What was on TV? Sun, March 13, 2005

20 years ago, The Apprentice was going to be a Broadway musical. Let's see what was on TV!

7:00 King of the Hill on Fox

9x09 "Care-Takin' Care of Business"

In 2004, King of the Hill created a redneck character called Lucky. They thought he should look like "Tom Petty without the success." And because it never hurts to ask, they reached out an asked Petty to voice him. And he said yes, did a great job, and said he'd come back anytime. So the next season, they made him a permanent fixture in the Hills' world, as he started dating Luann. And it works! Lucky is a great character, Tom Petty is great in the role, and his relationship with Luann adds a refreshing tension to the show.

People are so worried about shows going on for too long. But this type of lunacy is only possible in your ninth season, when you've used up too many ideas and have enough clout and confidence to reach for the moon.

7:30 Malcolm in the Middle on Fox

6x13 "Tiki Lounge"

Not one of the season's better episodes. But Malcolm trying to make fun of the preppy dorks by auctioning their most embarrassing secrets off at the school auction, only for them to embrace the idea wholeheartedly for the sake of fundraising? That was cool. The boy offering up a video of him singing "Sk8er Boi" into a hairbrush was my favorite.

8:30 Arrested Development on Fox

2x13 "Motherboy XXX"

This is a great Buster episode, and that's always good thing. It's the annual Motherboy pageant, but Lucille doesn't want to compete with her son and his brand new hook-hand. So she recruits George Michael. And Buster and Michael must save the poor boy from this terrible fate. In the end, Buster realizes that he is doomed to be a one-handed motherboy, but its not too late for George Michael. It shows that Buster is the most self-aware and compassionate of all the Bluths. And it strikes right at the heart of the show. All these adults are broken beyond repair. But George Michael and Maeby are nice, smart, and well-adjusted. Will the Bluths ruin them too? That question is what makes the show more than a collection of (really great) jokes.

9:00 Deadwood on Fox

2x02 "A Lie Agreed Upon Part 2"

Last week's episode was all hot sex scenes and epic fights in the mud. This week night falls on that very eventful day as everyone carries their resentments and grapples with their weaknesses and failures but fails to do anything about it. I enjoyed the fireworks of last week more, I confess. But this episode creates and sustains such a specific mood, and it sets up the rest of the season beautifully (the preview for the next episode promises that the plot will arrive next week).

All that, plus Jane returns to town and Sarah Paulson joins the ensemble. Just another one of our finest actors joining the fray, no big deal!

10:00 Carnivale on HBO

2x10 "Cheyenne, WY"

In March of 2005, HBO renewed The Wire for another season. People were kind of shocked by this. The season three finale worked as a series finale, and the show's ratings were positively anemic; it had yet to receive a single Emmy nomination. But David Simon pitched the next two seasons of the show and they decided it was worth the investment. And it paid off: The Wire is now one of the crown jewels of HBO.

And I'm just saying...maybe they could have made the same calculation with Carnivale! That show didn't have the critical respect of The Wire, but it had something else: a fandom. With Lost in its first season, people were just learning to follow dense mythology dramas, and I think Carnivale could have seen a boost as time went on. But HBO didn't really understand geek culture in this era, they didn't understand the existing hardcore fanbase Carnivale did have, and they didn't know how to grow it. They would learn eventually, and it would pay off big time with Game of Thrones. But Carnivale was a few years too early, and it ended with season two.

What Else Was On

• This week's CBS Sunday Movie was Saving Milly, based on Fox News host Morton Kondracke and his wife's Milly's experiences after she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. The movie was produced by Michael J. Fox, who gave a direct-to-camera address at the end of the movie. The film starred Bruce Greenwood and Madeleine Stowe, who could give Timothy Olyphant and Molly Parker a run for their money as the hottest couple on TV tonight.
• Kelsey Grammar used his post-Frasier clout to create a sketch show (creatively titled "The Sketch Show"). It starred Mary Lynn Rajskub (is this why Chloe hasn't been on 24 for most of this season) and Kaitlin Olson six months before Always Sunny premiered. The show failed critically and commercially, so Rajskub were free to return to Philly and the CTU, thank goodness.
• NBC premiered the first episode of boxing reality show The Contender on Monday after Fear Factor at 9:30. The second episode came after The Apprentice at 10:00. And tonight it debuted in its regular time slot at 8:00 after Dateline. Three different nights, three different times, three different lead-ins, and it wasn't taking off. Its ratings declined with every episode, and tonight it finished in fourth place. The Contender ended up being pretty successful: it moved to ESPN after this season and several contestants went on to real boxing careers. But The Contender was supposed to be NBC's ticket to the top. So it was a real failure for the network.
• Jake in Progress, a sitcom starring John Stamos as a playboy looking to settle down, debuted on ABC at 9:00. Presumably they were hoping people would tune in expecting to see a new episode of Desperate Housewives and stick around. As recounted in trade magazine Broadcasting and Cable, ABC tried a really wild promotional stunt for this one, basically running a bachelor-auction-style contest to date Stamos in New York.
• Tonight's victims on Punk'd: Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Rodriguez, and Desperate Housewives hunk Jesse Metcalfe.

TiVo Status

The Masterpiece Theater miniseries The Lost Prince, a Frontline documentary, the TV movies Sucker Free City, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Ladies Night, and one episode of Miracle's Boys. 13.5 hours total.

Music, 20 years ago

In 2005. Tom Petty's most recent album was The Last DJ, pretty much universally regarded as his worst. But I do love the song "Blue Sunday" from that record, a beautiful ode to small-town love and to pissing your weekends away.