TV tonight: New Glee episode is all about love
TONIGHT'S MUST-SEE II: "Glee," 8 p.m., Fox.After a long break, this show is ready for a second-half spurt.
First was Sunday's post-Super Bowl special; now new episodes resume in the regular spot. That starts with this Valentine episode: There's a kissing booth, romantic woe and some love songs.
TONIGHT'S ALTERNATIVE: "Pioneers of Television," 8 p.m., PBS.
In their early days, TV stations scrambled to fill their daytime slots. They created local kid shows, with cartoons and puppets and clowns that may or may not have been humorous.
Some shows launched individuals forward (Merv Griffin, Adam West, Ted Knight, Willard Scott, Stan Freberg); some ("Bozo," "Romper Room") became repackaged at other stations.
And sometimes, the shows produced something that would become big nationally. Fred Rogers started with puppets in Pittsburgh; Jim Henson had his Muppets in Washington, D.C.
The best shows aimed for grown-ups, too. Steven Spielberg savored "Wallace and Ladmo"; Albert Einstein confessed a passion for "Time for Beany." This is a fun history, neatly told.
Also today
• "NCIS," 8 p.m., CBS. This is a tough way to work: The team probes a murder, while being shadowed by a woman doing mandatory psych evaluations.
• "NCIS: Los Angeles," 9 p.m., CBS. Someone makes the mistake of breaking into Callen's home. Soon, that leads to a cache of counterfeit computer chips.
• "Only in America" debut, 9 p.m., History. Larry the Cable Guy pays amiable visits to opposite pieces of America. In Georgia, he meets the roots of NASCAR - moonshiners and drivers re-creating the backwoods rides of old. In Vermont, he learns from the descendants of etiquette expert Emily Post. And in California, he visits the county fair that continues a frog-jumping tradition Mark Twain described.
• "Raising Hope," 9:01 p.m., Fox. This comedy has been plagued by inconsistency, as we see tonight. There are a few fun moments, as Jimmy finds a potential friend - another single guy with a baby.
• "The Good Wife," 10 p.m., CBS. Michael J. Fox returns as a lawyer who uses his disability to get courtroom favor. Now he and Alicia race to see who can round up more clients for a class-action suit.
• "For Love of Liberty," 10 p.m., Channel 23 (WKAR). This is the second half of a documentary on blacks in the U.S. military. Ironically, this Black History Month film takes a spot PBS had intended for "When I Rise," a portrait of pioneering black opera star Barbara Smith Conrad.
