Tube Notes
By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service
Tonight's Must-See
"Ice Wars," 8 p.m., CBS. An 11th season begins for this competition, which bills itself as the United States vs. the world. Skaters' scores are added up, to determine the winning team. The American team has two Olympic gold-medal winners, Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano. They're joined by Nicole Bobek and Todd Eldredge. The world team also has two gold, Oksana Baiul and Russian star Alexei Yagudin. They're joined by Yuka Sato and Kurt Browning.
Of Note
"Frosty the Snowman," 7 p.m., and "Frosty Returns," 7:30 p.m., CBS. The first is a classic, a pleasant-enough cartoon that makes strong use of the song. As for the second — well, imagine being Roger Clinton or Donald Nixon or Billy Carter or some other ignored sibling.
"8 Simple Rules," 7 p.m., ABC. Raquel Welch guests. She plays a former girlfriend of Jim (James Garner); now she might hire his granddaughter Bridget, who wants to be a model.
"A Town Without Christmas" (2001), 7 p.m., Lifetime. Rick Roberts plays a stiff author and Patricia Heaton is an overworked reporter. It's a fairly bland story, but it did introduce Peter Falk as a quirky angel. He's repeated the character in two more movies.
"Complete Savages," 7:30 p.m., ABC. Remember the nasty old neighbors who wouldn't give your ball back when you hit it in their yard? Tonight, surprisingly, one is played by sweet Betty White.
"The Christmas List" (1997) 8 p.m., ABC Family. Mimi Rogers plays someone who mails a wish list to Santa and then finds the wishes coming true.
"Hope & Faith," 8 p.m., ABC. The sisters work at a hip clothing store, where they soon notice that their boss is cute.
"A Fish Called Wanda" (1988), 8 p.m., Pax TV. This scam film was written by John Cleese, one of the Monty Python geniuses, and directed by Charles Crichton, who was in his late 70s. (He died in 1999 at 89.) The result generally pleased audiences and critics and brought a supporting actor Oscar for Kevin Kline. Cleese starred with Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Palin, another Python alumnus.
"Medical Investigation," 9 p.m., NBC. Connor is stumped by a disease that is eating the flesh of hospital patients in Maryland.
