NBC isn't exactly engendering a lot of goodwill among people, with their cancellations of shows like Life and Medium, and My Name is Earl. The fact that they're replacing these shows with not one but two medical shows, isn't exactly a confidence booster. NBC hasn't sent screeners of all their pilots yet, hence the "Part 1" in the title. But I have gotten a taste of both their comedy and drama offerings with Community, a comedy starring The Soup's Joel McHale, and Trauma, one of the aforementioned medical dramas.
Going into this, I didn't have high hopes for Trauma, and while I wanted to like Community, I had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to be the vehicle that would change Joel McHale from cute host of a basic cable show to primetime star. Now, after seeing both of them, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by one.
Thank the late-90s gods for the existence of Daria and praise be to the supernatural entities responsible for DVDs. For the first time ever,Daria will be available on DVD.
We feared it couldn't be done, but it's going to happen! I can hear sour-faced now-20-somethings celebrating now. Yes, they're quiet, but they're definitely excited. Keep it cool, guys, keep it cool.
There are about 20 funny lines in this short segment from last night's episode of The Colbert Report. Colbert goes after CNN's Anderson Cooper for getting the exclusive story on what happened to Bubbles, Michael Jackson's former pet chimp. "Crank up the AC!"
Since programming anything new is probably a waste on a holiday weekend, Comedy Central is programming roughly 4,000 previously aired stand-up specials (okay, just 40, but that's a lot) from some of the biggest names on its rosters, including Dane Cook, Jeff Dunham, Katt Williams, Louis C.K., Lewis Black, Brian Regan, Demetri Martin, Ron White, Lisa Lampanelli, and Jim Gaffigan. They'll also sprinkle in some of their Comedy Central Presents half-hour showcases. It's called the Stand-Up Blowout Weekend.
The first special is at 3 PM - Aisha Tyler is Lit: Live at the Fillmore and end, officially, with Drew Hastings: Irked and Miffed at 3 AM Monday morning. Sunday at 10PM is the network premiere of Dave Attell: Captain Miserable, which originally aired on HBO on December 8, 2007.
Seth Green and the Robot Chicken: Star Wars team are taking a skate show on the road to promote the release of the sequel on DVD.
Adult Swim's Robot Chicken: Star Wars -- Episode II comes to DVD conveniently in time for San Diego Comic-Con, and Green will kick-off a national bus tour of roller skating rinks for two weeks to hype the disc.
It's a hip choice for Robot Chicken: Star Wars, as the first DVD in the series included a funny "Star Wars on Ice" segment.
The Colbert Report has a regular feature called A Tip of the Hat and A Wag of the Finger, where he praises one thing and goes after something else. Last night he talked about Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis and her "hunger can be a positive motivator" stance, and then criticized FOX News for calling Governor Mark Sanford a Democrat, saying they also identified Hurricane Katrina as a Democrat. (Video also here.)
Didn't Jimmy Kimmel do a similar joke recently? Yes he did:
Generally speaking, CBS had a strong 2008, developing one bona fide hit drama -- The Mentalist -- even though shows like The Ex-List never found an audience or a critical plaudit. Ironically, I liked The Ex-List based on the screener I reviewed last summer, so go figure. Sometimes a preview can inform you about a show's potential and sometimes it's just the best it'll ever be.
CBS has shared previews for the new season and we've had a chance to take a look. There are star vehicles for Jenna Elfman, Alex O'Loughlin and Julianna Margulies, which would seem logical based on the success of Simon Baker as The Mentalist. CBS is counting on familiar, popular TV stars to win over audiences. Will the strategy work? It's probably too soon to tell.
Yesterday FX announced their fall premiere dates along with the news that an untitled new half-hour comedy would be launched and paired with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Nothing else was announced about this yet-to-be-named series, but thanks to our reader Jared, we now have an idea of what it may be:
The Norm MacDonald Reality Show.
Nothing has come down from FX regarding this in terms of a pilot greenlight or series pick up, but according to Norm himself? He seems to think it's a go.
We're still not sure what The Jay Leno Show is going to be, exactly. From all of the clips we've seen and the hints that Jay and NBC have given, it looks like it's going to be more monologue/comedy sketch-driven than The Tonight Show., though with many of the same elements ("Headlines," etc). Leno is going to comedy clubs (as he always does) and trying out some new jokes, which are actually quite good. (Both clips start out the same but they are different... the second is after the jump.)
Porn movies are well known (so I've heard) for taking film titles and making them a little bit dirtier (so I've heard). Now Hustler is taking TV shows and creating a whole series of films based (or debased) or them. I'm kind of surprised that they're allowed to use Star Trek in the title of a film, like they have with This Ain't Star Trek XXX. I guess the "this ain't" part saves them from legal problems. There's also one called Not The Cosbys.
Other shows get pornified: Happy Days, The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, and Hell's Kitchen, which seems like a weird choice for a porn movie that I don't want to think about. There's also something called Everybody Loves Lucy, which is really self-explanatory.
Why is ABC running new episodes of Better Off Ted during the summer? Not that fans aren't incredibly happy to see new episodes, but I would have thought that ABC would rerun the earlier episodes of the show and then start running new ones this fall (the show has been renewed for the fall).
FX announced their fall premiere dates today and it turns out that they've got quite the schedule lined up for the autumn months.
With Rescue Me set to end it's 22 episode fifth season on Tuesday, September 1st, it comes as no surprise that Sons of Anarchy has been scheduled to fill the Tuesday 10PM ET time-slot starting the very next week on September 8th. The motorcycle drama's sophomore season is generating a lot of buzz ever since the announcement of Henry Rollins and Adam Arkin joining the cast.
We've talked a lot about this before, the shows we love that haven't been released on DVD for one reason or another. Now PremiumHollywood.com has chosen the 26 shows, A to Z, that they bought on the shiny little discs.
It's a great idea, though I don't understand why they call the list "cult TV" when it has shows on it like L.A. Law and Eight is Enough. Some good choices here though. I would have chosen Ed, Private Eye, Something So Right, Shannon's Deal. A lot of shows that I never thought would be released on DVD are now getting released, so every year my dream list gets smaller and smaller.
You can talk all you want about the best thing about the web: keeping friends and family connected, shopping, maps to help you get where you are going, making money. But I think the best thing about the web is that someone actually takes the time to upload episodes of short-lived 80s TV show.
Case in point: It's Your Move, the NBC sitcom that starred a teenage Jason Bateman and Married...with Children's David Garrison. The opening is pure cheese, but the writing was a notch above typical sitcom fare. Here's the first episode (parts 2 and 3 after the jump - more episodes here). Bateman's first little speech has a really funny payoff, and he always had great timing. River Phoenix shows up in this episode too.
I was a fan of The Soup back when it was called Talk Soup and was hosted by Hal Sparks (I'm too young for the Greg Kinnear and John Henson eras). I've become a fan of Joel McHale and appreciate his writing staff and his comedic timing. Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think that Talk Soup would ever become a franchise like Law & Order, CSI, or NCIS.
Soon four versions of the soup showed up on E!'s sibling channels: The Dish (on Style), Sports Soup (on Versus), Web Soup (on G4), and Celebrity Soup (the British version), but none can compare to the original. The Dish is funny for female oriented television as Sports Soup is for watching the most awkward sports shows. Web Soup feels like a hiccup in the thought process.
NBC isn't exactly engendering a lot of goodwill among people, with their cancellations of shows like Life and Medium, and My Name is Earl. The fact that they're replacing these shows with not one but two medical shows, isn't exactly a confidence booster. NBC hasn't sent screeners of all their pilots yet, hence the "Part 1" in the title. But I have gotten a taste of both their comedy and drama offerings with Community, a comedy starring The Soup's Joel McHale, and Trauma, one of the aforementioned medical dramas.
Thank the late-90s gods for the existence of Daria and praise be to the supernatural entities responsible for DVDs. For the first time ever, 
Since programming anything new is probably a waste on a holiday weekend,
Seth Green and the Robot Chicken: Star Wars team are taking a skate show on the road to promote the release of the sequel on DVD.
Generally speaking, CBS had a strong 2008, developing one bona fide hit drama -- The Mentalist -- even though shows like The Ex-List never found an audience or a critical plaudit. Ironically, I liked The Ex-List based on the screener I reviewed last summer, so go figure. Sometimes a preview can inform you about a show's potential and sometimes it's just the best it'll ever be. 
Yesterday FX announced their fall premiere dates along with the news that 
Porn movies are well known (so I've heard) for taking film titles and making them a little bit dirtier (so I've heard). Now Hustler is taking TV shows and creating 
FX announced their fall premiere dates today and it turns out that they've got quite the schedule lined up for the autumn months.
We've talked a lot about this before, the shows we love that haven't been released on DVD for one reason or another. Now 
I was a fan of 
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
TV Squad previews CBS's new shows
