Hate to "medal" with your Olympic viewing, but there's other TV on, too

The Olympics are bigger than ever this year -- but they are hardly the only game in town. There's lots of interesting TV playing this weekend. You just have to navigate your way through all of the NBC-owned cable channels airing Olympic sports to find them (including British import "Skins", airing on BBC America).

"Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," 9 p.m. CT Thursday on Bravo. Four years ago, the redheaded ex-star of "Suddenly Susan" and "Celebrity Mole" was wowing gay men on cable with her dishy standup special. That is, until NBC, which owns Bravo, pre-empted regular programming to bring you women's handball and rhythmic gymnastics from Athens, Greece.

Thanks to NBC buying chick channel Oxygen, however, Bravo gets to take these Games off. To celebrate, it's airing the finale of the fourth season of "My Life on the D-List," the series inspired by that 2004 special. And it is a very special episode, as Griffin prepares to perform for injured troops at Walter Reed Hospital. Pretty funny, too.

"Skins" (8 p.m. CT Sunday, BBC America). When it aired in Great Britain last year "Skins" was heralded as a "groundbreaking" drama about teenagers. (Yes, it does seem like eons since anybody did a "groundbreaking" TV show about seniors.) Here's a video to give you some idea:

Mostly it's about sex. It's also about smoking pot and telling off your elders. You know, the kind of things that 22-year-olds might write about if given their own TV show, which is exactly what happened with "Skins." This show has caused a mighty stir in Brit pop culture circles, so it's worth seeing what the fuss was about, even though BBC America will bleep every third word.

"Generation Kill" and "Mad Men" (8 p.m. CT Sunday, HBO and 9 p.m. CT Sunday, AMC). Don't forget about these two shows during the Games. Both have new episodes this weekend and both could really use the viewers. (If just a million people watching the Olympics watched these shows instead, it would be huge for them. NBC wouldn't even notice.)

Much as I'd like to urge people who haven't caught on to "Gen Kill" to jump in this weekend, this is part six of a seven-week series based on war reporter Evan Wright's harrowing account of invading Iraq with spear-tip Marines. The story is too convoluted to pick up now. (HBO will be reairing the show in marathons next month; wait until then.)

"Mad Men" is different, because each week has been practically a self-contained hour -- and each week, the storylines get just a little darker. I'll be honest: I didn't see this coming. Before this second season began, I thought "Mad Men" was a smart little show about postwar advertising. But now it's become a wickedly unpredictable Drama (capital "D") about people who will do anything to get ahead. For some reason, setting this show in 1962 makes it all that much more delicious.

"Thank You Mr. President" (8 p.m. CT Monday on HBO). Helen Thomas has been attending presidential press conferences since 1961 - nine administrations in all. This documentary from filmmaker Rory Kennedy is like the queen of the White House press corps herself: short and to the point.

"Kung Fu Killer" (9 p.m. CT Sunday and Monday on Spike). Judging from the over-the-top violent opening scenes, which were all I could bear to watch, "Kung Fu Killer" -- a four-hour, two-night affair starring David Carradine and Daryl Hannah -- appears to be inspired by those Steven Seagal "films" that have gotten great numbers for Spike.

The fact that Robert Halmi Jr. and Sr. have their names attached to this gorefest only adds to the peculiarity. (They once ran Hallmark Entertainment, producing hours and hours of family-friendly TV blockbusters.)

Probably you shouldn't miss any Olympic event to watch this one -- well, except for rhythmic gymnastics.

Comments

[Mark Jeffries]

I don't think it's the language we should worry about BBCA cutting out of "Skins," since the only words they regularly bleep are the ones that start with "F" that refer to the sex act and the ones that start with "C" that refer to a part of the female anatomy.

But since BBCA does run a full cable complement of around 16 minutes of ads an hour, they are going to cut things for time and put in commercial breaks where the producers didn't put them in. Since "Skins" was on Channel 4's satellite/digital sister channel E4, and I believe those channels run more ads an hour than the terrestrial channels, there may not be that much cut. But there's a reason why I don't watch drama series on BBCA--and that's it. (I do watch Britcoms and Graham Norton because they do run uncut, thanks in the case of the comedy series to BBCA's traditional 40-minute time slots for those shows and the fact that I believe Norton's show runs 45 minutes in the UK.)