AccidentallyOnPurpose-related stories
Posted Nov 10th 2009 1:28PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Reality-Free, The Big Bang Theory
So last night I sat down for some laughs with the CBS Monday night sitcom lineup. It's a weekly thing I do with my spouse, a chance to get away from the computer screen and just relax for a while. Normally, I relish this time because -- for the most part -- I love 75% of the shows from eight o'clock till
CSI: Miami. (I usually empty the dishwasher during
Accidentally on Purpose, sort of half-watching it because, as I've said before, it's just not working for me.)
Well, it seemed like last night's CBS comedies went off the rails. They strained to be funny, in all the wrong ways. Here are my thoughts, show by show -- including
Accidentally (which I did watch):
Continue reading Monday's CBS sitcoms went off the rails last night
Posted Nov 4th 2009 9:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
CBS Monday night comedies have been doing pretty well so far this season, as far as the ratings are concerned.
The Big Bang Theory is challenging
Two and a Half Men for top Nielsens for a sitcom;
How I Met Your Mother is doing as well or better than last year, and the new kid on the block,
Jenna Elfman in
Accidentally on Purpose, has benefited by being smackdab in the middle of all that established comic success.
CBS has ordered five additional episodes of Accidentally on Purpose. It's not a ringing endorsement, but it does give the show a chance to improve on what it's done thus far.
Continue reading CBS orders a bit more Accidentally on Purpose
Posted Sep 24th 2009 11:01AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free, Cougar Town
Some of you may think that TV Squad is filled with cheerleaders, that we all love TV so much that we rarely pull out our swords and skewer a show. Well, this should change your mind. I tuned in to
Cougar Town last night and, I have to say, I was appalled. I thought I had seen what is likely the worst sitcom of the season --
Accidentally on Purpose -- but
Cougar Town has surpassed it in badness.
Let me preface the rest of this criticism by saying that I was a loyal viewer of
Friends. I liked Bruce Springsteen's video
Dancing in the Dark.
Scream was a hoot! I've been following Courteney Cox's career for years and I think she's terrific. She's funny and pretty and self-deprecating. I went into
Cougar Town with high hopes. In other words, I have good will for Courteney Cox, like Jenna Elfman.
Continue reading The women of Cougar Town are obsessed with sex
Posted Sep 21st 2009 9:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E01) Watching
Accidentally on Purpose, thoughts of Seth Rogen danced in my mind. Not Seth, actually, but the film
Knocked Up. This is the second year in a row that CBS seems obsessed with that film. Last season, it was
Worst Week, with a schlubby Kyle Bornheimer channeling Rogen's goofy lack of grace. It didn't work and
Worst Week bit the dust. Now we have
Jenna Elfman in the Katherine Heigl role, knocked up by accident after a one-night stand, albeit with a twist. Instead of a schlub, Jenna's fling is a boy-toy named Zach.
And there you have the premise of
Accidentally on Purpose. Are you ROFL? Will you LOL? Read on after the jump.
Continue reading Accidentally on Purpose: Pilot (series premiere)
Posted Sep 17th 2009 9:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
On her
new CBS sitcom, Accidentally on Purpose,
Jenna Elfman plays a woman who picks up a guy, has a one-night stand and winds up pregnant. It may be a case of being overly practical, but
in real life Jenna Elfman has gotten pregnant because, as she put it, "My character's pregnant the whole first season, so I said, 'It's a good time to have another baby, because we won't have to hide it."
Isn't that a good reason to have a baby? Elfman, who's married to actor Bodhi Elfman, is already a mommy. She and Bodhi have a two-year old son named Story. Hmm, you think they're ever tempted to sing, "Here's the story of a kid named Story..."?
Continue reading Jenna Elfman is pregnant on TV and off
Posted Sep 16th 2009 11:03AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Like most people in this world, I often turn to master geek musician
Jonathan Coulton when I'm trying to figure out how I should feel about something (you can smell hair burning when I try to think for myself).
So imagine my horror when the Fall schedule started filling out and Mr. Coulton was still dealing with strictly music-related matters. Well, I can finally have a restful night of sleep, because John Sellers of True Slant has gotten
Jonathan Coulton's take on Fall TV.
Continue reading Jonathan Coulton weighs in on Fall TV
Posted Sep 8th 2009 7:01PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, NCIS, Reality-Free, Glee, Community, Modern Family, V
Each year, as the new fall season approaches, I go through all the magazine and online sources talking about the various shows to try and figure out which ones I'm going to be excited about, and which I'm going to avoid like the plague.
Inevitably, I wind up sampling plenty of shows from which I should have steered clear. At the same time, a few shows will slip between the cracks, and then I'm bashing my head against the wall because I missed out on the beginning of something special. I hate coming into things late.
This year, I decided to share my top and bottom five selections. I'm sure the rest of the Squadders and you will have differing opinions than mine, but that's what makes America great, right? Chime in with your own lists in the comments.
Continue reading Ranking my enthusiasm for the new fall slate
Posted Sep 3rd 2009 12:04PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Programming, Reality-Free
The networks have had a quiet summer, quietly introducing scripted bomb after scripted bomb, so they're certainly ready to jump into the new fall season. And It looks to be an interesting one. ABC is scheduling a two-hour block of new comedies on Wednesdays as the sitcom tries to make a comeback.
Even more risky is NBC handing 10:00 to Jay Leno every night of the week. Everyone's waiting to see how that one plays out. FOX is banking on huge positive buzz for
Glee to make it a hit, while ABC is hoping
FlashForward can pick up where
Lost is leaving off when it wraps its run this season.
To help you with it all, TV Squad has put together a handy calendar of all the premieres so you can schedule responsibly in this busy time of TV watching. Some nights have as many as twelve premieres scheduled, so you might need to invest in a few more DVRs to catch all your favorites; Monday's still look grim. Bookmark this page and you'll have it handy to help see you through.
Continue reading TV Squad's complete 2009-10 fall season premiere calendar
Posted Jul 2nd 2009 2:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, Programming, OpEd, Upfronts
Generally speaking, CBS had a strong 2008, developing one bona fide hit drama --
The Mentalist -- even though shows like
The Ex-List never found an audience or a critical plaudit. Ironically, I liked
The Ex-List based on the screener I reviewed last summer, so go figure. Sometimes a preview can inform you about a show's potential and sometimes it's just the best it'll ever be.
CBS has shared previews for
the new season and we've had a chance to take a look. There are star vehicles for Jenna Elfman, Alex O'Loughlin and Julianna Margulies, which would seem logical based on the success of Simon Baker as
The Mentalist. CBS is counting on familiar, popular TV stars to win over audiences. Will the strategy work? It's probably too soon to tell.
Continue reading TV Squad previews CBS's new shows
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 19th 2009 12:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Upfronts, Reality-Free
We're still over 24 hours away from
CBS making their official announcements about the new season, but apparently pre-upfront news is as plentiful as upfront news, so here we are with
more information about what CBS will be telling us tomorrow. In addition to the already leaked
three dramas that are a go -- Alex O'Loughlin in
Three Rivers, Julianna Margulies in
The Good Wife, and LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell in the
NCIS spin-off -- today we've learned about three more new shows.
Jenna Elfman is back on TV with a new sitcom. In 2006, she tried a CBS comedy called
Courting Alex that failed to click, but she had a five-year run on ABC with
Dharma & Greg. The actress toplines
Accidentally on Purpose, playing a film critic (and I hope whatever publication she writes for doesn't go belly-up like so many others these days) who accidentally gets pregnant after a fling with a younger man. I'm laughing already.
Continue reading More about CBS's plans for the new season
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