Last night was the season finale of Greek, the somewhat-overlooked ABC Family show with the small but rabid fan base. If you have no idea what's going on in the picture above, the ZBZs competed in Songfest. There was also a battle of the bots between Rusty and Dale, which means it sounds like this show appeals to people who like both Glee and G4.
I don't know why Greek isn't talked about more. It seems to have everything all those other nighttime soaps have: a young cast, quirky characters, hip music. Maybe being on ABC Family means it gets lost in the shuffle.
Last night's episode was actually a Thanksgiving episode (they're a little ahead of things I guess), with Casey and Rusty's parents going off to Maui and stranding them on campus. What did you think?
[Watch clips and episodes of Greek at SlashControl.]
I visited the pumpkin patch last weekend and totally massacred a 30 lb. pumpkin and feasted on its flesh, so I am officially in the Halloween spirit. Luckily, there's a crapload of TV to help sustain my ghoulish mood. TV Tango has compiled a pretty comprehensive list of Halloween-themed programming starting today and going through the rest of the month.
Some of the highlights include a Moonlight marathon starting today on SyFy, as part of their "31 Days of Halloween" programming. On Sunday, The Simpsons is airing their 20th "Treehouse of Horror" episode, while Monday has a some good kids' fare, with Halloween-themed America's Funniest Home Videos on ABC Family, and Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie on Disney.
All of you David Cassidy fans* out there are out of luck.
ABC has canceled his new show Ruby & The Rockits. It seems like the show just started ... well, that's because that's pretty much true. The show will be axed after only one season.
Anyone who wants to see the show renewed for a second season will have to start a campaign like the nut campaign that saved Jericho for another season. I don't watch the show, so I'm not sure what you could mail to ABC Family to get their attention. Maybe rubies? Rockets?
In a move that should bring some veteran dragon slayers out of their parents' basements long enough to turn on the TV, Legend of the Seeker is headed back for a second season.
According to producing partners Disney and ABC, the syndicated fantasy adventure show will return this fall. A descendant of the Hercules and Xena food family, Seeker tells the story of a woodsman whose life "gets turned upside down after discovering that he has a profound destiny to fulfill as the Seeker."
It's a burdensome duty that thrusts him into an unfamiliar world of magic, sorcery, evil and heaving wenches. The Seeker fights to protect innocent lives by confronting dangerous and evil forces because that's generally what heroes do in these sword and sorcery tales.
Recently, the cast of The Middleman, the comic book-based ABC Family show about a secret agent crime fighter and his female sidekick, reunited at Comic-Con for a panel and a table reading of the unreleased final episode of the series, which is soon to be a comic.
Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach talked to Laura Hudson from our sister site Comics Alliance before the panel about how comics gave him the freedom to create Stormtroopers riding missile-equipped kangaroos, whether the show could ever come back to TV, and why Batman: Streets of Gotham writer Paul Dini is the godfather of it all.
Wouldn't it be great if The Middleman DVD, available July 28, sold so well that ABC Family had no choice but to put the show back in production? Of course it would. There wasn't a smarter or more clever show of its type on television at the time (sorry Chuck).
Laura Hudson had a chance to sit down with the series creator in San Diego. In her interview over at Comics Alliance, Javier Grillo-Marxauch says that if DVD sales are great, The Middleman would probably go back into production. I suspect his enthusiasm had more to do with the excitement that comes with being at San Diego than anything ABC Family has indicated.
The fans stopping at the booth are excited about the show and that fever can be infectious. They'll do what they can to spread the word, but I just don't think that fan-base is big enough to change the network's minds. Or that ABC Family is interested enough to care.
(S01E01) Just as the new Parenthood series coming to NBC is a re-imagining of the classic movie, 10 Things I Hate About You is a very loose take on the film of the same name. And the film itself is a loose take on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The only real connection to that source is an early name-drop for the playwright.
If you let yourself get frustrated at how this doesn't even come close to mirroring some of the themes of Shakespeare's comedy, you'll miss out on what the show does offer, besides Larry Miller reprising his role from the movie as the sisters' father. Just think of it as a high school comedy featuring two very different sisters. In this one episode, we got pretty effective glimpses of virtually every social strata that exists in a high school. It's no My So-Called Life, but 10 Things does a pretty good job of being a family high school comedy. And isn't that what it's trying to be?
The other night I was watching a special on BBC America about all of the pregnant girls in the Gloucester, MA (where I was born) high school. That has nothing to do with this show, of course, but every time I see a show about a pregnant teen I think of that real-life story. I'm waiting for the inevitable movie that Lifetime will make about the situation.
Last night's episode of The Secret Life of the American Teenager was about how Ben's preoccupation with sex is causing trouble with Amy. More than the trouble it has already caused, that is. Yo, Adrian!
For my daughter's twelfth birthday, she decided to have four of her friends sleep over, and it turned out to be the same night that The Secret Life of the American Teenager season two was premiering. OK, she actually sort of planned it that way. All but one of her friends is allowed to watch the show, and she managed to talk her mom into it "just this once." I totally respect that. I write a family movie column and have kids of my own, so I'm fairly in tune with what is and isn't appropriate for various age groups.
I watched a few episodes of Secret Life last season, and while the subject matter isn't geared for little kids, it seemed OK for kids twelve and older. But this season, it seems like the show has really kicked the sex talk up several notches. Yes, I know it's a show about a teenager who gets pregnant and is forced to deal with the consequences. I'm ok with that. It shows kids that there are consequences, and that sex shouldn't be taken lightly.
Last night was the second season premiere of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a show that's really superficial. That's not me saying that, it's Tom Shales at the Washington Post, who says that the show is "an unabashed throwback to soaps of ages past" and one that "makes no attempt to camouflage artifice and superficiality." And I think he likes the show (though it sounds like he hasn't watched a soap opera since 1976).
We all watched her grow up on Full House and then we watched her disappear from our television screens, seemingly forever. I don't know if I'll go so far as to say Candace Cameron was to the early '90s what Alyssa Milano was to the late '80s, but that's because I'll be forever loyal to my boyhood crush on Samantha Micelli. But while Milano has been on the airwaves virtually every season since the question of Who's the Boss? was answered when the network canceled it, not so for Cameron.
She got married and went off to raise her kids for ten years, giving us only a few appearances in that time. Now 33 and ready to get back to work full time, Candace Cameron Bure will be one of the stars in ABC Family's gymnastic-themed Make It or Break It, premiering tonight at 9pm ET.
Greek seems to be one of those shows that has a fairly big following but no one really talks about. Maybe it's because it's on ABC Family or maybe it's because there are other similar dramas on other networks that get more attention. But last night was the season finale of the show. So Casey has a lot to think about after...falling into a manhole?
On last night's Greek, Max decided to get more serious with Casey, Rebecca got involved in a game, and Jordan and Rubin shared a common bond. I have no idea what any of that means since I don't watch the show. I copied it from the TV listings. But looking at the web site, it looks like the show uses some interesting music in their episodes. If you're a regular viewer, let us know how the episode was. And if you watched any of the 35 episodes of Roommates that were on after Greek last night, let us know that too.
It's official. I'll finally be able to watch Lost online for free without having to get up from the couch to click "Continue" after an ad plays on ABC.com.
That means a slew of ABC shows will be popping up on Hulu soon. Here's the list of ABC/ABC Family shows Disney reportedly plans to make available for free streaming on Hulu (ranked by awesomeness):
I don't know why Greek isn't talked about more. It seems to have everything all those other nighttime soaps have: a young cast, quirky characters, hip music. Maybe being on ABC Family means it gets lost in the shuffle.
All of you David Cassidy fans* out there are out of luck.
In a move that should bring some veteran dragon slayers out of their parents' basements long enough to turn on the TV, Legend of the Seeker is headed back for a second season.
Recently, the cast of The Middleman, the comic book-based ABC Family show about a secret agent crime fighter and his female sidekick, reunited at Comic-Con for a panel and a table reading of the unreleased final episode of the series, which is soon to be a comic. 
Wouldn't it be great if The Middleman DVD, available July 28, sold so well that ABC Family had no choice but to put the show back in production? Of course it would. There wasn't a smarter or more clever show of its type on television at the time (sorry Chuck). 
(S01E01) Just as the new Parenthood series coming to NBC is a re-imagining of the classic movie, 10 Things I Hate About You is a very loose take on the film of the same name. And the film itself is a loose take on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The only real connection to that source is an early name-drop for the playwright.
For my daughter's twelfth birthday, she decided to have four of her friends sleep over, and it turned out to be the same night that The Secret Life of the American Teenager season two was premiering. OK, she actually sort of planned it that way. All but one of her friends is allowed to watch the show, and she managed to talk her mom into it "just this once." I totally respect that. I write a family movie column and have kids of my own, so I'm fairly in tune with what is and isn't appropriate for various age groups. 
Last night was the second season premiere of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a show that's really superficial. That's not me saying that, it's Tom Shales at the Washington Post, who says that the show is "an unabashed throwback to soaps of ages past" and one that "makes no attempt to camouflage artifice and superficiality." And I think he likes the show (though it sounds like he hasn't watched a soap opera since 1976).
We all watched her grow up on Full House and then we watched her disappear from our television screens, seemingly forever. I don't know if I'll go so far as to say Candace Cameron was to the early '90s what Alyssa Milano was to the late '80s, but that's because I'll be forever loyal to my boyhood crush on Samantha Micelli. But while Milano has been on the airwaves virtually every season since the question of Who's the Boss? was answered when the network canceled it, not so for Cameron.
It's official. I'll finally be able to watch Lost online for free without having to get up from the couch to click "Continue" after an ad plays on ABC.com.
Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
The TV Squad Podcast: The Prisoner, '80s TV, soap news and more
Let's talk about spoilers ...
