TVSquad

I love Cosby sweaters--those loud, patterned fashion monstrosities that look good on no one. Bill Cosby is auctioning off three sweaters from his days as Heathcliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Proceeds from the eBay auction will benefit Hello Friend/The Ennis William Cosby Foundation, which supports education. Cosby started the foundation in 1997 to honor his son's memory.

The auction will run from June 2 to June 18, with opening bids starting at $5,000 per hideous sweater. It's all for a good cause, though. Hello Friend donates books to underfunded schools and helps train teachers, among other things. Ennis Cosby was studying to be a teacher at the time of his death, and his family wanted to continue his work.

New TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Chappelle's Show - Best Of
• CHiPs - Season 1
• The Cosby Show - Seasons 3 and 4
• Dark Angel - Seasons 1 and 2 (Thin)
• The Dead Zone - Season 5
• Doctor Who - Stories 115, 116 and 117
• The Fall Guy - Season 1, Volumes 1 and 2 and also a Season 1 set
• The Henry Rollins Show - Season 1
• Hex - Season 1
• Hogan's Heroes - Season 6
• Mission: Impossible - Season 2
• The Outer Limits - Vol. 1
• Rescue Me - Season 3
• Robin Hood - Season 1
• Seinfeld - Season 8
• SpongeBob SquarePants - Bikini Bottom Adventures
• Survivorman - Survivorman
• The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson - Best of Standup Comedians and The King of Late Night
• Wait Till Your Father Gets Home - Season 1
• What's New Scooby Doo? - Season 2

Henry and Matt at Brohans.com have compiled what they are absolutely, positively sure are the twenty greatest '80s television series ever. They are:

• Mr. Belvedere
• The Dukes of Hazzard
• Knight Rider
• Night Court
• ALF
• Perfect Strangers
• The Golden Girls
• Growing Pains
• Married ... with Children
• Who's the Boss?
• Magnum P.I.
• Doogie Howser, M.D.
• The Cosby Show
• The A-Team
• Miami Vice
• The Wonder Years
• MASH
• MacGyver
• Cheers
• Star Trek: The Next Generation

I took this quiz over at Mental Floss and scored 100%. You have to match the sitcom with the house/setting they show in the opening credits.

By the way, I'm not bragging about that score, the test is just incredibly easy, especially since two of the pictures are very, very easy to identify, which means you can guess the others by process of elimination, if you don't know one or two of them. I mean, one of the shows is The Love Boat, so you know there's going to be a boat involved, right?

This might prove to be very satisfying, that you know you TV homes as much as you do your own. On the other hand, it might be kind of scary that somewhere in your mind you have actually memorized what sitcom family homes look like (and from shows that you probably haven't seen in a long time).

Also, just so you know, scroll down very slowly and stop when you get to the sitcom names. If you go any further you'll see the answers, and you don't want that to happen.

[via Pop Candy]

Bill Cosby's overly-earnest public speaking career has him aiming for a South Park send-up. His latest potentially controversial outing came Saturday at Los Angeles' Maranatha Community Church.

Cosby's address at a forum entitled "Education is a Civil Right" took on black parents and educators for not setting goals for children or being able to answer their questions about why education is important. Saturday's speech offered none of Cosby's past, more inflammatory criticisms of young African-Americans for squandering the progress made by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Has television's ideal dad aged into an unfunny curmudgeon, a much-needed public intellectual or just another self-important celebrity?

As devoted TV and movie fans know, "Alan Smithee" is the name that a director uses on a project when he or she doesn't like the final version of a film, because of editing, cutting, or some other process that destroys his vision of the film. Or maybe he just doesn't want his name associated with it for some reason. It's usually against Director's Guild rules, but the director can appeal and have their name replaced.

"Alan Smithee" has an impressive body of work. He directed two episodes of MacGyver, including the pilot. He has also directed episodes of Nero Wolfe, The Cosby Show, Red Shoe Diaries, Karen's Song, the 80s version Twilight Zone, Paper Dolls, and Mrs. Columbo, as well as Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" video and the TV movies The O.J. Simpson Story and The Birds II. His most recent credit was 2005's Living Better with Steve Spitz, whatever that is. There was an even a big screen movie named An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, which was directed by...Alan Smithee! (In reality, Arthur Hiller.)

[via Jason Kottke]

Every Tuesday here on TV Squad , we will highlight the week's TV-on-DVD releases. Some noteworthy releases today, March 7, 2006:

• Andromeda - Vol 5.4
• Baby Looney Tunes - Volume 1: Playday Pals; Volume 2: Let's Play Pretend
• The Brady Bunch - The Complete 5th Season
• The Cosby Show - Season 2
• The Electric Company - The Best of The Best of The Electric Company
• The Flintstones - Season 5
• Hogan's Heroes - The Complete 3rd Season
• Lily the Witch - Volume 1; Volume 2
• Multiple Shows - Star Trek: The Borg Fan Collective
• Police Woman - The Complete 1st Season
• The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour - The Complete Series
• Three's Company - Season 6
• Underdog - The Best of Go-Go Gophers; The Best of Tennessee Tuxedo
• Walking Tall - The Complete Series
• Wild 'N Out - Season 1