Unnatural History

'Unnatural History' Where: Cartoon Network When: 8 p.m. Sunday Rating: TV-PG-V (may be unsuitable for young children, with an advisory for violence)

You who have been waiting for a teenage version of "The Prisoner" set inside a private high school, your wait is now ended. "Tower Prep," which premieres in the rather grown-up time slot of Tuesday at 8 p.m. ? it goes up against "NCIS" and "No Ordinary Family" ? is that show. It's the second straight-ahead live-action series for Cartoon Network and works as a kind of companion to "Unnatural History," the network's first straight-ahead live-action series, a kind of teenage Indiana Jones adventure set inside a private high school.

You who have been waiting for a teenage version of "The Prisoner" set inside a private high school, your wait is now ended. "Tower Prep," which premieres in the rather grown-up time slot of Tuesday at 8 p.m. ? it goes up against "NCIS" and "No Ordinary Family" ? is that show. It's the second straight-ahead live-action series for Cartoon Network and works as a kind of companion to "Unnatural History," the network's first straight-ahead live-action series, a kind of teenage Indiana Jones adventure set inside a private high school.

One minute, Ian Archer is playing an online fantasy game and complaining about being trapped in "jerkwater suburbia. " The next, he wakes up in an unfamiliar dorm room surrounded by three strangers wearing prep-school uniforms. Disoriented and scared, he demands to know, "Where am I?" The teenager (played by Drew Van Acker) has arrived at "Tower Prep," a mysterious academy for teens with special abilities — and the title of a new hourlong live action series premiering Oct. 19 on Cartoon Network.

Six little girls with pony tails and French curls are bopping up and down to Madonna's "Lucky Star" inside a makeshift television studio, their antics beamed onto a pair of monitors mounted on the wall above their heads. Between bops, they giggle and hug one another at the sheer deliciousness of starring in their very first music video. A clean-cut youth can't decide whether to watch a vintage concert clip of Jimi Hendrix or another, around the corner, of the Beatles.

SERIES Hell's Kitchen: The final two contestants go head-to-head before the winner is revealed in the season finale (8 p.m. Fox). Pretty Little Liars: This drama about teenage girls and the secrets they keep ends its freshman season (8 p.m. ABC Family). Unnatural History: The gang is on the trail of a stolen ruby in this new episode (8 p.m. Cartoon Network). America's Got Talent: Acts that submitted their auditions on YouTube get a live shot at impressing the judges in this new episode (9 p.m. NBC)

One minute, Ian Archer is playing an online fantasy game and complaining about being trapped in "jerkwater suburbia. " The next, he wakes up in an unfamiliar dorm room surrounded by three strangers wearing prep-school uniforms. Disoriented and scared, he demands to know, "Where am I?" The teenager (played by Drew Van Acker) has arrived at "Tower Prep," a mysterious academy for teens with special abilities — and the title of a new hourlong live action series premiering Oct. 19 on Cartoon Network.

Nothing is black and white about photographs except the effect of light on the film emulsion. Although filled with concrete details, photographs may exude intangible, between-the-lines emotions. They may show real people in settings or activities that are a figment of the photographer's imagination. The passage of time may expose their lies or deepen their mysteries--or both. At the UC Irvine Fine Arts Gallery through Feb.

Depending on the psychological baggage viewers bring with them, their reactions to sculptor Ron Pippin's provocative show at Burbank's Mythos Gallery may vary radically. At face value, Pippin's audacious yet weirdly elegant assemblages comport themselves with dark humor: They look like the innocent tinkerings of a gifted flea-market hound.

As its name implies, the Museum of Jurassic Technology is an oxymoron--a paradoxical, serious, silly mystery of a place. Solemnly, it serves up displays on a species of bat that can fly through solid objects, a mice-on-toast remedy for bed-wetting and a memory researcher who most likely never existed.

SERIES Hell's Kitchen: The final two contestants go head-to-head before the winner is revealed in the season finale (8 p.m. Fox). Pretty Little Liars: This drama about teenage girls and the secrets they keep ends its freshman season (8 p.m. ABC Family). Unnatural History: The gang is on the trail of a stolen ruby in this new episode (8 p.m. Cartoon Network). America's Got Talent: Acts that submitted their auditions on YouTube get a live shot at impressing the judges in this new episode (9 p.m. NBC)

'Unnatural History' Where: Cartoon Network When: 8 p.m. Sunday Rating: TV-PG-V (may be unsuitable for young children, with an advisory for violence)

The statistics are mind-numbing. Except for China's horrific Taipeng Rebellion of the 1860s, which killed 20 million, more people in the tropics died in the late-19th century from famine and famine-related epidemics than in all conventional warfare throughout that century--as many as 50 million--and millions more were debilitated by malnutrition worldwide.

Depending on the psychological baggage viewers bring with them, their reactions to sculptor Ron Pippin's provocative show at Burbank's Mythos Gallery may vary radically. At face value, Pippin's audacious yet weirdly elegant assemblages comport themselves with dark humor: They look like the innocent tinkerings of a gifted flea-market hound.

In Montana, where I live, an anti-government activist named Al Hamilton is in jail on charges stemming from an armed confrontation with a local deputy. Recently Hamilton went on a hunger strike, comparing himself to Gandhi. But the next evening he gave in to appetite and ate some pork chops. The next morning he had sausage and eggs (over easy). All this was reported joyously in the local press. See, the message was, these people are not serious.

As its name implies, the Museum of Jurassic Technology is an oxymoron--a paradoxical, serious, silly mystery of a place. Solemnly, it serves up displays on a species of bat that can fly through solid objects, a mice-on-toast remedy for bed-wetting and a memory researcher who most likely never existed.

In Montana, where I live, an anti-government activist named Al Hamilton is in jail on charges stemming from an armed confrontation with a local deputy. Recently Hamilton went on a hunger strike, comparing himself to Gandhi. But the next evening he gave in to appetite and ate some pork chops. The next morning he had sausage and eggs (over easy). All this was reported joyously in the local press. See, the message was, these people are not serious.

Nothing is black and white about photographs except the effect of light on the film emulsion. Although filled with concrete details, photographs may exude intangible, between-the-lines emotions. They may show real people in settings or activities that are a figment of the photographer's imagination. The passage of time may expose their lies or deepen their mysteries--or both. At the UC Irvine Fine Arts Gallery through Feb.