TVSquad

ABC in turning things around on The View -- at least for one day. In what a cynic might call a stunt, The View is going to broadcast one show from the next two weeks from backstage. Essentially, what they're doing, is a rerun, but in a way you never saw the show.

On Friday, May 30, the experimental episode will show how The View is made, by lifting the curtain so you can see how the magic happens. They've chosen to show the upside down, backstage View on that Friday - and don't worry about marking it in your calendar. You can expect plenty of reminders from Barbara Walters (if she's there), Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd. With all that behind the scenes footage, only half of the show as seen originally -- from the camera's point of view -- will be seen.

It looks like someone took the effort to create a Flash player with embedded videos of many of the upcoming new fall shows. Included are clips from Dollhouse, Fringe, Life on Mars, The Eleventh Hour, Scrubs, The Cleveland Show, The Goode Family (pictured right) as well as several others. I only had a chance to look at some of them. The previews aren't of all the new shows available in the fall (NBC only has one preview), but it's still quite a few. Which ones are missing?

Embedded videos after the jump

Michael Weinfeld of the Associated Press was able to sit down with television's most neurotic homemaker. Marcia Cross, who plays Bree Hodge on Desperate Housewives, dished about this Sunday's big finale event. The muffin-baking, rose bush-pruning domestic diva told all about what happens to herself and the other inhabitants of Wisteria Lane.

SPOILER ALERT: Marcia Cross talks about the Desperate Housewives finale after the jump.

You could call it bailing from a sinking ship, assuming you think the current changes on Guiding Light are something like being on the Titanic. On the other hand, it may just be a talented actress spreading her wings to take on a new challenge. However you couch it, Guiding Light star Beth Ehlers is bolting the CBS soap for ABC's All My Children. She'll be assuming the role of Liza Colby Chandler, the part most recently played by Marcy Walker (who played Tangie back on Guiding Light in 1993).

This is the second major exit from GL, and it seems that the bottom line reason for the departures is the bottom line. Cost cutting across the board at the P&G soaps -- GL and As the World Turns -- have squeezed the actors salaries. Martha Byrne and Scott Bryce left ATWT in recent months, reportedly in contract disputes, and Ricky Paull Goldin departed GL last month and was quickly snatched up by All My Children. Just like Ehlers.

And how coincidental that they were a major couple in Springfield. They even won a special Daytime Emmy in 2002 as America's Favorite Couple -- GL's Harley and Gus. Well, now they can spark that same chemistry in Pine Valley. Move over, Erica and Adam and Tad and Joe, you've got company.

So the networks have given their upfront presentations. It's not easy to pick which shows look the best. Sure, we can base our judgments on what "type" of show we usually like anyway or a producer that's involved or someone who is in the lead. But we're still just basing it on a description (or a snippet from each show). It really comes down to the writing and the execution in general.

Having said all that, here are the shows that look great to me, based on the upfront description, the cast and crew involved, and how my tastes run in general.

Is it just me or are DVD releases getting announced earlier and earlier? Whatever the case, Lost fans can plan on getting the season four DVD as a Christmas/ Hanukkah/Kwanzaa present because it doesn't come out until December 9th. Which makes sense I suppose, since the show returns in early '09.

The 5-disc set (aka "The Expanded Experience") will obviously include all 14 season four eps plus a ton of goodies. As far as DVD sets go, Lost always has great extras. According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, expect to see 5 featurettes, bloopers, deleted scenes, and audio commentaries for some of the episodes. The one goodie that really has me excited? The "Oceanic Airlines Safety Guide." Hilarious. It immediately made me think of Airtoons -- all those funny and inappropriate airline safety cards.

As with season three, there will also be a BluRay release but I've got to be honest. I have the regular season three DVDs and they look pretty damn good on my HDTV set. So I'm not convinced that shelling out the extra $40 to $50 bucks is really worth it. Yet, anyway. You can pre-order both at Amazon for way less though - $38.99 for the normal DVDs and $66.95 for the BluRay.

(S04E15) "Tell her... tell her the train is leaving the station and she better get on it... yeah." - Webber

I don't know what to think anymore. You know, at the end of Grey's Anatomy when you see the title card for Shonda Rhimes' production company? Have you noticed what it is? Shondaland? It's a roller coaster. How appropriate. I mean, don't get me wrong. Even though I feel like everything on TV is still getting sort of a free pass to some extent due to post writer's strike "hey, at least it's new" syndrome, this was actually a great episode... for the most part. Which I suppose could be interpreted as getting a free pass due to "hey, at least there was a lesbian kiss" syndrome.

Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence recently did an interview with TV Guide's Michael Ausiello and took NBC to task for its shoddy treatment of the show. The network cut the comedy's final season short, but the show is getting a second chance on ABC. Lawrence slammed his former network bosses for denying him the opportunity to conclude the show properly, and discussed Scrubs' future on ABC. Here's a brief recap of the interview:

• Once the strike was over, Lawrence told NBC that he could finish up the season in three episodes instead of the planned seven. NBC had no interest in wrapping up the season in a way that would satisfy fans.

(S01E7) Originally aired on April 30, 1996.

It's easy to forget just how funny this show was. It's not just that it had a bunch of funny material and a talented cast (including Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Robert Smigel), it's that the batting average for each show was damn good. There's more funny stuff in each 30 minutes of a Dana Carvey Show episode than in 90 minutes of Saturday Night Live or even SCTV. No dead moments to sit through. I'm not sure why this show was so short-lived (other than the fact that the first episode featured Carvey as President Clinton, suckling a bunch of cats on his teats). And ratings, ratings, blah, blah, blah.

It was actually kinda hard to pick a standout episode since so many episodes have a lot of great stuff. But I think the video after the jump has some classic moments.

This is one of my favorite comedies of the past ten years, and I no idea that it actually starred not one but two cast members from Lost. More on that after the jump.

Married to the Kellys was a sitcom that ran on Friday nights on ABC during the 2003-04 season, part of their TGIF comedy lineup. But I think this show stood out as something for adults more than kids. It starred Breckin Meyer as a New York City writer who publishes his first novel and decides to keep his promise to his wife and move (he thought she meant move from the Village to the Upper West Side, not "America"). Now, this is where the usual big city guy vs. Kansas jokes come into play, but that's just half of the show.

Here are the weekly TV ratings, by number of viewers.

Last week I mentioned that Lost wasn't in the top 20. Well, this week it returns. Not to the highs it was earlier this year, but hey, I wouldn't mind almost 11 million people watching what I do each week (I'm talking about writing, not going to the bathroom or eating a sandwich). Survivor's finale and regular episode both made the top 20, even though it was the lowest-rated finale in the history of the show.

1. American Idol - Weds (FOX)
2. American Idol - Tues (FOX)

Sometimes you have to call it like you see it. Last week, One Life to Live staged a bachelorette party for Adriana with a surprise appearance (not to viewers, but to the characters) by Snoop Dogg. I was skeptical. This sounded like just another shoe-horned, topical musical guest starring role to throw a spotlight on the show. Well, it was to a point. It was a publicity stunt. However, the way One Life put the show together, this intervention was something to shout about. It was a superb hour of music, comedy, drama and soap entertainment. If you're going to be cast in a bright spotlight, you better shine, and that's just was One Life to Live did.

Today ABC revealed its 2008-2009 schedule, where many fan favorites were listed as returning, along with some disappointing cancellations. Every year, though, there's one show that stands out in that list of returning shows; a show that, nearly every time its name is uttered here, gets slammed and ridiculed, boggling minds as to why, oh why, is it getting yet another season. That show is, of course, According to Jim.

Once again, According to Jim gets to continue on ABC for another season. If you read the comments here, though, it's not as though anyone is particularly happy about it. "WTF" and "you've got to be kidding me" are common reactions to this news. So, I have to wonder: if so many people seem to hate this show, despise it so much as to make it the brunt of many TV-related jokes, and to be shocked -- SHOCKED, I tell you -- that the network could continue to allow such an atrocity to linger on, then who is watching it?

Joel asked this question before, but now I want to know. After the jump I've put a poll in place to get some idea of who's behind the ratings that keep breathing life into Jim Belushi's career.

Recently, the AOL list of the 50 Best Sitcoms of all time got me thinking about ten all time great sitcom sidekicks. Working on that list inspired me to look at the best in sitcom siblings -- ADULTS ONLY. The brother/sister relationship, brothers, sisters, family dynamics are great fodder for comedy. For my collection of the best, I've limited it to grown-up siblings only because there are some truly funny things that happen only among adults brothers and sisters that are unique and universal at the same time. After all, unlike the childhood years when kids are controlled by parents, adult siblings remain close and in each other's lives by choice -- and that has made for some wonderful situation comedy.

Niles & Frasier Crane, Frasier
Two brothers, both psychiatrists, both opera buffs, both wine connoisseurs, both heterosexual despite evidence to the contrary. The Crane brothers were like two peas in a very funny pod, sparking each other in comedy, competitive and supportive at the same time. Making their brotherly friendship even funnier was the fact that their Dad, Martin, who was nothing like either one of them. What's even funnier is the fact that when Frasier was originally spun-off from Cheers, the writers didn't include the character of Niles. It was only after seeing an 8x10 of David Hyde Pierce, and how much he looked like Kelsey Grammer's brother, that they put him in the pilot. Frasier would not have been nearly the hit comedy it was without the brother angle.

ABC released its 2008-09 prime-time schedule this morning during a press conference call conducted by Steve McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment. I listened in and got the rundown:

Returning: Boston Legal, Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Grey's Anatomy, Lost (Midseason), Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, Ugly Betty, According to Jim (Midseason), Samantha Who?, America's Funniest Home Videos, The Bachelor (Midseason), Dancing With The Stars, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Supernanny, Wife Swap, Saturday Night College Football, Primetime: What Would You Do?

Out: October Road, Notes from the Underbelly, Men in Trees, Big Shots, Carpoolers, Cashmere Mafia, Cavemen, Miss/Guided, Women's Murder Club, Oprah's Big Give

New: Life on Mars, The Goode Family (Midseason), Scrubs (Midseason), Opportunity Knocks, Untitled Ashton Kutcher/Tyra Banks Project (Midseason)