As I am prone to do, I was wandering around the Web over the weekend and came across a great tool to find out what's playing on TV. No, it's not TV Guide. Although now that I've mentioned TV Guide, I have an excuse to post this.

Best. TV Guide. Cover. Ever. Pictures like that are why I continue to buy TV Guide even though its channel listings are too small to read.

With LocateTV, which launched its public Beta version in October, my aging vision is not a problem. And it's a lot of fun to play with. The site describes itself well:

"The idea behind LocateTV is simple — to let you find TV shows available where you live in the world, be they on broadcast TV, online or on recorded media (DVD, HD-DVD etc)."

You can search by title, actor or category — sort of like TiVo, but free. I was in the mood for Jodie yesterday (as if I'm not always in the mood for Jodie) so I entered "Jodie Foster." Um, I mean I put her name in the search box. Her directorial debut, Little Man Tate, was showing at 3:15 p.m. CST on Encore.

Even better, I learned that The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, an early Foster film that I don't remember seeing, is on at 3 a.m. Wednesday on TCM. Recorder set.

Happen to have a Jodie Foster site and want to alert your readers about upcoming TV appearances? Just click "embed" and voila! A widget.

The widgets update with the schedule, so you know which episode of your favorite series is coming up. Next L Word?

Oh, wait — an excuse to post an L Word picture. Just pretend Papi isn't there.

So far, the online links go only to paid downloads, but streaming sites (the legal ones) are on their way. Genre searches could use some work — a search for Christmas shows got mixed results. Right now, only three countries are represented, but that will expand in the future. You can keep up with upgrades on the LocateTV blog.

As the networks run out of new episodes as a result of the writers' strike, LocateTV will be especially useful. I'm keeping tabs on Gossip Girl, so I can start from the beginning and eventually catch up with all the cool lesbians.

What about you? What shows are you glad to find? Any interesting search results?