Sources: Men Arrested Trying To Repaint Bedford Bike Lane
Giuliani Takes Job As Security Consultant For Rio Olympics
Co-ed Dorm Rooms Coming To Columbia
New Jersey State Senate To Vote On Gay Marriage
Billy Joel's Daughter Hospitalized After Overdose
A look at some noteworthy television this week:
Iraq War Begins: Four Years Later (Monday, 9 a.m. MSNBC) MSNBC's looks back on their coverage of the start of the Iraq War all day.
Dancing With the Stars (Monday, 8:00 p.m. WABC 7) This year's D-List celebs trying to defibrillate their careers by dancing are: Laila Ali, Billy Ray Cyrus, Clyde Drexler, Joey Fatone, Shandi Finnessey, Leeza Gibbons, Heather Mills, Apolo Anton Ohno, Paulina Porizkova, John Ratzenberger and Ian Ziering. Clear!
American Experience: Eleanor Roosevelt (Monday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) The life and work of Eleanor Roosevelt from childhood to being First Lady.
Niagara Falls (Tuesday, 9:30 p.m., WNET 13) A look at one of New York State's greatest natural features.
War Zone Diary (Wednesday, 10 p.m. MSNBC) A video diary of NBC News correspondent Richard Engel during his reporting in Iraq.
The Ritchie Boys (Thursday, 8:00 p.m., The Military Channel) A look at one of the little known stories of World War II - German Jews who fled the Nazis and used their knowledge of the German language and culture to help the U.S. Army defeat the Nazis after being trained in military intelligence at Camp Ritchie, Maryland.
Great Performances: Barenboim on Beethoven (Thursday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) Daniel Barenboim performs 5 Beethoven piano sonatas - "Sonata No. 5 C minor," Op. 10, No. 1; "Sonata No.11 B-flat major," Op. 22; "Sonata No. 19 G minor," Op. 49, No. 1; and "Sonata No. 20 G major," Op. 49, No. 2. - at Berlin's Staatsoper. The program reairs at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 25.
This American Life (Thursday, 10:30 p.m., Showtime) We wonder why the television version of this quirky National Public Radio series is on a premium cable channel instead of PBS.
Miss USA 2007 (Friday, 9:00 p.m., WNBC 4) Beauty pageants may be outdated and sexist, but when Donald Trump is involved who knows what may happen. The Miss USA pageant is part of the Trump entertainment empire and given that the last Miss USA Tara Conner generated some interesting headlines who knows what may happen this year. Unlike the competing Miss America pageant, this one is still on network TV instead of an obscure cable channel.
Moyers On America: The Net at Risk (Friday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) Veteran journalist Bill Moyers takes a look at the future of the internet and the public policy that goes with it.
Spanning the World 20th Anniversary Special (Saturday. 7:00 p.m. WNBC 4) Len Berman spans twenty years of weird and wacky sports highlights where nobody got hurt. The show will feature a countdown of Len's top ten Spanning highlights from the past twenty years. We can only hope that Sue Simmons falling out of her chair is among them.
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Why is the TV version of "This American Life" on ShowTime, rather than PBS? First off, Ira Glass and his colleagues think of themselves as public radio people: costs are modest, experimentation is encouraged, and outlets are numerous, so you can do almost anything you like. PBS entails corporate financing and ultra-conservative management. They are especially skittish about gay artists -- Mark Morris had to go to Canada to tape his "Dido and Aenaeas" -- and TAL includes many gay voices.
On the other hand, as Ira Glass has told many interviewers, ShowTime offered the TAL crowd "lots of money" and a large degree of creative control, including the right to cancel the project after the pilot, if it didn't meet their standards. As for gay content, ShowTime has made big buckos from "Gay as Folk" and "The L Word." I expect the management saw TAL as another LGBT gold mine.