‘Dish’ to dish on fashion, style

What do you do after seven seasons of “Boy Meets World”? Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga on that kids comedy, hosts a new quip-and-clip series called “The Dish” (9 p.m. today, Style). It’s no surprise that “Dish” comes from the folks who brought us “The Soup” on Style’s sister station, E! Look out for the soup-dish jokes. Can “The Tureen” be far behind?

Every week, “The Dish” will comment on clips from the world of fashion and style. In order for there to be clips, there have to be TV cameras running, so look for plenty of remarks and barbs to be directed at “Project Runway” and “America’s Next Top Model.” The lesson here is, if you can’t create a buzz-worthy reality show, make a show that adds to the buzz about other shows. So “The Dish” is to fashion what ESPN is to sports. Or is that E!SPN?

¢ In other fashion news, co-hosts Cameron Mathison (“All My Children”) and Debbie Matenopoulos accost perfect strangers in a shopping mall and entice them to enter an “Instant Beauty Pageant” (8 p.m. today, Style), proving again that some TV scenarios are a dream come true for some and a nightmare for others.

¢ “Chicago Mob Takedown” (8 p.m. Sunday, National Geographic) looks at a protracted war between the FBI and the Chicago underworld in the 1990s.

¢ Shows about teenagers come and go, but one thing remains: They often churn out stars. From “Gidget” to “Dawson’s Creek” to “Freaks and Geeks,” teen series have provided us with stars of box-office hits and Oscar-nominated dramas.

The British teen series “Skins” (8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Sunday, BBC America) may be too intense for some. But it will come as a bracing tonic for those who feared that shows like “Gossip Girl” were suffocating the genre with phony teen angst, product placement and manufactured buzz.

An appealing combination of Ashton Kutcher and Hugh Grant at their most charming, series lead Nicholas Hoult has a face and a presence to remember.

Let me repeat myself: “Skins” may be a bit too much for some, containing in its very first episode nudity, sex, obscenities galore and drug purchases, consumption, sales and possible overdose.

Today’s highlights

¢ Summer Olympics

(7 p.m., NBC) coverage includes swimming and track and field.

¢ Reese Witherspoon reprises her role in the 2003 sequel “Legally Blonde 2” (7 p.m., ABC).

¢ The team hunts for prehistoric spiders in London’s subway system on “Primeval” (8 p.m., BBC America).

¢ Scheduled on two installments of “48 Hours Mystery” (CBS): two murders in the Big Easy (8 p.m.), death in Palm Beach (9 p.m.).

¢ Eli has visions of an earthquake on “Eli Stone” (9 p.m., ABC).

Sunday’s highlights

¢ Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame; rape as a weapon in the Congo; a missing masterpiece by Leonardo Da Vinci.

¢ Summer Olympics (6 p.m., NBC) coverage includes gymnastics, track and field and women’s triathlon.

¢ A killer targets young students on “Inspector Lynley Mysteries” on “Masterpiece” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings).