'CSI' switches writers with 'Two and a Half Men'

Diane Werts | GLUED TO THE TUBE

May 3, 2008

Off the Wall loves HDTV and black-and-white equally.

DIGITAL TV UPDATE. Been hearing about analog TV ending in February? Wondering what you should do to keep watching? Nick Clooney (yep, George's dad) explains it all in "The ABCs of HDTV" (tonight at 7:30, WLIW/21). The half-hour primer airs throughout the month, or look online at www.wliw.org/dtv.

WHERE TV CAME FROM. When "Seinfeld" and "Ally McBeal" seem like ancient history, how many of us know about TV's beginnings 40 years before that? "Pioneers of Television" (tonight at 8, WLIW/21) is a four-part time trip crammed with cool clips of those black-and-white innovations that shaped the medium: sitcoms, late-night talkfests, variety hours, game shows. Tonight's first episode surveys the classic comedies "I Love Lucy," "The Honeymooners," "Make Room for Daddy," "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show," with first-person reports from "Honeymooners" co-star Joyce Randolph, Marlo Thomas, Andy Griffith and, in a rare joint interview, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. Video preview, episode guide at pbs.org

/pioneersoftelevision.

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DANCING WITH THE KIDS. Fergie and Soulja Boy guest on this week's "Dance on Sunset" (tomorrow at 8:30 p.m., Nickelodeon), seen weekly by the hippest tweens. (And produced by the folks behind "Project Runway.") Got your own cool moves? Upload 'em at danceonsunset.com.

OL' BLUE EYES AT THE MOVIES. Look out, ol' Frankie is back, in all his many guises - dramatic actor, romantic lead, musical star, concert crooner - Sunday and Wednesday at Turner Classic Movies. The monthlong festival, marking 10 years since the icon's death, kicks off with the classic 1966 TV concert "Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music" (tomorrow at 8 and 11 p.m., TCM), then fills the rest of the night with some of his earliest films from the '40s, including the famed racial tolerance short "The House I Live In" (tomorrow at 10:45 p.m., TCM). Wednesday's war films lineup launches with "From Here to Eternity"

(8 p.m., TCM), hosted by his kids Nancy, Tina and Frank Jr. Gorge on movie trailers, vintage clips, family interviews, more at tcm.com/sinatra.

WEIRDEST OF THE WEEK. Bet you've been waiting to see sitcom writers take a crack at murder mystery, and vice versa. You get your wish this week. "CSI" writers have concocted a death at Charlie's house on "Two and a Half Men" (Monday at 9 p.m., CBS/2) - poor George Eads - while that sitcom's writers Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn script an episode of "CSI" (Thursday at 9 p.m., CBS/2) in which a TV star (played by Katey Sagal) dies. Read more at ctv.ca/insiderstories

/story3x.

ALLEZ CUISINE! Hai! It's back - "Iron Chef Japan" (weeknights at 11, Fine Living), Tokyo's lost-in-translation original. Chen Kenichi, Hiroyuki Sakai, Masaharu Mori- moto and all the other master chefs return to do battle in Kitchen Stadium, trying to beat the clock to beat each other. Who needs sports? Everything "Iron Chef" at fineliving.com/fine

/iron_chef_japan.

THE FIRST LATIN LOVER. Rudolph Valentino started the stereotype back in 1920s Hollywood, making women swoon with his florid seductions in exotic locales. Marking the 113th anniversary of his Italian birth, Turner Classic Movies airs a day of eight Valentino silents, including "The Delicious Little Devil" (Tuesday at 6 a.m.), "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (10:45 a.m.) and "The Young Rajah" (3:45 p.m., all on TCM). Valentino explored at rudolph-valentino.com.

DEAF AND DIVORCED? What's it like to finally hear after 65 years of silence? Complicated, as a long-married deaf couple discovers in "Hear and Now" (Thursday at 8 p.m., HBO). Filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky chronicles her senior parents' decision to get cochlear implants and the impact it has on their lives together. Sneak a peek at hbo.com/docs.

MEN IN SKIRTS. But don't say that to these macho dudes, or you could get in trouble. "Na Kamalei: The Men of Hula" (Friday at 10 p.m., WNET/13) explores the physical storytelling inherent in the Hawaiian dance tradition. It's not some tourist gawk of babes with swiveling hips, but a vigorous and often ultra-masculine discipline that preserves a people's history and culture. Hunks in action at piccom.org

/nakamalei.