Tube Notes
By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service
Tonight's Must-See
"2003 Essence Awards," 7 p.m., Fox. Each year, this show offers a rousing mixture of tributes and songs. This year, the emphasis will be thoroughly on the music. Performers include Beyonce Knowles, Jill Scott, Lionel Richie, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Common, New Edition, the Gap Band and much of the Winans family. Steve Harvey hosts. Awards go to Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Mos Def and radio host Tom Joyner. There also is a tribute to Luther Vandross, who remains hospitalized after suffering a stroke two months ago.
"Dead Like Me" debut, 7 p.m., Showtime. Georgia (wonderfully played by Ellen Muth) is 19 and thoroughly uninterested in life. A college dropout, she has no interest in her temporary job or her joyless mother Joy (Cynthia Stevenson). Then something interesting happens to her — death. She meets some grim reapers (few of them grim), played by Mandy Patinkin, Rebecca Gayheart, Jasmine Guy and Callum Blue. Dark and droll, "Dead Like Me" has humor, warmth and great actors. It will continue as a series, which might be tough to pull off. The opener, however, is terrific.
Of Note
"Passions," 2 p.m., NBC. This series — which delights in being different — does a musical number that's a take-off on "Chicago." It includes Mrs. Wallace (Kathleen Noone) and her psychotic daughter Bess (Kelli McCarty), plus Charlie (Jordan Baker), six Broadway dancers and, of course, an orangutan.
"Hack," 8 p.m., CBS. Mike has a stretch of cab-driver emergencies in this rerun, including a woman giving birth and a man who left $10,000 in the taxi.
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," 9 p.m., NBC. In a rerun, Michael Gross is the husband of a doctor who works with AIDS patients and makes them contact their partners. There are plenty of suspects after she is murdered.
"Booty Call" (1997) 9:45 p.m., HBO, "ROAD RAGE" (2000), 9:40 p.m., HBO2. There are plenty of classier movies you could catch on the premium services tonight. And it's really tough to choose just one of these two fine B-flicks to recommend. Casper Van Dien being terrorized by a weird trucker, or Jamie Foxx lookin' for, um, love? Roll the dice or set the VCR!
