Tube Notes
By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service
TONIGHT'S MUST-SEE
"Heist," 8 p.m., NBC. The network wants to make sure we see the first episode of this stylish series. It ran it at 9 p.m. Wednesday and reruns it here. That sort of makes sense. This is a good series but a complex one. For the rest of the season, we'll see a theft scheme evolve. We'll also see the cops trying to stop it. To work, "Heist" must grab us early.
"Hannah Montana" debut, 9:30 p.m., Disney Channel. Everything about this new comedy smacks of success with one huge exception: It has an awful script, the kind that flails for jokes that aren't really funny. That's too bad, because "Hannah" has a fun concept: A seemingly ordinary teen is keeping secret her alternate life as a pop star. Miley Cyrus, wonderfully bright-eyed and likable, stars. Billy Ray Cyrus plays her dad, which he is. Emily Osment — sister of Haley Joel Osment, the "Sixth Sense" child star — plays her friend. These are people we want to like. Please send them some better scripts.
OF NOTE
"NCAA Basketball Tournament," 2 p.m., CBS. Games vary by region but we get a doubleheader tonight. That trims the college tournament to eight teams. By Sunday night it will be four.
"Deal or No Deal," 7 p.m., NBC. For the third time in five days, NBC airs an hour of this game show. The network seems determined to overkill it in the same way ABC did "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
"What I Like About You" (7 p.m.) and "Living With Fran" (7:30) season-finales, WB. This is a pivotal time for shows on WB and UPN, which will merge this fall. "What I Like About You" — with Amanda Bynes and Jennie Garth as sisters — has the best shot at survival. Tonight brings good news for one romance, bad for the other.
"Doctor Who," 7 p.m., Sci Fi network. Last week's opener re-introduced the Doctor through the eyes of a modern London shop girl. As played by Billie Piper, she's bright and beautiful — sort of like Sienna Miller in the "Keen Eddie" series — and astonished to meet this casual guy (Christopher Eccleston) who travels across time and planets. In last week's second episode (rerunning today at 6 p.m.), they went into the future and saw the end of Earth; in this episode, they go into the past and team up with Charles Dickens.
"In Justice," 8 p.m., ABC. A man is spending 30 years in prison for stealing vodka.
"Conviction," 9 p.m., NBC. Desmond pushes an attempted-murder charge against a rap producer. Potter goes on a police ride-along that turns serious. Rossi has a wife-abuse case that has a personal impact. And Finn prosecutes a diplomat's privileged son.