Two Tivos To Paradise 11.14.08: Bursting At The Seams with TV News
Posted by Al Norton on 11.14.2008
Lost's return is set, a big update on cancellations (Pushing Daisies, Mad TV, My Own Worst Enemy, Lipstick Jungle) and pick ups (Life), Fox reshuffles its line up, Anthony Kiedis teams up with HBO, an update on the Family Guy spinoff, Knight Rider gets a re-reboot, thoughts on The Office, TONS of news and notes, the TV Pick of the Week and more, all in this week's Two Tivos To Paradise!
Hello Friends. This was a big week at home as Harry and Genevieve started daycare on Monday morning. Those of you with kids will know how emotional that can be, as well as how quickly your mornings can turn into a production that would make Busby Berkeley proud. In a related story, Mrs. Tivo went back to work, giving her some much needed interaction with adults. How does this affect you, the reader? My "What I've Been Watching" section will be a bit smaller than usual this (and maybe next) week as we adjust our schedules.
Hope all of you tuned into 90210 on Tuesday to hear the two new Will Dailey songs. In case you missed it, both tunes are available on his website, as is the latest edition of The Dailey Weekly.
The ink is black, the news is white, together we learn to read and write.
THIS JUST IN
Right as TTTP was going to press TV Week published a story quoting sources that said ABC had canceled Pushing Daisies. The critically acclaimed but low rated series has been rumored to be on the bubble for some time and this word comes on the same day production on the 13th episode of the series was completed; the order for this season was 13 episodes, with fans hoping this announcement would be the pick up of the back 9 instead of the end of the road. Series creator Bryan Fuller is on record as saying if Daisies is canceled he would go back to work on Heroes, where he had a lot to do with the shows initial major success before leaving after the first season. Fuller has also said he would love to continue the Daisies' characters stories, either in comic book form or on the big screen. ABC has had no official comment.
There's A Train Every Day, Leaving Either Way, There's A World You Know, There's A Way To Go
Multiple outlets reported that NBC cancelled Lipstick Jungle and My Own Worst Enemy on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after Fox announced that this season of Mad TV, it's 14th, would be its last. Lipstick Jungle received a 13 episode order coming into the season and while all of those episodes will be completed, it's unclear yet if all will reach the airwaves. Enemy will complete the episode it is currently filming (# 9) but then will halt production. Mad TV's run on Fox will end in May with it's 326th episode, and producer David Saltzman is already shopping the series to other networks.
Lipstick Jungle's demise is not that shocking – more surprising was NBC's decision to bring it back this fall – and the move to Fridays at 10 two weeks ago was clearly the writing on the wall. Enemy is a much bigger loss for the network as they had very high hopes for what was Christian Slater's first series lead. While it's lead-in (Heroes) set record ratings lows almost every week this season, the real problem with the show was the pace of its storytelling, which rushed along what should have been a tension filled drama with sudden and disturbing outbursts of violence. The pilot was a great example, with plot points that should have carried the show through its first several weeks all stuffed into an hour. Look for Medium to take over the Mondays at 10 timeslot, although since December is traditionally a dead TV month, the switch probably won't happen until January.
I must admit to having never seen a full episode of Mad TV, although I am forever indebted to the sketch comedy series for introducing the world to the likes of Artie Lange, Nicole Sullivan, Frank Caliendo, and Orlando Jones. Speaking of Lange, I am wondering if he will play a roll in Fox's plans for the Saturdays at 11 pm time slot. Clearly the network is not going to give that hour back to the affiliates, both because they are still committed Talk Show with Spike Ferensten at midnight and because they have proven that the right product can draw an audience there. There were rumors last year that Lange was in talks for some sort of weekly talk show with Fox and I wouldn't be surprised if they gave him that hour to see what he could do with it. The guy's on a radio show that has as many as 10 million listeners every day, and his new book is already on the Amazon best seller list, so it's not like his national profile isn't high enough for something like this. Give him an hour to do a monologue, interview a guest or two, and introduce an up and coming comedian, and you'd have a solid, and cheap, hour of TV.
The good news for Saltzman as he tries to sell Mad TV to a new network is that the contract with Comedy Central for reruns is up, too, so he can offer a huge amount of programming as part of the package.
Baby When I Met You There Was Peace Unknown, I Set Out To Get You With A Fine Tooth Comb
ABC has set January 21st as the kick off of Lost's 5th season, meaning the show will return to its Wednesdays at 9 pm timeslot after spending last year on Thursdays. The premiere night will start with a re-cap special at 8 followed by the first two of what will be 17 hours of new material this spring. While not officially announced by ABC, the rumored line up will have Private Practice (the current occupant of the Wednesday at 9 time slot) move to Thursdays at 10 to follow Grey's Anatomy, with Life on Mars shifting to Wednesdays at 10.
Lost is no worse than the third best drama on TV right now so news of its return is by definition noteworthy. Originally the season was going to have 16 hours but the writer's strike caused last year to be cut short and the producers need to make up the difference in order to complete the story they way they want to.
In other Lost news, 24 vet Reiko Aylesworth is in talks to come on board in what is being described as a major role for the upcoming season.
Pairing Grey's and Private Practice is seemingly the best way to see if PP can build a larger viewership. Its demo numbers are solid but the network had much higher hopes for the overall ratings. There is a planned crossover for February sweeps, with Addison returning to Seattle Grace and at least one Grey's character – perhaps Mark Sloane – headed out to California.
Hot Time, Get It While It's Easy, Don't Mind, Come On Up And See Me
Fox announced its mid-season line up this week, including scheduling the much buzzed Joss Whedon series Dollhouse for Fridays and pairing it with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The network's lineup always changes in January as programming mainstays American Idol and 24 return, causing the need to shift things around. While 24 and AI will start off with multiple two hour specials, here is what the schedule will settle into come mid-January:
SUNDAY Hole In The Wall 7 & 7:30 pm The Simpsons 8 pm King of the Hill 8:30 pm Family Guy 9 pm American Dad 9:30 pm
There are two ways to look at their Friday night scheduling: one is to say that they are creating a block of what they hope are two well written, well acted, science-fiction/action dramas that likely have some serious audience overlap. The second way is to say that they stuck another Joss Whedon show on Friday night, and we all know how well that worked out for Firefly. I am less nervous now that they have the available to factor in the "live + 7" numbers as I am guessing there will be a lot more Friday night tivoing than there has been previously.
What seems very clear is that the network is clearly high on Lie To Me, a drama starring Tim Roth as a human behavior specialist who can always tell when people are lying. The post American Idol results show timeslot is about as good as it gets on TV, so if Lie is not a hit it's going to be because people don't like it, not because of a lack of exposure.
Whatever You Want, What Ever You Need, Anything You Want Done Baby, I'll Do It Naturally
There were some somewhat contradictory stories regarding Oprah Winfrey's television future circulating this week, with Discovery Channel CEO David Zaslav telling the press that Winfrey would end her daily talk show when her current contract expires in 2011 and focus on OWN, the cable network she is launching next year with Discovery. Winfrey's Harpo Productions immediately released a statement saying no decision had been made about The Oprah Winfrey Show, which will be finishing its 25th season in 2011.
Clearly Oprah will not be doing her show forever, and 25 years certainly seems like a good way to end things, especially with a network to run. I would be hard pressed to imagine she would not use her face to help the new network though; I can see a weekly talk show for her, or perhaps she may create her own version of The View, taking the Barbara Walters role and appearing once or twice a week. CBS Television Distribution makes millions from her daily show and would be under the gun to replace her with anything that resembled the drawing power and influence she currently enjoys.
There's A World Outside Every Darkened Door Where the Blues Won't Haunt You Anymore
NBC is rebooting Knight Rider over the next few months, moving away from the espionage/terrorist villains each week and returning to the "Michael helps someone down on their luck who has no one else to turn to" stories that populated the original series. With this shift in focus comes cast changes; Bruce Davison, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, and Yancey Arias did not have their options picked up for the final nine episodes of the series freshman season. Episodes 10 and 11 – a two part special – will be the first with the new feel and will air in January, with the network expected to put on a major promotional campaign leading up to them.
This amuses me as the network seem to go to such lengths to tell people this past summer that the new Knight Rider would be different than the original, and here we are going retro just a few months in. The thinking seems to be that the new style will fit in better with the evening's other programming (Life, Law & Order). I think in the long run it makes sense as the "guy/guys show up in a new town each week to help someone in need" is a tried and true formula, from The Fugitive to The Hulk to The A Team to The Equalizer to The Pretender to Hack, to name but six.
Ok, Hack wasn't exactly a hit but come on, a ex-cop who drives a cab and helps people get justice? How was this show not a bigger hit? It ever starred David Morse and Andre Braugher, top pretty top flight actors.
He Joins The Lovers In His Heavy Machine, It's A Scene Down On Sunset Boulevard
Anthony Kiedis of The Red Hot Chili Peppers is working with HBO on Scar Tissue, a new drama series about Kiedis growing up in LA with his Dad, who sold drugs to people in the entertainment industry. The title comes from Kiedis memoir, although that book focused on his life as a rock star, and this project would open with him entering adolescence and moving from Michigan to California to live with his Dad. Kiedis production partners are Marc Abrams and Michael Benson, who won a Peabody for The Bernie Mac Show and also teamed up for Entourage.
The show is set in the 1970's and Kiedis is in contact with his Father, who according to Hollywood legend sold drug to the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Who, to get as much information as he can in order to make the show as accurate as possible. It's possible Keidis would narrate the series.
I love shows that give me a look into a world I wouldn't otherwise get to see, so this seems right up my alley. I wonder if HBO would pair it with the 1970's New York City pro wrestling project Norman Lear is developing to give an evening of retro programming. I bet current day rock stars would line up to play some of their heroes.
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 last week… The day after the election was the highest rated episode of The View in the series 12 year history, breaking the old record by a million viewers...Like most Thursdays of the last two years, Grey's Anatomy was the clear victor in the battle for demos while CSI won the total audience crown…Smallville hit a season high this past week…All three Thursday at 10 shows had reasons to be happy; Eleventh Hour was the most watched, Life on Mars came in second with a nice increase, and ER won the demos for the fourth week in a row…Friday's Ghost Whisper was watched by a shade over 11 million, the best numbers of the season for the series by 11%...A rerun of NCIS at 9 was the night's most watched show, more than doubling the audience of anything airing against it. Thanks to that strong lead-in, Numb3rs put up a season high rating, too…True Jackson, VP was the most watched non-sports related broadcast on cable last week, with the new Nickelodeon series setting several records for the network…Desperate Housewives and Brothers And Sisters both showed gains to their already strong numbers on Sunday night…The debut of Ruby gave Style it's highest rated series premiere ever…The Big Bang Theory hit a series high for overall audience on Monday, with How I Met Your Mother tying a season high…Monday was a bad night for NBC, with Heroes and My Own Worst Enemy dropping to series lows. To put how poorly Enemy is doing into context, it's audience has shrunk 42% from it's premiere…John McCain's Tonight Show appearance gave Jay Leno his best Tuesday numbers since February 2007…The 18.8 million who watched NCIS on Tuesday were a series high and the largest audience of the night but over 2 million. Lead out The Mentalist tied it's season/series high as well…House won the Tuesday demos pretty handily…Wednesday's Bones hit a season high for total viewers…Life held stead with last week's nice increase…The CMA's on ABC was the night's most watched broadcast with 15.87 million, and Criminal Minds was the night's most watched regular program…Top Chef's season five premiere was the best in the show's history, topping last season by 19% overall and an incredibly impressive 27% in the demos...
All The Young Dudes Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors…Good news and bad news for Family Guy fans looking forward to The Cleveland Show, Fox's upcoming spin off; the good news is they picked up an additional 9 episodes, so the first season order is a full 22. The bad news? Despite original projections that the show would debut in the spring of 2009, it's now almost certain to make its premiere as part of the network's 2009-2010 line up. In other Cleveland news, Arianna Huffington has signed to voice a recurring character…Best news of the week is that NBC picked up the full season of Life…Keith Olbermann reupped with MSNBC through the end of 2012. The deal includes his Countdown show as well as his role on NBC's Football Night In America…The CW ordered 5 more episodes of Privileged, inching it closer to a full season pick up…Michael Hirst and Morgan O'Sullivan, the team behind The Tudors, are working with Showtime and the BBC on a new series that would be modern day re-telling of Camelot…Tiffani Thiessen has been added to the cast of the USA pilot White Collar, about a con-artist who is forced to pair up with an FBI agent to nail white collar criminals…Spike is developing Marsdo's War, a two hour pilot focusing on the Irish mob in Boston. Matthew Marsden and Kevin Chapmen are attached to star…Michael Rappaport will star in and produce a new CBS drama about New York city social workers. Denis Leary and Jim Serpico of Apostle Productions (the series home) will also produce…The CW has cancelled plans for The Graysons, a series that was to show the pre-Batman life of Dick Grayson aka Robin…Rumors abound that One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn is The CW's top choice to be show runner for their Melrose Place reboot…Look for Cybil Shepard and Michael Biehn on a February sweeps episode of Criminal Minds…Dylan McDermott has nabbed the lead in The Line, Jerry Bruckheimer's TNT pilot about the personal lives of undercover cops in LA…Lifetime ordered an additional 7 episodes of Rita Rocks, bringing it's freshman season order to a full slate of 20…Academy Award nominee Kathleen Quinlan is joining the cast of Prison Break…Michael Trucco (Battlestar Galactica) will appear in a December episode of Law and Order: SVU…Rena Sofer – forever Lois on these pages – will guest on Dirty Sexy Money at the end of November…Returning series alert; Intervention is back on Monday, December 15th, Nip/Tuck hits FX on January 6th, followed the next day by Damages…In news that makes my stomach turn, Heidi and Spencer of The Hills fame will stop by a January episode of How I Met Your Mother. Kim Kardashian, who I enjoy for all the wrong reasons, will also appear in the episode…Fox is developing Living with Abandon, a new sitcom about members of a support group for people with abandonment issues who band together to help themselves after their therapist commits suicide. That may be my favorite concept of the year. Seriously….HBO has ordered a pilot for Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice fantasy series. David Benioff (Troy) and D.B. Weiss (Halo) will executive produce… The good news for Days of Our Lives fans is that NBC renewed the show despite a lot of rumors to the contrary. The bad news is that the pick up is only for 18 months, and the previous renewal had been for five years…Breaking Bad executive producer Mark Johnson is re-teaming with AMC for Rectify, a drama about a man who is released from prison after many years thanks to DNA evidence. The Shield's Walton Goggins has signed to play the lead…ABC airs Rediscovered in December, a Donny and Marie hosted special where five adults who had unsuccessfully tried for stardom as children get a second chance in front of a live audience, although what will bring the ratings are the decades old audition tapes of some of today's top stars that will air through the show, including Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Keri Russell, Ryan Gosling, and Christina Aguilera...The Secret Life of the American Teenager returns for its second season on January 5th at 8 pm…Sci-Fi ordered a1 13 episode second season of Sanctuary…Tim Long (The Simpsons) is working with Showtime on Kevin and the Chart of Destiny, a sitcom where a brilliant market researcher creates an intricate system that he believes will lead him to his soul mate in a year…In other Showtime development news, the network is pairing with Stan Lee to adapt Hero, Perry Moore's novel about a gay superhero, into a weekly series…Mark Burnett is producing How'd You Get So Rich for TV Land, a reality series where host Joan Rivers travels across the country to interview people who live in palatial estates…
Turns Out Not Where But Who You're With That Really Matters
The top thing I watched since the last column went to press AKA The Best Of What's Around…This past weeks episode of The Office was quite funny, with Pam's screaming "that's what she said, that's what she said" into Jim's ear only being surpassed by Dwight and Jim's sales call role play as the highlight, but the end of the episode left me feeling uneasy, and not in the way that the show usually aims for.
It seems to me that the writers are playing Angela and Dwight's affair for laughs, and I find that to be really quite mean. Andy may be a bit daft but he is one of the nicer employees at Dunder Mifflin, albeit one with anger management issues, and he seems to genuinely be in love with Angela, or at least what passes for love in Andy's world. The scene at the end where he hires Dwight to plan the wedding at the Schrute family beet farm makes it very clear that the affair will continue, and I was more than a little disturbed that a guy's fiancé sleeping with the wedding planner (who is also a co-worker) was supposed to be funny.
I know it's only a TV show, and a comedy at that, but even when the show makes Michael the butt of jokes, it does so with heart, and in way that makes the situation awkward and uncomfortable but never crossing over into real emotional pain. Yes it was cruel that Jan went to a sperm bank while they were dating but it's also ridiculously over the top, which was the point – the ludicrousness of her actions. With Dwight and Angela, the joke is on Andy (ha ha, he doesn't know his fiancé is sleeping with her ex-boyfriend), and I wonder how they could ever salvage a character who had been treated that way, not to mention that what Dwight and Angela are doing is just plain wrong. I guess I have issues with infidelity being used as a comedic plot point; I remember not jumping on the Ally McBeal bandwagon back in the day because I thought the main point of the show's romantic story was to get the audience to root for Billy to cheat on Georgia with Ally, which is not exactly the kind of thing I can get behind.
I may be taking this way too seriously but what makes The Office so great is their combining workplace farce and romantic comedy with such success, and this storyline is currently nothing as much as it is cruel.
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…Monday's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was easily one of the best episodes in the series season+ run, with some serious John Woo action going on during the showdown. Best use of Dia de los Muertos since Quick Change…High praise to Boston Legal for the second week in a row (!!!). This week they dealt with the issue of abortion about as well as I have seen on TV in recent memory. What the storyline showed is that even people who agree on general terms can have issues with the specifics, and the power of the subject matter was enhanced by having people talk – instead of yell – about it. Excellent performances from James Spader, Candace Bergen, and an unusually restrained William Shatner…The Cheerleader Effect on How I Met Your Mother was much funnier in explanation that it was in the visual execution…David Allen Greer's post election monologue to open Chocolate News last week was one of the highlights of the voting season, and the debate to see who would be the new "most put upon minority group" was another highlight. I love this show…Last Thursday's Life on Mars was the best of the series to date, and raised even more questions (in a good way) about not only what is going on with Sam but who is pulling the strings. By the way, did anyone notice that Dean Winters, who I suggested should play Sam when I first heard that ABC was remaking the show last year, is playing Sam's Dad? How good am I?...It took Wallace Shawn all of 30 seconds to bring class and charm to Gossip Girl. Let's hope his stay is a long one…A really fantastic episode of Bones this week, not so much for the murder mystery (which I found to be both confusing AND uninteresting, which is a really lousy combination) but rather for the interaction between Booth and Bones; introducing his brother to the mix gave the two leads more passion in their interaction than has been seen in recent memory. The final shot of the two eating cake and Booth opening up ever so slightly as his Dad is one of the best things the show has ever done…
TV Pick Of The Week
Ricky Gervais' comedy may be an acquired taste but the more I see of him, the more I think it's a taste everyone should acquire. The original version of The Office stands as a classic, I think history will remember Extras quite fondly, and his all-to-brief moments on stage during this year's Emmy Awards have let to a movement to get him to host The Oscars. On a related, and perhaps sacrilegious note, how much will I lose my readers when I say that I liked Extras more than The Office; I am not saying it was funnier, just that it spoke to me more. That aside, Gervais first stand up comedy special debuts this Saturday and I can't wait to see what he's got in store.
Don't miss Ricky Gervais: Out of England: The Stand Up Special this Saturday at 9 pm on HBO.
Other noteworthy programming of the next seven days…
*A new Batman cartoon (Batman: The Brave and The Bold) that features Gotham's dark knight interacting with other favorite superheroes debuts tonight at 7:30 pm on the Cartoon Network.
*TNT shows a beautifully remastered version of The Wizard of Oz tonight (8 pm), Saturday (9 pm), and Sunday (8 pm).
*The end of the election season seems like a good time for the Real Time with Bill Maher season finale (tonight, 11: pm, HBO).
*If I thought two Boston radio stations going to all-Christmas music formats last week was WAY too early but clearly TBS doesn't think show as they are airing the animated classic Dr Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas Saturday at 7:30 pm. This is followed by a special Christmas episode of The Bill Engvall Show.
*Iron Chef America's Thanksgiving special airs Sunday at 8:30 pm on the Food Network.
*The Chef Jeff Project's season finale airs Sunday at 10 pm on the Food Network.
*Robot Chicken tackles Empire Strikes Back Sunday at 11:30 pm on the Cartoon Network.
*Monday night marks the 150th episode of CSI: Miami (10 pm, CBS), with Teri Polo stopping by for the festivities.
*Series star Chad Michael Murray shows his versatility by penning the script for Monday's One Tree Hill (9 pm, The CW).
*The legendary Fred Willard guests on Worst Week (9:30 pm, CBS) this Monday.
*Jason Alexander shows some range on this Wednesday's Criminal Minds (9 pm, CBS).
*The always smooth Billy Dee Williams stops by Private Practice on Wednesday (9 pm, ABC).
*CSI: NY celebrates it's 100th episode with a list of guest stars WAY too long to go into here. And they all have the same name on the show. Seriously, check it out.
*Mr. Steve Martin graces Thursday's 30 Rock (9:30 pm, NBC) with his presence.
*It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (10 pm, FX) and The Sarah Silverman Program (10:30 pm, Comedy Central) sign off for the season on Thursday night.
Two Tivos To Paradise 30 Days, 30 Rock, The Academy, American Idol, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antique Roadshow, The Apprentice, Battlestar Galactica, Best Day Ever, Best Week Ever, Big Love, Bones, Boston Legal, Breaking Bad, Brothers And Sisters, Burn Notice, Chocolate News, Chuck, The Closer, Criss Angel Mindfreak, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Deadliest Catch, Desperate Housewives, Destination Truth, Dirty Sexy Money, The Dish, Entourage, Eureka, Everybody Hates Chris, Flipping Out, Gary Unmarried, Ghost Hunters, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, The Hills, House, How I Met Your Mother, I Want To Work For Diddy, Last Comic Standing, Last Restaurant Standing, Law And Order, Law And Order: Criminal Intent, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Life On Mars, Lost, Mad Men, Make Me A Supermodel, Medium, The Middleman, My Name Is Earl, The New Adventures Of Old Christine, Next Food Network Star, Nip/Tuck, The Office, One Tree Hill, Private Practice, Project Runway, Primevil, Pushing Daisies, Psych, Real Time With Bill Maher, Reaper, Rescue Me, Rules Of Engagement, Run's House, Samantha Who?, Sanctuary, The Sarah Jane Chronicles, Saturday Night Live, Scrubs, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Shear Genius, Skins, So You Think You Can Dance?, Sons of Anarchy, The Soup, Sports Soup, Step It Up and Dance, Supernatural, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Top Chef, Top Design, Torchwood, True Blood, Ugly Betty
People Love You When They Know You're Leaving Soon
Here ends another edition of Two Tivos To Paradise. We'll be back in 7 days with all the latest from the world of television. Have a great week!
See you next Friday!
Feedback is encouraged at twotivostoparadise@yahoo.com as well via the comments section below.
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.
what do you think about the new season of my name is earl? i think it has made great strides in distancing itself from the fact that earl is a person and not just a character. i just want to know if i'm alone in that. and don't worry about liking extras better than the office. i thought that knocked up was a better movie than juno.
Posted By: the dude (Guest) on November 13, 2008 at 11:50 PM
i think people are so dumb to not understand heroes. it's a great show and people say it's confusing or it's rushing the plot. I don't think that. It's been a terrific season and better then last year's. some people are dumb.
And i'm sure 411's Jason who does the heroes reviews will back me up.
Posted By: johnny (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 12:03 AM
there isn't anything that Wallace Shawn couldn't bring charm and class to.
but there is NOTHING that will ever get me to watch shows like Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill and the rest of the whoreish angsty crap.
and if i don't like Heroes, then why am i dumb? am i dumb because i would rather watch BSG than Heroes?
i don't think that not being able to follow a shows plot makes anyone dumb, but if enough people complain about not being able to follow it, then it certainly does say something about the writing, doesn't it?
juno was ok, anything with seth rogen is not worth watching, at least for me.
Posted By: Darth Mortis (Registered) on November 14, 2008 at 12:53 AM
I agree with you that TSCC was probably the best episode they've had so far. I like what they're doing with the Ellison character, although, at the end whne he was walking away, I though for a second that he was going to morph into Shirley Manson. That would have been an interesting twist. Any thoughts on Fringe? I have been watching and so it has been good, but something about it still seems off. They need to do more with the Recorder character instead of just random shots of him walking.
Posted By: Mario (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 02:35 AM
it's not really seth rogen that i like but rather the casts that he gets involved in. i'll watch pineapple express and zach and miri make a porno, but you won't see me renting green hornet in the future.
Posted By: the dude (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 03:03 AM
Did someone mention Heroes rushing the plot? LOL That's the first time I heard that.
If anything the plot moves too slowly. The show has great potential but I'm still waiting for a story to develop. Not holding my breath any longer.
Posted By: DrCLos (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 04:42 AM
Fuck you, ABC.
Posted By: Yoni (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 06:14 AM
You don't have to capitalize the word "dad". Who's Will Dailey? Do you really want people to watch 90210? It's such an awful show. (I know because I torture myself by watching it.) Shenae Grimes and that Ethan guy are probably the worst actors on tv and their dialogue is f'n ridiculous (plus they're annoying to look at). The show's actually sort of ok when they're not onscreen but when they are it makes me want to blow my head off.
Posted By: Scott Scanlon (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 06:53 AM
So, is it a really really bad sign Chuck wasn't mentioned? I really like that show, but I've heard it's not doing so hot, even for the death that is Monday nights.
Posted By: Kevin (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 08:47 AM
Someone's been cheated on...
Posted By: Guest#9496 (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 10:22 AM
This week on Hack, in order to catch an international jewel thief, Hack will have to become... a RAPIST.
Posted By: Guest#7482 (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 10:23 AM
Is it your intent that I hum a Jimmy Buffet song every time I read the name of your article?
Posted By: DaHumorist (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 11:26 AM
Scott - Will Dailey is a singer Al has a serious man crush on. After being hit over the head with him for weeks I went to his site and have to admit he's pretty good.
Da humorist - I think the title is from the Eddie Money song Two Tickets to Paradise but now I have Cheesburger in Paradise in my head, too, so thanks!
Guest9496 - I had to read your comment three times before I got it and then I laughed my ass off.
Can't wait for the Ricky Gervais special on Saturday night. I guess my having no life will come in handy on Fridays starting in February. The Fox doubleheader will end up being the best two hours of televsion each week - mark it down! Does anyone actually watch Knight Rider?!?!?
Posted By: Ghost of Frank Barrone (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 11:59 AM
The cancelling of pushing daisies is a travesty. One of the best shows on television is once again cancelled while some of the schlock survives. Here's to hoping for a big screen movie, that would be incredible! Also, glad to see i'm not the only one who loves Chocolate News. DAG is hilarious in his new role as psuedo news host.
Posted By: Guest#8199 (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 12:19 PM
Funny, when I read the title of the article I always hum a Eddie Money song.........
Posted By: VOZ (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 01:14 PM
Yes, the best news of the week is Life being picked up for a full season.
Posted By: Lanphoon (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 02:59 PM
someones been cheated on
Posted By: Guest#3356 (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 03:00 PM
I must admit to being greatly amused by some of the comments on my romantic past. For the record, I was cheated on once - that I know of - but I got over it and am still friends with her. The guy she cheated with ended up marrying her a few years later, which took some of the sting out of things.
I'd certainly like to think I'd still find the Angela-Dwight relationship as mean as I do regardless. Take last night for example - it's hysterical when Andy drunk dials her for an explanation but hearing Dwight's voice in the background added nothing. Andy's face in the morning when realizing the call was not a dream was fantastic.
Posted By: Al Norton (Registered) on November 14, 2008 at 03:38 PM
cancellation of pushing daisies?: BOOOOOO!!!!
Posted By: guy incognito (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 04:08 PM
I actually liked Pushing Dasies, I think after such a long time off TV the episode they opened up season 2 with was horrible & almost lost me as a viewer but the rest were funny & great. Sucks, a great show and Kristen Chenoweth is HOT! I'll miss her on TV.
& Darth, I seem to remember you calling people "dumb" or something to that effect when it came to people prefering Lost to BSG, now you're on the other end of the conversation, & you take offense... that's awesome!! I'm just sayin, buddy. I agree with the Seth Rogen thing tho...
Posted By: theHomewrecker! (Guest) on November 14, 2008 at 10:56 PM
Dwight is the man. I just ordered a sweet Dwight Schrute for President shirt from www.PantherTees.com. They have tons of stuff from The Office. They said not to tell anyone, but here is a 10% discount code, pts10 (it is case sensitive, so copy and paste it). Enjoy!
Posted By: Tom (Guest) on November 18, 2008 at 02:52 PM
As a huge RHCP fan - and someone who sheepishly admits to buying Scar Tissue in hardcover - I'm a little disappointed that Anthony Kiedis has decided to pimp himself out yet again on the small screen. I'm hoping the series sticks to the father/son, drug-dealing to the stars premise, and does not exploit RHCP's legacy. There's so much salacious material there, though, that I'd be surprised if they didn't venture into rock star turf. Give It Away, indeed...
Posted By: Guest#6871 (Registered) on November 20, 2008 at 09:04 PM
