"...and then I told him 'Everyone Loves Raymond' didn't suck!"

Men of a Certain Age (TNT) — Season 2 finale. I watched part of last week’s episode, and I really liked what little I watched, because the only leads in the scene were Scott Bakula and Andre Braugher. Any TV watching experience without Ray Romano has the potential to be good.

Behind the Music: Ice Cube (VH1) — Yes, believe it or not, Ice Cube was once a musician.

Franklin & Bash (TNT) — Jason Alexander guest stars tonight. Solely because of Danger Guerrero’s initial recap of this show two weeks ago, I watched last week’s less bro-tastic episode — and I liked it. It’s strange, because I generally hate lawyer shows and Breckin Meyer, but I actually laughed a couple times and genuinely enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek tone of the show. And no, I’m not proud of myself. (NOTE: Sorry, no recap tomorrow.)

Flipping Out (Bravo) — Season 5 premiere. This is the show with Jeff Lewis, the OCD A-hole with a complete absence of human courtesy. Easily one of the top five punchable faces on TV.

Necessary Roughness (USA) — Whoops, this premiered last week without me saying anything about it. Anyway, this stars Callie Thorne (“Rescue Me,” “The Wire”) as the therapist for a pro football team. Certainly a better idea than the movie, but from what I understand the TV show doesn’t feature Kathy Ireland showering.

About three weeks ago, Ice Cube went on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” to promote TBS’s “Are We There Yet?,” a sad reminder that his closest counterpart in Hollywood is probably Tyler Perry. God, that’s depressing. Speaking as a white man who enjoys angry rap songs about inner-city violence, that chips away at my very soul.

HOWEVER. Before the show taped, Cube performed “Straight Outta Compton” with the Roots (video above, direct link here), which was caught on a digital video recorder. NBC has mixed the video with better audio and will show the performance when the episode re-airs next week. Check it:

“Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” is upping the ante by bringing a rocking, never-before-seen-on-TV performance to a previously aired episode. On Wednesday, July 7th, Show #0257 will re-air with brand new footage of lead guest Ice Cube hitting the stage with “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” house band The Roots.

“This is the perfect example of how much fun our show is, even when the cameras aren’t rolling.” said Late Night host Jimmy Fallon. “Ice Cube and The Roots put on an awesome show for our studio audience that night and I’m so excited we now get the chance to show it to everyone else.”

Watch Ice Cube in that video. It’s awesome; there’s nothing remotely ironic about it. He’s even dressed like he used to dress in N.W.A. — and that makes it even sadder that he’s doing pratfalls and getting hit in the nuts in children’s comedies. Oh, Cube… I wish you still used your AK.

Lost (ABC) — I actually almost forgot about “Lost” — that’s how little I cared about last week’s episode. I mean, not that “Lost” has ever been beholden to Newtonian physics, but if a hole gets blown in a submerged submarine, you can’t just swim out the hole. There’s the little issue of thousands of gallons of (very heavy) water flowing in through the hole that prevent that from happening. Anyway, there are spoofs about the end of the series at Atom and Babelgum. [GIF via]

30 for 30: Straight Outta L.A. (ESPN) — Ice Cube directed this documentary about the Raiders’ 1982 move to Los Angeles and how the nascent gangsta rap culture adopted the Silver & Black as its own. More at FilmDrunk.

The Biggest Loser (NBC) — Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo makes an appearance to motivate the disgusting lardbuckets. “Please, guys,” he pleads with the contestants, “you need to take better care of your body than Jessica Simpson did after I dumped her.”

NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS) — It’s like “NCIS,” but Los Angeles-ier.

American Idol (Fox) — Jamie Foxx serves as the mentor the final four, not that anyone in America cares. “Naw, see, you’re tryin’ too hard. Here, listen to this –” *cranks ‘Blame it on the Alcohol’* — “See? You just let Auto-Tune do the work.”

Glee (Fox) — Ever since “Community” took a potshot at “Glee” last week, people have been pointing out a growing backlash against “Glee.” I’m okay with that.

Little Chocolatiers (TLC) — Preceded by “19 Kids and Counting,” thereby checking TLC’s required minimum of predictably exploitative shows.

TBS has picked up Ice Cube’s Are We There Yet? and will make it into a television series.  In case you don’t remember, Are We There Yet? is NOT Ice Cube’s landmark 1992 rap album.  That would be The Predator.  No, Are We There Yet? is this steaming pile of liquid feces.  And while Cube won’t star in the show, we can still hold him responsible as a producer.

Instead [of Ice Cube], Terry Crews, who earned raves as the father in “Everybody Hates Chris,” will reunite with [writer Ali] LeRoi to star in the new show as Nick, a single man who starts dating a young divorcee with two kids.  In the 2005 movie, Nick takes the kids on a road trip to see their mother – and winds up clashing with them the entire way…

“Are We There Yet?” wound up at TBS after intense bidding, with cablers such as USA Network and BET also in the running.  [Variety]

An intense bidding war for low-grade slapstick.  Sigh.  I suppose Ice Cube deserves to do with his career whatever he pleases, but damn.  I kind of hoped for more from the founding member of N.W.A. whose definition of a good day included not having to use his assault rifle.