Best Bets on TV Tonight

"The Academy Awards" (8 p.m., NBC): Jon Stewart hosts Hollywood's big bash in a difficult year. Because the Oscar field is riddled with under-the-radar, issue-oriented films, many viewers may be less inclined to stick around for the entire night. Here's some friendly advice for Stewart: Remember that your real audience is entrenched in living rooms across America, not there in the Kodak Theater. Oh yeah, and one more thing: Go easy on the gay cowboy jokes.
"Monkey Dust" (9 p.m., Sundance): This dark and twisted animated series for adults makes its way to our shores from the United Kingdom. The satirical show focuses on a "perpetual urban nightmare world inhabited by the sad, lonely and emotionally troubled." Hoo-boy, just what we need: more uplifting television.