Posted Jun 25th 2009 11:03AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Breaking Bad, Reality-Free
Now that
the second season of Breaking Bad is in the books, it's time to evaluate high school science teacher
Walter White's performance. He's been giving out the grades to students for years, but who's been monitoring this high school teacher?
It's time for this
Breaking Bad character to be graded. Here's a report card for Mr. White, and whether he's using the name Heisenberg or White, we're turning the tables on "teach" and giving him some grades across the board.
Continue reading Breaking Bad: Walter White's Report Card
Posted Jun 21st 2009 10:22AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, 30 Rock, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Fathers' Day should be a time of deep reflection and appreciation for the man who brought you into this world, whether you asked him to or not.
Oh sure, the old man may seem like
the worst father of all time sometimes. He yells and screams. He gets on you for growing your hair too long because he knows he couldn't grow hair if he had a Chia Scalp. He constantly walks around the house in his underwear and then scolds you for not eating the sausage Mom made for breakfast.
But a few minor flaws doesn't mean that he's a bad guy. So go out and get him that witty card with the pipe smoking Dad on the cover, pick out a paisley tie that you'll never see him wear and give him a big hug to remind him
he's the best. Because he's your old man and he's not one of the seven bastard sons of hell below.
Continue reading Seven TV dads we're glad aren't ours
Posted Jun 17th 2009 3:25PM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Dancing With The Stars, TV Squad Lists, Casting, So You Think You Can Dance
With the second week of competitions tonight on
So You Think You Can Dance, I wanted to point out a trend:
reality dance show contestants can't leave television. Several contestants and a few choreographers have jumped ship and have appeared on other reality shows.
The jump basically can plant an already established fanbase onto a different television show. One great example is Ty Murray on
Dancing with the Stars. I'm not sure what the percentage of votes for Ty came from fans of Chelsie Hightower and her work from
SYTYCD or his charm, but he definitely benefited from someone who knew to make routines that were camera friendly.
Continue reading The reality TV dance show scorecard
Posted May 17th 2009 2:27PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
Well,
you guys were absolutely right. Season five of
Angel is awesome, and I'm so glad I slugged through some of the earlier seasons that didn't exactly float my vampire boat.
The writing in season five is excellent, the characters are both fun and multidimensional (especially Wesley, whose story only gets more and more tragic), and it's just a great all-around season. Here are five reasons why I loved this season as much as any TV show (including
Buffy).
Continue reading Jane After Dark: Five reasons why Angel season five is awesome
Posted May 13th 2009 2:27PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, 24, Lost, Doctor Who, Heroes, TV Squad Lists, Reaper, Reality-Free, Fringe, TV Squad Ten
Everybody loves a good mystery. Well maybe not everybody if the ratings for
Harper's Island are any indication. But mysteries and suspense have been a part of television since it's inception. It's one thing for the plot to be full of mysteries. Things like "Who shot J.R.?" can become a part of popular culture. But J.R. himself wasn't a mystery, we knew him pretty well.
But there are those characters we don't know much about. Think about Benjamin Linus from
Lost when he first appeared as Henry Gale among the Flight 815 survivors. There were so many secrets and mysteries surrounding him that we couldn't take our eyes off of him when he was on-screen. Well Ben's story may be more or less told, though something tells me there's still more to be gleaned, but there are plenty of familiar faces on television with not so familiar back-stories. And while Ben didn't make the list, that doesn't mean
Lost went unrepresented.
If you just want the list, click here.Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Most mysterious characters on television
Posted May 13th 2009 2:27PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, 24, Lost, Doctor Who, Heroes, TV Squad Lists, Reaper, Reality-Free, Fringe, TV Squad Ten
10 - Dr. Helen Magnus (
Sanctuary, SyFy)
9 - Captain Jack Harkness (
Torchwood, BBC America)
8 - Castiel (
Supernatural, The CW)
7 - Tony Almeida, (
24, Fox)
6 - Angela Petrelli, (
Heroes, NBC)
5 - The Devil (
Reaper, The CW)
4 - Christina Scofield (
Prison Break, Fox)
3 - The Doctor (
Doctor Who, SyFy)
2 - Richard Alpert (
Lost, ABC)
1 - Walter Bishop (
Fringe, Fox)
Want to see the pictures or leave a comment? Click here.Posted May 2nd 2009 10:10AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
Last week, I devoted my first
Jane After Dark column to my
top five Buffy moments. I was thrilled to read all the responses, both here on
TV Squad and at
Whedonesque, where the post was picked up. Fans of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer are a passionate bunch!
This week, I thought it would be fun to delve into my favorite Buffy hookups. One that didn't make the list but holds a special place in my heart is Giles and Joyce. It was a fleeting moment, but one that was fun and would have made for great storytelling had it continued.
But who to pair Buffy up with -- Spike, Angel or Riley? What about Spike and Drusilla? And while Willow and Tara had a special love affair, there's a lot to be said for Willow and Oz. And what of Xander? Sure, he and Anya had a fun romance, but his hookups with Cordelia and even Faith were intense in their own way.
Oh the choices! Read on for my thoughts, and please add your own in the comments below.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: Top five Buffy hookups
Posted Apr 29th 2009 2:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Having recently read an
article about the subject, I had to ask myself: why can't
Doctor Who have an American version of the same show? If
Life on Mars can be ported over (albeit unsuccessfully), why not bring over an Americanized Doctor?
Granted, the show couldn't use a police box (a definitively British icon) for the TARDIS. So? Use a phone booth. Also, if the show simply started from scratch, it wouldn't have 46 years of continuity to bog it down. No need to pay the estate of Terry Nation for use of the Daleks. Simply use the Doctor, the TARDIS, and whatever alien menaces the creators' imagination provides.
(Granted, there was a
Doctor Who movie with American involvement in 1996 starring the British Paul McGann, which I personally didn't think was bad but others disagree with me.)
With this in mind, I have composed a list of the ten American actors (and by American, I include all of North America, so some Canadians will make the list) whom I feel could at least adequately play the Doctor in an Americanized version of the show.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: American actors who could play Doctor Who
Posted Apr 25th 2009 11:02AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: TV Royalty, TV on DVD, OpEd, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
I'm starting a new column here on
TV Squad called "Jane After Dark." Some of you know I work the "night shift" here at the Squad, editing and scheduling posts into the wee hours. I'm a big multi-tasker, so I also use those hours to get caught up on all the great shows I've missed along the way.
Over the past year, I've watched some really cool shows, including
Six Feet Under,
The Sopranos,
Moonlight,
Weeds,
Entourage,
Gossip Girl, and many others. So I thought it would be fun to write about my After Dark musings, and I hope you'll chime in with your own thoughts about whatever I'm watching.
I just finished
Joss Whedon's magnificent
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I loved so many things about the show. No one could look as stylish as Buffy as she slayed those vampires. Angel and Spike were both hot in their own way. The love between Willow and Tara was sweet and gentle, but also powerful. And the characters continued to grow and evolve throughout the series. By the last episode, you really felt like you knew these characters and had grown right along with them.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: Top five Buffy moments
Posted Apr 20th 2009 2:05PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, 24, Scrubs, The Shield, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
The TV is a weird beast. Your show can have ridiculously high ratings, receive greater critical claim than the Mona Lisa and achieve a cult following not seen since the People's Temple, and the network can still pull the plug on you.
TV Land doesn't work like Reality Land, if the Reality Land is in fact reality and not some bizarre reality land where meat-hungry producers are the gods of fate. TV has a different equation for success.
Here are the ten telltale signs that your new show will spend eternity shining in the pantheon of the cosmos and the rest of its life on Best Buy's DVD shelves.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Signs your show has made it
Posted Apr 8th 2009 2:08PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, OpEd, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, The Office, TV Squad Lists, TV Squad Ten
It occurred to me recently that there are more gay and lesbian characters on TV right now than ever before. That's pretty cool.
And they run the gamut from
The L Word 's edgy Shane (pictured) to
Desperate Housewives' funny Bob to
Entourage's loyal Lloyd, who takes more verbal abuse from Ari Gold than anyone should ever be allowed to take.
See if you agree with my list of top gay characters on TV right now, and feel free to add your own in the comments. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Top gay characters
Posted Apr 3rd 2009 10:02AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Freaks and Geeks is not only a cult classic among TV fans, but it's also one of TV Squad's favorite "Ol' Yellers". Those are the shows that were taken out back and shot down by the networks before they had a chance to fully develop, despite the crying, whimpering, snot-producing pleas of those who loved them most. It may not be clever, but it sounded a lot nicer than "stillborns".
So it's no surprise that the show made a cameo appearance in a recent AOL interview with
mega-superduperstar Seth Rogen on the heels of his new movie
Observe and Report about a rogue mall cop who is more tazer-happy than the campus police at
the University of Florida.
Continue reading Where are the Freaks and the Geeks now?
Posted Mar 18th 2009 10:06AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: 30 Rock, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
The success of
Slumdog Millionaire and
Frost/Nixon recently inspired me to assess
the ten best movies about television. TV has been a fertile source of entertainment for filmmakers. The TV turf is also a popular setting for TV shows, and there have been some all-time great shows about the tube. Here are nine that I think warrant special recognition -- in no special order.
1. The Mary Tyler Moore ShowIt all started at WJM-TV in Minneapolis.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show was the perfect sitcom blend of home and work, and work happened to be the local TV news team. As Mary Richards, the associate producer, Mary Tyler Moore was the single girl America loved because she was real, funny, gorgeous and lovable. At work, the news was mangled nightly by Ted Baxter, the quintessential news reader anchorman who loved every dulcet tone of his voice and had no idea what he was reporting. In perfect irony, when the show came to an end, most everyone at WJM -- Lou Grant, Murray Slaughter, Sue Anne Nivens, Mary -- were fired. Only Ted was spared!
Continue reading Nine memorable TV shows about TV - VIDEO
Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:02PM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Industry, OpEd, The Amazing Race, Survivor, Celebrities, Big Brother (US), Dancing With The Stars, Host, TV Squad Lists, Casting
Since the reality television boom isn't going to end anytime soon, this could be a lucrative career path for the up-and-coming toddler who likes to ham it up with a microphone. After all, in this time of economic woes, what could be a better goal than glam, glitz, red carpets, and Emmy awards?
The reality show genre encompasses the gamut from talent contests to living in the jungle to living in a house with insufferable drones and drama queens and beyond. As a result, the hosts for these shows are going to be a varied lot, as well. Who are these people? How did they get where they are? And, more importantly ... what do I think of them? Read on.
Continue reading Six reality show hosts, six different realities
Posted Mar 16th 2009 11:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, TV Squad Lists
When it comes to cooking competition shows, the two that consistently make the grade are Bravo's
Top Chef and Fox's
Hell's Kitchen. But while the two shows are ostensibly both about aspiring chefs competing for a prime position -- to beat the competition and emerge as number one -- there are really more things about the shows that separate them.
In terms of quality competition, food expertise and cooking skills,
Top Chef is superior to
Hell's Kitchen. They're both fun to watch, and I have followed every season of each of them. But the main thing they have in common is the kitchen. Read my five reasons and see if you don't agree with me that
Top Chef has it all over
Hell's Kitchen.
Continue reading Five reasons why Top Chef tops Hell's Kitchen
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