Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Sunday, February 3. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Elementary (CBS, 10 p.m.): Holmes and Watson got the call back in November: They were moving on up. To the big leagues. The post-Super Bowl slot. Myles McNutt hopes Elementary pulls an Alias and puts this one through the uprights. Lucy Liu is probably just glad she didn’t have to go to the wardrobe lengths Jennifer Garner went in order to pull eyeballs from The Big Game to “Phase One.”
REGULAR COVERAGE
Downton Abbey (PBS, 9 p.m.): “It’s the time / of the season / for shunniiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.” Multiple characters are at odds with each other, and only Sonia Saraiya can provide an accurate roadmap to who’s hating whom this week.
TV CLUB CLASSIC
Doctor Who (Classic) (11 a.m.): Enter and gaze upon “The Caves Of Androzani!” And also a really freaky regeneration scene! But also “The Caves Of Androzani!” And Christopher Bahn’s thoughts on all these things!
The Simpsons (Classic) (3 p.m.): Nathan Rabin offers a review of “$pringfield (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Legalized Gambling)” in the velvety tones of Mr. Robert Goulet. These are the sounds that music was made for.
WHAT ELSE IS ON?
Puppy Bowl IX (Animal Planet, 3 p.m.): Puppies puppies puppies adorable, awww, puppies puppies puppies cute. Kitty Half-time show sweet cuddly puppies pounce adoption—hamsters in a fake blimp. Puppies? Puppies!
Star Trek: The Next Generation (BBC America, 4 p.m.): Perhaps sensing a tension between football fans and, let’s say, “non-football fans,” the Beeb’s American cousin counter programs with the voyages of the starship Enterprise-D. Though you can still catch “I, Borg” and not miss the kickoff!
Live From New York: The First 5 Years Of Saturday Night Live (NBC, 9 p.m.): The vaunted original five seasons of Saturday Night Live are celebrated in this retrospective, which sadly did not produce a follow-up, Dead From New York: That Horrifying Sixth Year Of Saturday Night Live That Wasn’t Even Saved By The Episode Where John Belushi Brought Fear Along To Destroy Studio 8H.
Rachael Vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off (Food Network, 10 p.m.): In a special post-Super Bowl installment of this culinary challenge, the teams develop their own food trucks. Team Guy’s will, naturally, run on donkey sauce.
Mother, May I Sleep With Danger? (Lifetime, 8 p.m.): It’s the only Lifetime Original Movie that that sounds like it could also be a Misfits song—until next year’s Tiffany Thiessen-starring Halloween vehicle “Horror Business,” that is.
The Music Man (TCM, 8 p.m.): 76 trombones come blaring down the streets of a sleepy Iowa town, attempting to drown the football noise from New Orleans with shady con-man dealings and a heaping helping of “Shipoopi.” Will there be any “Shipoopi” at the Superdome? We think not!
Super Bowl XLVII: Ravens vs. 49ers (CBS, 6:30 p.m.): So many narratives to highlight in this year’s matchup for the NFL championship: Teams coached by brothers; the final game for probably-not-a-murderer, maybe-a-consumer-of-deer-antler-velvet Ray Lewis; the fact that Todd VanDerWerff is forcing the whole TV Club staff to root for the Niners. How can one choose?
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Enlightened: You know what Enlightened’s been missing? A good Dougie-Tyler storyline. Brandon Nowalk watched this special-to-Saturday-night-because-Super-Bowl episode hoping that Mike White and Timm Sharp would rekindle the magic of their Undeclared scene in the pet shop.