Posted May 27th 2009 12:09PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Emmys, Reality-Free
What are the odds that this is the year that
How I Met Your Mother makes it into
that hallowed circle of Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series? If it were up to me, I'd rank
HIMYM over
Two and a Half Men, for instance, but I'm not the one filling out the ballot. One thing working in
Mother's favor this year, though, is that on July 16 when the nominations are announced, there will be six nominees in each category instead of five.
The folks behind the
HIMYM Emmy campaign must believe they have a good shot.
Look at this trade ad that TV Week reprinted. It's a good ad; clever and memorable. The nod to Magritte is unmistakable, and attests to the wit of the show's creators. If this doesn't send a subliminal message to Emmy voters, nothing will.
Continue reading Is this the year for Mother to snag major Emmy noms?
Posted May 20th 2009 10:59AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, The Amazing Race, CSI, Survivor, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, Upfronts, Reality-Free, The Mentalist, The Big Bang Theory
Coming off a strong 2008 season, CBS is taking some bold moves with their new season program schedule. As we wrote earlier, there are four new dramas, a sitcom and a reality show in the mix.
The big news is how it's shifting around some hit shows on Monday and Thursday, while standing pat on Wednesday. Here's what we know right now...after the jump.
Continue reading The Upfronts: CBS
Posted May 18th 2009 10:12PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E24) It's been an interesting season for
How I Met Your Mother, hasn't it? The ratings for the show have never been better, but longtime fans (me included) have been concerned about its inconsistency this season. Episodes that would be considered in the pantheon of
Mother classics -- ones that mess with timelines and talk about the "mother mythology" and the stories of the rest of the Scooby gang -- were mixed in with standalone plots that were sometimes funny but other times were contrived and sitcommy.
I knew that the standalones would be more prevalent this season -- Carter Bays has told me and others as much -- but as I watched this season, I wondered why they were trying to make the show more accessible. Now that I've seen the fourth season finale, I completely understand why the show is going in that direction. And I'm not sure how I feel about it.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: The Leap (season finale)
Posted May 16th 2009 2:00PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Spoilers Anonymous, How I Met Your Mother, Casting, 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:
Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, Grey's Anatomy, and Brothers & Sisters (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)Continue reading Spoilers Anonymous
Posted May 12th 2009 12:45AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E23) Earlier today, I received a rough-cut copy of
HIMYM's season finale. I was all giddy and wanted to pop it in the DVD player right away, but I wanted to wait until I saw tonight's episode first, figuring it would set up the finale, as it did in past seasons. This episode does so, at least a little bit. But the most important part of the story -- the results of Ted's chance meeting with Stella on that street corner -- was at once disappointing and refreshing.
Confused? Well journey with me after the jump and I'll tell you why.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: As Fast As She Can
Posted May 5th 2009 7:30PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: TV Squad Polls, Watercooler Talk, How I Met Your Mother, Reality-Free
This week's episode of
How I Met Your Mother was huge. No, the episode didn't exactly end with, "and that's how I met your mother," but it was definitely leading up to that point. Ted had the yellow umbrella and threw around a lot of phrases like, "if it weren't for that, you kids may never have been born."
While the woman who tapped Ted on the shoulder wasn't revealed until the final moments of the episode, it doesn't necessarily mean that she's the mother.
HIMYM executive producer
Carter Bays recently spoke to Michael Ausiello about the surprise ending and what exactly it means for the last two episodes of the season.
Continue reading So did we meet the mother or not? HIMYM creator weighs in
Posted May 5th 2009 9:15AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E22) Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are a couple of clever guys, aren't they?
They're not only good at playing with time and space in their show -- something they did exceptionally well in this episode -- but they're also pretty good at tweaking the wording of an episode to make the audience feel like they're getting somewhere in the story when in fact things have only inched forward.
Just think about the words they used to describe the monumental outcome of Ted's day. Did they say everything you thought they said? Ruminate on it a second before you rejoin me after the jump.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Right Place Right Time
Posted May 1st 2009 5:40AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Programming, OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Cancellations, Pickups and Renewals, NCIS, Chuck, Reaper, Reality-Free, The Mentalist, TV Squad Ten, Dollhouse
Last week,
TVSquad readers made our "
Which shows are renewed, canceled, or on the bubble?" post the most viewed and most commented of the week. Most of the commenters voiced their opinions as to which show should be renewed, and since I also watch loads of TV, it's with no surprise that I wanted to chime in, as well. (Look for my "Series that I think should be canceled" post later this week.)
Here I present you, the 10 shows I think should be renewed. Note that I did not include in this list shows that have been confirmed as renewed by the network (such as
Gossip Girl), nor those that have been officially canceled (bye bye
Pushing Daisies).
If you just want the list, click here.Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Series that should be renewed
Posted Apr 28th 2009 8:39AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E21) Perhaps this dates me a bit, but I remember an episode of
M*A*S*H where Charles basically played both sides of a practical joke war between B.J. and Hawkeye, and ended up having the joke be on him in the end. That episode was what came to mind as I was watching this one, which was amusing but by far the least funny
HIMYM episode in quite awhile.
The practical joke plot, with someone always being in the middle, is an old saw of the sitcom biz, and Bays and Thomas pulled it out of their bag of tricks this week. They tweaked it a little bit, though; this became more of an exercise in Marshall and Barney teaching Ted a lesson that ended up going way to far, and everything seemed to work out for Robin, who was the middlewoman. But it was familiar enough that it had the ghostly imprint of sitcoms past on it. And when that happens on this show, it's never good.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: The Three Days Rule
Posted Apr 14th 2009 8:43AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E20) For some reason, even though both stories in this episode were pretty light and piffly, Bays and Thomas gave us enough character-development pellets to keep the fans happy. That's the way it's been most of this season, hasn't it? Be very goofy and sitcommy for the most part, but with story development mixed in for flavor.
It really has made for a bumpy season; even though ratings are up, fans who have been with the show since day one can't help but be frustrated. That's why I tend to view episodes these days by simple comedy standards; if it made me laugh, I liked it. This one made me laugh.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Mosbius Designs
Posted Mar 31st 2009 1:06PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Video, How I Met Your Mother, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Who says TV can't change people's lives?
How I Met Your Mother star Alyson Hannigan and husband Alexis Denisof, who met on the set of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, welcomed a
baby girl into the world last week.
Satyana Denisof was born March 24, which also happens to be Hannigan's b-day (weird how that happens, huh?).
Here's some more weirdness. During her pregnancy, Hannigan appeared on Ellen DeGeneres' show and talked about having "pregnancy brain," aka short-term memory loss associated with pregnancy. Here's how she described it:
Continue reading Alyson Hannigan gives birth to daughter, loses 'pregnancy brain' - VIDEO
Posted Mar 31st 2009 12:50AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E19) As a steadfast
HIMYM watcher, the fan in me always struggles with the TV critic in me. The critic wants the show to go back to the continuing storyline goodness of the show's early seasons. But the fan in me doesn't want to be weighed down with all that semi-serious thinking and just wants to laugh his ass off at 8:30 every Monday evening.
This week, the fan won out. Like most of the episodes this year, the story was a standalone, not full of Mother searches or Ted/Robin/Barney triangular angst. It was goofy as hell, more full of gags than crafty jokes. But it was funny as hell. And considering this is a sitcom, funny should be good enough, right?
I mean, how can anyone hate an episode that has Barney wearing a pink wig and a fishnet tank top while sporting an earlobe that looks like a rotting cheesesteak?
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Murtaugh
Posted Mar 24th 2009 12:26AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E18) Here's why I sometimes wish I was a sitcom writer: While breaking down a story to use for an upcoming episode, someone brings up the idea of names for Canadian sex acts. Then what occurs is what I would imagine to be one of the all-time funniest brainstorming sessions, where the table of writers just blurts out names like "Musty Goaltender," "Squatting Eskimo," and "Old King Clancy."
Then someone comes up with the idea of having Barney find those phrases
on a cheesy website, so more hilarity ensues as the website gets created, with the added joke that clicking each phrase generates a picture of an angry Alan Thicke explaining that the site is out of order (My favorite: "
Thicke mad. Thicke smash!")
I mean, the cascading jokes on that website alone (see what happens when you right-click on Alan Thicke or click on the words "crack a brown pop," for instance) made this a silly but funny episode, where we find out how funky Canadian sex acts are and also find out how Ted might be able to use his douchery for good.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Old King Clancy
Posted Mar 17th 2009 12:47AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E17) This episode proves that Bays and Thomas can do silly, sitcommy things in an episode and still take their loyal audience on an emotional ride with the characters they've grown to love.
Because of that, this was a fun one. We not only got a glimpse of what four of the gang might look like when they're seniors (Ted somehow looks 20 years younger than Marshall, even though they're the same age) but we got to find out about the joy of nightshirts and a morning broadcast that would make Al Roker jealous.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: The Front Porch
Posted Mar 16th 2009 2:30PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, American Idol, Desperate Housewives, Lost, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Judges, Gossip Girl, The Big Bang Theory, TV Squad Ten
You've gotta admit: tramps are fun. Their boozy, often promiscuous antics are the life of any party. Whether you're cheering them on or witnessing their antics with horror, tramps make any situation interesting. The same goes for TV shows. From Blanche DuBois to, well, most of The Real World cast members after season 3 or so, the television landscape has been filled with entertainingly trampy characters.
They may steal your husband, dance on a bar, or just generally leave a path of destruction in their wake. Whatever it is, it's sure to be memorable. For this reason, TV tramps are not to be looked down upon; they are to be revered. So consider this list a tribute: a tribute to TV's biggest tramps. May they never reexamine the path their life has taken.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: TV's biggest tramps
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