TVSquad

I'm not a big Fourth of July person. You'll pretty much see me in front of the television as much as you'll see me in front of the television on July 3. I'm not a big cookout/parades/fireworks/beach type of guy.

Are you that way too? There are some marathons on TV tomorrow that you might like. A sampling:

• Sci-Fi will continue their Twilight Zone marathon.
• TCM has Fourth of July/historical movies all day long.
• USA will have James Bond movies all day long starting at 9AM.
• Discovery has a Deadliest Catch marathon at 9AM.
• TV Land will have a Leave It To Beaver marathon starting at 11AM.
• At noon, HGTV has a marathon of HGTV's $250,000 Challenge.

Are you like me and you really enjoy the two weeks of U.S. Open coverage that USA Network has every year at this time? Well, don't get too used to it, because after tonight's match (Roddick vs. Djokovic!), the USA Network will no longer carry the annual tournament.

This probably isn't a shock to regular tennis fans, but USA's contract for the U.S. Open is up this year, after 25 years of carrying the two week tournament. Of course, TV fans don't have to worry, because ESPN and The Tennis Channel that will start airing the tournament next summer. I just hope that most of the coverage is on ESPN and ESPN2 because, well, I don't have The Tennis Channel.

It's another holiday, and that means more TV marathons and specials! Here's a handy guide to the 4th (and the 5th and 6th).

July 4

• AMC has Planet of the Apes movies all morning, then the Jaws movies starting at 10:30am.
• At 6am, USA has a Walker, Texas Ranger marathon.
• TMC has episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (80s version) at 6, then Hitchcock movies all day.
• At 7, ESPN2 has coverage of Wimbledon Tennis.
• At 8, A&E has a marathon of Paranormal State.
• Biography has a City Confidential marathon starting at 8.
• There's a Twilight Zone marathon starting at 8 on Sci-Fi.
• At 9, TruTV has a Beach Patrol marathon.
• FX has a King of the Hill marathon at 9.
• At noon, NBC has more Wimbledon.
• At 2pm, TV Land has an I Love Lucy marathon.
• At 3, HGTV has a Design Star marathon.
• At 8, PBS has A Capitol Fourth.
• At 9, NBC has the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular.
• At 10, CBS has the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular.

Our Monday morning roundup of a half dozen things TV Squad readers - and TV fans in general - will be talking about this week.

1. The SAG/studios mess. Sure, it looks like there isn't going to be a strike (not yet anyway), but both sides are still far apart and one could still happen.

2. The Moment of Truth summer finale. Lives are destroyed for cash. Yay! (Tuesday at 8 on FOX.)

3. The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I think pregnant teenagers are about to take over the world. (Tuesday at 8 on ABC Family.)

4. Hell's Kitchen. We're down to the final two contestants (Petrozza and Christina). Whoopi Goldberg guest stars ... for some reason. (Tuesday at 9 on FOX.)

5. It's Six Feet Under Week here at TV Squad. Come reminisce about your favorite deaths!

6. The Wimbledon Final. I think Federer or Nadal might be in the final. You think? (Sunday at 9am on NBC.)

As longtime readers of TV Squad probably know, I'm a tennis fanatic. I hate summer with a passion, but I'm happy for the season during four weeks: the two weeks of Wimbledon (late June/early July) and the two weeks of the U.S. Open (late August/early September). If you need me those two weeks, I'll be in front of my TV and a fan, drinking cold liquids.

Of course, it's not all popcorn and roses. There's something that really irritates me about ESPN's coverage of Wimbledon that's going on right now, and I see it every single time I look at the screen (which I find you have to do if you want to watch the matches). It's that damn scoreboard at the top of the screen.

If you've ever turned on a tennis tournament on NBC, even for a few minutes, you've probably either seen or heard Bud Collins. Colorfully-dressed, exuding enthusiasm for the sport he loved, Collins always strove to make even the most casual fans into devotees. He may have even succeeded in a few cases (though for me, those little skirts Chris Evert wore on the court were what did the trick).

Unfortunately, this will be Bud's last Wimbledon for NBC, as the network has decided not to renew his contract. Collins, 78, was with NBC for 35 years. He plans on continuing to cover tennis in some fashion, because, as Collins put it, he's "too young to retire."

There are exactly two things I like about summer: tennis and baseball. The rest of it can go to hell (and considering the temps it usually feels that way).

Not just playing tennis, but watching it too. ESPN2 begins their daily coverage of Wimbledon this morning at 8am. The network will have 9 hours of coverage today and most days for the next two weeks (except the weekends, when NBC will have coverage during the day). You can follow the action at espn.com or the official Wimbledon site. They're using that Hawkeye system for the first time this year.

And no, that doesn't mean Alan Alda will be making line calls.

So I'm watching NBC's live coverage of the Maria Sharapova/Elena Dementieva match, and halfway through the second set, a guy runs on the court naked! Right on Sharapova's side!

I guess it was a stunt that someone paid the guy to do for publicity, and the police quickly covered the guy up and got him off the court. But I watched the replay of the match just now on ESPN2 - on tape, mind you - and ESPN2 showed the entire thing again, without blocking anything out! And, well, let's just say that the shot really left nothing to the imagination, even if it wasn't a closeup.

I'm just wondering why - especially in this day and age of stupid FCC fines and controversy - would ESPN2 just show this again on tape when they know it happened live on NBC?

So here it is, the Fourth of July. Barbecues, beaches, parades, fireworks and all that. But there's TV too, if you don't want to go outside.

What is everyone watching today? It's a weekday so many of the same shows are on, but there are also a lot of specials too. USA has a Monk marathon all day and night, while The Sci-Fi Channel has the last day of their three day Twilight Zone marathon. CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News will probably have coverage of all of the Fourth celebrations and rememberances throughout the day. And the space shuttle Discovery is supposed to lift off at 2:38pm ET.

My two Fourth of July TV traditions are watching the episode of Magnum, P.I. where he goes out on the Fourth to row by himself, and gets knocked off of his canoe and has flashbacks to when his dad taught him to swim. And Wimbledon! I'll be watching Wimbledon all day on NBC and ESPN2.

What are your Fourth TV traditions?