Sandhogs, NYPD Detectives on TV Tonight

Photograph of sandhobs 80 feet beneath the ground--near Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx--by Brent Stirton/History Channel

Tonight, the History Channel will air the first episode of Sandhogs (10 p.m.), its 11-episode series about the workers behind moving the city's big infrastructure projects, like Water Tunnel Number 3 and the 7 Subway Line Extension, along. (Last month, we got a sneak look at some images from the show.)

In this episode, viewers get to meet a few of the Sandhogs, like Morgan Curran, who supervises and teaches his crew, and is considered the best dynamite blasters in the country. The NY Times was disappointed by the "dim lighting," which doesn't allowed much visibility in the tunnel, the Sandhogs' personalities seem to shine through the Most. Or as executive producer Craig Piligan told Variety, "When you watch 'Sandhogs,' these guys are 800 feet below New York City (digging tunnels) and blowing shit up. You typically get people in these jobs who are likable, fun to watch and say nutty things."

And, A&E Biography will be airing Watching the Detectives (9 p.m.), an 11-episode series about retired NYPD detectives recounting their cases. Per the Daily News, apparently one detective needed to leave "stinking, maggoty evidence" on a precinct house's rooftop and displays a Lennie Briscoe kind of humor, "This is what you call murder - dirty laundry style - in New York City." Executive producer Kevin Kaufman said, "We asked them to tell their best bar stories.