SATURDAY, APRIL 16
Reefer Madness (Showtime, 8 p.m. ET) Premiere. It isn't often that a major television network produces an original full-length movie musical. It's even more rare when such a production includes nudity, simulated sex, sadomasochism and shocking ultra-violence. It's all intended as campy good fun -- even the scene wherein one character beats another to death and tears out his heart. The cast includes Kristen Bell, Christian Campbell, Neve Campbell, Ana Gasteyer, Steven Weber and Alan Cumming, all singing and dancing their hearts out and having a grand time romping through one tuneful, depraved fantasy after another. "Reefer Madness" was inspired by the legendary 1936 anti-marijuana propaganda film of the same name and was based on the popular 2000 stage production, which played in Los Angeles for over a year before moving to New York City. (Its New York run was brief, because it opened four days after 9/11.)
SUNDAY, APRIL 17
Nature: Deep Jungle (PBS, 8 p.m. ET, check local listings) Miniseries Premiere. This very cool three-part entry in PBS' "Nature" franchise explores the rainforests of fourteen countries utilizing new technology that enables researchers to study plants, animals, birds and insects in exciting new ways -- while also making exciting new discoveries. See the Sumatran tiger filmed in the wild for the first time via special infrared cameras. Squirm at the discovery of a foot-wide spider that eats chickens -- and that of an even deadlier arachnid. Watch as elephants are tracked through the jungle via mobile devices, satellites and the Internet. There's also a moth with a 12-inch tongue-like appendage and the frantic courtship ritual of the manakin bird, which involves movements too fast for the human eye to follow -- but not a cutting-edge video camera shooting at 500 frames per second. Trust us on this -- the manakin footage makes for one of the most entertaining sequences in an unscripted television program this year. "Deep Jungle" continues Sunday, April 24 at 8 p.m. ET and Sunday, May 1 at 8 p.m. ET.
Arrested Development (Fox, 8:30 p.m. ET) Season Finale. Is this the season finale or series finale for this Emmy-winning, ratings-challenged comedy? Critics everywhere are going to leap from their rooftops if new Fox Entertainment president Peter Liguori pulls the plug on this show. But if "Development" does die, it won't be because Fox hasn't done everything possible to promote the show and maintained infinite patience while it struggled to find an audience during the last two years. In fact, the network only recently sent to members of the press bright yellow t-shirts with www.getarrested.com emblazoned on the front. That's the Web site fans can access to make their feelings known. They had better hurry.
Save the Music Concert (VH1, 9 p.m. ET) Premiere. Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, Josh Groban, Joss Stone, Donna Summer, John Legend, Rob Thomas and Rod Stewart perform at VH1's annual concert to benefit the network's Save the Music Foundation. This ongoing VH1 endeavor is one of the few classy elements left over from the VH1 of old, when music came first before cheap and cheesy unscripted programming.
MONDAY, APRIL 18
I Married a Princess (Lifetime, 8 p.m. ET) Series Premiere. Most people know Catherine Oxenberg as the first actress to portray troubled Amanda Carrington on the classic prime time soap "Dynasty." She is guaranteed a place in the television history books because it was Amanda's wedding that set the stage for one of the most notorious cliffhangers in broadcast history, the 1985 massacre in Moldavia. Of perhaps greater significance, Oxenberg is a real life princess: she's the daughter of HRH Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and the granddaughter of the former Regent King of Yugoslavia. She is married to Casper Van Dien, an actor who has starred in one big-budget adventure ("Starship Troopers") and countless low-budget, direct-to-video action flicks. The life they share with their five children is the subject of this unscripted series.
America Undercover: Rehab (HBO, 8:30 p.m. ET) Premiere. The challenges facing five young suburbanites as they seek to overcome alcohol and drug addictions at the Camp Recovery treatment facility in Santa Cruz, California, makes for a harrowing edition of HBO's documentary franchise. "Rehab" follows these five addicts through their experiences at the facility and for two shocking, illuminating years after, making clear the fact that staying clean will be a lifelong job for each of them.
Everwood (The WB, 9 p.m. ET) We've been waiting all year for this: Ephram, a moody, self-absorbed, spoiled brat on his good days, finally learns that he got Madison pregnant last year and that his well-meaning dad arranged for her to hastily leave town. Boom!
Fat Actress (Showtime, 10 p.m. ET) Season Finale. The most talked-about comedy series of the year marks its first-season finale tonight. In it, big-spending Kirstie, who was memorably dissed by NBC Universal Television Group president Jeff Zucker in the premiere, suddenly finds herself in need of an income and once again sets out to land a television deal.
TUESDAY, APRIL 19
Cold Turkey (Pax, 9 p.m. ET) Season Premiere. A.J. Benza returns as host of this reality series in which smokers are duped into thinking they are going to star in a phony unscripted show, then offered the chance to quit smoking on national television and change their lives.
Judging Amy (CBS, 10 p.m. ET) "Judging Amy" has had a decidedly uneven year, the low point of which may have been Amy's afternoon at the Connecticut shore after her miscarriage. (Never have the beaches of Connecticut looked more like those of southern California!) But the surprisingly disarming relationship between Maxine and Ignacio is still of interest. Tyne Daly and Cheech Marin make an odd couple, but they have more chemistry than most of the much-younger couples on so many other scripted series.
Nashville Star (USA Network, 10 p.m. ET) Live. It's down to the final four in this season's penultimate installment. What a shame it is that this show doesn't receive more support from USA Network and the NBC Universal Television Group, because each of these last few contestants -- police officer Jody Evans, high school senior Erika Jo Heriges, club performer Jason Meadows and warehouse worker Jayron Weaver -- has as much talent (if not more) than the remaining seven singers on "American Idol."
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20
National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth (PBS, 9 p.m. ET, check local listings) Premiere. First of Two Parts. For those who care, here are a few more environmental issues to worry about: Voracious critters, transplanted from far-off continents, are destroying the land under our feet and causing buildings to crumble, and some scientists believe the destruction caused by these creatures could result in the largest mass extinction since the dying days of the dinosaur. A mysterious respiratory illness is now spreading through the children of Trinidad. Gigantic dust clouds are forming over the Atlantic. Forest areas in Venezuela have divided themselves into small islands, many overrun by ants and iguanas. Forests are vanishing in the region of Yellowstone National Park. Frogs are vanishing from the American Midwest. Swarms of giant sea stars are overrunning the Great Barrier Reef. These are but a few of the alarming changes to our world brought on by human activity that seems to have wreaked environmental havoc on land, air and ocean spaces alike. Actor and environmentalist Edward Norton hosts. "Strange Days on Planet Earth" concludes next Wednesday, April 27 at 9 p.m. ET.
Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story (USA Network, 9 p.m. ET) Premiere. In 1962, during a nationally televised fight between the two men, six-time world boxing champion Emile Griffith hit Benny "The Kid" Paret so hard and so often that Paret fell to the canvas in a coma. Ten days later Paret died. The savage beating resulted in a media firestorm, fueled in part by an ugly exchange at the weigh-in before the fateful bout, during which Paret called Griffith a maricon, the Spanish slang term for homosexual. Griffith went into a rage and was still seething when the fight began. "Ring of Fire" documents Griffith's life and career, beginning with his decision as a young man to leave his family on his native St. Thomas and pursue the American Dream in New York City, his rise in the boxing world and the problems he suffered in the aftermath of his tragic bout with Paret. USA Network will present this film without commercial interruption. Saab Cars USA is the sole sponsor of the telecast. "Ring of Fire" was directed and produced by Dan Klores and Ron Berger.
THURSDAY, APRIL 21
Idol Chat (TV Guide Channel, 8 p.m. ET) Series Premiere. For those who can't get enough of "American Mega-Smash": Former "American Idol" contestant and TV Guide Channel correspondent Kimberly Caldwell and Rosanna Tavarez, a winner on the first season of The WB's "Popstars," will exhaustively review every detail of each week's "Idol" shows beginning tonight and continuing every week until the "Idol" finale on May 25.
Jake in Progress (ABC, 8:30 p.m. ET) Season Finale. This promising single-camera comedy series starring John Stamos as a New York City publicist has suffered under the weight of surprisingly flat reviews and ABC's decision to run it on Thursday, the one night of the week that continues to vex this resurgent network. Though it isn't a much of a compliment considering the state of the genre, "Jake" is the best new comedy of the 2004-05 season. ABC should renew it for a second season, but only if the following changes are made: dump icky magician Patrick (Rick Hoffman), make secretary Ken (David Hornsby) a full time character and add a strong female to the cast in a role not unlike Kim Cattrall's Samantha Jones to flirt with the romantically challenged Jake and engage in grown-up girl-talk with power publicist Naomi (Wendie Malick). It wouldn't hurt if ABC moved the production of this show to New York City and gave it a more authentic feel, either.
FRIDAY, APRIL 22
Joan of Arcadia (CBS, 8 p.m. ET) Season Finale. After a second season marred by unfortunate creative problems and tumbling ratings, the end could be near. The producers of this show have tried to spice it up by introducing a nemesis for their title heroine in the form of a wealthy young man to whom God has also appeared in a number of different human guises who is determined to challenge God and make Joan miserable in the process. It may be too little, too late and, for that matter, another unfortunate move away from the thoughtful human drama about one girl's determination to make sense of life that so enchanted critics and viewers alike during the freshman year of the show. Still, if CBS dumps "Joan," as seems likely, it would be wise for The WB to look into picking it up. Amber Tamblyn is a true young star of the kind viewers are quick to embrace on that younger-skewing network.