Since Michael Jackson died two days ago, TV and radio stations have been busy with around the clock news coverage, specials about the King of Pop, and even non-stop playing of Jackson songs and videos. More special programming is planned this weekend, and AOL has a list of what we'll see.
This morning at 10:30, E! will have the special Michael & Farrah: Lost Icons (good for them to include Farrah, whose death was overshadowed by bad timing). At 8 tonight (and Sunday), CNN will have Man in the Mirror, followed by a rerun of Larry King Live coverage and interviews about Jackson's death. At 10, The Bio Channel will air Bio Remembers: Michael Jackson.
a. NBC's code name for what excuses they'll use to explain why The Jay Leno Show isn't a hit (or why it is a hit or why it started out well and then died off)
b. a new Bravo reality show where contestants compete to see who gets their own 10PM show
c. a new PBS documentary about Leno and his massive car collection
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! Last week's winner is yaddo, with this: Hey, aren't you that dude from Lost?
This week we have a picture from a recent episode of ABC's The Bachelorette. It shows all of the guys and our bachelorette Jillian Harris toasting to ... something. The winner will be announced next Friday.
The stunning news yesterday about the death of Michael Jackson conjured up many memories of the singer for me, as I'm sure it did for most people. For many of us, there was never a time when the Jackson Five and Michael were not part of pop culture. Little Michael and his brothers on The Ed Sullivan Show, their funky outfits when they sang on The Flip Wilson Show (much cooler than the Osmond Brothers!), Michael as the Scarecrow in The Wiz (a hideous movie, but he was quite good).
Well after leaving his brothers to become Michael Jackson, solo superstar, Michael hooked up with Paul McCartney for a couple of songs, "Say, Say, Say" and "The Girl is Mine." The latter was okay, but the former was terrific. They co-wrote it and it reached #1 on the charts in 1983. Those were the times when MTV really showcased music videos and the artists and labels invested in top-notch productions. It was, if you will, the golden age of music videos!
Back in 1984, Michael Jackson was filming a TV commercial for Pepsi and got severely injured when his hair caught fire from a special effects explosion. I'm assuming that the finished commercial has a body double during that scene, though Michael can be seen in other parts of the commercial with his brothers. Some people close to Jackson say that he started taking painkillers after this incident. (Here's footage of Jackson after it happened.)
Noah Wyle is going from fighting vampires in The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice to fighting aliens for Steven Spielberg. The former ER doc has signed on to the Oscar-wining filmmaker's alien invasion pilot for TNT as the leader of a "ragtag" group of rebels set to make trouble for the alien baddies.
The series will take place months after the alien force has decimated the human population of Earth, leading Wyle and friends to strike back any way they can. (Thankfully, George Lucas' name has not been mentioned in any news surrounding this upcoming sci-fi project.)
With all the Michael Jackson news, let's not forget that another huge star, Farrah Fawcett, also passed away yesterday. All of the obits I've seen of Farrah pretty much start her professional biography with her breakout role in Charlie's Angels. But Farrah was almost 30 when she landed the role as Jill Munroe. A quick look at her IMDb profile shows that Farrah had a number of guest-starring roles well before Aaron Spelling made her a megastar.
Farrah also starred in a ton of commercials in the early '70s, including this famous spot with Joe Namath. Here, the Jets QB is advertising Noxema shaving cream, and Farrah lustily covers his face in the stuff.
Being a nerd, I'm very familiar with Jeri Ryan's career. She helped make Star Trek: Voyager watchable for a while as a self-aware Borg and recently starred in CBS' Shark alongside James Woods. But it was her work on the David Kelley shows Boston Public and Boston Legal that has me thinking she'll be a good fit for Leverage.
The actress handled Kelley's sharp dialogue like a pro, and I'm guessing she'll bring the same confidence to her role as a "smart-ass, street-wise con woman" on the second season of Leverage. Ryan has signed on for a recurring role on the TNT heist drama. Her character will be a friend of Sophie's (Gina Bellman), Leverage's sexy grifter with a bag full of tricks and foreign accents.
You can't think about the life and career of Michael Jackson without also thinking of Weird Al Yankovic. He did parodies of several Jackson songs, and while a lot of people like "Eat It," I've always liked "Fat," his take on Jackson's "Bad" (Al loves the food references, eh?). Yo, ding dong, man, ding dong!
I was on Twitter all night last night, and there were actually a lot of Michael Jackson jokes mixed in with the tributes and the breaking news tweets. I was wondering if the late night talk shows would either talk about Jackson passing away or if they'd make a joke about it or both. I especially wondered about Jimmy Kimmel, because he has not only made a ton of jokes about Jackson in the past (as they all did), but he actually had correspondent Jake go out to events like the Jackson trial and act like a nut. Here's Kimmel's monologue from last night.
When I heard that Michael Jackson died, I tried to think of how his career touched the world of TV. What surprised me was that he utilized TV much more than most people realized: from his first appearances on shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, to his groundbreaking MTV videos and moonwalk on Motown 25, to even the coverage of his court battles, Michael has been as much a TV fixture as a musical fixture.
But when I think of MJ on TV, my mind will always drift to his memorable appearance on The Simpsons. It was the first episode of the third season (all the way back in -- gulp -- 1991), in an episode called "Stark Raving Dad." Homer is thrown in a mental institution for wearing a pink shirt to work. In there, he meets a huge galumphing patient named Leon Kompowski, who happens to sound like Michael Jackson. Leon leaves with Homer (he's there voluntarily) and helps Bart write a stirring birthday tribute to his sister, "Happy Birthday Lisa."
There are talented TV actors who never get their big break. There are talented TV actors who managed to land one key role that has to last them a lifetime. Then, there are talented TV actors like Tim Daly.
The Private Practice star has progressed from a long-running sitcom (Wings), to an all-time television classic (The Sopranos), to an iconic animated series (Superman) and a cutting-edge drama entering its third season (ABC's Private Practice).
The New York City native and child actor turned adult success story connected with TV Squad to look back at his career and ahead to the future of Private Practice.
They've decided to air an encore of the Michael Jackson themed episode of American Idol from this past season. In it, the Top 13 contestants performed from Jackson's catalogue. It's a bizarre choice, because despite a few good performances, notably from Kris Allen, Alexis Grace and Allison Iraheta, most of the performances were either okay or downright terrible. I'd think you'd want some good singing of perhaps some of his better known works to honor the man.
All is well with the world: Lou Diamond Phillips won I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! He's the only contestant out there that deserves to be called a "celebrity."
Why did Lou Diamond Philips pick a show that anyone could see was going to be a train wreck? Did he have 24 days off and say, "why not?" Or did he look at the list of celebrities and then agree? After watching the season, I still don't know who Torrie Wilson was, and she was the runner up.
Lou Diamond Phillips is a good actor. I loved him in La Bamba. I have CHE on my list of movies to watch. He may be a little aged now, but he still gets parts and plays them well. If he did the show for his charity (I love him for supporting Art has Heart), he probably agreed because he knew he had the most celebrity and probably was the most sane person out there.
Since Michael Jackson died two days ago, TV and radio stations have been busy with around the clock news coverage, specials about the King of Pop, and even non-stop playing of Jackson songs and videos. More special programming is planned this weekend, and AOL has a list of what we'll see.
a. NBC's code name for what excuses they'll use to explain why The Jay Leno Show isn't a hit (or why it is a hit or why it started out well and then died off)
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! 
Noah Wyle is going from fighting vampires in 
At 8, ABC has a new Surviving Suburbia, followed by a new episode of The Goode Family.
Being a nerd, I'm very familiar with Jeri Ryan's career. She helped make 
When I heard that 
There are talented TV actors who never get their big break. There are talented TV actors who managed to land one key role that has to last them a lifetime. Then, there are talented TV actors like Tim Daly.
In the wake of his surprise death yesterday, 
All is well with the world: Lou Diamond Phillips won 
Seven greatest hand cannons in TV history
TV Squad previews NBC's new shows (part 1)
TV 101: How ESPN controls the world and what the other networks can learn from it
