What was on TV? Mon, Nov 29, 2004

20 years ago today, an Israeli Army Officer had just walked away with a slap on the wrist after he shot 13 year old Iman Darweesh Al Hams over 15 times in front of multiple Israeli and Palestinian witnesses. Let's see what was on TV.

8:00 Boston Legal (recorded)

1x08 "Loose Lips"

Available on Hulu.

James Spader defends Jerry from Parks and Rec after he's fired from his job as Santa when it's discovered that he's a cross-dresser. There's a lot of homophobia, and for much of the episode it's taken as a given that a Gay man or a cross dresser is unfit to be Santa. James Spader's only idea is to bring in Al Sharpton to grandstand about civil rights, in a reprise of the man's turn in the pilot. It doesn't work as well the second time around, and it all feels very cynical. But there are some truly moving moments, like when Jerry describes how he told a kid that he was a cross dresser after the kid asked if Santa could make him normal for Christmas. In the end, Spader states the obvious: Jerry is a great Santa.

My feelings about the episode's other storyline are not so mixed. This man seems like he wants to kill his wife. What should they do? Except oh, snap! She's crazy and she kills him! Television procedurals' need to subvert expectations means that hasbands and boyfriends are almost never the killers. We can't be so obvious! But in real life, husbands and boyfriends are often the killer, and I think TV makes it too easy to forget that.

This episode was written by series creator David E. Kelly and Jonathan Shapiro. Shapiro worked on Spader's next show The Blacklist and on several other David E. Kelly projects.

This episode was directed by Jeannot Szwarc. In addition to his extensive tv work, he directed several movies, including Jaws 2, Somewhere in Time, and Supergirl.

9:00 Girlfriends (on UPN

1x10 "Porn to Write" (record Everwood on the WB and Everybody Loves Raymond on CBS)

Available on Netflix and on PlutoTV (free with ads)

This is a really good episode, maybe the best of the season so far. I love Maya's publishing storyline, you can tell that someone in this writers' room spent time in the trenches. Maya thought she made it when she booked an agent, but what if her agent sucks. Now she's dealing bootleggers (e.g. Lynn) and struggling to find other work. Should she work for a porn mill? Should she work for this low-rent lawfirm? It's all very real! In the end, she is saved when Al Sharpton (who was truly everywhere this year, good grief) plugs her book. But she can always return to the porn mill. Her suspicion that "freaky Christian women" want porn is very correct and I wouldn't mind returning to the porn mill. It was a great setting.

Elsewhere, Joan and William have a big (and very funny) fight. I love the moment when she takes all the Thanksgiving stuff out of the freezer. And we're finally acknowledging how lazy Toni's pregnancy storylines have been.

This episode was written by Kevin and Michele Marburger. A writing team, they also wrote episodes of Mr. Box Office and the tv adaptation of Are We There Yet?

This episode was directed by Leonard R. Garner Jr. He has directed episodes of Wings, Just Shoot Me!, Eve, Raven's Home, and more.

9:00 Everwood (recorded)

3x10 "Need to Know"

Available on Freevee or whatever we'll call the free version of Prime once they shut Freevee down.

It's a Christmas episode! But it's also the last episode before the midseason break, so the warm Holiday vibes are ruined as characters make bad decisions that threaten to tear apart the shows' most important relationships. Ephram sees a flyer for his ex-girlfriend's band, and does the worst possible thing with this information: go see the band, not tell Amy about it, and then tell her later once he thinks she knows. Meanwhile, Dr. Brown surrenders to his feelings for his patient's wife. It's a decision that could alienate him from his best frenemy Dr. Abbott and the whole town for that matter. Goodness gracious me!

But one relationship is stronger by the end of this episode, and that is Amy and Hannah. Amy is confused about why Hannah's parents aren't coming for the holidays, which leads to the revelation that Hannah's parents are not in Hong Kong. She was just copying 90210. Her father is at home, dying of Huntington's disease. Amy struggles to be a good friend, because the situation sucks, but also because Hannah could have the gene for the disease and she doesn't want to get tested. And after two and a half seasons, we know Amy well enough to know that this is not how she would approach the situation. She seems determined to save Hannah, throwing everything into the problem, just like she did with ex-boyfriends Colin and Tommy. But in the end, she accepts that being a good friend means supporting Hannah, not helping or fixing her. To see such growth from Amy, such maturity from Hannah, and to see their friendship grow even stronger? It gave me the warm fuzzies I wanted from this holiday episode.

This episode was written by Bruce Miller. He is the showrunner for The Handmaid's Tale. He has also written for Medium, Eureka, and The 100.

This episode was directed by David Petrarca. He has directed episodes of Dawson's Creek, Game of Thrones, and Warrior.

Later Everybody Loves Raymond on CBS

9x08 "A Job for Robert"

Available on Peacock and Paramount+

Anyone who's seen five minutes of Everybody Loves Raymond can tell that the show is pretty Freudian. But this episode takes things to a whole new level. The title is "A Job for Robert." I figured Robert would get a new job and Ray would have feelings about it. But it's not that kind of job! Robert's job is to make babies. He's become his mother's favorite, but only because she wants Grandchildren. And he likes the attention so much that he almost doesn't want to make grandbabies. Even TV's preeminent Freudian Frasier Crane couldn't match this doozy.

This episode was written by Steven James Mayer, who also wrote for Hannah Montana and several other kids' shows.

This episode was directed by Gary Halvorson. Halvorson was a director and producer on Friends. Like a lot of directors of multicamera sitcoms, he has found success as a director of live events, including several episodes of Great Performances, The Metroplitan Opera Live!, and The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

What Else Was On

Special Sweeps guest star: Wayne Newton on 7th Heaven

In the News

The Apprentice was massive. So of course everyone copied it. ABC has The Benefactor (The Apprentice with Mark Cuban) and The Scholar (high schoolers compete for scholarships). Fox had Richard Branson: Quest for the Best and My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss (The Apprentice but the job is fake), and The Partner (The Apprentice with lawyers).

They all flopped (The Partner didn't even make it on the air). But there is one Apprentice copycat that did succeed. And it's a doozy.

In The Ambassador, a variety of young successful Israeli citizens competed in various challenges. But they weren't selling toothpaste or lemonoade. They were selling Israel. Not the place with all the wars and the bombings and the sad and murdered Palestinian kids. But the beautiful, democratic, and gay-friendly country with delicious food. Settlements, bombs, targeted killings, refugees? Don't worry about it!

Contestants gave speeches at Cambridge University and sold vacation packages at Dead Sea resorts on the streets of Paris. The prize was a position with the New York City based nonprofit Israel at Heart, and the opportunity to tour America and promote Israel, kind of like Miss America. Judges included a former IDF spokesman, an IDF general, and a former Mossad chief.

It was a hit: 25% of Israel watched the seson finale (that's comparable to the percentage of the USA that watched American Idol at its peak). This show was likely part of Brand Israel, a wider campaign that aimed to promote an image of Israel that wasn't tied to war, systematic oppression, and human rights violations. It worked. The NYC-born winner of season 1 received a warm profile in New York Magazine. The German-born winner of season 2 has worked extensively to bolster German-Israeli relations. All the coverage of the show in the abroad (in the BBC, in Reuters, in Variety, in the New York Times) was positive.

It was all modeled on the Donald Trump show. And it worked: people loved it at home and it promoted Israeli propaganda abroad. Before anyone (including him!) ever imagined he would run for president, Donald Trump and the state of Israel were always kindred spirits.

Tivo Status

The three-hour Masterpiece Theater miniseries The Lost Prince and The Office Christmas Special from aross the pond (2 hours), A Christmas Carol: The Musical, and the TNT movie The Wool Cap. 9 hours with 19 hours of space left.