Dish Of Salt: Men, ‘Stay Home All Weekend,’ Women, ‘Just TV On Sunday!’ (Jun

by Laura Saltman

I’ve been scouring the weekend TV Listings so you don’t have to. Here is what I have learned. You can feel free to go out and party Friday and Saturday night because there’s nothing that good on. It’s summer. What did you guys expect? Unless of course you are a hockey fan. Then be sure and hit your favorite sports bar to catch the Stanley Cup Finals on Saturday night. Being a girl I, of course, had no clue who was actually playing. Have no fear. I looked it up. It’s the Carolina Hurricanes versus the Edmonton Oilers. Aren’t all the teams still on strike? You would think growing up in the hometown of the Pittsburgh Penguins I would know more about hockey. I don’t. I live in LA now, the town where the only thing most people know about sports is that Jack Nicholson has season tickets to the Lakers.

But wait there?s more sports! So, maybe I?ll revise what I said above and tell the girls to go out shopping and the men to stay home. World Cup Soccer starts today. They go crazy for the game overseas (remember it?s called ?futbol? over there), but here in the U.S., soccer is mostly all about watching your kids run around a muddy field. If you do want to watch, you’re probably either going to need a satellite dish, or have to scour those international channels which most people always pass right by. I can?t forget to mention that NBA Finals continue this weekend with Dallas taking on Miami in Game 2, Sunday night on ABC. Dallas won Game 1, and neither team has ever won an NBA championship before!

Remember when Lindsay Lohan seemed like a sweet, normal teenage girl and not the tabloids favorite party girl? Me neither. However, if you want to try and remember then be sure and catch her on the Disney Channel on Friday night. They’ll be showing her and Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2003 remake they did of “Freaky Friday.” The original 1976 version starred Barbara Harris and a 14-year-old Jodie Foster. So, maybe there is hope for Lindsay, since Foster went on to become an Oscar-winning actress.

Sunday night HBO is all new with the return of “Deadwood” for season three at 9 PM. I’d give you a preview of what’s coming up but I don’t watch the show. I caught the pilot episode of season one and couldn’t quite get into the whole criminal minds of the Old West theme. Maybe I’m missing out though, the series was nominated for 11 Emmys® and two Golden Globe® Awards in its debut season.

Then at 10:00 PM it?s the return of “Entourage.” Season three kicks off with Vince Chase’s “Aquaman” film about to have its West Coast premiere. Our own Maria Menounos has a cameo as herself, interviewing Vince for ?Access Hollywood.? Let me tell you, I’m sure the folks over at ?Entertainment Tonight? are P.O.‘d they didn’t get the call. Let’s face it though, you are not going to call Mary Hart for a cameo in the hippest show on TV right now.

The always great James Woods also has a cameo playing himself [or more likely a much more hyped-up-on-caffeine version of himself]. He and Drama get into a hysterical fight over premiere tickets. It’s quite possibly my favorite episode so far of the show. How do I get a cameo on the show?

Immediately following “Entourage,” HBO is hoping viewers will stick around for the premiere of “Lucky Louie.” The show is shot like a traditional sitcom but looks more like you are watching a play, complete with cheesy canned laugh track a la “Everybody Loves Raymond” or “According to Jim.” Since it lives on pay cable, I guess they were thinking they could take chances with language and sexual references. Needless to say there’s lots of swearing in the show. You would think that’s a good thing right. I mean that’s probably the way most people actually speak to one another. Don’t all those cheesy sitcoms on the big networks strip out the swearing for a reason?

After watching this show though, I’d prefer the watered down version of fowl language on a show like say? “Two and Half Men.” Quite frankly it?s funnier to have to dance around the F-word and other unsavory words. And how come every sitcom about blue collar families is always about how boring it is to be married and how they never have sex? It doesn’t make a single girl want to go out and find some dates. Are there no other jokes to tell about being married? I’m a little disappointed that HBO, which normally churns out some of the best stuff on TV, thinks this is a good show to break the sitcom mold. After I watched the first episode, I stuck the disc back on my co-workers desk with a post it note that said “painful!!”!

Also on Sunday is the return of USA Network’s “The 4400.” I missed the first two seasons but was able to catch up via an NBC special about the show. It’s good. I’m hooked. Darn it. Here is yet another show I’ll have to buy on DVD in order to watch the first two seasons. Maybe it?s because I grew up with brothers, but I tend to like the Sci-Fi shows [which for some reason shocks the guys around here]. For those who have never heard of it, the show chronicles the reappearance of 4400 people reported missing or dead, who all of a sudden return one night. They have no memory of where they have been or how long they have been gone. None of the 4400 have aged a single day since the year they were taken, some as far back as fifty years. Similar to ABC’s “Lost,” you never quite know why they were taken or what the purpose of their return is. That’s the question that keeps loyal viewers coming back I guess. I’ll be hitting my local book/video store to catch up on the first two seasons before I pop in this preview disc. So, no scoop for anyone who is a fan. Sorry.

And by the way, speaking of said brother referenced above, he would like you to know that he is devastated over the loss of “The West Wing.” Via e-mail he expressed his extreme disappointment in its cancellation, “Perhaps if you would have watched it a few times you would have seen that it was a top-quality show, head and shoulders above the trash that plagues the TV industry and maybe your reviews would have helped it to stay on TV for another season.” Somehow, I don’t think my one little review, in this one little column could have saved an entire show? but hey, a girl can dream can?t she? According to said brother, we should all be tuning into PBS for shows like “‘Nature,” “Nova” and the “Path to Nuclear Fission” (which sounds like something my tenth grade teacher forced me to watch in science class).

Any other shows you love and want to let people know to watch?

E-mail me at salt.dish@nbcuni.com

Happy TV watching.