TV: 7 shows worth watching this week of April 1
A select viewing guide for this week's TV
MONDAY, APRIL 1 Antiques Roadshow (PBS, 8 p.m.) Welcome back to the longest-running reality show on television. The PBS version is based on a popular BBC series that began in 1979 and still runs to this day. In tonight’s new episode, host Mark Walberg takes the Roadshow team to the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is naturally stocked to the rafters with vintage electric neon signs. The fabulous finds include a baseball bat once used by the legendary Mickey Mantle and several undiscovered painting by artist Edward Henry Potthast, each valued at more than $50,000 (U.S.). Get thee to your attic!The Associated Press
TUESDAY, APRIL 2 Rick Mercer Report (CBC, 8 p.m.) Say it ain’t so! Canadian television’s funniest half-hour wraps its tenth season tonight. In the closer, the indefatigable Rick Mercer burns up the air miles with trips to Ottawa, Almonte, Ontario and Estevan, Saskatchwan to pay tribute to the schools that finished in the top finishers of the show’s annual Spread the Net Student Challenge, which provides desperately-needed malaria nets to African children. And after tonight, we won’t have Mercer Report until the next fall season. Hurry back, Rick.The Associated Press
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3 My Crazy Obsession (TLC, 10 p.m.) Not to be confused with TLC’s My Collection Obsession or My Secret Addiction, series profiling people with extremely unique obsessions returns for a second season tonight. The opener introduces viewers to Chantal, who treats each of her 19 pet rats like her very own children (luckily she doesn’t have any children) and Robyn, who is completely obsessed with the rag-doll character known as Raggedy Ann. Reality-TV doesn’t get much weirder.The Associated Press
THURSDAY, APRIL 4 Hannibal (NBC, Citytv, 10 p.m.) Hey, if The Wizard of Oz can have a prequel story, why not Silence of the Lambs? Debuting tonight, this new story rewinds the backstory of intense FBI agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and the creepy serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mad Mikkelsen). Is the good doctor a cannibal in the TV version? Get out the fava beans.The Associated Press
FRIDAY, APRIL 5 Vegas (CBS, Global, 9 p.m.) Moved to Fridays from Monday night, this rookie crime drama casts former movie fixture Dennis Quaid into the real-life role of Ralph Lamb, a fourth-generation rancher and Second World War veteran who became sheriff of Las Vegas back in the early 1960s. As the requisite bad guy, bullet-headed Michael Chiklis plays the Chicago gangster Vincent Scavino, who runs the sleaziest casino on the Strip. In tonight’s new episode, Lamb sets his sights on a notorious pimp who just might have enough dirt to put the wiseguy away for good.The Associated Press
SATURDAY, APRIL 6 20/20: General Hospital: The Real Soap Dish (ABC, CHCH, 9 p.m.) Although much fuss was made about the recent 40 th anniversary of The Young and the Restless, the ABC soap opera General Hospital predates it by a full decade. Katie Couric–remember when she was a news anchor?–visits GH’s fictional setting of Port Charles in this new special and interviews several prominent cast members, including Maurice Benard, Jack Wagner, Genie Francis and Rick Springfield, who unfortunately will not be performing his 1982 hit Jessie’s Girl.The Associated Press
SUNDAY, APRIL 7 Mad Men (AMC, 9 p.m.) Get out the ashtrays and prepare the whiskey sours. TV’s top drama finally returns for its sixth (and second-to-last) season. As in campaigns past, any story details are being kept under wraps by AMC. What we should expect: New and more serious cracks in the marriage between conflicted ad man Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and his child bride Megan (Jessica Pare); further soul-searching by Roger Sterling (John Slattery); new-job ennui from Peggy (Elisabeth Moss); and newly-emancipated secretary Joan (Christina Hendricks) gearing up for the Summer of Love. We can’t wait.The Associated Press