Toole, Jacqueline Bisset, Neil Patrick Harris, Olympia Dukakis, Peter Strauss and Shirley MacLaine. The miniseries Atomic Train (9 p.m. Sun., NBC) is vintage sweeps fodder: A runaway train carrying nuclear waste and warheads is headed for Denver, and only one man can stop it -- Rob Lowe. If that's not quite cheesy enough for you, how about Double Platinum (9 p.m. Sun., ABC)? Diana Ross is the pop star who abandoned her family in her pursuit of fame; Brandy is the daughter she left behind, and she's now a pop star too, but she can't quite warm up to her long-lost mom. Diana, Diana -- didn't "Mahogany" teach you anything? Success is nothing without somebody to share it with!

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Sports

NHL playoffs:

Bruins at Sabres, Game 4 (7:30 p.m. Fri., ESPN; 2 p.m. Sun., Fox, regional)

Penguins at Maple Leafs, Game 5 (7:30 p.m. Sat., ESPN2, regional)

Blues at Stars, Game 5 (7:30 p.m. Sat., ESPN2, regional)

Red Wings at Avalanche, Game 5 (2 p.m. Sun., Fox, regional)

Baseball:

Dodgers at Cardinals (8 p.m. Sat., FX)

Braves at Cubs (2 p.m. Sun., TBS)

Giants at Astros (8 p.m. Sun., ESPN)

NBA playoffs:

Heat at Knicks, Game 4 (8 p.m. Fri., TNT)

Jazz at Kings, Game 4 (10:30 p.m. Fri., TNT)

All other games TBA

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Talk

Rosie O'Donnell (syndicated) Dilley sextuplets, TLC

David Letterman (CBS) Bill Cosby

Jay Leno (NBC) Pamela Anderson Lee

Charlie Rose (PBS) Peter Matthiessen, David Guterson

Dennis Miller (HBO) Camryn Manheim

Politically Incorrect (ABC) Marcia Clark, Kathy Griffin

Conan O'Brien (NBC) Rob Lowe, Michelle Williams, Hootie and the Blowfish


By Joyce Millman

Joyce Millman is a writer living in the Bay Area.

MORE FROM Joyce Millman


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