Tonight's TV Hot List for Thursday, April 9, 2009

MLB Baseball
7 pm/ET MLB
It may be last to the cable-channel party among the major American sports, but MLB Network has gained many fans after three months of off-season and preseason fare. The main course arrived this week with regular-season coverage, headlined by tonight's launch of Thursday Night Baseball in San Francisco. Sixteen different teams are showcased in the first eight games on the schedule, with veteran voices such as Bob Costas, Jim Kaat, Joe Magrane, Harold Reynolds and Matt Vasgersian in the booth. —Roger Leister
Parks and Recreation
8:30 pm/ET NBC
From The Office masterminds comes this new mockumentary following the not-so-glamorous lives of local government workers in Pawnee, Ind. Amy Poehler stars as Leslie Knope, a mid-level bureaucrat who dreams of becoming the first female president of the United States. In the opener, she decides to help a nurse (Rashida Jones) turn an abandoned construction pit into a community park. It should be a fairly simple project, but accurately enough, navigating local bureaucracy proves to be a pain in the you-know-what. —Karen AndZejewicz
Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire
10 pm/ET Comedy Central
A long time ago in a land far, far away, only one man can rally the forces of good to fight the powers of evil. But since he's not currently available, Krod Mandoon will have to do. This new sword-and-sorcerer spoof follows reluctant hero Mandoon (Sean Maguire) as he leads the resistance against the diabolical Chancellor Dongalor (Little Britain's Matt Lucas), who, in tonight's premiere, reveals his plot to bend the world to his will with help from a sinister weapon of mass destruction. —Joe Friedrich
Harper's Island
10:02 pm/ET CBS
The concept for this ambitious 13-week mystery thriller is straight out of Agatha Christie, with a suspect list (25) that more than doubles the number in the Queen of Crime's Ten Little Indians. Here, a wedding party gathers on an isolated island where multiple murders occurred seven years earlier. And, one-by-one, the well-wishers are killed off. The promising premiere gets a bit bogged down in having to introduce the 25 characters-suspects, but it's bookended with jolting deaths that will likely leave mystery lovers eager for even more bloodshed. —Tim Holland
Southland
10 pm/ET NBC
Benjamin McKenzie of The O.C. returns to series television tonight as Los Angeles rookie cop Ben Sherman in a police drama exec-produced by ER's John Wells. Sherman's future with the force depends on a good evaluation from his partner (Michael Cudlitz), who is, of course, a tough veteran with his own way of bringing down the bad guys. When a bust gets out of control, Sherman has to act on instinct and hopes that his partner won't judge him too harshly. Otherwise, his first day could be his last. —Rhoda Charles