Blue Glow

Salon's TV Picks for Holiday Weekend, July 2-5, 1999

Published July 2, 1999 4:00PM (EDT)

Series

Celebrity Deathmatch (7:30 p.m. Sun., MTV) has a special Independence Day bout between George "Wooden Teeth" Washington and Abraham "Sissy Boy" Lincoln. The Simpsons (8 p.m. Sun., Fox) celebrate the Fourth with back-to-back reruns -- Marge has road rage and Homer joins a hippie commune. The X-Files (9 p.m. Sun., Fox) reruns the dazzling Bermuda Triangle episode. The defamation case against the firm begins on a rerun of The Practice (10 p.m. Sun., ABC). The new cable series The Hoop Life (10 p.m. Sun., Showtime) is a drama about a fictional pro basketball team and their exploits on and off the court. Mykelti Williamson stars; Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana ("Homicide," "Oz") produced. Personally, I don't see how any fictional TV hoops show could be more dramatic or weirder than what goes on in the real world of the NBA. The new daytime soap Passions (check local listings, Mon., NBC) premieres. Juliet Mills heads the cast of this show set in a fictional New England coastal town called Harmony. On the first of two stellar reruns of The King of Queens (8:30 p.m. Mon., CBS), Doug persuades Carrie to get out of a traffic ticket by dating a cop; on the second (9:30 p.m.), Arthur buys Doug and Carrie a hideous new car. Everybody Loves Raymond (9 p.m. Mon., CBS) repeats the Christmas episode where Marie and Frank return Ray's unique gift. Ally's old high school teacher asks a difficult favor on a rerun of Ally McBeal (9 p.m. Mon., Fox). The People's Century (check local listings, Mon., PBS) ends with a look at the state of the world as the century draws to a close.

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Specials

Spike Lee is the man this holiday weekend. First, he's interviewed by one member of his acting ensemble in Delroy Lindo on Spike Lee (7:30 p.m. Fri., Bravo). Then, the accuracy of his new movie is debated by a panel of historians in the special Movies in Time: Summer of Sam (8 p.m. Mon., History Channel). Jason Alexander, Vanessa Williams and Chynna Phillips put on a happy face in a rerun of the TV musical Bye Bye Birdie (8 p.m. Sat., ABC). Keith Lockhart conducts the Boston Pops in the annual Independence Day concert along the banks of the river Charles in Pops Goes the Fourth (7:30 p.m. EDT/4:30 PDT, Sun., A&E). Trisha Yearwood guests. A Capitol Fourth (check local listings, Sun., PBS) features Barry Bostwick, Nell Carter, the Temptations, Kenny G and fireworks. Did Jim Carrey's amazing impersonation of Jim Morrison at the MTV Movie Awards leave you convinced of his genius? Reevaluate his early work in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (7 p.m. Sun., NBC) and Dumb and Dumber (10 p.m. Sun., TBS). The documentary Home Page (8 p.m. Sun., HBO Signature) profiles the people behind some home-grown Web sites.

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Sports

Baseball:

Braves at Mets (7:35 p.m. Fri., TBS; 8 p.m. Sun., ESPN)

Mariners at Rangers (8:30 p.m. Sat., FX)

Diamondbacks at Cardinals (4 p.m. Mon., ESPN)

Orioles at Yankees (7:30 p.m. Mon., ESPN)

Marlins at Braves (7:35 p.m. Mon., TBS)

Mariners at Angels (10:30 p.m. Mon., ESPN)

Wimbledon:

Women's Final (9 a.m. Sat., NBC)

Men's Final (9 a.m. Sun., NBC)

Women's World Cup:

U.S. vs. Brazil, semifinal (4:30 p.m. Sun., ESPN)

China vs. Norway, semifinal (7:30 p.m. Sun., ESPN2)

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Talk

Rosie O'Donnell (syndicated) Fri.: Bill Cosby (rerun); Mon.: Sarah Jessica Parker (rerun)

David Letterman (CBS) Fri.: John Leguizamo, Ziggy Marley; Mon.: George Jones

Jay Leno (NBC) Fri.: Cuba Gooding Jr. (Rerun); Mon.: Jesse Ventura (rerun)

Politically Incorrect (ABC) Fri.: Lisa Loeb, Ali Landry; Mon.: Janeane Garofalo, Greg Louganis (rerun)

Conan O'Brien (NBC) Fri.: Will Ferrell, Jennifer Esposito (rerun); Mon.: Jesse Jackson, Freddie Prinze Jr. (rerun)


By Joyce Millman

Joyce Millman is a writer living in the Bay Area.

MORE FROM Joyce Millman


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