What ever happened to truth in packaging? The “Tuesday” part of the “Tuesday Night Book Club” (9 p.m., CBS) is legit, but the “Book Club” part is a real stretch.

This series purports to follow seven “real” women who meet every Tuesday at the home of a Scottsdale, Ariz., friend to discuss “books.” Their assignment in chapter one is to read, or at least peruse, a how-to tome about being “good in bed,” but this bevy of beauties is too dim, dense and shallow to wade through more than 20 pages. One confesses that she’s a “slow reader.”

So, with the formality of the “book” business out of the way, they get down to their favorite subjects: themselves, their “needs” and how their husbands can’t meet them. We’re told early on that Scottsdale is the divorce capital of America. Or at least Arizona. As if it were some kind of competitive sport.

Like a group of superheroes, every woman has a label. Tina, 46, is “The Divorced Mom.” She’s the eldest of the women and the den mother of the “book” club, and she is also called “beautiful” with great frequency. Lynn, 26, is “The Newlywed” who has nothing in common with her husband, who seems to be some kind of lifeguard or muscleman gone to seed.

Kirin, 31, is “The Doctor’s Wife” with two kids. She cries a lot because she’s married to a man as cold as a refrigerated stethoscope. Jamie, 25, is “The Conflicted Wife.” She’s married to her high-school sweetheart and worries that she’s never had time for “Me.”

Jenn, 38, “The Trophy Wife,” has a full-time job of working out, shopping and bragging to her friends about the fabulousness of her lifestyle. Chris, 39, “The Loyal Wife,” is the only woman here not totally absorbed with herself. But she’s too busy dealing with her recovering-drug-addict husband.

Sara, 26, “The Party Girl,” has never been married and has yet to embark on a career that doesn’t involve drinking and sunbathing.

Clearly a cheap and dirty knockoff of “Desperate Housewives,” this series is far too stupid to pass as satire. In fact, it pales in comparison with Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Orange County.” At least that saga of botox, adultery and siliconed souls had some cringe value. “Tuesdays” is merely sad.

¢ “Independent Lens” (9 p.m., PBS, check local listings) presents “The Real Dirt on Farmer John,” a documentary look at a flamboyantly artistic Illinois man whose story encapsulates the life and death of the small family farm as well as some revolutionary innovations that may save vanishing rural homesteads and bring urban and suburban consumers back in touch with the food they eat.

Other highlights

¢ Few clues remain behind at a missing Marine’s camp site on “NCIS” (7 p.m., CBS).

¢ On back-to-back episodes of “House” (Fox), a handyman’s fingers change color (7 p.m.), a would-be martyr (8 p.m.).

¢ An Australian couple awaits their second set of quadruplets on “Multiple Miracles” (7 p.m., Discovery Health).

¢ The team goes undercover at a Middle Eastern embassy on “The Unit” (8 p.m., CBS).

¢ Game three of the NBA Finals (8 p.m., ABC).

¢ The dark side of the “peace and love” counterculture emerges on part two of “The Drug Years” (8 p.m., VH1).