Join me as we excavate the layers of reruns, game shows and “reality” fare on television in search of something new. During the writers’ strike, we’ll have to take trowels to a particularly slow December schedule.
More so-called reality fare is on the way. Expect tons of unscripted filler, from “Big Brother” on CBS to “Who Wants to Marry a U.S. Citizen,” a “Dating Game” retrofitted to feed off the current immigration debate. That cynical game show has been pitched but not yet sold to a network.
Writers are unnecessary for “Clash of the Choirs” on NBC beginning Dec. 17, “American Gladiators,” “The Biggest Loser” and “1 vs 100,” due from NBC in January, or Drew Carey’s “Power of 10” on CBS. Keep digging, there’s got to be hidden treasure.
Indeed, the archaeological find this weekend is dinosaurs. National Geographic steps into the void with “Dino Autopsy” and “Dino Death Trap,” premiering Sunday (7 p.m. and 8 p.m. respectively on Comcast digital channel 273) with revelations about dino evolution, the discovery of a new species of dino and insights into dino lives.
As English paleontologist Phil Manning says, you’ll be “absolutely gobsmacked!”
In the death trap hour, we venture to the Pit of Death in China, where dino skeletons have been found stacked four and five deep. The report introduces T. Rex’s great-great grandfather, Guanlong. Then, in “Dino Autopsy,” scientists display a discovery of dino mummies that may change the world’s thinking on the subject. Among the revelations: the hadrosaur’s backside appears to be 25 percent larger than previously thought. I hate when that happens.
In a twist on the infamous tree question once posed by Barbara Walters, National Geographic asks, if you were a dinosaur, which would you be? A website at , provides a quiz. (It says I’m a velociraptor, even though I answered salad rather than steak. Go figure.)
Speaking of dinosaurs, Bill Maher talks about his visit to the creationism museum in Kentucky in the hour-long stand-up special “Bill Maher: The Decider,” airing on HBO at 11:45 p.m. Thursday and repeating through January. (The hour was taped in July in Boston). In the museum, he says, he saw exhibits of dinosaurs with saddles on their backs, a visual he remembers thinking was pleasantly absurd when he first saw it “as an 8-year-old, on ‘The Flintstones.’ ” Maher offers countless digs at the Bush presidency, which will have to hold fans of “Real Time” until the strike is settled.
“The Wire” returns
Now the truly good news: No matter what happens with the writers strike this month, HBO will air the fifth and final season of “The Wire” on Sunday nights beginning Jan. 6.
This brilliant drama (better than “The Sopranos”!) which is rooted in a Baltimore wiretapping investigation, tackles various aspects of urban decay and institutional malfeasance. Past seasons have considered police and political corruption; graft, shady union dealings and the dockworkers; the crumbling, ineffectual education system; the thriving drug trade and the social fallout. This season, creator David Simon announced, in addition to resolving the dangling plotlines, the story will delve into the culpability of the media in all these areas. Specifically, the story concerns a newspaper and how it addresses or fails to address “the fundamental political, economic and social realities” depicted over the course of the series.
Simon, a 13-year veteran of the Baltimore Sun, said in an HBO release this week, that, “it made sense to finish ‘The Wire’ with this reflection on the state of the media, as all the other attendant problems of the American city depicted in the previous four seasons will not be solved until the depth and range of those problems is first acknowledged. And that won’t happen without an intelligent, aggressive and well-funded press.”
Expect him to eloquently dramatize the fact that serious journalism is vulnerable when the industry values share price and revenue increases more than the actual product.
“Wire” cast regulars not killed off in past seasons will return for the 10-episode final season. Clark Johnson (who worked with Simon on “Homicide: Life on the Street”) signs on as city editor Augustus “Gus” Haynes.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
