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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Monday, July 4, 2005

Tube Notes

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

Tonight's Must-See

"A Capitol Fourth," 8, 9:30 p.m., PBS; "Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular," 8 p.m., NBC; "Boston Pops 4th of July Concert and Fireworks Special," 9 p.m., CBS. Music, emotion and spectacle combine in large-scale events. All three have fireworks finales. CBS boasts that its 20-minute finale is commercial-free; then again, PBS is perpetually commercial free. This is PBS' 25th year of Fourth of July concerts and it's packed with pop stars. The revised lineup has the Beach Boys, the O'Jays, Gloria Estefan, Kimberley Locke (from "American Idol"), Il Divo, tenor Ronan Tynan and Erich Kunzel conducting the National Symphony. Barry Bostwick hosts, with Jimmy Smits and Sharon Lawrence. NBC has one music star, albeit a big one: Mariah Carey performs. Then CBS has Keith Lockhart conducting the Boston Pops.



Of Note

"The Karate Kid" (1984), 1 p.m., Showtime. Why do we still enjoy repeated viewings of this underdog/fish-out-of-water fable about a skinny Brooklyn kid (Ralph Macchio) who moves to Los Angeles, gets picked on by high school karate thugs, learns martial arts skills from a wisened Asian custodial worker (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita), and proceeds to kick said karate thugs' sorry butts in tournament competition? Four words: "Wax on. Wax off."

"The Closer," 6, 9 p.m., TNT. Here's the fourth episode of this terrific crime drama. A sniper has killed several people — all from a Los Angeles gang. Now Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) gets some expert advice from a retired Marine colonel.

"Nick & Jessica's Tour of Duty,"7 p.m., ABC. Here's a rerun of the second network special by Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson. This time, they visit military bases with Willie Nelson, Brian McKnight, Big and Rich and Jimmy Kimmel.

"Two and a Half Men," 7:30 p.m., CBS. Maybe Rose isn't so flaky after all. Tonight, she counsels the squabbling brothers.

"An American Celebration at Ford's Theatre," 9 p.m., ABC. This special was taped June 12 in Washington, D.C., with lots of star power. That includes comedian Jeff Foxworthy, young pop stars Hilary Duff and Jesse McCartney, country's Julie Roberts and Josh Gracin and opera singer Denyce Graves.