Two Tivos To Paradise 09.16.10: Emmy Preview Edition - Mad Men, Game of Thrones, The Office, Justified, Boardwalk Empire

Posted by Al Norton on 09.16.2011

Can Mad Men win a fourth consecutive Emmy this weekend? 411's Al Norton gives a full preview of the awards show! Plus news and thoughts on the return of Modern Family and Glee, a Sex and the City prequel in the works and more!



Hello friends. Summer is definitely over – it was supposed to drop down to the 40's last night in Boston – and that means we are on the cusp of the best sports periods of the year; we'll have the MLB playoffs, the NFL regular season, college football, and the puck dropping on the NHL season is not far off, either. Something for everyone!

Some embarrassing news to report; due to mechanical failure I lost multiple interviews that were scheduled to run this past week, one of which was kind of a biggie; sadly, I will not be able to share my conversation with Hulk Hogan with you. It was one of the highlights of my writing career to get 15 minutes on the phone with him but a faulty recording device meant all that got preserved was my voice. Sons of Anarchy's Ryan Hurst may not be as big a star but he is one of the more genuine, down to earth folks I've had the pleasure of talking with and I am disappointed that I can't bring you my interview with him, either. I also lost highly entertaining chats with the winners of The Glee Project. I do believe I've got everything fixed now, which is why next week you'll be reading one-on-ones with Unforgettable star Daya Vaidaya (Monday), Biggest Loser host Alison Sweeney (Tuesday), and Revenge's Connor Paolo (Wednesday).

No trailers in the cold open this week as there are a ton below but here is the most entertaining video I watched recently…





And if that wasn't enough…





Sometimes it lasts in news but sometimes it hurts instead.

All The Gold In California Is In A Bank In The Middle Of Beverly Hills In Somebody Else's Name
The 63rd Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards take place this Sunday night at 8pm on Fox, host by Jane Lynch. What follows is a list of nominees in the major categories, along with my picks for who should and will win. Please note, this is not necessarily who I would have voted for given a blank ballot (see July's Norty Awards column for that list) but rather who I would choose given this set of nominees.

First, here's a look at some of the winners from last weekend's Creative Arts Emmys:

*Justin Timberlake, Best Guest Actor Comedy (SNL)
*Gwyneth Paltrow, Best Guest Actress Comedy (Glee)
*Paul McCrane, Best Guest Actor Drama (Harry's Law)
*Loretta Devine, Best Guest Actress Drama (Grey's Anatomy)
*Deadliest Catch, Best Reality Program
*Top Chef, Best Reality Program Competition
*Futurama, Best Animated Program
*Jeff Probst, Best Reality Program Host
*Glee, Best Casting Comedy
*Boardwalk Empire, Best Casting Drama

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY

Ty Burrell, Modern Family; Chris Colfer, Glee; Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men; Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family; Ed O'Neill, Modern Family; Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family;

Should Win: Chris Colfer, Glee

Will Win: Chris Colfer, Glee

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY

Julie Bowen, Modern Family; Jane Lynch, Glee, Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock; Sofia Vergara, Modern Family; Betty White, Hot In Cleveland; Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live

Should Win: Jane Lynch, Glee

Will Win: Jane Lynch, Glee

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA

Andre Braugher, Men of a Certain Age; Josh Charles, The Good Wife; Alan Cumming, The Good Wife; Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones; Walton Goggins, Justified; John Slatter, Mad Men;

Should Win: Walton Goggins, Justified

Will Win: Alan Cumming, The Good Wife

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA

Christine Baranski, The Killing; Christina Hendricks, Mad Men; Margo Martindale, Justified; Kelly McDonald, Boardwalk Empire; Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife

Should Win: Margo Martindale, Justified

Will Win: Margo Martindale, Justified

BEST LEAD ACTOR, COMEDY

Alex Baldwin, 30 Rock; Louis C.K., Louie; Steve Carell, The Office; Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory; Matt LeBlanc, Episodes; Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Should Win: Steve Carell, The Office

Will Win: Steve Carell, The Office

BEST LEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY

Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie; Tina Fey, 30 Rock; Laura Linney, The Big C; Melissa McCarthy, Mike and Molly; Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope; Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation;

Should Win: Laura Linney, The Big C

Will Win: Laura Linney, The Big C

BEST LEAD ACTOR, DRAMA

Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire; Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights; Michael C Hall, Dexter; Jon Hamm, Mad Men; Hugh Laurie, House; Timothy Olyphant, Justified

Should Win: Jon Hamm, Mad Men

Will Win: Jon Hamm, Mad Men

BEST LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA

Kathy Bates, Harry's Law; Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights; Mireille Enos, The Killing; Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU; Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife; Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men;

Should Win: Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men

Will Win: Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife


BEST VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SERIES

The Colbert Report, Conan, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Real Time with Bill Maher, Saturday Night Live

Should Win: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Will Win: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart


BEST SERIES, COMEDY

30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, Glee, Modern Family, The Office, Parks and Recreation

Should Win: Parks and Recreation

Will Win: Modern Family

BEST SERIES, DRAMA

Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Friday Night Lights, Game of Thrones, The Good Wife, Mad Men

Should Win: Mad Men

Will Win: Game of Thrones

Obviously there will be upsets, so check back here next Friday for a full rundown of winners and losers as well as our take on the ceremony itself.

In Daylight, In Sunsets, In Midnights, In Cups Of Coffee
The new fall season of TV is here! Starting this week we'll use this feature to let you know which favorites return and which series debut over the next seven days, with a little commentary on the new shows thrown in. Shows with an "*" are making their television premieres.

MONDAY, 9/19
Dancing with the Stars (8pm, ABC)
A new group of pseudo-celebrities hoof it up for big ratings.

How I Met Your Mother (8pm, CBS)
Will we finally meet the Mom? Sure, there are other questions, but isn't that the real biggie?

The Sing Off (8pm, NBC)
One of the few truly unique singing competitions on TV returns for a third season, this one expanded to a full run (the first two were for one month only).





Two and a Half Men (9pm, CBS)
There will be HUGE ratings for the season premiere, and maybe even for a week or two later, but the real test will be what it pulls in come late October.

Two Broke Girls* (9:30pm, CBS)
This to me is the Emperor's New Clothes of the fall season, a show many others seem to like that to me seems oh so very forced, with an annoying laugh track and crude sexual jokes masquerading as clever humor. The lead is talented but this is not the best vehicle for her talents. This is not to say it won't be a hit, just that it's simply not very good.




Castle (10pm, ABC)
Nathan Fillion finally has a hit, and with reruns of the first two seasons hitting TNT this month, I expect the Castle fan base to keep expanding.

Hawaii 5-0 (10pm, CBS)
The most watched new drama of last season is back with Terry O'Quinn on board. I predict bigger ratings for season two as non-CBS regulars realize this show is pretty dang good.

The Playboy Club* (10pm, NBC)
Tough to imagine that a show taking place at The Playboy Club could be bland but that's the case here. Everything looks good but that surface level is as far as the show goes.




TUESDAY, 9/20
The Biggest Loser (8pm, NBC)
Changes this year include teams broken down by age groups and former tennis star Anna Kournikova joining on as a new trainer.

Glee (8pm, Fox)
After a wildly uneven second season the show returns with a pledged commitment to story and to storylines more evenly spread out throughout the cast. We shall see…

NCIS (8pm, CBS)
The single most watched scripted series on TV shows no signs of slowing down. Mark Harmon is a God.

NCIS: Los Angeles (9pm, CBS)
I may not watch NCIS: LA but I like living in a world where Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J have jobs.

New Girl* (9pm, Fox)
It's hard for a show getting this much buzz to live up to it but New Girl does that and then some. Certainly the most charming new show of the season and one that actually fits quite well with Raising Hope.




Raising Hope (9:30pm, Fox)
A highly entertaining half hour of comedy is back to show the world that season one was no fluke. I adore Raising Hope.

Body of Proof (10pm, ABC)
Last year's most surprising hit show is back to solve cases in ways that stretch credibility even by today's TV procedural standards, and that's saying something.

Unforgettable* (10pm, CBS)
I can't say that I loved Unforgettable but I liked it a heck of a lot more than I thought I would. Sure, I wish every show didn't have to have some big mystery about someone's past, and TV hardly needs another show where teams of people solve crimes, but the cast is very good and the cinematic device they use to show the lead character's brain working is different. I have set my Tivo to tape the next couple of episodes to see where it goes.




WEDNESDAY, 9/11
The Middle (8pm, ABC)
People finally seem to be catching on to just how funny The Middle is. Perhaps TV's most realistic portrayal of the middle class right now.

The X Factor* (8pm, Fox)
Huge ratings, I'm sure, but I don't know that I have another 3-4 hours a week to commit to a singing show, especially when two more will be on in January. But again, HUGE ratings.





Criminal Minds (9pm, CBS)
There are still more serial killers to catch?!?!?

Harry's Law (9pm, NBC)
Big changes at Harry's Law, including new cast members and a new location as well. The transition is sort of abrupt (how exactly did all of this happen?!?!) but the show is actually a little better than last year, inching closer to Boston Legal in tone and content.

Modern Family (9pm, ABC)
One of the best comedies on TV is back for another season and I see no reason to think they will do anything but continue to produce high quality laughs.

CSI (10pm, CBS)
There's a new face at the top, with Ted Danson replacing Laurence Fishburne as the man in charge of the team. Danson is one of the better TV actors of the last 25 years (Cheers, Becker, Curb, Damages, Bored to Death) and will be an interesting change of pace. Smart move for a show that has been on 10+ years.

Law & Order: SVU (10pm, NBC)
Speaking of big changes, SVU has two new leads and a new showrunner. They are pulling out all the stops to make sure they don't lose anyone now that Stabler is gone, bringing back some familiar faces for guest roles. I can't imagine the show is going to be that much different but perhaps some new blood will add life to what was becoming a pretty stale formula.

Revenge* (10pm, ABC)
A great looking show that is better than you'd think from ABC's ad campaign, which is pitching it as soapy guilty pleasure. Not saying it's not, just that there is some interesting stuff here about the way different classes interact with each other. I'm on board for now.





THURSDAY, 9/22
The Big Bang Theory (8pm, CBS)
The most popular show on TV that I simply don't get. Oh well, it does well without me, so more power to them.

Charlie's Angels (8pm, ABC)
Everybody looks great. That's the best thing I have to say about Charlie's Angels, which I predict won't last through the end of 2011.





Community (8pm, NBC)
I asked Joel McHale for five words to describe the season premiere. He gave me, "Poison. Dancing. Goodman. Violence. Pop pop." What more could I possibly add?

Parks and Recreation (8:30pm, NBC)
I don't know if Parks can match last year's incredibly high quality but with this cast and writing staff I am certainly not betting against it.

Grey's Anatomy (9pm, ABC)
A big transition season for Seattle Grace as several members of the original cast have contracts that expire next spring, meaning May sweeps could be very, very eventful.

The Office (9pm, NBC)
The first full Michael Scott-free season begins. These episodes have to be funnier than the ones last spring after he left, right? Right?!?! James Spader is a huge step in the right direction; all hail Robert California.

Person of Interest* (9pm, CBS)
I am not sure how good Person of Interest is – the pilot is a mix of unique and generic – but the cast will keep me coming back for at least a few weeks until I can make the decision for myself.





Whitney* (9:30pm, NBC)
How someone as funny as Whitney Cummings can be responsible for two such funny shows in the same season (she also created Two Broke Girls) is beyond me but it demonstrates that TV doesn't really know how to package a funny woman properly. What few laughs there are in the pilot are so obvious that they shouldn't count.





The Mentalist (10pm, CBS)
Fans whose jaws dropped during the final moments of the season finale will be anxious to see where the show goes from here. Producers have promised that last spring wasn't a fake out, and the fallout from what happened will be very real.

Prime Suspect (10pm, NBC)
Maria Bello is a great TV presence and it's kind of fun to see the one-person-against-the-world formula after procedurals have embraced the team concept the last few years. Worth watching, for sure, although it needs to get better to earn a season pass.





Sunny Day, Sweepin' The Clouds Away, On My Way To Where The Air Is Sweet
The Sesame Street video of the week…





But You Were Up To Your Old Tricks In Chapters Four Five And Six
All you need to know about the Nielsen's for the past 7 days…

THURSDAY
A little over 31 million people over 11 networks watched President Obama's speech on the job market. Despite airing at 7pm (Presidential speeches usually air at 8pm) it still outdrew his addresses to the country on Libya (March, 2011) and Iraq (August, 2010). Fox News' 3.4 million audience was the single best showing for a network carrying the speech…The Saints-Packers game may have been down 3% from last year but it dominated the night and put up the second best numbers ever for the first NFL game of the season…

SUNDAY
The Cowboys-Jets game was the most watched ever for NBC's Sunday Night Football and the top rated first primetime Sunday or Monday game of the season in 15 years…The NFL Network pregame show NFL GameDay Morning was up 29% from the opening Sunday last season…The Entourage series finale hit a season high in total viewers…Curb Your Enthusiasm had their strongest season finale since 2004…

MONDAY
ESPN's Monday Night Football dominated the night, although the numbers were down 2% from last year's kickoff doubleheader…Using live + same day numbers (people who watched the episode either live or on Monday using DVR technology), the totals for the summer finale of The Closer were 6.2 million strong…3.6 million tuned into the Republic Debate on CNN…

TUESDAY
Last Tuesday's season finale of Flipping Out was the top rated episode in series history, with lead-out The Rachel Zoe Project posting its best season premiere numbers ever…Ringer premiered solidly, improving on its 90210 lead-in by 62% in total viewers and 50% in the demos and giving The CW its best Tuesday at 9pm showing since September of 2009…90201 returned to match the numbers from its spring season finale…Parenthood was down 15% in the demos from last year's premiere but it did have their largest total viewer audience since last year's premiere…AGT was up 16% from last week to post its best numbers in 8 weeks…

WEDNESDAY
Last Wednesday's 10:30pm episode of Storage Wars was watched by 5.3 million viewers, making it not only the most watched episode in series history but the most watched original telecast in A&E history. The back-to-back episodes airing at 10pm gave the network the timeslot demo win for all of TV for the seventh week in a row…Last Wednesday was clearly a big night for reality TV as Lifetime's Dance Moms hit a season/series high in total viewers and demos, the ladder numbers being up 35% week-to-week…Up All Night benefitted from strong reviews and the AGT finale as its lead-in and posted the night's top demos. The news was not as good for lead-out Free Agents, which lost close to 50% of those demos…The Big Brother finale matched last year's… AGT was down 5% from its previous cycle finale…. Survivor opened better than last spring but down from last fall…ANTM was down 33% in totals and 29% in target demos for the previous premiere.

All The Young Dudes, Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors…Andy Whitfield passed away at age 39 after an 18 month battle with cancer. Whitfield starred as the title character in the first season of Starz' record breaking original series Spartacus: Blood and Sand…USA picked up 16 episode new seasons of Necessary Roughness (2nd), Covert Affairs (3rd), and Royal Pains (4th)...Sarah Chalke (Scrubs, Mad Love) will appear over the course of the upcoming season of Cougar Town as Bobby's new love interest…Vincent D'Onofrio and Ethan Hawke will star in Blue Tilt, a police procedural pilot for NBC from Chris Brancato, whose last gig was as showrunner for the final season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The two will play New York City homicide detectives trying to juggle the stress of the job with their personal lives….NBC has won a bidding war for a new comedy executive produced by Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. Written by Samantha Who? co-creator Don Todd, the show is about the fierce rivalry between two sister, one of who will be played by de Rossi… Regis Philbin's first post-Live! With Regis and Kelly project is a reality show called This Week with Regis, following him around his everyday life. No network is attached yet – the pilot hasn't been completed – but he has already shot footage…Laura Innes (The Event, ER) has landed a big role on NBC's upcoming Awake…William Shatner will guest star on the season premiere of Rookie Blue next summer…Lifetime cancelled The Protector..ABC is developing The Lockharts, a drama about a family singing group with a variety show in the 1970's with a framing device about the modern day disappearance of the Mom of the family…ABC has an adaptation of Candace Bushnell's (Sex and the City) novel One Fifth in the works…Bachelor host Chris Harrison will be getting more ABC face time as the host of the network's new game show You Deserve It…Bill Lawrence (Cougar Town, Scrubs) sold his second pilot of the season, this one a Father-Son comedy to Fox…McG's Wonderland Sound and Vision production company has five pilots with networks this season; House Calls (ABC, successful doctor has personal scandal and quits hospital job to practice concierge medicine), Game On (Fox, two best friends who, unbeknownst to each other, work as spies for rival agencies), Convergence (Fox, after his life in the big city falls apart, professor moves family from to wife's small town only to find out it's a place where real miracles happen), Hustle (The CW, five young people from different walks of life but who are experts at what they do are recruited to join FBI undercover task force aimed at stopping crime among young people), and Untitled International Drama (NBC, US Ambassador to a small Eastern European country where there is much unrest)…ABC has ordered a pilot for the Jim Belushi-starring You Won't Even Know I'm Here, a comedy executive produced by Diane English…Directors lined up for season two of Game of Thrones include Neil Marshall (The Descent), Alan Taylor, David Nutter, Alik Sakharov, and David Petrarca…NBC is developing Easy Rawlins, a private eye drama adapted from Walter Mosley's series of novels. Mosley will co-write the pilot along with Southland's co-executive producer Cheo Coker, and the project comes from John Wells' (ER, The West Wing, Southland, Shameless) production company. One of the novels in the Easy Rawlins' series (there were 11 of them) was made into the 1995 movie Devil in a Blue Dress, which starred Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle…TBS has ordered a comedy pilot from Conan O'Brien's production company about a husband and father who quits his job and moves back to the neighborhood where he grew up…Jenna Bans and Shonda Rhimes, who teamed up for ABC's Off the Map, have sold a legal drama to ABC about a young lawyer who starts his own firm while realizing he was fired from his old one because he may have unwittingly stumbled onto a cover up…The CW has officially ordered a pilot for The Carrie Diaries, a Sex and the City prequel that Josh Schwartz & Stephanie Savage, the team behind Gossip Girl, will executive produce…TNT is developing Tom Clancy's Homeland Security, with the bestselling author on board as a write and executive producer. Mike Ovitz is also an executive producer…Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' first interview since she was shot last year will be with Diane Sawyer on an ABC special on November 15th…CBS picked up a 14th cycle of Big Brother for next summer…ABC has ordered a pilot for the comedy Walk of Shame, co-written by Happy Endings star Casey Wilson…John Lee Hancock, who wrote and directed The Blind Side, is working on a crime drama for ABC…CBS is working on a modern day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. I will go on record as saying there is no way this project is anywhere near as good as the recent PBS series…Greg Walker, who was showrunner for Without a Trace and The Defenders, has a new crime drama at CBS; Red on Red is based on the novel of the same name and follows a young hot shot cop who is asked by IA to inform on his partner, an old school detective who is considered a legend in the department…Meredith Vieira signed a new deal with NBC that includes contributing to The Today Show, the network's upcoming Olympic coverage, and the new primetime newsmagazine Rock Center with Brian Williams…Lifetime has ordered a 10 episode first season of 24 Hour Catwalk; each week four designers have 24 hours to create a new line. The network is firmly in the fashion business now with this new show, Project Runway, and the upcoming Project Runway: Accessories…Spike renewed Bar Rescue for a 10 episode second season…Shawn Cassidy is executive producing the NBC pilot The Frontier, a Western about a group of people making the trip from Missouri to California in the mid 1800's…Sarah Paulson (Studio 60) and Morris Chestnut (V) will do multiple episodes of American Horror Story…Jennifer Lopez and Ugly Betty showrunner Silvio Horta are developing a family drama for Fox…FX ordered a 13 episode first season of Unsupervised, an animated comedy about teenage best friends from the creative team behind It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Voices include Kristen Bell, Justin Long, and Fred Armisen...

Turns Out Not Where But Who You're With That Really Matters
(The Best Thing I've Watched in the last 14 days aka The Best of What's Around)…
The following segment, from ESPN's consistently excellent Outside the Lines, is perhaps the best bit of television I have seen this year. It is a tragic and at the same time uplifting story about the good that is inside people, reminding all of us of what we are capable of when pressed into service. As I wrote when I posted this on the TTTP FB page, this is the best 14 minute time investment you will ever make.





People Say I'm Crazy Doing What I'm Doing. Well, They Give Me All Kinds Of Warnings To Save Me From Ruin
What's flashed before my eyes the last seven days…





Agree or disagree with Keith Olbermann, I am happy to live in a world where TV offers this kind of opportunity for views. Let's face it - people don't read newspapers much anymore, let alone the editorial pages, and I can't stand networks trying to pass off opinion as news, so I applaud the idea that the medium of television can be used for folks to present well thought out ideas, regardless of where they fall on a political or ideological scale…The happiness that spread across Jeff's face when Jenny accepted the fulltime job offer on the season finale of Flipping Out was one of the more genuine moments on reality television this year…Suits wrapped up the most impressive first season in USA Network history with a pretty intense episode. I think the main reason the show is as good as it is is the balance of the drama and the humor; I am a big fan of pretty much everything the network does but on many of the shows it seems to be humor first, drama second, and/or the mix effects the level of tension. Suits is a drama first, with the comedy coming as a bi-product of the tension created by both the overall story as well as the individual cases. Gabriel Macht is one of the most interesting actors to come to series TV in some time…Those last few minutes of The Closer were brutal. Clearly the leak is feeding this lawyer all the right cases to use as part of this new lawsuit, which will make the big reveal that much more of a betrayal. I give the writers huge points for digging back into the show's history to make this final season so compelling…Jere Burns is already easily the best villain in Burn Notice history, and this major plot twist opens up Mike and the gang to be working on three different types of jobs; assignments from the CIA, helping those in need, and whatever nefarious plans Burns has. I am thrilled that casting folks have recognized his talents and are getting him on-screen much more frequently the last two years (Justified, Breaking Bad)…I will keep watching Ringer as the cast is too good to give up on after just an hour but the pilot was so heavy handed (I get the mirror concept, let it go already) that it felt like it was moving at a snail's pace despite quite a bit of plot being stuffed in. Also, the last scene was a bad combination of both obvious and too soon…The fight scene at the end of Breaking Bad was realistically brutal and for folks who are always hoping Walter and Jesse can mend fences and join forces again, it was particularly tough to watch. Giancarlo Esposito continues his truly spectacular run as Gus; who in this cast isn't doing award worthy work?!?!...Really enjoyed Up All Night, although the original pilot had the workplace portion of the show taking place at a PR firm, which I think I liked better. Love seeing Will Arnett play a real person instead of the cartoonish characters he has excelled at over the last few years…Free Agents was particularly good but I love the leads so much that it was worth the half hour investment, and I will watch the next few weeks to see if it gets better…Great to have Parenthood back even if the hour was a bit plot heavy. Couldn't they have had the coffee girl get a full episode to establish herself before we found out she was pregnant?...

TV Pick Of The Week
While it's easy to assume that just about every possible Charlie Sheen punchline has been told, the folks over at Comedy Central certainly don't think so or they wouldn't be giving us Comedy Central Presents the Charlie Sheen Roast this Monday night, a no-holds-barred comedic attack on the former Two and a Half Men star who has seemingly drunken, smoked, snorted, and humped his career away. Even when these Roasts are bad they are still pretty funny – sometimes the folks that bomb provide the best entertainment – so I have high hopes.

Don't miss Comedy Central Presents the Roast of Charlie Sheen, Monday at 11pm.

Hope You Need My Love, Babe, Just Like I Need You
Other viewing options from the next seven days (obviously most/all of the highlights are listed above in the Season/Series Premiere Section)…

*Steven Soderberg stops by Dr Oz today (check your local listings for time and channel) to discuss Contagion, with Matt Damon making an appearance via video.

*Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Cartoon) begins its fourth season tonight with a two part episode that features, among other things, an appearance by Jar Jar Binks.

*Real Time with Bill Maher returns tonight with a panel including Keith Olbermann and an interview with Louis C.K.

*Cloo (formerly Sleuth) gets into the original programming game on Saturday night; first at 9pm they give us Killer Instinct, where FBI criminal profiler Mark Safarik walks the audience through the solving of a crime, with the premiere featuring a case where Safarik helped catch a serial killer. Dateline on Cloo follows at 10pm, with Safarik offering insight on some of the newsmagazines features involving crime and disappearances.

*Looking for another daily talk show to take up an hour of your life? Dr. Drew's Lifechangers (3pm, The CW) premieres on Monday, with the TV regular helping out folks deal with the issues that plague them. As a matter of semantics I should point out this show is actually only 30 minutes long but will be shown in two episode blocks.

*HBO premieres the documentary The Strange History of Don't Ask, Don't Tell Monday at midnight, coinciding with the policy's repeal. It airs in primetime on Tuesday at 8pm.

Two Tivos To Paradise
24 Hour Restaurant Battle, 30 Rock, After the Catch, American Idol, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antiques Roadshow, Archer, Auction Hunters, Awkward, The Big C, Boardwalk Empire, Being Human, Bones, Bored To Death, Breaking Bad, Burn Notice, Celebrity Apprentice, Cake Boss, Chopped, Chuck, The Closer, Community, Cougar Town, Crave, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Deadliest Catch, Desperate Housewives, Destination Truth, Entourage, Eureka, Fact or Faked, Falling Skies, Fairly Legal, Flipping Out, Food Feuds, Food Network Challenge, Food Network Star, Free Agents, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters Academy, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Lab, Glee, Gossip Girl, Great Food Truck Race, Grey's Anatomy, Happy Endings, Haunted Treasure, Hawaii 5-0, Hollywood Treasure, House, How I Met Your Mother, How To Make It In America, Hung, If You Really Knew Me, Iron Chef America, Justified, Kate Plus 8, The Killing, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Louie, Mad Men, Man v. Food Nation, The Middle, Mike and Molly, Modern Family, Necessary Roughness, Next Great American Restaurant, Next Iron Chef, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, The Office, One Tree Hill, Outside the Lines, Parks & Recreation, Private Practice, Project Runway, Psych, Raising Hope, Real Time With Bill Maher, Rescue Me, Restaurant Impossible, Ringer, Rocco's Dinner Party, Royal Pains, Rules Of Engagement, Sanctuary, Saturday Night Live, The Secret Circle, Shear Genius, So You Think You Can Dance?, Sons of Anarchy, The Soup, Suits, Supernatural, Table For 12, Top Chef, Top Chef Just Desserts, Top Chef: Masters, Top Design, Torchwood, Tosh.0, True Blood, Up All Night, The Vampire Diaries, The Voice, The Walking Dead, Warehouse 13, Web Soup, Wilfred, Worst Cooks In America,

People Love You When They Know You're Leaving Soon
Here ends another Two Tivos To Paradise.





We'll be back next week with all the latest in TV news, a full rundown of the Emmys, and info on another week of season/series premieres.


Sources for this week's column include Daily Variety, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, and Hollywood Reporter (plus the web sites for those publications) as well as Aintit.cool.com, TVline.com & Deadline.com.