TVSquad

Ah, Labor Day. Isn't it great to have the summer over (yes, I consider Labor Day as the end of summer) and the new TV season about to begin?

Here's a list of the various marathons, specials, and sports that you can see on Sunday and Monday. Let us know if we've missed anything.

Sunday

• At 8 AM, Hallmark has a Golden Girls marathon.
• At 9, USA has a Law and Order: SVU marathon.
• At 10, WE has a marathon of Girlfriends episodes.
• At 10:30, TV Land has a Beverly Hillbillies marathon.
• At 11, CBS has U.S. Open coverage.
• At 1 PM, Discovery has a Planet Earth marathon.
• Bravo has a Top Chef: Las Vegas marathon at 1.
• At 3, Spike has a Band of Brothers marathon.
• NBC has the Deutsche Bank Golf Championship at 3.
• At 5, TV Land has an Andy Griffith Show marathon.
• At 9, it's the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon (check local listings).

• WE has a Golden Girls marathon all night.
• At 7, ESPN2 has the Pilot Pen Tennis final, followed by the NAPA Auto Parts 2000 Qualifying race.
  
• At 8, CBS has Pre-Season Football, the Chargers vs. the Falcons.
• HGTV has a new Divine Design at 8.
• FOX News has a new Huckabee at 8.
• At 9, FOX has a new America's Most Wanted.
• NBC has The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania.
• CNBC has a new Suze Orman Show at 9.
• There's a new Bill Engvall Show on TBS at 9.
• BBC America has a new Being Human at 9.
• Also at 9: Syfy has the movie Megashark vs. Giant Octopus.
• At 10, ABC has Jimmy Kimmel's Big Night of Stars.
• Style Network has a new episode of The Dish at 10.
• At 12:30AM, Cartoon Network has two new episodes of Bleach, then a new Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit.

Check your local TV listings for more.

• TNT has Basketball Playoffs all night.
• WE has a Golden Girls marathon all night.
• At 8, ABC has a new Dancing with the Stars, then the season finale of Castle.
• CBS has a new Big Bang Theory, followed by new episodes of How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, and CSI: Miami.
• FOX has the season finale of House at 8, then a new 24..
• NBC has a new Deal Or No Deal at 8, followed by a new, two-hour Medium.
• The CW has new episodes of Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill.
• ABC Family has a new Greek at 8.
• PBS has a new Antiques Roadshow at 8, then a new American Experience.
• MyNetwork TV has a new Masters of Illusion at 8, followed by a new Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed.
  
• TLC has two new episodes of Little People, Big World at 8.
• At 9, USA has a new Monday Night RAW.
• At 10, Food Network has a new Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
• History Channel has a new Ax Men at 10.
• Also at 10: E! has a new The Soup Presents.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

(S01E04) So it's bad when a comedy makes you want to cry, right? I mean, it's not their fault, I'm sure that when they animated the scene of the Knob Haven High staff sitting around eating cheese cake, Bea Arthur was still alive. But when they played the Golden Girls music, I couldn't help but think that was a much better show.

The whole Golden Girls thing was just many of the random, awkward 80s parodies they did this episode. I liked the cold open where they were initially assigning themselves parts in 80s teen comedies, and the later Huey Lewis payoff was pretty funny, but I need help.

I'm not sure if I missed it, but I did not get the bagel thing. For the life of me, I just couldn't figure it out; and no matter what the show said, it wasn't funnier on re-watch.

The late Bea Arthur was, among other things, a comedic genius, feminist icon, and beloved American actress of stage and screen. But widely overlooked in the recent coverage of her passing is the fact that she was a active advocate for animal rights. She campaigned against the force-feeding of ducks in the foie gras trade, even accompanying the president of PETA to London, where she demanded that Harrod's discontinue their peddling pâté.

And then there were two.

Golden Girls star Bea Arthur died this morning in Los Angeles. She was 86. This is actually a bit of a shock. Not that 86 is young, but she always seemed healthy and spry, even in the last few years, doing her stage show and guest starring on various TV shows and endless specials.

There are a lot of TV show set designs that I love, but I've never really given any thought to how put them together exactly. I used to assume they just drew up plans and/or blueprints with the measurements and all that and then the set designers and the rest of the crew would build the sets. I never once thought they were done this way.

On The Set has pictures of the original dioramas (those little models you might have built for a class back in school, though I never did) made for various shows over the years. These things are great! Check out the Price is Right set above. The site even has more dioramas from the show, from different angles.

• Hallmark has a Golden Girls marathon all night.
• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes, then a new Amazing Race and the movie Jesse Stone: Thin Ice.
• ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos at 7, followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover and Brothers & Sisters.
• At 7:30, Disney has a new Hannah Montana, then new episodes of Sonny with a Chance and Wizards of Waverly Place.
• At 8, FOX has a new Simpsons, then a new King of the Hill.
• At 9, NBC has the season premiere of Celebrity Apprentice.
• Food Network has a new Iron Chef America at 9.
• HBO has a new Big Love at 9, followed by new episodes of Flight of the Conchords and East Bound & Down.
• Showtime has a new L Word at 9, then new episodes of The United States of Tara and Secret Life of a Call Girl.
• Also at 9: MTV has a new Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, then new episodes of CollegeHumor, Nitro Circus, and How's Your News?
• At 9:30, FOX has a new American Dad.
• At 12:30am, Cartoon Network has a new Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Here's a quick guide to what's on Christmas Day, stuff to watch while you're opening presents, making snowmen, and eating way too much pumpkin pie.

• HGTV and Food Network have holiday programming all day.
• TNT is showing Law and Order all day.
• TBS is showing the movie A Christmas Story all day.
• Nickelodeon and TV Land have Christmas episodes of various sitcoms and dramas all day.
• BBC America also has Christmas episodes all day long.
• At 7am, all of the morning shows (Today, Good Morning, America, and The Early Show) will have Christmas features, music, and recipes.
• At 8, Lifetime has a Golden Girls marathon.
• Sci-Fi has a Star Trek: TNG marathon at 8.
• Bravo has a Christmas episode of The West Wing at 8, then a Top Chef marathon.

One of the Golden Girls has died.

Estelle Getty, who played Bea Arthur's mother (even though Arthur was a year older in real life) on the NBC hit comedy Golden Girls (which also starred Betty White and Rue McClanahan), passed away this morning in Los Angeles. Getty was 84 years old and had been suffering from a disease known as Lewy Body Dementia for a number of years.

Getty appeared in several other TV shows over the years, including the Golden Girls spinoff The Golden Palace (which also starred a young Don Cheadle), Empty Nest, Nurses, Brotherly Love, Mad About You, Touched By An Angel, Blossom, Newhart, Hotel, and many others. She also appeared in the movies Tootsie, Mask, Mannequin, and Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot!

Interesting trivia: Getty played her Sophia Petrillo character in no less than five different shows: Golden Girls, Empty Nest, The Golden Palace, Nurses, and Blossom. That's gotta be some sort of record. She also played a character named Sophia in an episode of Ladies Man in 2000, though the character had a different last name.

Before Lifetime snagged Bravo's Project Runway, it got its hands on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy star Carson Kressley. Lifetime tapped Kressley to host the feel-good show How to Look Good Naked, and now it looks like the cable net wants to keep the Kressley train moving by giving him his own talk show.

The standard Monday-Friday talk show format is rare on cable nets, but is in line with Lifetime's plan to change its image from the "woman being beaten, kidnapped, set on fire, but ultimately triumphing in the end" movies/Golden Girls network to something younger and hipper -- basically Bravo with a female slant. Kressley's chat fest is supposed to focus on his talent for fashion and will feature a mix of studio and field segments that feature him offering insight and advice to "everyday" people.

Oh, they don't make 'em like this anymore.

After the jump is a video from the NBC 60th Anniversary show in 1986 (very interesting). It's rather surreal. We get to see Bea Arthur, Nell Carter, Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Garrett from Facts of Life), Marla Gibbs, and Alfonso Ribiero sing a song about "family." That's the NBC family, that is, as all of them were starring on shows at the time (Facts of Life, Golden Girls, Gimme A Break, 227, and Silver Spoons). Punky Brewster herself makes an appearance too, but only to say three words and gives a thumbs up. Barbara Eden introduces the song. The most cringe-worthy moment isn't any of the singing, it's when Gibbs and Carter pass each other on the stairs and casually say that they love each other's shows.

Can you imagine a network doing this now? I want to see Hugh Laurie, Stewie, the guys from Prison Break, Marge Simpson, and Gordon Ramsay get on stage at the next Emmy Awards and sing about the FOX family.

[via Best Week Ever]

A day hasn't gone by where we haven't received some sort of tip or email asking us, the TV Squad, how to get on [insert reality show here]. Unfortunately no, Simon Cowell does not work for us, and Donald Trump isn't my BFF, so we really can't help all that much.

The folks at RealityWanted.com often send us a list of new and existing reality shows that are looking for new, er, talent, and they've given us permission to make mention of them here. We'll try to make this a regular feature as often as we get a new list.

This time we have Styledome, High School Musical: Summer Session and other new shows.

In July, I was at a sitcom writing seminar in which Sam Simon (who helped develop The Simpsons) declared: "the sitcom is dead." Veteran comedy writer Ken Levine (who hosted that sitcom seminar), however, disagrees. Ken believes the traditional multi-camera sitcom might be on a respirator, but still has a pulse. Levine said, "I would amend Sam's statement and say that yeah, the bad, stale, family sitcom with tired rhythms, forced laughs, and bogus characters is dead."

I guess if you're trying to revive the dying sitcom, a good way to start is by assembling a top-notch team. And Fox's new Wednesday night comedy, Back to You, does just that.

Here are the new TV DVDs in stores tomorrow.

• All in the Family - Season 6
• Beauty and the Beast - Season 1
• Cobra - Complete Series
• Emergency - Season 3
• The Golden Girls - Season 7
• Grosse Pointe - Complete Series
• The Hills - Season 1
• Hustle - Season 2
• Masters of Horror - Pelts (Argento)
• Men Behaving Badly - Complete Series
• Reno 911- Most Wanted Uncensored
• Zoey 101 - Season 1