Among the highlights around the television dial this weekend are Utah's most popular fall television event, an unorthodox awards show and two new series.
BYU vs. Utah (Saturday, noon, Ch. 5): Without much if any fear of being wrong, it's easy to predict this college football game will be the No. 1 show in Utah during the November sweeps. It always is.And, for a change, the Cougar-Ute matchup actually means something. BYU needs a win or a tie to claim the WAC championship outright - and a trip to the Holiday Bowl. A Utah victory would keep the Utes' Copper Bowl hopes alive and send BYU to the Freedom Bowl.
KSL plans an hourlong pregame show at 11 a.m.
The American Teacher Awards (Sunday, 9 p.m., Disney): This is, without a doubt, the most touching, heartwarming awards show on television.
On the surface, it sounds a little hokey. Each of 36 outstanding teachers (three in each category) will be profiled, and the 12 winners announced. A teacher of the year is chosen by the 36 finalists themselves.
But this is a program that will bring tears to your eyes. And all cable subscribers can tune in, because the Disney Channel will be unscrambled.
Walter and Emily (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Ch. 2): This new sitcom actually debuted on the network last week but was pre-empted locally by KUTV's coverage of the Utah-UTEP football game.
This is another product of the same company that also produced NBC's other Saturday sitcoms - "The Golden Girls," "Empty Nest" and "Nurses." And, like them, "Walter and Emily" tend to be rather loud and argumentative.
The title characters, played by Brian Keith and Cloris Leachman, are your average TV bickering grandparents. They move in with their divorced son (Christopher McDonald), a sports writer who spends a lot of time on the road, in order to care for their 11-year-old grandson (Matthew Lawrence).
There are no big surprises here - it's pretty run-of-the-mill as far as sitcoms go. Lots of one-liners with an occasional attempt at warmth.
Leachman, as an overly maternal, uptight grandmother, gets most of the good lines here. And she manages to pull the character off.
"Walter and Emily" isn't going to win any awards any time soon, but there are worse ways to spend a half-hour.
Hot Country Nights (Sunday, 7 p.m., Ch. 2); If you're a country music fan, you'll probably enjoy this new series. It features some of the hottest names in the business - this week's guests include Alabama, Clint Black, K.T. Oslin, and Kenny Rogers.
But, the truth is, this show was thrown together in a matter of about four weeks to fill a gaping hole in the NBC lineup. It wasn't available for preview, so you're pretty much on your own here.
- ELSEWHERE ON THE TUBE SATURDAY: It's Utah at Dallas (6:30 p.m., PSN) in NBA action; the cast of the 1972-78 series is reunited in the very funny Bob Newhart Anniversary Special (7 p.m., Ch. 5); James Brown, Eddie Murphy, Burt Reynolds, Lily Tomlin and Stevie Wonder are among those gathering for A Party For Richard Pryor (8 p.m., Ch. 5); in boxing action (8:10 p.m., HBO), Evander Holyfield defends his heavyweight title against Bert Cooper; the Sisters (9 p.m., Ch. 2) spend a tense Thanksgiving; one of last year's biggest movie bombs, Bonfire of the Vanities (10:30 p.m., Ch. 2), makes its pay-cable debut; and Macauley Culkin of "Home Alone" fame hosts Saturday Night Live (11:35 p.m., Ch. 2).
- ELSEWHERE ON THE TUBE SUNDAY: On Star Trek: The Next Generation (5 p.m., Ch. 13), the Enterprise encounters a man who claims to be from the future; Life Goes On (6 p.m., Ch. 4) somewhat shakily after the Thatcher home is broken into; the spectacular "Nature" series Land of the Eagle (7 p.m. and 8 p.m., Ch. 7) airs its first two installments; Roc (7:30 p.m., Ch. 13) encounter difficulties when they decide to start a family in this first of a two-parter; Steven Weber ("Wings") turns in a fine performance as a man who discovers his late wife had built her life - and his future - on a pack of lies in the TV movie Deception: A Mother's Secret (8 p.m., Ch. 2); Tony Danza stars as a lowlife drug dealer who's being sought for the killing of a DEA agent, not only by the cops but by the mob, in the fact-based, rather violent TV movie Dead Or Alive (8 p.m., Ch. 4); Burt Reynolds hosts another great retrospective, The Very Best of the Ed Sullivan Show II (8 p.m., Ch. 5); Peg Bundy's pregnancy turns out to have been a dream on Married . . . With Childen (8 p.m., Ch. 13); and Paul Rodriguez: Crossing Gang Lines (9 p.m., Ch. 13) features the comedian performing for 400 L.A. gang members.