Holiday TV Sunday

Well, it’s that holiday time of year again when all you want is some mindless entertainment to spare you from dealing with your relatives and TV programmers screw with you by replacing all your familiar favorites with sappy specials and marathons of your least liked shows made more inpenetrable by the one line crawl of uselessness that TV Guide channel has become.

Thank goodness kindly uncle ek is here to highlight a few moments of blessed distraction as well as some of the potential pitfalls to be avoided.

I look on it as a public service.

My job is made a little easier because of a neat little network ‘day at a glance’ feature of Zap2it TV Listings.  Click on the channel name.  I’m going from my last diary to Paid Programming.  I’m putting the main meat below the fold because the table is too long for the Front Page.  It’s arranged by time and marathons (4 half hour episodes, 3 hour episodes, double features, themes, and Instapeats) may be noted earlier than you expect, but they do also include the running time so you know when they end.

Nothing like watching A Christmas Story 25 times in a row.

Today is the last day of your special 24 hour Holiday coverage.  Prime Time tomorrow as usual.  I’m rolling publishing again because it’s much easier.  Right now this covers until noon.  Expect an update.

Update: Good until 6 am.

7 am

• AMC– Three Stooges marathon until 10:30 am, starts at 5 am
• FX– Rules of Engagement
• Speed– Hot Rod TV marathon until 2 pm
• TBS– Zathura (starts at 6:30 am)

7:30 am

• ABC Family– Richie Rich

8 am

• E!– Bruce Almighty
• Oxygen– Shall We Dance?
• Style– Doc Hollywood

8:30 am

• Comedy– Major League
• TBS– Stuart Little
• Turner Classic– The Beggar’s Opera

9 am

• Disney– Phineas and Ferb marathon until 10:30 am
• Discovery– Mythbusters
• Sci Fi– Judge Dredd
• Spike– Star Wars IV: A New Hope (start of a triple feature with repeat)
• TLC– Say Yes to the Dress marathon until 1 pm
• Toon– Ben 10: Alien Swarm
• USA– Psych

9:30 am

• ABC Family– Richie Rich’s Christmas Wish
• FX– The Transporter

10 am

• Discovery– Auction Kings
• Style– Pretty in Pink
• TBS– Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
• Turner Classic– The Nanny
• TNT– The Bucket List
• USA– Burn Notice

10:30 am

• AMC– The Terminator
• Discovery– Auction Kings
• Toon– Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster

11 am

• Discovery– Mythbusters
• Lifetime– On the 2nd Day of Christmas
• Sci Fi– Skinwalkers
• TV Guide– Ugly Betty marathon until 9 pm (so it will be useless all day long)
• USA– NCIS marathon until midnight

11:30 am

• ABC Family– Home Alone 4 (start of a triple feature)
• FX– The Day After Tomorrow

Noon

• A&E– Murder by Numbers
• Discovery– Dirty Jobs marathon until 8 pm
• Spike– Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
• Style– Chicago
• TBS– The Cat in the Hat
• Turner Classic– The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima
• TNT– Runaway Jury
• TV Land– I Dream of Jeannie marathon until 2 pm

12:30 pm

• Comedy– Employee of the Month
• Toon– Yours, Mine, & Ours (no better than the 1968 original)

1 pm

• CBS– Throwball
• NBC– Skiing
• Fox– Throwball
• AMC– Predator (start of double feature)
• Lifetime– A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride
• MTV– Drumline
• Sci Fi– Jurassic Park

1:30 pm

• ABC Family– Home Alone 3

2 pm

• NBC– Figure Skating
• FX– Anger Management
• Speed– Pimp My Ride marathon until 5 am
• TBS– Shark Tale
• Turner Classic– Of Mice and Men
• TV Land– Bewitched marathon until 4 pm

2:30 pm

• A&E– The Fugitive
• TNT– John Grisham’s The Rainmaker
• Toon– Hoodwinked!

3 pm

• Comedy– Barbershop 2: Back in Business
• E!– Bruce Almighty
• Lifetime– A Diva’s Christmas Carol
• Spike– Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

3:30 pm

• ABC Family– Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
• AMC– Predator 2

4 pm

• CBS– Throwball
• Fox– Throwball
• Bravo– Real Housewives marathon until 2:30 am
• Sci Fi– Serenity
• TBS– Bring It On: In It to Win It
• Turner Classic– Jailhouse Rock
• Toon– Surf’s Up
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon until 1 am (with minor interruptions)

5 pm

• Lifetime– A Different Kind of Christmas

5:30 pm

• A&E– Paranormal State marathon until 10 pm, 3 am with breaks (2 premiers)
• Comedy– Bringing Down the House
• TNT– The Client

6 pm

• ABC Family– The Dog Who Saved Christmas
• AMC– The Mummy
• Disney– Good Luck Charlie marathon until 8:30 pm
• Spike– Star Wars IV: A New Hope
• TBS– The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
• Turner Classic– The Odd Couple
• Toon– Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

6:30 pm

• Sci Fi– The Rocketeer

7 pm

• CBS– 60 Minutes
• Animal Planet– Planet Earth marathon until 6 am
• ESPN2– College Hoopies
• Food– Next (Season Finale repeat)
• FX– The Family Stone
• History– Top Gear
• Lifetime– 12 Men of Christmas
• Nick– iCarly (1 hour special)
• TLC– Sarah Palin’s Alaska marathon until 10 pm (Series Premier repeat)
• Vs.– Rocky II

7:30 pm

• Comedy– Employee of the Month

8 pm

• CBS– Amazing Race (premier)
• NBC– Throwball, Chargers @ Bolts (you know how to root)
• Fox– Simpsons (premier)
• PBS– Nature
• ABC Family– The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation (World Premier)
• Discovery– Nitty Gritty (Series Premier)
• Food– Challenge (premier)
• History– Ice Road Truckers
• Nick– Fred: The Movie
• TBS– The Wizard of Oz
• Turner Classic– No Orchids for Miss Blandish
• TLC– Sarah Palin’s Alaska (Episode 2, clubbing a fish)
• TNT– Michael Clayton
• Toon– Clone Wars (Series Premier)
• TV Land– Hot in Cleveland marathon until 1 am

8:30 pm

• Fox– Cleveland Show (premier)

9 pm

• CBS– November Christmas (World Premier)
• PBS– Great Performances
• AMC– The Walking Dead
• Discovery– Dirty Jobs (premier)
• ESPN2– College Hoopies
• Food– Chopped (premier)
• FX– Deck the Halls
• History– Ice Road Truckers (premier)
• Lifetime– Comfort and Joy
• National Geographic– Wild Justice (premier)
• Sci Fi– Eragon
• Spike– Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
• TLC– Sarah Palin’s Alaska (premier)
• TV Guide– Weeds marathon until 2 am (so it will be useless all night long too, also)

9:30 pm

• Fox– American Dad (premier)
• Vs.– Rocky II

10 pm

• ABC Family– The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation (World Premier Instapeat)
• AMC– The Walking Dead (premier)
• Discovery– Brew Masters (premier)
• Food– Iron Chef America (premier)
• History– Top Gear (premier)
• National Geographic– Wild Justice (premier)
• Nick– George Lopez marathon until 6 am
• TBS– The Wizard of Oz (Instapeat)
• Turner Classic– The Criminal
• Toon– Delocated

10:30 pm

• TNT– Michael Clayton (Instapeat)

11 pm

• AMC– The Walking Dead (premier Instapeat)
• Discovery– Nitty Gritty (Series Premier Instapeat)
• Lifetime– Deck the Halls (so you can see both the 2005 and 2006 versions tonight)
• MTV– Drumline
• Sci Fi– Dragon Wars

Midnight 11/29

• Discovery– Dirty Jobs (premier Instapeat)
• Food– Chopped (premier Instapeat)
• FX– The Family Stone
• History– Ice Road Truckers
• National Geographic– Wild Justice (premier Instapeat)
• Spike– Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi
• Turner Classic– Where East is East (shhhh, Lon Chaney Sr.)
• Toon– Childrens Hospital, Frankenhole
• USA– Semi-Pro

12:30 am

• TBS– Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

1 am

• AMC– The Walking Dead (premier Instapeat)
• Discovery– Brew Masters (premier Instapeat)
• Food– Iron Chef America (premier Instapeat)
• History– Ice Road Truckers (premier Instapeat)
• National Geographic– Wild Justice (premier Instapeat)
• Sci Fi– Fire & Ice
• TLC– Sarah Palin’s Alaska (Episode 2, clubbing a fish)
• TNT– The Client

2 am

• AMC– Predator
• Discovery– Dirty Jobs
• History– Top Gear (premier Instapeat)
• Turner Classic– The Flowers of St. Francis
• TLC– Sarah Palin’s Alaska (Series Premier)
• USA– Stick It

2:30 am

• TBS– Mars Attacks!
• Toon– Childrens Hospital, Frankenhole

3 am

• Food– Challenge (premier Instapeat)
• Sci Fi– Dragon Wars
• TV Land– Three’s Company marathon until 6 am

3:30 am

• ESPN– College Throwball, Boston College at Syracuse (repeat)
• Turner Classic– The Friends of Eddie Coyle
• TNT– Runaway Jury
• Toon– Delocated

4 am

• ESPN2– College Throwball, Michigan State at Penn State (repeat)

4:30 am

• AMC– Three Stooges marathon until 6 am

6 am

• Turner Classic– Dames