The Monday Funnies on CBS -- Big Bang and Old Christine

I'm going to keep blogging about this terrific show until somebody watches, I swear it! CBS' charming and very amusing comedy The Big Bang Theory is in the middle of its batch of new episodes, so now is a great time to catch with the antics of the talented cast on this under-appreciated show.

There are no precocious children and no cantankerous oldsters in this one, just a vivacious cast playing adorable and impossibly vain brainiacs, plus one cute girl to stir things up. If you like jokes about Star Trek, 2001, physics, unrequited lust, the string theory, superheroes...served up with a generous ladling of loopy absurdity, The Big Bang Theory is your show. I haven't seen an episode yet that didn't deserve genuine chuckles, and though the description of tonight's ep sounds like it comes straight from the land of Leave it to Beaver (in other words, it's simplicity itself) -- The Pancake Batter Anomaly: When Sheldon comes down with the flu, the rest of the gang wisely avoids him -- I can't wait to see what the fellas dish out. Really, just give this show a try. It's a clever mix of physical and intellectual comedy -- a little bit Marx Brothers, a little bit particle accelerator -- and it's a delight. The Big Bang Theory airs straight up at 8pm.

A delight also, is The New Adventures of Old Christine, airing at 9:30pm on CBS. The big hoo-ha about tonight's new episode is that it reunites Seinfeld stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander, in a guest appearance as Christine's gynecologist, in a tale about Christine's descent into perimenopause. We'll see if the old magic is still there, and expect plenty of double and triple entendres -- the show is pretty smutty, but that's all right (it's usually pretty funny material), and it's not as inappropriate or crass as Two and a Half Men, let's say. (I haven't fallen for How I Met Your Mother, but that's clearly another Monday night fave for CBS. Good for them!)

I also have to put in a good word for Fox's New Amsterdam, which is hanging in there and is certainly the best romantic drama about an immortal man since...well, CBS' Moonlight on Friday nights. New Amsterdam has an appealing leading man in Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and you movie fans might be interested to learn that writer/producer Allan Loeb was also w/p for Things We Lost in the Fire which is out on DVD and PPV now. (I can recommend the movie for an absolutely wonderful performance by Benicio Del Toro. Can't wait to see him as the Wolfman!)

So your dance card is full tonight. And if you're going to watch Dancing with the Stars or The Bachelor instead, please just don't tell me about it....