The Secret Life of Molly Ringwald

If ABC Family was merely a venue for Gilmore Girls and Full House reruns, we would have no problem with its existence. But their original programming isn't bad, either. Admittedly, some of it tosses softballs in the direction of real issues (Lincoln Heights), but The Secret Life of the American Teenager doesn't pull any punches, probably because it gets to play with the wider boundaries of the TV-14 rating. Also, Molly Ringwald is in the mix, so you've got that going for you, which is nice.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager [8 PM, ABC Family]

Producer Brenda Hampton's magnum opus will always be 7th Heaven, but this show draws a lot of the mother-daughter crowd. In the second episode of the second season, Grace (Megan Park) deals with guilt related to her father's death last week and Ben (Ken Bauman) ponders the future of his relationship with Amy (Shailene Woodley). Anne (Molly Ringwald) continues to be preggers.

The Whale That Exploded [9 PM, National Geographic Channel]

Last night, NatGeo went all History Channel on us (Hitler's Stealth Fighter and an older show 42 Ways to Kill Hitler), but thankfully they return to what they are best at: Crazy animal stories. Scientists will attempt to explain how the guts of a dead whale blew up on the streets of Taiwan, but we hope they also inform us why the Taiwanese went whale-penis crazy. What dorks.

Weeds [10 PM, Showtime]

Usually, all of the strong pay-cable shows are on Sunday nights, but the summer is slow enough that the channels with cuss words can program on a weekday. There are a lot of plotlines on Weeds, as you may know, but this season is all about birth. Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker) is pregnant, Silas (Hunter Parrish) and Doug (Kevin Nealon) try to open a medical marijuana dispensary and Celia (Elizabeth Perkins) creates new ways to annoy her friends and family.

Ice Age [7 PM, FX] & Ice Age 2: The Meltdown [9 PM, FX]

These two films made over $1 billion combined worldwide and with the third installment jumping off this weekend, it's time to reacquaint yourself with Manny, Sid, Scrat, Crash and all of the other weirdos who dodge predators, extinction and falling ice in the cold prehistoric days. Pixar tends to get all the CGI animation props for their adult-leaning kids movies, but it's not like Fox's Blue Sky Studios are making cartoons on an old Apple IIGS somewhere in the valley. Banks take their sweet paychecks, too.