Just Another Manic Monday

Man, you know I must be operating on no sleep if I'm quoting the Bangles.

After the opening weekend of the Olympics, I have to say the coverage has been a mixed bag. As always, there's way too much face time given to the so-called "Redeem Team," especially when they blew out China yesterday (though it was the most watched basketball game world-wide in the history of the sport.) But really, during the parade of nations Friday, did we need constant shots of Kobe and LeBron waving? How about shots of the badminton team or the rowers, athletes who don't get that same sort of coverage year-round as the average NBA superstar?

The coverage of the individual events has been decent, though. NBC's coverage of the swimming, including last night's spectacular relay event, has been top-notch. The boxing coverage, though, was dismal. All this talk about how controversial the US coach is, yet they never bothered to tell us why, even during a 1-on-1 interview. The rest of it has been in-between, though I always welcome the presence of Melissa Stark to my TV.

R.I.P. BERNIE MAC, ISAAC HAYES AND BERNIE BRILLSTEIN: It was a bad weekend in Hollywood as a trio of personalities passed away. Mac, who died after a bout of pneumonia, was best known for his Emmy-nominated sitcom on Fox and his role in the "Ocean's 11" series of movies.

Hayes won an Oscar for his theme song to "Shaft" and was the voice of Chef on "South Park," until a fall-out with the show's producers over their poking fun at Scientology.

Brillstein was a well-known Hollywood power player who helped launch the careers of everyone from Lorne Michaels to Jim Henson to Garry Shandling.

MONDAY'S BEST BETS: You know, one thing I hate about so-called reality TV is the way they drag it out. I was perfectly ready for "The Mole" (ABC, 10 p.m.) to be revealed last week. Instead, they drag it out for one more episode in which they put in mostly filler because the actual revealing of the mole and the show's winner will take about a minute. I really don't need these "reunion" shows where they bring back all of the eliminated players to give commentary.

Getting ready for the new season to start in a few weeks, the networks are running reruns for a change, so if you want to catch up with CBS' comedy lineup or shows like "Prison Break" and "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" on Fox, now's your chance.

If you aren't watching the Olympics, your options for new episodes include "The Closer" (TNT, 9 p.m.) and "Saving Grace" (TNT, 10 p.m.), "Weeds" (Showtime, 10 p.m.) and "The Middleman" (ABC Family, 10 p.m.)