What's On: Mark Twain-ing

BangerSisters225.jpg

There's a certain amount of street cred to be gained from refusing entertainment honors. George C. Scott declined his 1970 Oscar, calling the ceremony a "goddamn meat parade," Marlon Brando protested his 1972 Academy Award to publicize the Native American cause, and twice, Bill Cosby refused the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, explaining that he did not agree with the profanities used in the '98 ceremony honoring Richard Pryor. Tonight, watch as the comedy legend finally takes the award.

Bill Cosby: The Mark Twain Prize 2009 [8 PM, PBS]

The ninety minute ceremony includes a career retrospective and touching speeches by Carl Reiner, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Danny Glover, Willie Nelson, Sinbad and Cosby Show castmates Phylicia Rashad and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. Double down on America's Dad with his Late Show With David Letterman appearance at 11:35 PM on CBS.

Strange Sex [10 PM, Discovery Health]

Like any successful cable network, Discovery Health caters to a highly specific audience: those interested in freaky health issues like Arby's births and people born with tree bark skin. Tonight, the DH presents its core audience with another surefire special, Strange Sex, which examines four different sexual oddities: sexomnia, sex allergy, sex addiction, and Movieline favorite Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder. Follow up with Hypersexual Behavior at 11 PM.

Flowers Uncut With Jeff Leatham [10 PM, TLC]

Vicariously fulfill that desire to ditch your accounting 9-to-5 in order to arrange flowers (a la Scarlett Johansson in that one Lost in Translation scene) with tonight's new TLC series. The show follows a floral designer as he and his apprentice traipse around the world, gilding lilies in the Waldorf-Astoria and Versailles. In tonight's premiere, Leatham sets up shop in Manhattan after a South Korean event commissions his signature piece. If this is anything like the Food Network's Ace of Cakes, each episode will be pretty much the same, the only stakes will arise out of bumpy van rides, and there will be one perpetually stoned employee that deems himself an artiste.

BangerSisters225.jpg

The Banger Sisters [9 PM, Lifetime]

This has always been a Lifetime movie, let's be honest. It came off like a small women's interest flick seven years ago when it was on huge screens with complicated surround sound and the option to purchase fatty/sugary snacks and in the intervening years, not much has changed. Banger is about two women (Goldie Hawn & Susan Sarandon) who face a midlife crisis, let their hair hang down, but soon return to an existence somewhat similar to the beginning of the narrative, with lessons learned and their lives changed forever. The casting put it in the multiplex for a short time, but the soft subject matter will keep it on basic cable for a long time.



Comments

  • LaVerne says:

    I really like bill cosby and what he stands for, I respect his wife and their way of life. Thanks Mr. & Mrs. Cosby