TVSquad

I was reading a story over at Entertainment Weekly about whether or not 1984 was the greatest year for movies ever (answer: no). It got me thinking: what's the best year for TV show debuts in history?

There are a lot of choices. In 1994 we saw the premiere of Friends, ER, The Game Show Network, Due South, Touched By An Angel, My So-Called Life, and Inside The Actors Studio. Or how about 2000, which saw the debuts of Survivor, Ed, CSI, and Curb Your Enthusiasm? And 2004 wasn't too shabby either, with the launches of Lost, Rescue Me, Entourage, Veronica Mars, House, and Desperate Housewives.

Pepsi has teamed up with Hulu to place ads for their new Pepsi Throwback (Pepsi made with real sugar) into several old shows, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Battlestar Galactica. Each short spot features the Pepsi can talking to something from the 70s: a disco ball, roller skates, a fondue pot, a Polaroid camera. There are no spots with the can talking to Nixon or Dorothy Hamill's hairdo, however.

What the ads can't answer is why the heck I can't find any of this stuff in any of the stores in my area.

Who would have thought just two weeks ago that today we'd all be talking about the swine flu? I would have guessed that we'd be talking about a million topics before that (apricots, the Spanish-American War, the music of Seals and Crofts), but here we are about to PANIC. But it's not the first time we've had to deal with swine flu. Here's a commercial from the mid-70s. Yes, we not only had to deal with horrible fashion, gas lines, and really bad hair choices, people needed to get swine flu shots.

[via Adfreak]

This month we're taking a look at celebrities who did TV commercials.

Whenever you get into any profession, you have to start at the bottom. The TV business is no exception. The stars you see in prime time today probably cut their teeth working in TV commercials. Heck, some of them still do TV commercials even after they become big stars (but it's often overseas...shhhhhhhh).

After the jump, a sampling of TV commercials from years ago that star celebrities who are now household names. If you're old enough to remember these commercials, you'll probably say to yourself, "Oh yeah, I remember this ad, but I didn't realize that he was in it!"

If the 1960s was a decade of birth for Filmation, the 1970s was a time where it skipped childhood and moved straight into the role of responsible adult. With somewhere in the area of 30 programs airing during that decade, the team of Lou Scheimer, Hal Sutherland and Norm Prescott became big players on Saturday mornings. Not only that, but the trio helped usher in a number of genres that would become staples for both their own productions and those of the other studios as well.

If that weren't enough, the 1970s saw Filmation dabble into something that had come and gone on the Saturday morning schedule since the 1960s: live-action series. Combining comedy, drama and special effects, the studio produced an number of shows that provided a lot less cheese than the live-action series of, say, Sid & Marty Kroftt.

Attention fans of Swingtown: your ratings-challenged show might actually have a chance to see a second season.

Even though the 70s-set drama isn't getting a ton of viewers (in its current time slot Friday at 10 or in its old Thursday at 10 time slot), there are execs behind the scenes at the network who like the show and would like to see it continue. The network is shopping the show around to cable networks to see if one of them will pick it up.

I would actually like to see this happen. As I've mentioned on these pages before, I have trouble with some of Swingtown, but at the same time I really want to see what happens to these characters, and there are a lot of other shows where I can't say that. I wonder if they'll pull an NBC and put it on DirecTV like we're seeing with Friday Night Lights, or maybe put it on Showtime. CBS has shown Dexter on the network so maybe Showtime can take Swingtown. That would certainly open up more plot possibilities for the show. And by possibilities I mean nudity and swearing.

There was a time I was completely obsessed with The Streets of San Francisco. I never really watched it when it was on ABC in prime time, except for an episode here and there, but I used to watch it every day in the afternoon after school when a local station aired repeats. It was one of the highlights of the day for a while. It's one of those solid 70s shows with a good cast and some interesting guest stars (Arnold Schwarzenegger as a weight lifter who kills people when they make fun of his size!).

CBS is going to remake the show, and I can only imagine it's going to be CSI: San Francisco. The beauty of these old shows was the cast, so I don't know what you get by just taking the title and putting new actors in there. Hopefully they'll keep the old theme song, and resist the urge to add rap lyrics to it.

(S01E08) "New year, new neighbors, new secrets." That's Trina as she sets up for tonight's game of Puzzlerama, but can pretty much be said about tonight's episode. Everyone has secrets, and they're all coming out.

Before we get started, I just want to mention that I'm filling in for your normal Swingtown host, so if I miss anything, don't blame her. She'll return to give you next week's review.

The kids are back in this week's episode, but they're only making cameo appearances. The focus is really on Susan and Bruce and Janet and Roger and the feelings they have for each other and those around them.

Advertisers are starting to bail on the controversial CBS drama Swingtown.

This is predictable, if a little confusing. What exactly did the advertisers think they were sponsoring? (In the case of Dannon Yogurt, actually no - they just bought rotating advertising on CBS and didn't know when their ads would appear.) When they were told the show was about swapping, did they think it was recipes? And isn't the show on at 10 PM and come with a warning at the beginning? Proctor & Gamble won't advertise on the show at all.

Keeping with its promise of shying away from procedurals, CBS has ordered pilots for two seemingly unusual series. The first is centered around an ex-priest who travels around performing exorcisms. It's called Demons. It's being created by Barbara Hall, who also created Joan of Arcadia, and executive produced by movie man Joe Roth.

The second series is called Swingtown and it sounds like it's bound for a 10 pm time slot. The series is set in the 1970s and is about a bunch of married couples who swap spouses. It's being created by Mike Kelley, writer and executive producer of The O.C.

Pilot season, by the way, is soon upon us. January is traditionally the time of year when the networks request pilots from all the television veterans and wanna-bes who have been pitching them this fall.

So, what do you get when you mix comedian Paul Lynde, the rock group KISS, and Halloween? You get one funky holiday special.

Below (after the jump) is a rare video of a 1976 Paul Lynde Halloween special, featuring KISS and a woman who I believe it Margaret Hamilton from The Wizard of Oz, because Lynde calls her "Margaret" and she's dressed like, well, the witch from The Wizard of Oz. Hard to tell though, since she doesn't speak much and the video is a bit grainy. Might be a bit young to be her.

It's a classic clip though. Lynde is wearing a glittery tux that would make Liberace proud, along with one of those 70s bowties that make you feel the person could take off any moment and fly around the city. Lynde gets off a few good one-liners too, but he was always known for that on The Hollywood Squares.

How's this for a fantastic premise: a driven and ambitious young British detective is determined to keep the streets of 21st Century Manchester safe. But after a near fatal car accident, he wakes up, dazed and confused, in 1973.

David Bowie's Life on Mars is playing on his iPod when he crashes, hence the title.

That's the background on a new series, Life on Mars, starting on BBC ONE in the U.K. on Monday 9 January, starring John Simm (24 Hour Party People) as Sam Tyler and Philip Glenister (Calendar Girls) as DCI Gene Hunt.

As you can imagine, poor Sam is like a fish out of water, with obscure moralities and strange views on the tough attitudes of tough-nut British detectives in the 1970s.

TV Squad will be watching the bizarre time-travelling cop drama, so expect some updates when the series kicks in.