TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: March 12
A select viewing guide for Tuesday, March 12
REALITY Outback Hunters (History, 7 p.m.) Welcome to the northern territory of the Great Australian Outback, where the saltwater crocodiles can reach 21-feet in length and weigh close to a ton. Hailing from the U.S. History Channel, this rough-and-tumble series follows a handful of elite hunters who track down and kill the planet’s largest reptiles during the region’s short dry season. Some use harpoons and others use more modern methods, but all the hunters fit into the accepted jovial Aussie stereotype created by Crocodile Dundee. In tonight’s new outing, affable Nigel grooms his young son to take his place in the family croc-hunting dynasty while veteran Mick goes after a gang of young crocs that have taken over a popular swimming hole. G’day and good luck.
REALITY Celebrity Wife Swap (ABC, 8 p.m.) Recently returned for for a second season, this series puts a celebrity spin on the freakishly popular series Wife Swap, wherein two families switch matriarchs for a weeklong experiment. Naturally, the penchant for selecting diametrically-opposed families on the regular series is pushed to the limit on the celebrity edition. In tonight’s new show, Canada’s own Alan Thicke swaps spouses with the gnomish comedian Gilbert Gottfried. The former lives with his third wife Tanya and teen son Carter on a sprawling ranch in Santa Barbara; the latter resides in a cramped New York city apartment with wife Dara and two small kids aged five and three. The concept hits a strange new note when Gilbert insists on a night out with his fake wife to celebrate his real wedding anniversary. What a guy!
COMEDY Hot in Cleveland (CTV, 9 p.m.) The success story of American cable television, this old-school sitcom recently wrapped its fourth season on the originating TV Land cable channel in the U.S., but on this side of the border we’re still getting season-three episodes. The premise casts former Frasier regular Jane Leeves, Valerie Bertinelli (One Day At a Time) and Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me) as Joy, Melanie and Victoria, three spirited L.A. doyennes who reboot their lives in Cleveland, of all places. The inimitable Betty White lends support as their crusty caretaker, Elka. In tonight’s show, the gang put in a winning bid for an abandoned storage locker and danged if it doesn’t contain an unsent letter from former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Fittingly, Storage Wars fixtures Laura and Dan Dotson make a guest appearance.
DRAMA Body of Proof (ABC, Cityv, 10 p.m.) Now in its third season, this medical drama has finally elevated Dana Delany from character duty to leading-lady status. The former support player on Desperate Housewives and China Beach is a perfect fit in the role of no-nonsense neurosurgeon Dr. Megan Hunt, whose surgical prowess was cut short by an auto accident, after which she began a new career as a Philadelphia medical examiner. In tonight’s new episode, the son of a New York mob boss is found shot to death in a grimy Philly neighbourhood. Dr. Hunt and her handsome cop partner Tommy (Mark Valley) believe they’ve found the shooter, until he’s killed by an unseen assailant. Acting veteran Michael Nouri guest-stars as the grieving wiseguy.
MOVIE Hang ‘Em High (TCM, 8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT) Following his international breakout success in the trilogy A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Clint Eastwood could pretty much pick and choose his movie roles. So what did he choose for his first post-spaghetti-western role? A Hollywood western, of course. The 1968 feature casts Eastwood as the taciturn rancher Jed Cooper, who is hanged and left for dead by a lynch-mob in a case of mistaken identity. Jed survives but his injustice comes to the attention of hangin’ judge Fenton (Pat Hingle), who hires the cowpoke to round up the toughest hombres in the territory. While Jed uses the job to search for the men who left him swinging from a poplar, the local widow (Rachel) is looking for the varmints who killed her husband.