Glee hits 100 episodes, looks barely a day over 250

Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Tuesday, March 18. All times are Eastern.

TOP PICK

Glee (Fox, 8 p.m.): Maybe it’s the fact that the original cast “graduated” at the end of season three. Maybe it was those separate times that the cast lapped Billboard records set by Elvis Presley and the goddamned Beatles. Or maybe we thought Glee had passed the 100-episode mark ages ago because it’s already racked up more than 500 covers in the course of four-plus seasons. Either way, congratulations to a show that’s just now getting around to torturing Brandon Nowalk with a version of Eddie Murphy’s “Party All The Time,” even though that seems like something that should’ve happened during one of two previous episodes devoted to “guilty pleasures.”

The Originals (The CW, 8 p.m.): One place you’re guaranteed not to find a rapping Will Schuester: TV Club’s reviews of The Originals. And if that doesn’t pique your interest, than Rowan Kaiser doesn’t know why you even watch TV anymore.

Kroll Show (Comedy Central, 10:30 p.m.): Tragedy strikes Wheels, Ontario—or, as it’d be referred to on the show-within-a-show’s source material, just another Tuesday. David Sims reminds you that this is how you deal with a high-school catastrophe…

Cougar Town (TBS, 10 p.m.): Cougar Town has named 80-plus episodes after Tom Petty songs—none of which have ever been covered on Glee, despite Finn’s early-series classic-rock fixation and the thematic overlap between Petty’s best work and the small-town melancholy that defined that period of the show. Instead, will just have to make due with Les Chappell’s killer rendition of “Refugee.”

Trophy Wife (ABC, 9:30 p.m.)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox, 9:30 p.m.)
Person Of Interest (CBS, 10 p.m.)
Justified (FX, 10 p.m.)

First-time A.V. Club contributor Meghan Lewit takes a post-Veronica Mars look at the nature of TV fan campaigns and asks, “Is it all worth it?” For the first two acts, everyone treats this newcomer with measured skepticism, but then she drops a Twin Peaks reference—and faster than you can say “South Detroit isn’t a neighborhood—it’s Windsor, Ontario, Canada,” Meghan has joined the rest of The A.V. Club in a fiery spin through “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

Marvel Studios: Assembling A Universe (ABC, 8 p.m.): Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. takes a brief reprieve so ABC can present the kind of promotional filler that used to be a lot more common in the 1990s. What’s On Tonight will never forget the time Chris O’Donnell hijacked a half-hour of primetime in the summer of ’95 to stump for Batman Forever (and explain the lyrics of “Kiss From A Rose”).

Pretty Little Liars/Rizzoli & Isles (ABC Family/TNT, 8p.m./9 p.m.): Both of these cable dramas are ending their current seasons tonight, which has us wishing they were ending those seasons with the same episode, a crossover event in which Detective Rizzoli and Dr. Isles come to Rosewood, solve PLL’s central mystery/mysteries, and put all those scheming teens behind bars for good.

The Conjuring (Cinemax, 8 p.m.): James Wan effectively freed himself from his reputation as “The Saw Guy” with this creepy throwback to The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist, and other haunted-house stories that make you fear every last floorboard creak and slammed door in your own, non-haunted house.

Whistling In The Dark (TCM, 8:15 p.m.): In the 1930s, murderous cults were considered the stuff of a Red Skelton comedy—suggesting that The Following was intended to be a laugh riot all along.

NIT Basketball Tournament (ESPN, 7 p.m.): The first sports network presents early in action in the consolation prize that makes all TV-listings sources look like fools with that extraneous “T.” It’s not the “National Invitational Tournament Basketball Tournament,” guys!

Speaking of listings: TV Guide extends its commitment to physical media with a series of TV-history-spanning DVDs. Dubbed TV Guide Spotlight, the first five of these two-disc sets collect highlights from the likes of The Larry Sanders Show, NewsRadio, Good Times, Maude, Bewitched, and Police Woman. The selections place an emphasis on pilots and other first-season episodes, so this isn’t the best representation for some of these shows—though the Totally ’80s ’Toons set promises a pair of standouts from that What’s On Tonight favorite, Heathcliff.

Archer: The animated spy comedy celebrates its recent renewal (in the middle of a season that’s all about renewal, at least as far as the show’s premise goes) with a night of spa treatments and… deadly crocodiles. Though, as far as Sonia Saraiya sees it, even deadly crocodiles deserve some downtime at the spa, too!