Screen Time

DETROIT 1-8-7 Tuesday at 10 p.m. on (ABC-7) Longford (James McDaniel) is forced to confront the unsa- vory prejudices of the late 1960s after he and Mahajan (Shaun Majumder) uncover the skeletal remains of a young interracial couple who have been missing since 1967. Fitch (Michael Imperioli) and his team investigate the brutal murder of a pregnant illegal Mexican immigrant in the new episode “Shelter.” Della Reese, Glynn Turman and Giancarlo Esposito guest star. TOP CHEF ALL-STARS Wednesday at 10 p.m. on (BRAVO) For the quickfire challenge, pop star Joe Jonas challenges the chefs to create a snack for children having a sleepover at the American Museum of Natural History. Katie Lee Joel, who hosted season one of “Top Chef,” returns as a guest judge for the elimination challenge, in which the chefs are asked to make the kids and their parents a breakfast inspired by a dinosaur’s diet in the new episode “Night at the Museum.” THE OFFICE Thursday at 9 p.m. on (NBC-24) Michael is thrilled when his nemesis Toby (Paul Lieberstein) takes a leave of absence and corporate sends Michael’s old flame Holly Flax (guest star Amy Ryan) to fill in. Thus, Pam (Jenna Fischer) is forced to plan a second Christmas party when Michael wants the party to be on the day of Holly’s return to Scranton. Jim (John Krasinski), meanwhile, regrets agreeing to a snowball fight with Dwight (Rainn Wilson) in the new episode “Classy Christmas.” HOLMES ON HOMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS Sunday at 9 p.m. on (HGTV) It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s ... even better than Superman for stressed-out couple Janice and Craig, who have been living with their four kids in a dark, dirty basement after being abandoned by their contractor. In this new special, compassionate supercontractor Mike Holmes and his team have a very limited time to transform this bleak living space into a fin- ished home in time for the holidays. MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE Monday at 10 p.m. on (TNT) BLUE BLOODS Friday at 10 p.m. on (CBS-12) Jennifer Esposito (“Samantha Who?”) guest stars as Detective Jackie Curatola in “Officer Down,” an episode that finds Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) mobilizing all of the New York Police Department in an attempt to find out who killed an off-duty cop during a diamond heist. Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan and Will Estes also star. As the Emmy-nominated dramedy returns for a second season, Joe’s (Ray Romano) determina- tion to get himself back in shape on the golf course starts to fade after a few crack-of-dawn practice sessions. Owen (Andre Braugher) regrets his decision to hire Terry (Scott Bakula) at his father’s auto dealership, since Terry’s acting skills aren’t translating into sales in the new episode “If I Could, I Surely Would.” Women of a certain age Cloris Leachman, 84, “Raising Hope” Like her former “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” castmate Betty White – who was disqualified from this list because she’s pretty much on a one-woman list of her own – Leachman continues to dazzle at an age when other actresses opt for quiet retirement. With an Oscar and eight (!) Primetime Emmy Awards to her credit, Leachman just might win another for her hilarious turn as a dotty grandma on Fox’s breakout hit “Hope.” Cloris Leachman 2 select TV Holland Taylor, 67, “Two and a Half Men” She won her Emmy for a dramatic guest role on “The Practice,” but producers know her as TV’s go-to actress if you’re looking for someone to play a funny, glamorous, sexually viable older woman. She makes the boobs-and-fart- jokes fodder on CBS’ long-running “Men” play like the most elegant comedy ever written. Sally Field Sharon Gless, 67, “Burn Notice” Perhaps best known as acerbic, wisecracking (and secretly alcoholic) cop Chris Cagney on “Cagney & Lacey,” the Emmy- winning Gless would deserve a spot here if only for holding her own with formidable co-star Tyne Daly on that CBS drama, but she also played the proud mom of a gay son in Showtime’s daring “Queer as Folk” before starting her current Emmy-nominated gig as Madeline Westen in the hit USA Network dramedy “Burn Notice.” Daily News BY JOHN CROOK Sally Field, 64, “Brothers & Sisters” Joining the “B&S” cast as a last-minute replacement, the two-time Oscar winner has done some of the best work of her long career as meddling mother Nora Walker, picking up a third Emmy to go with previous wins for her breakout 1976 role in the TV movie “Sybil” and a 2000 guest appearance on “ER.” Christine Baranski, 58, “The Good Wife” The youngest on the list, Baranski established herself as one of the brightest lights in the New York theater before heading west to earn an Emmy as Cybill Shepherd’s comic sidekick in “Cybill.” Much in demand as a sitcom guest star, Baranski’s dramatic work as senior law firm partner Diane Lockhart on “Wife” is so effortlessly note-perfect you almost don’t even notice the artistry. Christine Baranski December 4 - 10, 2010

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