Another part of TV history is changing.

The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, which just had its 45th annual show last month, has announced that starting next year the show will no longer be 21 hours long. Instead, the show will change to a six-hour primetime special format.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

It's hard to say how we should feel about this. On one hand, the telethon is a unique kind of television that they don't anymore, an annual show that runs over two days and is live and has both a strong national and local focus. On the other hand, they don't do telethons like this for other causes, and it seems like this is a relic of a TV era that has gone by (for better or worse).

This is the time of year when kids go back to school (maybe it happened a couple of weeks ago where you live or this week in other parts of the country), and Staples has pulled their classic "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" ad out of storage. This is one of my favorite commercials.

By the way, this was first run in 1994. Which means that the kids in the ad are probably out of college by now. You are old.

• ABC has a Castle marathon all night.
• At 7, ESPN2 has more U.S. Open coverage.
• At 8, ABC Family has a new Secret Life of the American Teenager, then a new Greek.
• ESPN has College Football at 8, Miami vs. Florida State.
• BBC America has a new Top Gear at 8.
• At 9, PBS has a new History Detectives.
• USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 9.
• There's a new Unwrapped on Food Network at 9.
• At 10, TLC has a new Ultimate Cake-Off.
• Food Network has a new Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives at 10.
• Travel Channel has a new Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations at 10.
• A&E has a new Hoarders at 10.
• Also at 10: E! has a new The Soup Presents.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

When I was a kid, watching The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon on Labor Day was a must. It was just fun to have this all day, all night, live event happening every September. One year I even stayed up all night watching it (the next morning I knew it wasn't worth it).

The show isn't looked at as "hip" anymore (if it ever was), but along with the older showbiz vets we always see there are some new acts mixed in too. Are you going to watch it?

Ah, Labor Day. Isn't it great to have the summer over (yes, I consider Labor Day as the end of summer) and the new TV season about to begin?

Here's a list of the various marathons, specials, and sports that you can see on Sunday and Monday. Let us know if we've missed anything.

Sunday

• At 8 AM, Hallmark has a Golden Girls marathon.
• At 9, USA has a Law and Order: SVU marathon.
• At 10, WE has a marathon of Girlfriends episodes.
• At 10:30, TV Land has a Beverly Hillbillies marathon.
• At 11, CBS has U.S. Open coverage.
• At 1 PM, Discovery has a Planet Earth marathon.
• Bravo has a Top Chef: Las Vegas marathon at 1.
• At 3, Spike has a Band of Brothers marathon.
• NBC has the Deutsche Bank Golf Championship at 3.
• At 5, TV Land has an Andy Griffith Show marathon.
• At 9, it's the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon (check local listings).

Well, it looks like I'm going to have to eat a little crow from one of my previous posts. The Jerry Lewis telethon made a whopping 65 million dollars this year for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Obviously, people are still watching.

Apparently, the show also pitched help for any MDA-registered families that are victims of Hurricane Gustav. It's a good idea and a brilliant P.R. move by Lewis and company. It did get me thinking: why should all that money only benefit those with muscular dystrophy? Why can't next year's donations go towards fighting cancer or some other charity?

• The news channels and CSPAN have coverage of the Republican National Convention all night (the major networks join in at 10).
• Hallmark Channel has a Murder, She Wrote marathon all night.
• At 7, USA has more U.S. Open (switches to CNBC and Tennis Channel at 9).
  
• At 8, FOX has the two hour season premiere of Prison Break.
• ABC has a new High School Musical: Get in the Picture at 8.
• There's a new Deal Or No Deal on NBC at 8, followed by a new America's Toughest Jobs.
• The CW has the season premiere of Gossip Girl at 8, then the season premiere of One Tree Hill.
• At 8:30, Food Network has a new How'd That Get On My Plate?, then a new Unwrapped.
• At 9, TNT has a new episode of The Closer, followed by the series premiere of Raising the Bar.
• USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 9.
• At 10, ABC Family has a new episode of The Middleman.
• Discovery has a new Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein at 10.
• MTV has a new episode of The Hills at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Labor Day marks the end of summer (yeah, don't tell me summer ends later in September, if it's Labor Day and the kids are back in school, summer is over), and you could spend the weekend at the beach, having a barbecue, or doing something athletic outside. Or, you could stay in all weekend on your couch and watch a TV marathon! Here's a list of some marathons you can see this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Saturday, August 30

• At 6am, TCM starts a marathon of Katharine Hepburn movies.
• At 7, History Channel has a marathon of Ax Men.
• At 9, USA has a Starter Wife marathon.
• Also at 9, Sci-Fi has a marathon of monster movies, including Carnosaur, Reptilian, Beneath Loch Ness, Eye of the Beast, King of the Lost World, and Black Swarm.
• At 10, Bravo has a Shear Genius marathon.
• At 11, History Channel has a bunch of Ice Road Truckers episodes.
• At 11:30, Discovery Kids has a marathon of Flight 29 Down episodes.
• At 2pm, Spike has a CSI marathon.