New ‘Little House’ offers easy viewing
The 1970s Michael Landon vehicle “Little House on the Prairie” has been a symbol of wholesome programming for so long, it’s a wonder Disney-owned ABC didn’t remake it years ago.
How inoffensive was the original “Little House”? In the early 1980s it was the only American TV show acceptable to the Ayatollah’s media minions who ran Iranian television. Yes, even the “death to America” crowd couldn’t live without their “Little House.”
The new show, “Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie” (8 p.m. tonight, ABC) will unfold in a limited run and debuts as a two-hour movie. Graced with gorgeous scenery and good-looking characters, this “House” is easy on the eyes.
The adaptation is also true to good old-fashioned 19th-century taciturnity. Cameron Bancroft plays Charles “Pa” Ingalls with the understated toughness of Clint Eastwood circa “A Fistful of Dollars.”
Thankfully, the two girls – Laura (Kyle Chavarria) and Mary (Danielle Ryan Chuchran) – comport themselves with the “seen and not heard” ethos of the era. “House” displays a comforting lack of cute precocity.
Erin Cottrell is the one wrong note. As Caroline “Ma” Ingalls, she looks like a healthy 20-something who just walked out of “Little Sorority House on the Prairie.”
The movie involves Charles Ingalls’ decision to uproot his family from the comfortable confines of Wisconsin to live on a free parcel of land in the Kansas wilderness.
Has the Sci Fi Network become the House of Buggin’? The folks who brought you “Mansquito” now present “Alien Apocalypse” (9 p.m. tonight, Sci Fi), a film about astronauts who return to Earth 40 years from now only to find the human race serving as a convenient cafeteria to a horde of man-hungry intergalactic insects.
Rather than air repeats of “Boston Legal,” ABC introduces the limited series “Grey’s Anatomy” (10 p.m. Sunday, ABC). “Grey” follows Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompano), a first-year medical intern, and her fellow rookies as they make their way through the grueling training process. The first episode takes place over a 48-hour shift.
As a point of comparison, that’s two whole seasons of “24”! That’s not easy to do in a 60-minute episode with commercials.
In the course of these two harrowing days, Meredith wakes up from a meaningless sexual encounter with a guy whose name she can’t remember. Do you think we’ll meet him again and he’ll turn out to be a gorgeous, brilliant surgeon? I’ll never tell.
Today’s highlights
The NCAA Basketball tournament (10 a.m and 1:30 and 5 p.m., CBS) continues.
An incoming jet has been hijacked on “LAX” (8 p.m., NBC).
Maya Angelou hosts “The 20 Greatest Songs of Faith” (8 p.m., CMT).
John Walsh hosts the 800th episode of “America’s Most Wanted” (9 p.m., Fox).
Author Dan Brown is interviewed in the two-hour documentary “Unlocking Da Vinci’s Code: The Full Story” (9 p.m., National Geographic).
Scheduled on “48 Hours Mystery” (10 p.m., CBS): a homicide case in which the prosecutor ends up in jail.
The beauty business is a killer on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent ” (10 p.m., NBC).
Sunday’s highlights
Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS): advocates for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia; runners who participate in races over a 100 miles long; a controversial ossuary.
Orphans in the media storm on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (8 p.m., ABC).
The role of Mary in biblical text and recent prophecy is explored in “Visions of Mary” (8 p.m., History).
“Melting Point: Tracking the Global Warming Threat” (5 p.m., CNN) looks at the effects of changing climates from the Arctic Circle to the South Pacific.
Christina Applegate stars in “Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas” (9 p.m., CBS), a 2005 made-for-TV drama based on a book by James Patterson.
Head lice and heartache on “Desperate Housewives” (9 p.m., ABC).
A series of murders follows a ritualistic pattern on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” (9 p.m., NBC).
“Quest for Truth” (9 p.m., National Geographic) looks for scientific evidence of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion.
A boot hill for old mobsters on “Crossing Jordan” (10 p.m., NBC)
Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosts “Memory” (7 p.m., CNN), exploring recent discoveries about the human mind and new ways to improve your recall. Don’t forget it!