TVSquad

We've talked a lot about this before, the shows we love that haven't been released on DVD for one reason or another. Now PremiumHollywood.com has chosen the 26 shows, A to Z, that they bought on the shiny little discs.

It's a great idea, though I don't understand why they call the list "cult TV" when it has shows on it like L.A. Law and Eight is Enough. Some good choices here though. I would have chosen Ed, Private Eye, Something So Right, Shannon's Deal. A lot of shows that I never thought would be released on DVD are now getting released, so every year my dream list gets smaller and smaller.

You?

It's good to know that in times of economic uncertainty and the impending collapse of our infrastructure that our leaders are taking the time to combat the true faces of evil in our world -- penis pill ads.

U.S. Rep Jim Moran of Virginia recently sent letters to three major drug manufacturing companies (Pfizer, Eli Lily, and GlaxoSmithKline) asking them to "tone down" the nature and material of their erectile dysfunction ads on TV.

Moran's beef (ahem) with the companies are how they affect the children, stating, "Parents should be able to watch a football game with their kids without having to either mute the television or explain the side effects of a life enhancement drug." The issue seems to be a personal one for the representative. I mean with the television ads, not ED, although I can't say that with any certainty, or maybe I just don't want to.

I will guess that a lot of people think that the reason why we have another cable drama set in the world of advertising is because of the success of AMC's Mad Men. And while the honors that the 60s-based show probably gave TNT execs an extra reason to look at Trust Me and put its production into overdrive, the show has actually been in the works for a while.

The comparisons are going to come though. The shows are very different. Judging from the first two episodes, they're not only different in setting (2009 Chicago vs. 1960 NYC) and tone (faster paced, with more obvious humor than Mad Men), they're not really going for anything deep or tackling any big issues.

Every year around this time we all make our Christmas Wish Lists and our general wishes for the new year. There are the big wishes that we have every year: world peace, good health, the hope that Paris Hilton will find that special someone and just settle down already. But we here at TV Squad have some very specific TV-related wishes we want full filled too. Here are mine.

• Matthew Weiner to sign up for another season of Mad Men. The show is coming back for a third season but there might be a slight hitch with signing the show's creator and showrunner. I'm sure that in the end everything will be settled and he'll be back, I'd just like to have it by the end of the year if that's possible. Thanks!

Can two cable shows about the advertising world co-exist? Of course they can. With 12 Law and Orders, 9 CSIs, and 57 reality shows where sexy people live in a house, I think we can have two shows about advertising.

Trust Me is the new name of the TNT series Truth in Advertising. It stars Eric McCormack (Will and Grace) as Mason and Tom Cavanagh (Ed) as Connor, best friends who also run an ad agency. Unlike Mad Men, it's set in the present day. Also unlike Mad Men, it's set in Chicago. See? Two big differences right there.

If you've been watching NBC's Olympic coverage, you must have seen all of the promotion they have been doing for their fall season. New shows My Own Worst Enemy, Crusoe, Knight Rider, Kath & Kim, and America's Toughest Jobs have all had plenty of play. As have the returning Chuck and Life. Given that the latest Olympiad is closing in on becoming the most watched television event of all time, you might think those promo spots were pretty valuable.

Apparently, not so much. The Hollywood Reporter runs down the record for the network promoting new shows during past games. In 2004, the Athens games led to one show, Joey, making it beyond its first season. Likewise for the Sydney games in 2000, which brought us Ed, and nothing else. Things were a little better in 1996 from Atlanta. Profiler, The Pretender, and Suddenly Susan all lasted another four years. Not a stellar track record and it leaves you thinking that those precious spots might have served the network better pitching more beer. It has the makings of a good poll though. After the jump, place your vote for the one new show that will make it out of season one.

Okay, you know how on How I Met Your Mother there's a big, ongoing story about who is actually the mother? Well, I think CBS has spilled some of that storyline over to Two and a Half Men, the show that usually is paired with HIMYM on Monday nights. Why do I say this? Because they seemed to have cast a mother!

Actress Rena Sofer has been cast on Two and a Half Men as someone who played a significant role in Charlie's life and she comes back into it on September 22, the season opener. She brings along a child when she returns, a little boy -- her son -- who may have some connection to Charlie.

Now, the connection hasn't been spelled out, but if he has an affinity for booze, plays the piano, wears bowling shirts and chases little girls, you can bet he's Charlie's child. Of course, the writers will probably be more subtle, but this would be an interesting wrinkle in the show if that's the direction in which they're going.

This past weekend (May 24) marked the fourth anniversary of the death of comic and writer Drake Sather. No one knows what goes on in the mind of someone who takes their own life, but this guy was brilliant and quite funny. Besides his great standup work, he was a writer and producer on NewsRadio (he also played Jimmy James' attorney in two different episodes of the show), and also wrote for such shows as Saturday Night Live, Ed, The Dennis Miller Show, Sammy,The Naked Truth, Empty Nest, and The Larry Sanders Show. He also wrote the movie Zoolander.

After the jump is a standup routine from Sather, filmed at the San Diego Improv in 1992 (split up into three different videos). It's actually rather amazing that a lot of funny bits and lines that I've used over the past 10 years came from Sather.

So sad, but his work does live on.

When one of our favorite TV shows goes off the air, it always brings sadness. However, many times, the silver lining in the cancellation is the birth of a spinoff. Sometimes it can be a great thing (Frasier) and sometimes the results can be less than ideal (The Art of Being Nick). Last month's spin-off ideas were so popular, I decided to make this a regular post. Here are some more spinoff ideas that I would love to see.

The Sherwood-Forrest Report
After the retirement of veteran newswoman Murphy Brown, Corky Sherwood-Forrest and her husband Will Forrest become the hosts of a new show on Court TV. Corky is the moderator while Will provides legal expertise along with a rotating team of guest legal scholars (Marcia Cross, Star Jones, Greta Van Susteren).

What is all this talk I keep hearing about saving October Road? Is it really worth saving? I watched about as much as I could stand and I really didn't see anything worth fighting for.

First, let's look at the premise: Small town boy comes home and tries to re-assimilate into his old ways. Sounds like an unfunny version of Ed. Besides, Nick seemed to be pretty much back in the groove by the second episode.

Various things I've been thinking about lately.

1. I don't know why I didn't notice this before, but the guy who plays Horn-Rimmed Glasses Man on Heroes, Jack Coleman, is the guy who played Steven Carrington on Dynasty in the 80s! I didn't recognize him at all. Not that I watched Dynasty. I was a Knot's Landing guy. Great hair though.

So I had a light evening last night when it came to TV. Nip/Tuck is over, House was a double repeat, and there wasn't much else on that I cared to watch. So I flicked on my Arrested Development DVDs and then I did something terribly stupid.

A friend of mine had sent me a small holiday gift basket, which happened to contain some of that cheap egg-nog that comes in a can. And what did I do with it? I made some of Stamford Andy's "Nogasake," featured on last week's holiday episode of The Office. Remember? He and Michael ordered it at the Benihana restaurant? Well, it was gross. Egg-nog mixed with sake is an absolutely horrible idea. Needless to say, I feel terrible this morning and don't feel like moving. But I suppose I'm well enough to make some Festivus wishes, so here's want I want.

A satisfying end to The Sopranos - So help me, these final nine episodes had better be freakin' amazing. I know there's been a lot of speculation that it's all going to be in Tony's head or that Kevin Finnerty is who he actually is, but if David Chase and Co. pull a St. Elsewhere on us and the whole thing happens inside of a snow globe or whatever... I'm going to be disappointed. I want it to be real.

The former Ed and Stella star is an editor-at-large at the new relaunced Cracked mag, which is going for the hearts and minds of twentysomething guys and not the kids. Mediabistro talked to Black about Stella, how he got the Cracked gig, and what the status is on a State movie (hint: it has something to do with iTunes).

They don't ask him about his appearances on Celebrity Poker Showdown though, which is too bad, since he's been one of the better players on the show. But I guess there's really not much you can ask about that. "So, you're a good poker player, eh?" or "Boy, such-and-such is really a moron, aren't they?"

We've all heard of "comfort foods," those foods that we always return to, the ones that we love and make us feel good and maybe even bring back good memories. But TV shows can be the same way. They might not be our "favorite" shows (though they very well could be), but they certainly make us feel so good we want to keep watching them (and now with DVDs, it's even easier). Here are mine:

1. The Dick Van Dyke Show: My favorite TV show of all time, but it's also a feel-good show: a positive family show and a clever showbiz show at the same time. A childhood favorite that never lost any appeal for me, even as I became an adult.

I don't know about you folks in the reading audience, but I'm really looking forward to the premiere of Love Monkey, for a number of reasons. One is that I, like Bob Sassone, was a huge fan of Ed, and I love the fact that Tom Cavanagh has chosen himself another off-beat, somewhat quirky dramedy in which to star. Another thing that excites me is the fact that Tom's character is an A&R rep for a record label, so music is going to be a very big part of the show, as is a New York City music scene that has never been examined too deeply on any TV show (Think I'm wrong? Well, let's put it this way: the fact that the Friends kids were excited about going to see a Hootie and the Blowfish concert should have gotten them all forcibly removed from the West Village).

But anyone who read Kyle Smith's book Love Monkey would know that the main character, Tom Farrell, was not an A&R guy, but a copy editor for a New York Post-like tabloid. So why the change? This article in The New York Times explains it; someone suggested to the show's creator, Michael Rauch, that making Farrell a record exec would make him a bit more of a dynamic character, and adding a musical aspect to the show would make it livelier.