(3.4) Several must-sees on tap Monday (March 4) during the annual WSBE/Channel 36 March pledge drive. Tune in at 9pm to watch “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus” — a film Janet Maslin called “uneven but ripely nostalgic.” The final cut of this near-mythical 1968 “happening” — organized by the Stones and featuring The Who, Marianne Faithful, John and Yoko, Jethro Tull (with Tony Iommi), and Eric Clapton, among others — was finally reassembled, cleaned up, and released in 1996.

The fundraising broadcast starts at 7:30pm (airing “Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughn: In Session”) with area musicians and live performances during the pledge breaks. Look for 10-year-old guitar phenom Nolan Leite (video after the jump) and many local faves.

Finally, during the evening’s broadcast, Jonathan Flynn and Rudy Cheeks will be introducing their new performance series “Meet Me at the Met” airing later this year. Bob Kerr has the details at the Providence Journal.

. . . Flynn and Cheeks want to make it a public television showcase for the best in Rhode Island music. They want to produce a series of shows that bring established musicians and up-and-comers to a wider audience. They want to bring that great music scene right into the living room.

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Providence has another designer on “Project Runway.” (Jonathan Joseph Peters represented on Season 7.) Joseph Aaron Segal currently teaches Industrial Knitting at RISD while working as a freelance knitwear designer and lead designer for his two brands, World of JAS and Pretty Snake. He could probably retire right now on the success of his Crazy Kitty sweater (this is one of many iterations, colors, styles).

To see his looks from the 2011 StyleWeek Providence go to ProJo.

“Project Runway” premieres Thursday, January 24th at 9pm on Lifetime.

And some of New Year’s Eve day. And most of New Year’s day.

Portlandia on IFC: 6pm Monday through 5:30pm on Tuesday. Do yourself a favor and catch the 10:30pm episode, “Spyke and Irys want an unconventional wedding; Toni and Candace (the feminist bookstore owners seen here) have a book signing.” (Marathon schedule.)

The new season of Portlandia starts Friday, January 4th at 10pm.

Twilight Zone on SyFy: 8am Monday through 4:30am Wednesday.

The Walking Dead on AMC: 9pm Monday through 4am Tuesday.

Plan accordingly.

A big thanks to loyal Dose reader Heywood Jablome for tipping us off to this segment from Jimmy Kimmel Live exposing a recent pranking of our local NBC 10 news team. Coming as it did right between Sandy and the election, it kind of got lost in the shuffle. Also, we immediately had qualms as to whether this piece meets our usual editorial standards. This issue has resulted in endless arguments at the morning meetings; “We’re better than this!” “No we’re not!”

But it was finally decided that if this publicity could in any way help drive a stake through the heart of the “First Birthdays” feature, then we had a duty to run with it.

Julianne Moore’s uncanny portrayal of Sarah Palin is just one reason to check out “Game Change” on HBO this Saturday. Writer Danny Strong and director Jay Roach were the genius team behind “Recount” the retelling of the 2000 election fiasco that is almost unbearably painful to watch. You keep hoping it will end differently.

Further validation comes from McCain’s former campaign strategist Steve Schmidt who told the L.A. Times after watching the production,

“This was a surreal experience for me,” Schmidt said of the movie, in which he is played by actor Woody Harrelson. “Ten weeks of the campaign are condensed into a two-hour movie. But it tells the truth of the campaign. That is the story of what happened.”

The republican party’s love affair with willfully ignorant simpletons really kicked into high gear with Palin.

“Game Change” shows Palin, portrayed by Julianne Moore, thrust on to the international stage, only for her handlers to belatedly discover the huge gaps in her knowledge of the world — ignorant of the Federal Reserve System, mistakenly believing Saddam Hussein ordered the 9/11 attacks against the United States and unaware that the prime minister, and not Queen Elizabeth II, ran the British government.

If you haven’t seen “Recount” make a point of it.

Premieres 9pm, Saturday, March 10, Game Change, HBO

Only minutes after the airing of last Wednesday’s “City Hell” episode of Ghost Hunters, featuring Providence City Hall, the self-styled The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) — plumbers from Warwick — were getting the South Park treatment. Coincidence? I don’t think so. The ghost of Mayor Thomas Doyle must have some serious mojo.

In the episode “Dead Celebrities,” Kyle’s little brother Ike is being tormented by the ghosts of David Carradine, Farrah Fawcett and Billy Mays, so the boys call in our intrepid ghost hunters. Unfortunately, the TAPS team turns out to be a couple of easily startled buffoons who occasionally wet themselves. It’s a good episode; I suppose new viewers might find the Cartman/Chipotle subplot distasteful.

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The Syfy “Ghost Hunters” (a couple of local plumbers actually) suspect that the ghost of long-dead Mayor Thomas A. Doyle may still be taking the occasional whazz in a fifth floor bathroom in Providence City Hall. Even if true, it is sooooo the least of our problems.

I need to go on record with the following statement: This show is really stupid and our nation would be a lot better off if people stopped believing in paranormal phenomena and started using their senses, reason, and intellect to interpret the world. Our country needs more scientists not palm-readers, psychics and spoon-bending charlatans. This mystical, magical dreaming is what allows people to even consider the illogical tenets of Creationism. (And some of these people want to be President . . . of the United States!) Having said that, Providence City Hall is featured for about 20 minutes in tonight’s episode.

9pm, Wednesday, February 15, Syfy

While supplies last! To celebrate the 5th anniversary of Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream ice cream, participating Ben & Jerry’s shops will have a free single scoop give-away from 5pm to 8pm, on Tuesday, Valentine’s Day. And the Meeting Street shop is participating! I know cuz I checked.

A new AmeriCone Dream SuperPAC Pack 2012 Collectable [sic] Package is available with its fudge-covered waffle cone bits, “sweeter than the Bill of Rights, colder than Valley Forge, and twice as much caramel as the Louisiana Purchase.” Proceeds from the sale of this AmeriCone Dream will benefit the Yellow Ribbon Fund and Donors Choose, so go buy a pint too. (See the February 1st Colbert Report for details.)

And I repeat, while supplies last! I can’t stress that enough. And only AmeriCone Dream.

[Note to Stephen: 'Collectable' is not listed as an accepted spelling in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language; it's more of a British thing really. But good men died at Valley Forge so the limey bastards at the OED couldn't push us around any more, and this is America the greatest country in the world!]

Free scoop AmeriCone Dream, 5pm to 8pm, Tuesday, February 14, Ben & Jerry’s, 237 Meeting Street

ProJo editorial favorite, nationally syndicated columnist, and perennial voice of reason Froma Harrop popped up on The Daily Show Thursday night. John Oliver was ostensibly interviewing Harrop — president of the National Conference of Editorial Writers (NCEW) — to discuss the NCEW Restoring Civility Project. Oliver’s true purpose was to expose the irony of her position given certain “uncivil” language she had herself used in the past. At issue was the column written during the debt ceiling crisis in which she referred to the Tea Party as “economic terrorists.” Oliver literally runs in circles trying to get her to see the incongruity of the situation, but she doesn’t give an inch, refusing to acknowledge the irony because the term was not meant as a metaphor. I’m giving this one to Harrop.

Watch the clip at Harrop’s website. Her thoughts on the piece?  “Sure, a lot of my reasoning ended up on the cutting-room floor, but it was fun.”

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Friday, 10pm, IFC: At this point Portlandia is in danger of over-exposure and the inevitable backlash from people who have to to be the first to hate something. But if the sneak preview — “Wanna come to my DJ Night?” — is any indication, hating on this show is going to be hard. (Armisen and Brownstein have even been touring live but the two upcoming shows in NYC and Brooklyn are already sold out.) The denizens of Portlandia will be instantly recognizable to liberal-leaning, college towns everywhere, as evidenced by Armisen’s recent SNL skewering of the Northampton crowd (video). Also of interest, a recent New Yorker profile.

Sunday, 9pm, PBS: Downton Abbey returns and while there is nothing particularly recognizable about these lives the show is fantastic.

I’ve made a resolution to watch more television in 2012. I said the same thing last year but this time I really mean it. Why not begin with The Twilight Zone marathon on the Syfy Channel, starting Saturday morning at 9am, running through New Year’s Eve and all through Sunday, New Year’s Day, and into early Monday morning. Click here for the complete schedule (‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’ airs at 11:30pm Sunday night).

Meanwhile the BBCAmerica channel starts the Absolutely Fabulous marathon on Sunday, January 1, at 7:20am.

Or you could go swimming in the ocean, your call.

“Dial it down a notch!” Also, the Son of God is tired of always having to show up in the fourth quarter. In a sketch last night on Saturday Night Live Jesus visits the Broncos’ locker room and suggests to Tebow (the perfect Taran Killam) that if anything he should be thanking his kicker . . .  and worrying plenty about today’s game against Brady who just might be the “Nephew of God.”

The topic for this Wednesday’s installment of Action Speaks! at AS220 is the 1973 PBS show ‘An American Family’ often cited as television’s first reality show. Pat and Bill Loud were living in affluent Santa Barbara, California with their five teenagers when they agreed to let cameras document their lives for seven months. This was unheard of at the time and the show was a sensation.

Action Speaks! looks at contemporary issues through the lens of history by using under-appreciated dates of the 20th century that have changed America.

For the 2011 season, Action Speaks! looks at the disappearing border between conflict and amusement and what it portends for good TV. Join host Marc Levitt and guest panelists for some old-fashioned community exchange.

During the show’s original run viewers watched as the Loud marriage fell apart and son Lance told his family that he was gay (something no one else in America needed to be told). A recent dramatization, ‘Cinema Verite’ with Tim Robbins and Diane Lane, was a behind the scenes look at the filmmakers as they became too involved with the family; it was an ambitious failure. The local PBS affiliate recently ran ‘An American Family: Anniversary Edition’ a two-hour condensation  of the original 12-hour show. Try to watch that.

Free, 5:30pm to 7pm, Wednesday, Action Speaks!, October 19, AS220, 115 Empire Street

More good television on tap: “George Harrison: Living in the Material World” directed by Martin Scorsese, tonight and tomorrow night on HBO. Real nice write-up by Rick Massimo in the ProJo. So who will we hear from?

There are no conspicuous absences from the copious list of Harrison’s friends, family and associates gathered for Scorsese’s interviews, including wife Olivia (a co-producer), and son, Dhani; fellow Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as Eric Clapton (who plays a major role throughout); Klaus Voorman and Astrid Kirchherr, who knew The Beatles back in their early ’60s days in the clubs in Hamburg, Germany.

Gorgeous look-alike son Dhani is a Brown alum. His famous dad apparently enjoyed his occasional visits to Providence, getting massages at Squires on Thayer Street and perusing the deli at Eastside Marketplace.

Show premieres Wednesday and Thursday (October 5 and 6) on HBO at 9pm.

If you are a fan of Nova, the History Channel or the Discovery Channel then you have seen the work of local documentary producer Gary Glassman and his production company Providence Pictures. Having collaborated with these broadcasters to explore the Parthenon, the Sphinx, the Pharaohs and Troy, Providence Pictures has also produced features on more modern topics like forensics and space exploration. And now they have been nominated for two Emmys for the fascinating Building the Great Cathedrals aired last October on Nova. (Buy the dvd here.) From The ProJo,

It offered a dazzling view of some of Europe’s great gothic masterpieces as today’s scientists and art historians search for ways to preserve them. Glassman’s wife, Joan Branham, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Art & Art History at Providence College, was one of the art historians who provided expertise for the film.

Good news — four more “architectural” docs are in the pipeline. Can’t get enough. Good luck in September.

Smarter for one thing. East Providence native and Lincoln School alum, Meredith Vieira, ended her Today Show tour of duty this morning. She will now be replaced by the pathologically compassionate and tedious Ann Curry who tries to find something nice to say about everyone. Vieira tended to rise above the idiotic chitchat that passes for witty banter on these programs. It’s mostly unwatchable but she was pretty good.