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A select viewing guide for Tuesday, February 26

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REALITY Half-Ton Killer (TLC, 7 p.m.) Every so often, TLC steps away from the reality-TV genre to tell a story torn from the headlines. This special recalls the strange case of Texas native Mayra Rosales, whose weight of 1100 pounds ranks her one of the heaviest people in the world. A few years ago, Mayra confessed to killing her two-year-old nephew by sitting on him and crushing him to death. The official police report, however, showed the child died of a blow to the head. At Mayra’s ensuing murder trial, the police had to remove the walls of her bedroom to transport her, and then widen the walls of the courtroom to accommodate her. The key to Mayra’s defense: She couldn’t have raised her hand to hit the kid, because her arms are too heavy to lift. TLC follows the show with the specials World’s Heaviest Man and 600 Pound Mom.

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REALITY Celebrity Wife Swap (ABC, 8 p.m.) Only the truly strange reality-TV concepts return in February. Back tonight 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. As might be expected, the families are complete opposites, as in tonight’s opener in which reality mom Kate Gosselin, formerly of TLC’s Jon & Kate Plus 8 trades domiciles with former Playboy Playmate Kendra Wilkinson. For Kate, taking care of Kendra’s four-year-old son is a breeze; Kendra, meanwhile, is immediately frantic trying to keep up with Kate’s eight rambunctious kids. And somewhere amid all the chaos, Kendra absorbs a valuable life lesson: Don’t have seven more kids.

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COMEDY The Mindy Project (Fox, Citytv, 9:30 p.m.) What’s the use of having bigshot friends if they can’t do you favours? A sleeper hit, this rookie comedy stars Mindy Kaling, formerly of The Office, as the wacky single physician Mindy Lahiri. So far the show has been pulling healthy ratings and Kaling, who created the series and writes most of the scripts, called in a favour with Canada’s own Seth Rogen for tonight’s new episode (they co-starred together in The 40-Year-Old Virgin). Rogen plays an affable guy named Sam, who was Mindy’s first kiss when they both attended Jewish camp together as teenagers. The pair hit it off again as adults and decide to start dating. Ain’t love grand?

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DRAMA Golden Boy (CBS, CTV, 10 p.m.) It’s not a positive sign when a network debuts a show in February, but give this new crime drama a chance. The premise focuses on a New York cop named Walter Clark Jr. (Theo James) whose on-the-job heroics have earned him the rank of homicide detective while still in his twenties. Under the tutelage of police veteran Don Owen (Chi McBride), Clark’s rise to the top of the NYPD hierarchy seems predestined, save for the backstabbing efforts of fellow detective Tony Alejandro, played by True Blood’s Kevin Alejandro.

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MOVIE The Best Years of Our Lives (TCM, 8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT) When movies won Oscars in the old days, it was usually a clean sweep. This 1946 drama collected a remarkable seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and tells a powerful story that still rings true today. The film documents the post-battle lives of three U.S. servicemen in the days immediately following the Second World War. The most heartfelt portrayal is essayed by Fredric March, who earned Best Actor honours as Al, a decorated war hero with a supportive wife (Myrna Loy) and proud family welcoming him home. As with his fellow veterans, Al struggles to reclaim the life he left behind, but has difficulty settling back into his old job at a bank and is haunted by horrific battlefield memories.

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