TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: March 9
Your select viewing guide for Friday, March 9
REALITY Kitchen Nightmares Slice, 7 p.m. Believe it or not, British chef Gordon Ramsay is actually much kinder in this Americanized take of his original U.K. series. In either version, the bombastic one wades into a struggling restaurant and in no uncertain terms tells them exactly what they're doing wrong. In tonight’s show, he travels to Harrison, New Jersey, on a rescue mission to a foundering eatery called Spanish Pavillion. Besides the terrible food, filthy kitchen and cheesy décor, Ramsay immediately finds the restaurant’s real problem: The co-owner brothers, Michael and Jerry, hate each other’s guts.
REALITY Who Do You Think You Are? NBC, Citytv, 8 p.m. Based on the healthy ratings for its second season—and the fact that it’s cheap to produce--this unscripted series tracking the lineage of celebrities will likely be around for years. In tonight’s show, NFL star Jerome Bettis sets out on a journey to learn more about his mother’s side of the family. He starts out in Paducah, Kentucky, where a local historian informs him that his great grandfather was an early pioneer of civil rights and actually sued a corporate giant during the Jim Crow era. When he reaches further back into his blood line, however, Bettis finds heartbreaking accounts of tragedy and survival.
FOOD You Gotta Eat Here! CBS, Citytv, 9 p.m. Currently the best new show on The Food Network, this homegrown series follows the entertaining John Catucci as he rambles all over Canada in search of unique comfort-food experiences. Tonight he tries a mince-meat delicacy at Stoneface Dolly’s in Ottawa and drops into St. Peter’s Bay, P.E.I. to sample some seafood pizza at Rick’s Fish N’ Chips. The highlight, however, is Big John’s visit to the popular Hadley’s smokehouse in Toronto’s Little Italy district to sample the infamous house specialty known as “The Remedy,” which consists of two deep-fried poached eggs on hash with pulled pork, smoked cheddar and hollandaise, served with coleslaw and baked beans. More than a meal, it’s an adventure.
MUSIC The B-52s with the Wild Crowd: Live from Athens, Georgia PBS, midnight Mix some margharitas and roll up the rug for this new concert special. The seventies-era art-rockers B-52s take the stage in their hometown for a concert marking the 34th anniversary of the band’s first ever live performance, which took place on Valentine’s Day, 1977. Now in their sixties, the group members—Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, et al—are in top form and in fine voice for the live performance, and the ambiance is buoyed hugely by the wig-wearing, boa-swinging fans in the crowd. Love shack, baby!
MOVIE The Banger Sisters Vision, midnight Some people simply refuse to let go of the sixties. In this 2002 comedy, Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon play Suzette and Vinnie, respectively, two fiftyish ladies who were quite the famous groupies back in the Summer of Love (the mantle of “Banger Sisters” was bestowed upon them by Frank Zappa). The pair lose touch and thirty-odd years later, Suzette, still living the rocker lifestyle, decides to look up Vinnie and is shocked to discover that she’s now a society doyenne with two teen daughters. A tad schlocky, but with some very funny moments.