TVSquad

Most prime time network shows have a chain of command that would make the Pentagon look like a PTA board.

There's the writers who send their scripts to the show runners who then have to filter their changes through the director who send them to the producer where it's thumbed through and sent to a group of picky censors and so on and so on. Ninety offices later, the script is finally ready for shooting, even though the story went from a quirky drama about a lawyer who represents illegal immigrants to a sci-fi epic about mutant leeches who suck out astronauts' brains through their nostrils.

But actor Jaleel White has found a place in Hollywood where the usual studio aristocracy has been thrown away in the name of freedom and simplicity: the Internet.

"I'm so excited about it because I don't need to go to an executive now," White said in a recent phone interview. "Our focus group is America."

Lost fanatics, rejoice! We may still have, oh, more than half a year left before we get cheerfully dumped with a load of new episodes (::drool::), but in the meantime, we have DVD's, abc.com, repeats on SyFy, and YouTube!

Yes, YouTube.

Well, technically, we can't get our fix of full episodes on "the Tubez," but the site still provides us with plenty of fodder; fan dedications, clip montages, and music videos galore. Let's face it: people love their Hurley birds, smoke monsters, and everlasting, cancer-conquering romances. And why shouldn't they?

Even though I've written about TV for many years, I've never gone on a hunt to find the location for a particular TV show. Not that I wouldn't, I just haven't yet. These Family Matters fans in the clip below went to Chicago to try to find Steve Urkel's house. Though it's not exactly his house, it's the Winslow house (Urkel was the neighbor).

Is the Winslow place "one of the most recognizable sitcom facades" as the narrator says?

Update (6/11): After the jump, a clarification on this post.


[via BuzzFeed]

I've always had this theory that even the worst songs in the world can sound better if you play them on an acoustic guitar. You can take the most insipid sitcom theme song or the most bombastic heavy metal tune, and when you play the song on an acoustic guitar, it suddenly becomes more profound, more deep, just better somehow.

The folks over at Best Week Ever have complied a great set of videos that show people doing the theme songs to various TV shows on various instruments. Some of them are pretty straightforward with normal instruments (for example, a small orchestra doing the Muppet Show theme and Family Matters done on piano), while others are rather odd and unexpected, like the parrot doing the Andy Griffith Show theme or The Love Boat performed on a theremin. After the jump, one of my favorites: the theme to Baywatch performed by a guy on an acoustic guitar. He even has his shirt off like a lifeguard and shows pics from the show.

I still don't get that MacGyver theme on the ruler though.

Battlestar Galactica is premiering! Did you know that? BSG is starting again. Ten eps left. Best show ever. Can. Not. Wait. Especially because we need to know the identity of the final Cylon!

Look, we're so crazy excited for the season premiere that the only thing we could do to keep ourselves from going a'spoiler-hunting was to create a wishlist. Below are six characters from other shows throughout history whom we imagine share the same genetics as those frakkin' Toasters.

I know many of you have been waiting for this moment, so I'll get right to it. Tonight begins the official entry of Family Matters onto the Nick at Nite schedule. Starting at 9 p.m., there will be a marathon of the series that began as a spinoff of the ABC sitcom Perfect Strangers.

For those unfamiliar with the show, Family Matters was a traditional sitcom about the Winslows -- Carl, Harriet, Eddie, Laura, the other daughter that mysteriously disappeared mid-way through the series, Grandma Estelle, Aunt Rachel, and, eventually, cousin Richie. Of course, all of these characters became second bananas to one Steve Urkel, who eventually became the star of the show. Face it, you didn't tune in to see what wisdom Carl would pass on to his son Eddie. You tuned in to see Urkel breaking something at the Winslow home, fawning over Laura, inventing transformation chambers and Urkel-bots, and uttering the now-famous phrase, "Did I do that?"

To get you warmed up for Urkel specifically and Family Matters as a whole, Nick at Nite has provided an Urkel-O-Meter on their website to determine how much of the suspenders-wearing nerd we have in all of us. By answering a few questions the Urkel-O-Meter tells you if you are suave like Stefan Urquelle, a belle like Myrtle Urkel, or a true, lovable nerd like Urkel himself. After taking the quiz it turns out that I am a true Steve Urkel. Well, no surprise to some of you readers out there, is it?

I need everyone to take a deep breath and calm down. For some reason a rumor has been circulating around the internet that Jaleel White, who played the nerdy-but-lovable Urkel on the TGIF staple Family Matters, committed suicide anywhere between December, 2005 and last month. An alleged Associated Press report stated that White left a suicide note with his former catchphrase "Did I do that?" next to his body. A picture of a gentleman that was supposed to look like Jaleel (except with shaved head. See right) was connected to the story. These rumors eventually reached us here at TV Squad central.

Well, folks, it isn't Jaleel. So, you can all breathe a sigh of relief. It's all a hoax that began at the end of 2005 and, for some reason, popped up again recently. In fact, he recently appeared in an episode of 24 according to iMDb.

So, before you build the makeshift memorials, and have Family Matters parties to commemorate the life of Jaleel White, please go to museumofhoaxes for proof that Urkel is alive and well.

[Bless Von for the time-saving tip]

UPDATE: Folks, your hopes and prayers for Jaleel have not gone unanswered. We were able to get in touch with Mr. White and this is what he had to say:

I'm very much alive and well. Thank you to all who have chosen to spread the truth about my mortality.

Jaleel