Top dogs run into the spotlight
Now that we’re finished with Super Bowl XXXIX, we can watch Westminster turn CXXIX. And we’re not talking dog years.
Tonight and Tuesday, Lester Hold and David Frei host the 129th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (8 p.m., USA), shown tape-delayed from New York’s Madison Square Garden in high definition. May the best pug win.
“Kinsey,” on “American Experience” (9 p.m., KSPS), offers a scrupulously balanced look at Dr. Alfred Kinsey, whose 1948 study “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” became a runaway best seller that remains controversial to this day.
“Kinsey” discusses the scientist’s unhappy youth in a home dominated by his tyrannical engineer father, young Alfred’s liberating discovery of biology, and his passionate dedication to exploring and extolling the diversity of all natural and human experiences. His study of wasps led him to the conclusion that if human behavior was as varied as that of insects, there was still much to discover and discuss.
As “Kinsey” makes clear, Kinsey was appalled by the lack of scientific study of human sexuality. Almost all of the available literature in the 1930s urged readers to suppress their desires to conform to prevailing Victorian mores and religious edicts.
The documentary ignores the fact that up until the decade before Kinsey began his epic study, proponents of birth control and unorthodox sexual philosophy faced arrest and imprisonment for “indecency” and other charges.
“Kinsey” provides plenty of time to those who questioned the researcher’s methodology and motivations. Much is made of Kinsey’s long-suppressed bisexuality and the cold and rather clinical way that he made his wife and assistants participate in his “research.”
Time was, when you wanted to make your movie stand out in a crowd, you began the title with the word “I.” Who can ignore titles like “I Married a Communist,” “I Walked with a Zombie,” or “I Want to Live”?
Now the wags at VH1 present a new series entitled “I Married…” showcasing true tales from the spouses of rockers, including Carnie Wilson and Uncle Kracker, among others. Tonight’s installment, “I Married Sammy Hagar” (6 p.m., VH1), features Kari Hagar, the wife of the solo musician and former Van Halen front man. They show off their Mexico home, celebrate Sammy’s 57th birthday, and discuss the night they met and the tribulations of raising children on the road.
Now everybody wants to be an Osbourne.
Shannon Elizabeth (“American Pie”) and Marques Houston (“Fat Albert”) star in “Cuts” (8:30 p.m., UPN), a new sitcom spun off from “One on One.” Not available for review.
Other highlights
Three cartoon clods discover romance on the “Ed, Edd ‘n’ Eddy Valentine’s Day Special” (7:30 p.m., Cartoon Network).
A glance back at transformations past on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How’d They Do That?” (8 p.m., ABC).
The Camdens break into song on the very first musical episode of “7th Heaven” (8 p.m., WB).
Frank’s tasteless gesture shocks Marie on “Everybody Loves Raymond” (9 p.m., CBS).
Meltdowns loom on “24” (9 p.m., Fox).
Former “Bachelorette” couple Trista and Ryan host “Honeymoon Hotspots” (9 p.m., Travel).
A drug smuggler dies after a boa constricts her on “CSI: Miami” (10 p.m., CBS).
A suicide foretold in a dream may be part of a bigger nightmare on “Medium” (10 p.m., NBC).
Cult choice
Romance blooms on Madison Avenue in the 1961 comedy “Lover Come Back” (5 p.m., TCM), starring Rock Hudson, Doris Day and Tony Randall.