Festivus-related stories
Posted Jan 2nd 2009 2:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, OpEd, Festivus, Celebrities, Reality-Free

What was the top TV story of the year? The choice was obvious to all of us, and probably all of you, too: The election. The 2008 race for the White House was not only historic, it was dramatic and played out more on TV with recognizable star personas than any election in recent memory.
And like a great TV show, it was a season-long run of highs and lows, tension and release, defeat and victory. Along the way, Americans made a choice about who will run the country for the next four years, but they were also entertained by a near constant barrage of media coverage in the form of maximum cable news, thousands of commercials, daily political commentary both serious and comic, a plethora of debates, and -- naturally --
Saturday Night Live's take on it all.
It all started about a year ago in the cold of Iowa and New Hampshire...
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2008: The election - VIDEOS
Posted Dec 22nd 2008 10:31AM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, The Shield, Festivus, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
...two perfect series finales.
As TV viewers, we've been conditioned to not let ourselves get too attached to good shows because more often than not, good shows get canceled early. Or, on the flip side, they go on far too long beyond their prime and the series finales end up falling short as unsatisfying afterthoughts.
So it's always a breath of fresh air when a truly quality program ends not only at its peak, but it ends with a series finale that does the entire run of the show justice. It doesn't happen often, and this year we were fortunate to say good-bye on a high note to two of the greatest cop dramas ever made, The Wire and The Shield.
Continue reading On the 2nd day of Festivus, TV gave to me...
Posted Dec 21st 2008 12:26PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Festivus, Celebrities, Heroes, Chuck, Reality-Free

...three Zachs for viewing. Perhaps it's just coincidence, but right now our TV world has a trio of superb young actors in very different programs and they're all named Zach. Coincidence or the fact that the year they were born, Zachary was a really popular name for baby boys? Whatever, the bottom line is that
Zach Braff, Zachary Levi, and
Zachary Quinto are terrific and
Scrubs, Chuck and
Heroes, respectively, wouldn't be the same without them.
What's really interesting about these three Zachs, beside the fact that they all share the same first name, is that they could probably all play each other's roles -- even though it's hard to imagine Braff or Levi as evil, they're good enough to do it. And Zachary Quinto has done the nerdy, computer guy when he was on
24.
It's interesting, but if you squint a little and tilt your head, they all could look like they're brothers. However, while the Three Zs may pass as the Three Amigos if you put them in sombreros, they are definitely making the TV world a much happier landscape.
Continue reading On the 3rd day of Festivus, TV gave to me... - VIDEOS
Posted Dec 21st 2008 11:06AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Festivus, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free

It's Festivus. Again. Already. Don't know how, but it is. This whole year has gone so quickly, leaving only a blur in my eyes and a weird taste in my mouth (a strange combination of lime soda and a squid dish I got from a street vendor once in Hong Kong). Following that line of weird, here's my weird list of weird things that I want for Festivus.
More comedy for history geeks: After writing my list of
Top Eleven Robot Buddies, I was struck by the terrible lack of history-related humor on today's television. Let's have another
Time Squad or
Clone High, shall we? Or give
Kate Beaton her own television show.
Continue reading All Annie wants for Festivus
Posted Dec 19th 2008 7:29PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Saturday Night Live, Festivus, The Office, Celebrities, 30 Rock, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl, Mad Men, Life on Mars, The Mentalist

Since I'm still new enough at TV Squad not to exist on the "Meet the TV Squad" page, this is my first Festivus. It's nice to be able to dig deep into my heart for all of my TV wishes in hopes that some internet fairy will grant them and make the television landscape just a little bit more awesome... for me, at least.
Without further ado, here is what I want for Festivus:
- Christina Hendricks and the rest of the Mad Men cast should guest-star on more shows. Ever since I started watching Mad Men, I've noticed Hendricks popping up places. She's on an episode of Without a Trace here, an old episode of Cold Case there... I love me some Joan Holloway and Mad Men isn't returning soon enough. I loved seeing Jon Hamm host SNL, and I'm super excited about his upcoming guest stint on 30 Rock. More please!
Continue reading All Kona wants for Festivus
Posted Dec 16th 2008 4:28PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Festivus, Talk Show, Reality-Free
Every year as Festivus comes, we here at TV Squad pump out these "all I want" lists and I always end up feeling guilty because, like everyone else, I come up with a ton of different requests...
I hope Lost is good.
Please don't let 24 suck.
Why can't Rachael Ray just disappear already?
...and on and on and on. Well not this year. This year I'm going to be conservative instead of greedy in the hopes that the Festivus gods will grant my one and only wish:
Come May 2009, please let Jay Leno fail in the 10PM time slot.
Continue reading All Jonathan wants for Festivus
Posted Dec 15th 2008 5:13PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: OpEd, House, Video, Grey's Anatomy, Festivus, Chuck, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl, Fringe, Life on Mars, The Mentalist
...Nine foreign AmericansWith all of the starry-eyed, out-of-work Midwesterners who litter Sunset Blvd., one would assume that our television landscape would be similarly populated with corn-fed blonds. You would, however, be wrong. In fact, there are a ton of non-Americans who have come to Hollywood to take all of our primetime show-starring jobs.
What's fun for me is watching the shows to see who does a good version of an American accent, and who needs to spend a little more time with their dialect coaches. Below are nine stars who've jumped the pond to come to the good ol' U. S. of A.
Continue reading On the 9th day of Festivus, TV gave to me... - VIDEOS
Posted Dec 14th 2008 2:49PM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: TV on DVD, Festivus, Reality-Free
... Ten shows on DVDSince there are
twelve shows a-stinkin' on TV this year (well, that's the low estimate), you might be glad to hear that 2008 brought us some spectacular TV on DVD. You knew there had to be a bright spot, right?
Whether you want to re-watch your favorite classic shows from the '50s or '60s (or earlier), or catch up on one of the hottest shows on current TV (yeah, there are a few) by starting with the first season, they've been released on DVD in 2008. It was actually hard to pick just ten, but for better or for worse, here are my picks:
Continue reading On the 10th day of Festivus, TV gave to me ...
Posted Dec 12th 2008 8:00AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Site Announcements, Festivus, Reality-Free

It's that time of year again... time to break out the metal pole, commence with the airing of grievances, and get limber in preparation to demonstrate the feats of strength. Yes, folks, Festivus is upon us once again!
Starting today, we'll be presenting what has become a yearly tradition for us: our own version of
The Twelve Days of Festivus. We're going to start with Rich's list of twelve shows that... well, you'll have to tune in later today to find out why those shows make our list. Each day, we'll have a list of things about TV that annoyed or enthralled us this past year, culminating on December 23 (the official day of
Festivus, according to Frank Costanza), when we list the best TV moment of the year -- pretty tough, because this year had a lot of moments to choose from.
If you're new here and don't know what the heck we're talking about, here are the lists from
2006 and
2007.
Posted Dec 11th 2008 4:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 8, CBS has a new Survivor, then new episodes of CSI and Eleventh Hour.
- NBC has a new My Name Is Earl at 8, followed by new episodes of Kath & Kim, The Office, 30 Rock, and ER.
- FOX has a new Secret Millionaire at 8, then a new Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?
- ABC Family has The Year Without A Santa Claus at 8, followed by Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys and Twas The Night Before Christmas.
- AMC has the original The Day The Earth Stood Still at 8.
- Cartoon Network has a new Chowder at 8.
- At 9, Lifetime has the movie Christmas Child.
- CNN's Planet in Peril premieres at 9.
- TBS has the Festivus episode of Seinfeld at 9.
- Food Network has the special Dear Food Network: Holiday Parties at 9.
- Hallmark has the movie Moonlight and Mistletoe at 9.
- Also at 9: Spike has a new TNA Impact!
- At 10:30, Comedy Central has a new Sarah Silverman Program.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
After the jump, the late night talk show listings.
Continue reading What's On Tonight: The Office, Eleventh Hour, Sarah Silverman
Posted Dec 3rd 2008 11:26AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: CSI, Casting, Reality-Free

Question: Is
Craig T. Nelson being cast on CSI: NY just another big star guest turn or could it be something more important? We don't know the answer yet, but I suspect that booking the Emmy-award winning TV star for three episodes could be a lot more significant than just pumping up the ratings during February sweeps with a meaty story arc.
What we do know is that the popular actor will be on
CSI: NY as an antagonist to Gary Sinise's character. Nelson will play Robert Parker, a high profile, powerful publisher who has an ax to grind with Mac Taylor.
To say they're going to butt heads is an educated guess, but I think that's the direction they're going. You can see Parker using his media outlets to attack Mac and his department, you know, those great New York tabloid headlines.
Continue reading Craig T. Nelson to guest on CSI: NY
Posted Jan 4th 2008 11:05AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Festivus, Celebrities, 30 Rock, Life, Moonlight
Here we are again. Another year has passed us by and what do we have to show for it? A little more gray hair, a little less money in our pockets (have you noticed how the price of, um, everything has gone up?), and a little more fear that the world in slowly unraveling. Normally, television is there to soothe our brows in these times. Alas, the current pissing match between the Studios and the Writers is stifling that ability to the point that we may all be having Chaucer parties by mid-year because there's nothing to watch on the tube.
Not sounding too bitter, am I?
Well, you're not here to read about doom and gloom (unless it's a review of 24). You're here to see what I, and many of my TV Squad colleagues, thought television's best and worst were for 2007. So, without further interruptions on how much I paid for my daughter's karate lessons (you DON'T want to know), here is my list of best and worst for the previous year.
Continue reading The Best and Worst of 2007: Rich's list - VIDEO
Posted Dec 26th 2007 8:00AM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Festivus

Remember that? 86 episodes and how does it end?
Black. The end of an era. Clichéd, yes -- but still true.
June 10th, 2007 marked the conclusion of one of the biggest cultural phenomenons we've ever seen. HBO's
The Sopranos. Everyone watched it and whether or not you loved or hated the series finale doesn't really matter. Why? Because we're
still talking about it.
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2007: The Sopranos finale
Posted Dec 26th 2007 8:00AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Festivus, Game Show
The year 2007 was definitely one of great change for television. The award-winning The Sopranos faded to black on HBO, Rosie O'Donnell left yenta-talk show The View to the relief of many, and there was nary a mention about Joey. Well, at least no mention except from me, that is.
However, none of those events paled in comparison than to what took place June 15th on the CBS television network. That's the day when Bob Barker took his microphone, his spayed and neutered pets, and his sexual harassment suits and left the hosting job of The Price is Right after 35 years. And, as he kissed his last contestant and waved his last good-bye, fans of the show thought a replacement host would never be found.
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2007: A new host for The Price is Right
Posted Dec 24th 2007 11:41AM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, Festivus, TV Squad Lists

Like Moe from
The Simpsons, I usually spend Festivus time with my head in an oven and a "no funeral" sign taped to my back. This year, though, is a little different, because a) I just found out my oven is electric and b) TV Squad asked me to compile a list of the things I wanted for Festivus. There's no time for holiday depression when an editorially-mandated list of things-that-will-never-come-to-pass is waiting to be written!
So, off with the noose and on with the list...
Continue reading All Jay wants for Festivus - VIDEO
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