TV Party for Monday, June 20th

Tonight at 8 is a special treat for any of you train fanatics out there – and you know who you are. Tacoma’s Public Television station KBTC brings you 90 minutes of steam train glory with “Hear That Train A Comin’”. The Union Pacific Challenger steam train is followed on a trip across the Great Plains. Included in the show are interviews with railroad workers and a visit to vintage roundhouse switching stations in Cheyenne, Wyo., that employ multiple generations of mechanics. The show promises some wonderful scenery and all the steam a train junkie can handle.

If trains aren’t your thing, perhaps you’d rather watch the 100th episode of Fear Factor on NBC. Set in New York, tonight’s episode – a repeat from last November – features contestants attempting to grab a flag from the bottom of the Roosevelt Island tram as it traverses the East River, dine on rat stew served up in Times Square and perform an aerial stunt dangling from helicopters near the Statue of Liberty. The champion, as always, is awarded $50,000 and free use of a stomach pump.

At 9 head over to the Travel Channel for two hours with Michael Palin. Michael’s new gig, since his Monty Python mates are all doing movies and writing hit Broadway shows, is travel documentaries. And I must say, I think he’s got the best job of the bunch: he gets to visit exotic parts of the world that the rest of us only dream about, and he gets paid for it. His latest work is Himalaya. In Himalaya, Michael visits the Earth's greatest mountain range - 1800 miles from the borders of Afghanistan to southwest China. He's covered none of this ground in his previous shows, let alone milked a dri, washed an elephant or swum at 14,000 feet...

Tonight the Travel channel is airing two episodes, “North by Northwest” at 9, where Michael travels from the historic Khyber Pass overlooking Afghanistan to Peshawar by steam train. After a morning with a street dentist, Michael walks the streets of Darra to the rattle of AK 47s, then heads north for a polo match played over two miles above sea level.

In the second episode, “A Passage to India” at 10, we visit Concordia, where K2 sparkles at dizzying heights second only to Everest. The Karakoram Highway crosses into India and through Amritsar, Simla, and Srinagar in troubled Kashmir. A visit to Dharamasala includes an audience with the Dalai Lama. You’ll have to tune in to see if Michael comes out of that one with a “Free Tibet” bumpersticker.

That’s your TV Party for Monday June 20th, I’m Scott Chicken.