Posted Feb 2nd 2009 3:03PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: OpEd, 24, House, How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, Reality-Free, The Big Bang Theory
The networks are cold, heartless bastards.They want us to watch their shows in order to grab ratings and ad revenue; yet, they mess around with their schedules so much that it's frustrating. Eventually, it gets hard for us not to pick up the damn television and throw it out the window. Well, more like get a few people to pick it up and throw it out of the front door. Come on, those flat screens are heavy!
You're probably wondering what I'm ranting about, aren't you? Well, it involves tonight's primetime schedule during the 8 pm time slot. On CBS, we have
The Big Bang Theory and
How I Met Your Mother, while FOX has a new
House. The 100th episode of
House, to be exact. Now, this wouldn't normally be an issue, since I could watch one network and record the other on my DVR. But, NBC decided to bring back
Chuck tonight, as well.
Continue reading Alas, my DVR won't save me tonight
Posted Jan 19th 2009 11:17PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E13) Something that's been missing for most of this season of
HIMYM is the unique Bays-Thomas method of storytelling. If you're a fan of the show, you know what I'm talking about: you think the story is going one way, you even think that you're keeping up with the time-shifting and story fragments. Then, when the guys finally reveal where they were going with the story, you get a surprising but funnier or more emotional impact. This year, we saw a lot of the time shifting, but not many stories where everything came together at the last minute to make you smile.
Until this week, that is. We got the kind of episode that
HIMYM die-hards have been craving all year. I just wish the stories that all came together at the end were just a skosh stronger.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Three Days of Snow
Posted Jan 12th 2009 11:33PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E12) When I saw the promos for this episode, my heart sank. I really thought that this was going to be the standard sitcom "exes have a relapse and have to deal with it" trope that we've seen since at least
Cheers. But I have to give Bays and Thomas credit; they put enough of a twist on the old game to make it entertaining. And they added a B-story that was light, but funny and relatable. More on that in a sec.
Back to the A-story. For the twist, we can thank Barney. And not just because he broke all those TVs.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Benefits
Posted Jan 9th 2009 12:06PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, Reality-Free
You think the recession hasn't hit the TV industry yet? Here's some proof it has:
the stars of How I Met Your Mother received pay raises...but not the kind of big money you've heard about in years gone by. The ensemble of five, Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan renegotiated with the producers (20th Century Fox TV) to boost their salaries to $90,000-$120,000 per episode. That's still a lot of money in today's economic strife, but compared to
Two and a Half Men's Charlie Sheen's $825,000 per ep, it's downright modest.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother's pay raise
Posted Jan 6th 2009 11:02AM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: House, Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Reaper, Reality-Free, Burn Notice, The Mentalist, TV Squad Ten
Random House defines outrageous as
highly unusual or unconventional; extravagant; remarkable. It's as though they've been watching TV, and wrote their definition to fit some of the crazy characters on television shows today.
Oh, don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining. I love these larger-than-life characters, played to perfection by the talented actors who grace these roles. Some fit in perfectly with their surroundings, others stand out like a sore thumb amongst castmates. One thing they all have in common, though, is that watching them is pure entertainment.
Patrick Jane (played by Simon Baker on The Mentalist)Jane doesn't quite have the social graces to blend into society, and that's why I love him. The frumpy suits, the obnoxious antics, and the constant pushing of the envelope make for some good TV. From card counting in the casino to reading Lisbon's mind; hypnotizing suspects to making a sandwich in a victim's home, Jane's done it all. Unconventional, to say the least.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Most outrageous characters on TV
Posted Dec 31st 2008 9:00AM by Brett Love
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, Festivus, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
Does the title of this post have you groaning and asking yourself, "Why are we talking about this again?" If so, I'm familiar with the feeling. It's how I felt earlier this year as the gossiperati (for lack of a more disparaging term) were putting the full court press on
Britney Spears. And that was just because she went shopping, or bought a Slurpee, or something ... I didn't really pay much attention to those reports.
Suffice it to say, while it may have been for all the wrong reasons, Britney had once again captured the attention of the public at large. It's an important bit of this story, because it speaks to both why she was brought in to guest on HIMYM, and why I hated it from jump street. I certainly wasn't alone in that, as most of the TV Squad staff, and 36.9% of the readers that voted, named her for the What The *#@#%! Were They Thinking Award.
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2008: Britney on How I Met Your Mother
Posted Dec 25th 2008 10:01PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Spoilers Anonymous, How I Met Your Mother, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl
This is Spoilers Anonymous, a weekly column here at
TV Squad where we supply you with the dirt on some of the more popular shows on the air. We'll never put spoilers up here on the main page in order to help the reformed stay unspoiled. If you have anything to add to the group, feel free to step up and let yourself be heard, either with our
tips form or by emailing us at
tvsquad at gmail dot com, or call and leave a message at
(775) 640-8479. Your anonymity is guaranteed, if you wish to remain as such.
This week we have:
Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother) and Ugly Betty. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)Continue reading Spoilers Anonymous
Posted Dec 19th 2008 2:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Reality-Free
No one's accused the cast of
How I Met Your Mother of having a collectively crummy sense of humor. Quite the contrary; every time I've seen them either in person or in a behind-the-scenes video, they always seem to be goofing around and having fun. At the very least, I'd imagine that neither Jason Segel nor Neil Patrick Harris allows things to get too heavy on the set.
So when
Entertainment Weekly asked the cast
to pose as various celebrities in a "The Best of 2008" pictorial, I'm sure they didn't need much time to say yes. In the pictorial, the cast portray the Olympic 4x200m relay team, the Jonas Brothers, and the cast of the
Indiana Jones and
Sex and the City movies. Finally, Segel and Alyson Hannigan pose as Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, respectively, during the VP debate. It might have been more interesting if they reversed roles in that photo, but I guess Segel didn't have the legs for it.
[via
Pop Candy]
Posted Dec 17th 2008 5:26PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, House, Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, Festivus, Celebrities, Chuck, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Reality-Free, Mad Men, The Big Bang Theory
Every year, we at the Squad put together our lists of what we want for Festivus. Most of it has to deal with what we want to see happen to our favorite shows. I try to go for the gold every year, however; I wish for
certain phone numbers to make their way into my cell phone's speed dial. So far, though, I'm striking out big time. However, I have met all three of my desired phone pals (Anna Friel, America Ferrara, Sarah Chalke) in my various reporting travels. So I've got
that going for me, which is nice.
Anyway, here's my wish list for 2008:
- Some way to record and watch Big Bang / HIMYM, Chuck, and House (all airing at the same time starting in January) so I don't have to resort to watching one of them on my laptop.
- Speaking of Mother, please let them end the season with a bang. And please keep Britney as far away from the set as possible.
- More web series as well-written and funny as Dr. Horrible and Children's Hospital.
Continue reading All Joel wants for Festivus
Posted Dec 16th 2008 2:25PM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, Festivus, Reaper, Reality-Free
Really, it's almost too much to ask for anything more, when this year has brought so much good TV. You may think I jest here, but if you saw the
Dexter season three finale, if you curled up with
House a time or two, or have caught even just one episode of
The Mentalist, you know what I'm talking about.
When the rest of the
shows-a-stinkin' take up the airwaves, there's always
TV on DVD. So, really, is it asking too much to want more from TV for Festivus this year? Speaking as a completely selfish TV watcher, I think not. So with wild abandon, here are my Festivus wishes:
Continue reading All Debbie wants for Festivus
Posted Dec 16th 2008 9:17AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E11) I tell ya, you'll never get homesick in New York; no matter where you're from, there's a bar full of ex-pats from there sitting and following the sports teams, reminiscing, and talking about life back home. Even if you're a Red Sox fan in a Yankees world, for instance, there are
safe havens for you all over the city.
In this cute and funny episode, Marshall showed Robin his safe haven, a little slice of his home state of Minnesota right in NYC, and it seemed like a fun place to hang and eat "mini" burgers. Not sure if the vision of all those Vikings jerseys (especially their
butt-ugly modern-day models) is something you'd want to see all the time, but, hey, where else can you complain about the failure of the 1998 team (who were the first team to go 15-1 and
miss the Super Bowl) ten years later and not be laughed at?
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Little Minnesota
Posted Dec 11th 2008 10:33AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, 24, House, How I Met Your Mother, 30 Rock, Dexter, Awards, Weeds, Reality-Free, Mad Men
One of the biggest victims in last year's Writers Guild strike was the Golden Globe awards. Fortunately, the SAG threats of a strike remain just that -- threats -- so the Globes are on and the nominations were announced this morning.
Unfortunately, there were few surprises among the TV noms. In fact, it's kind of worrisome that these nominations are way too similar to the Emmy nominations. Among the new network shows from this season, and last, very little.
NBC will broadcast the Golden Globes on January 11. For the complete list of the Globe noms, click
here, and for some instant impressions on said noms, read on after the jump:
Continue reading Reflecting on the Golden Globe TV noms
Posted Dec 9th 2008 1:23AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E10) This was one of those episodes that wasn't overly funny, but it went a long way in exploring the various personalities of the entire Scooby gang. We learned that Ted needed to fight to help him not be the pathetic guy who was left at the altar. We found out that Barney will still resort to deceit to land Robin, but there's at least love underneath that deceit. We also found out that Robin gets hot for guys with shiners, Marshall and his brothers really wailed away at each other, and that Lily is the laziest, horniest teacher in New York. Well, we kinda knew that about Lily anyway, but I had to find something for all of the gang.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: The Fight
Posted Nov 27th 2008 2:29PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, 30 Rock, Reality-Free, The Big Bang Theory
As I think about the past year, in both my life and in the world of TV, there's plenty I have to be thankful for. The life stuff is obvious: health, family, my girlfriend, a roof over my head, food on my plate, and a job that I enjoy. But the TV stuff isn't quite as obvious. So, as the balloons float over midtown Manhattan and people get ready to gorge themselves, here are a few things that made me happy to be a television watcher this year:
The election - Yes, it was too long. And, yes, it was exasperating at times. But it was the source of a lot of entertaining television. Of course,
The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and
SNL were in top form (Tina Fey became a huge star, thanks to Sarah Palin). But entertainment came in many forms this election season, from Katie Couric's skewering of Palin to David Letterman's spat with McCain to just about anything that came out of Joe Biden's mouth. Finally, I have three words of infinite entertainment for you: Chuck Todd's goatee.
Continue reading What Joel is thankful for
Posted Nov 26th 2008 5:02PM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: Watercooler Talk, How I Met Your Mother, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Man, I've finally sorted through all of my confusion (how embarrassing ... ) about how Lily and Marshall on
How I Met Your Mother actually aren't pregnant at all; rather,
actress Alyson Hannigan is expecting in real life with her husband, Alexis Denisof of
Buffy and
Angel fame.
And now, this news comes across my screen? How am I to believe that the writers of
How I Met Your Mother actually thought it was a good idea for Lily and Robin to be pregnant at the same time? Nevertheless, it's true, because
People Magazine is reporting that Robin is pregnant.
So what's the deal? Is it Barney's baby? Now there's a real twist, and it was all foreshadowed in "
Not a Father's Day" with Robin and Barney being so sweet on the sock.... What's that, you say? Robin isn't pregnant? You say
Cobie Smulders, the actress who plays Robin, is expecting? I'm sure I can figure this out ...
Continue reading Robin from How I Met Your Mother is pregnant???
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