FRIDAY
JANUARY 15
CINEMA
Private Screenings: Child Stars
TCM, 6:30 p.m.
Host Robert Osborne chats with four ex-child actors - Jane Withers, Margaret O'Brien, Dickie Moore and Darryl Hickman - who were huge stars in the thirties and forties. In turn, each one talks about the pitfalls of the old studio system, wherein young talents were indentured to whichever studio held their contract, and working with Hollywood legends such as Gene Tierney and Wallace Beery.
DRAMA
Law & Order
NBC, 8 p.m.
Toronto-born Samantha Bee, best known for her comic bits on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, handles herself nicely in a dramatic role on tonight's episode. The story opens with detectives Lupo and Bernard (Jeremy Sisto, Anthony Anderson) digging into the brutal murder of a freelance journalist found in an abandoned apartment. The investigation reveals the victim had a romantic relationship with the popular daytime talk-show host Vanessa Carville, played by Bee.
DRAMA
Medium
CBS, CTV, 9 p.m.
In a slight departure, tonight's episode is structured around support character district attorney Manuel Devalos, played by veteran character actor Miguel Sandoval ( Get Shorty). The story opens with Devalos grieving on the anniversary of his teen daughter's suicide. His mood doesn't improve when soccer-mom psychic Allison (Patricia Arquette) begins having dreams suggesting the girl's true reasons for her actions.
DOCUMENTARY
Sex, Drugs and Middle Age
CBC News Network, 10 p.m.
Required viewing for anyone on the far side of 40, this documentary explores the effects of menopause on both sexes. In a lighthearted tone, the film focuses first on male menopause, more commonly known as "andropause," and the ongoing attempt to pump up the male libido with Viagra and other drugs. The program interviews former Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, among other experts.
SATURDAY
JANUARY 16
TEENS
Zeke's Pad
YTV, 7 p.m.
Offbeat and clever, this new Canadian animated series has already caused a buzz. The central character is a 14-year-old skateboard dude named Zeke, who owns an electronic gizmo that brings anything he draws to life; it's also a GPS, MP3 player and mobile phone. Of course every episode involves Zeke drawing something he thinks will be cool, but isn't. The nicely animated series is already popular in Australia, Germany and the Middle East.
MOVIE
Where the Truth Lies
CITY-TV, 9 p.m.
Canadian director Atom Egoyan put his unique spin on the murder-mystery genre in this 2005 feature. The story focuses on the fictional fifties comedy team of Morris and Collins, played by Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth, whose showbiz career came to a crashing halt when the dead body of a young woman was found in their hotel room. Both men had airtight alibis. Fifteen years later, a young journalist (Alison Lohman) digs up the real story.
COMEDY
John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show
Comedy Network, 10 p.m.
Pithy Englishman John Oliver ( The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), welcomes some of the best comedians in the business in this six-part series. The lineup includes such name performers as Janeane Garofalo, Brian Posehn and Mary Lynn Rajskub, better known as the computer whiz Chloe on 24. Oliver also steps into the stand-up spotlight and in the first show he discusses his affection for America, life in Australia and the downside of voting while under the influence.
HISTORY
Masterminds
History, 11:30 p.m.
This nifty series profiles prolific criminal minds from the case files. Tonight's episode covers the illustrious career of Ottawa-born bank robber Paddy Mitchell, who landed on the FBI's most-wanted list in the seventies. Police dubbed the personable Paddy's crew the Stopwatch Gang, because they never took more than 90 seconds to pull a heist.
SUNDAY
JANUARY 17
NEWS
16:9
Global News, 6:30 p.m.
Reporter Mary Garofalo provides a report on the sad existence of former Canadian Olympic boxer Shawn O'Sullivan. Since winning a silver medal at the 1984 Summer Games, O'Sullivan's life has taken a steady downward trajectory. Plagued with health problems, O'Sullivan has been forced to take a variety of menial jobs and is divorced and estranged from his five children.
PROFILE
Ian Tyson: Songs from the Gravel Road
Bravo!, 8 p.m.
The career of Canadian music legend Ian Tyson is lovingly covered in this well-made profile. Now 76, the native of Victoria takes viewers through the early years of his career and his long-time partnership with ex-wife Sylvia Tyson. Stepping outside the music field, the program reveals Tyson's forays into ranching and horse breeding, and includes interviews with his old friends Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot and David Wilcox.
AWARDS
The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards
NBC, CTV, 8 p.m.
The Hollywood glitz season shifts into high gear with this annual awards show. Broadcast live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, the three-hour broadcast will hand out trophies to celebrate outstanding achievement in the fields of television and film and will include a tribute to director Martin Scorsese. The watch factor this year will be the presence of Brit Ricky Gervais as first-time host. He's a cheeky monkey, and not apt to hold back his opinions of the celebrities in the crowd. Watch out, Steve Carell.
DRAMA
24
Fox, Global, 9 p.m.
TV's hottest action series returns for its eighth season tonight. Still in real-time format, the story picks up several months after the seventh-season finale with super-agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) retired from CTU and enjoying life as, incredibly, grandfather to the offspring of his own daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert). And then, something horrible happens and U.S. President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones) requires his assistance in dealing with nasty terrorists. And so another long day begins for Jack Bauer.
MONDAY
JANUARY 18
DANCE
Ballet High
Bravo!, 7 p.m.
A higher form of reality-television, Ballet High documents a year in the life of several senior students at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. The series follows the young dancers through gruelling rehearsals, injury rehabilitations and various crises of self-confidence. The ones to watch include Ryan, a perfectionist with aspirations of international stardom and Boston native Beth, who dreams of performing with her hometown ballet. But there's more to becoming a ballerina than executing pas de deux.
FOOD
Come Dine With Me
W, 8 p.m.
This British cooking series works off a simple concept: Five strangers compete for the title of ultimate party host. Each episode is filmed over the course of a week and each night the contestants take turns to whip up their idea of the perfect evening. Tonight, lawyer Anthony Merton-Smith hosts a soiree in Sunderland and intends to impress his guests with game terrine and venison. Unfortunately, preparing the menu takes longer than he expects, which turns his perfect plan into a night of chaos.
DOCUMENTARY
The Last Nazis
TVO, 10 p.m.
Unflinching in tone, this BBC documentary series explores the furtive lives of surviving war criminals in the 21st century. The third and final chapter in the series looks at the Nazi's secret breeding program called Lebensborn, set up by SS leader Heinrich Himmler, which created maternity homes and financial assistance to the wives of SS members and to unmarried mothers. Many of the children in the program grew up under the delusion that they were bred to rule the world.
DOCUMENTARY
Movies That Shook the World: The China Syndrome
AMC, 11 p.m.
In documentary fashion, this well-made series looks back at films that had an impact on society and culture. Tonight the subject is the 1979 thriller The China Syndrome, where Jane Fonda played a TV reporter who stumbles upon safety cover-ups at a nuclear-power plant. The film's title referred to the belief that if a U.S. nuclear plant went to meltdown stage, the nuclear core would keep melting through the Earth until it reached China. The program includes interviews with Michael Douglas, who played Fonda's cameraman, and scientists who reveal how the film turned people against nuclear power.
TUESDAY
JANUARY 19
SCIENCE
NOVA
PBS, 8 p.m.
The Emmy-winning PBS program deconstructs the Great Sphinx of Giza. For the past 45 centuries or so, the towering half-human, half-lion fixture has looked over Egypt's Giza plateau. The ancient statue is half the length of a football field and taller than the White House. NOVA takes a team of archeologists and forensics types wearing khaki shorts to examine the sphinx in hopes of determining its origin and answering important questions. Like, is the thing a human or a lion?
COMEDY
Better Off Ted
ABC, 8:30 p.m.
Although nobody watches it, Better Off Ted is every bit as funny as 30 Rock or The Office. Back for a limited run, the sharp workplace sitcom stars Jay Harrington as nice guy Ted Crisp, head of R&D at Veridian Dynamics, your average evil American corporate entity. Ted is also a single dad with a crush on cute co-worker Veronica, played by Portia de Rossi ( Arrested Development). Most of the show takes place at work and in tonight's show mass layoffs are sweeping through the office. It's funny because it's true, I guess.
DOCUMENTARY
Frontline
PBS, 9 p.m.
Just when you think you've heard all the disturbing things about life in Afghanistan, along comes a new story. The documentary The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan was filmed on location in the war-torn country and reveals a terrible sexual-abuse practice. Hundreds of Afghan boys, some as young as 10, are being lured off the streets and forced into the sex trade every day. First trained to sing and dance for male audiences, the boys are traded for sexual favours between warlords and businessmen. With help from an Afghan journalist, Frontline gets cameras inside one sex exploitation ring operating in northern Afghanistan and interviews the underage sex victims. It's about as awful as you might expect.
REALITY
Paranormal Cops
A&E, 10:30 p.m.
Once again, A&E returns to the paranormal well for a new reality series. Debuting tonight, Paranormal Cops is pretty much that: Seven Chicago cops - six rough dudes and one tough lady - pound the beat during the day, but at night they use their experience and forensics expertise to investigate psychic phenomena. Is there room on TV for a reality show about gruff, hoagie-eating cops going into allegedly haunted houses in terrible Chicago neighbourhoods? On A&E, you bet.
WEDNESDAY
JANUARY 20
REAL ESTATE
House Hunters
HGTV, 7 p.m.
If there isn't a fan club for House Hunters host Suzanne Whang, I just might start one. Sensible Suzanne actually seems to care about the families and singles she assists in purchasing a new home. It's a stressful time and Suzanne is a soothing presence. Tonight she tends to the Arens family, recently relocated to Phoenix from Wisconsin. The Arens and daughter have been stuck in a cramped one-bedroom rental while they scour the city for their dream domicile. Enter Suzanne and dreams come true.
REALITY
The Colony
Discovery, 8 p.m.
Is it a reality show or a docudrama? Either way The Colony certainly holds one's attention. First shown on the U.S. Discovery Channel, the series was filmed in a rundown industrial area near the fouled Los Angeles River in downtown L.A. The show follows 10 contestants trying to survive in an environment simulating life after a global catastrophe. Think Survivor meets Lord of the Flies. Tonight they try to reestablish electric power in their makeshift community, which leads to squabbling and fights. And someone breaks Piggy's glasses.
DRAMA
Criminal Minds
CBS, CTV, 9 p.m.
In its fifth season, Criminal Minds is still one of CBS's steadiest performers and serves as proof that TV viewers will always flock to a good crime drama. Some thought the show wouldn't survive Mandy Patinkin's departure, but Joe Mantegna is a much better FBI agent David Rossi, the most world-weary of the profiler team. Tonight Rossi and company are in a small Wyoming town experiencing a horrific rash of teen suicides. The truth is not pretty.
REALITY
Toddlers & Tiaras
TLC, 10 p.m.
By popular demand, the show about strange American parents who force their children to compete in beauty pageants returns for a third season. T&T watches tiny girls, and occasionally boys, wearing makeup, spray-on tans, hair extensions and false eyelashes, all for the cause of winning best-in-show and a small cash honorarium. The first two seasons were an astounding hit for TLC. Year three opens with the classy spectacle that is the Little Miss Glitz Pageant in Florida. Some of the competitors are year-old babies in makeup! It's the end of the world, my friends.
THURSDAY
JANUARY 21
KIDS
Pillars of Freedom
TVO 5:25 p.m.
As a cartoon, this new series is average, but as a cartoon/online game that asks viewers to choose their own ending, it's a lot more interesting. The series is about how two young dragons, Spirit and Imm, try to restore the freedom and spirit of life in their kingdom, now ruled by a bunch of bad guys who are no fun at all. The makers of Pillars of Freedom talk about how this show will instill civic values in kids as they see the consequences of their choices play out for Spirit and Imm. But that's a pretty tall order and an instant buzz killer; just focus on making good TV and the rest will follow.
DRAMA
The Deep End
ABC, 8 p.m.
This new drama reads a lot like the Canadian comedy Billable Hours, and yet you hope it is nothing like the wretched Billable Hours. The Deep End is about five young lawyers who've just signed on to the biggest and nastiest firm in Los Angeles. It's a nighttime soap that mixes courtroom with boardroom and bedroom melodrama, starring Billy Zane ( Titanic), Matt Long ( Jack & Bobby), Mehcad Brooks ( True Blood) and Tina Majorino ( Big Love).
DOCUMENTARY
Know Your Mushrooms
Bravo!, 9 p.m.
A soundtrack by the Flaming Lips sets the stage for this oddly fascinating film about fungi. Director Ron Mann ( Grass) follows two mushroom "visionaries" who believe one of the oldest living organisms can also help clean up toxic-waste spills. Along the way Mann introduces us to the plant's many quirky fans, including the eclectic bunch found at the Telluride Mushroom Festival in Colorado.
Documentary
Mounties Under Fire
CBC, 9 p.m.
To help polish the tarnished reputation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, cameras were allowed to film the progress of one group of new recruits. It's quite an eye-opener into the ordeal, but as we eventually learn, cameras didn't capture all the brow beating. Airing on Doc Zone, this hour calls to mind the RCMP's recent troubles and how a new brass is cleaning house and changing RCMP culture, as it recruits and trains a new generation. Watching the new recruits get through a practical class on tasering brings that point home.