TV

Tralfaz was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs with a 5-point loss. I thought it was a decent rookie season for the coach who made his share of mistakes but did OK. I've been referring to Tralfaz as "our team", but apparently Elliot wasn't happy with my management and insists that he wants to have his own team next year...a 6-year-old with his own fantasy football team? He was excited when I was talking about "next year" because he thought I meant January. He's got the Backyard Football computer game that he loves, and he's started writing down the stats from the games he plays (T=touchdown, S=sack, Fr=fumble recovery). Tonight I watched CostasNOW. Like always, the montage summary of the year in sports tugged at your heart strings, especially with Explosions in the Sky as the soundtrack. Also, Charles Barkley admitted that he's lost between 5 and 10 million dollars gambling.

Here are some TV recommendations from The Week magazine:

• Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers, Mon, Dec 11, 9 PM, Sundance
• Wedding Wars (trailer), Mon, Dec 11, 9 PM, A&E
• The Lost Room (trailer), Mon-Wed, Dec 11-13, 9 PM, Sci Fi
• Taking the Hill (trailer), Tue, Dec 12, 9 PM, Discovery Times
• One Punk Under God (trailer), Wed, Dec 13, 9 PM, Sundance
• Harvey, Sun, Dec 17, 2 PM, Turner Classic Movies
• Explorer: Secret Lives of Jesus, Sun, Dec 17, 9 PM, National Geographic

Kathleen Parker recommends the documentary "In the Womb: Animals" to be shown on the National Geographic Channel on December 10:

The film...may be the best weapon yet for the pro-life movement. That wasn't the purpose of the documentary -- the first ever to record animals in the womb -- but these images of gestating life pack a powerful wallop. The mind makes a natural leap to questions of how we consider and treat the pre-born.

Here are some TV recommendations from The Week Magazine:

• Kiss Me Deadly, Saturday, Dec 9, 8 PM, Turner Classic Movies
• Alpha Company: Iraq Diary, Sunday, Dec 10, 8 PM, Military Channel
• ONLINE AND IN DANGER: How To Protect Yourself In The Virtual World, Sunday, Dec 10, 8:30 PM, Nickelodeon

From the November 17, 2006, installment of The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1968 that NBC executives made one of the worst broadcasting decisions in the history of network television, interrupting their coverage of a football game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets in order to show the scheduled movie, Heidi, about an orphaned girl who goes to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. There was one minute left in the game and the Jets were leading by 32 to 29, when NBC went to a commercial. No televised football game had ever gone longer than three hours before, and executives weren't sure what to do. Timex had paid a lot of money to advertise during Heidi, and network executives figured the Jets would win the game anyway, so after the commercial break, the movie began. Football fans were enraged. So many people called to complain that the NBC telephone switchboard in New York City blew 26 fuses. People were right to complain. What they missed was the Raiders coming back to score two touchdowns in the final minute, winning the game 43 to 32. It was that game, and the storm of protest by fans, that forced TV executives to realize how passionate the audience for football really was. Two years later, networks began showing football on Monday nights as well. And because of that game, the NFL now has a contract with the networks that all football games will be shown until their completion.