TVSquad

For fans of The Closer, the wait is almost over. Season four finally kicks off next week, knocking off the third of the five shows that I have anxiously been waiting for. Burn Notice and Stargate Atlantis premiered this week. The Closer and Psych go live next week. And Eureka returns at the end of the month. It's going to be a great summer for television.

The fine folks over at TNT were nice enough to send along a press kit, so I've just finished watching the premiere and reading up on a few of the things they have planned for the new season. Last year we spent a lot of time on family as Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) and Fritz (Jon Tenney) moved forward with their engagement. That, of course, involved finally revealing the engagement to Brenda's parents (Frances Sternhagen, Barry Corbin). And we followed along as the two of them began to search for a new house. Season four picks up from there. After the jump, a look at the premiere and a few things coming this season. Possibly a couple very minor spoilers, but no big plot points.

As AOL Television continues their look at the 50 Best TV Comedies -- Ever with their Top 10, we here at TV Squad are also looking at television comedy, but with a slightly skewed difference. Last week, we took a look at the Saturday Night Live cast members from 1996 to 2006 that made it to the big time. This week, we get a bit more serious.

There are those in the industry who say that it is easier to go from acting in a drama to acting in a comedy than it is the other way around. Yet, as you will see from the list we've compiled after the jump, there are plenty of comedic actors who have jumped from the world of comedy films, stand-up comedy, and television sitcoms into the more serious world of drama. In many cases they have had even greater success than they did on the other side of the tracks. There have even been instances where they stayed in the drama genre and never went back to being funny.

Gallery: Comedians who became dramatic actors

(S01E06) Nice to see a little more personal information about the other characters. I was curious when we would get to meet the famous Eddie Marquez. Nestor Serrano is one of my favorite character actors and he's a good choice for the role. My only worry is that Eva's "Papa Don't Preach" routine is already wearing thin.

Not that you can really blame her for being so pissed off all the time. In this episode alone, there were numerous occasions where John worked the case by himself. If I found out my partner was more willing to discuss the case with his dog than with me, I'd be pretty bent out of shape about it too.

(S01E02) Whenever a character in a drama like New Amsterdam has a secret, there is always a character who knows about it. On Smallville, it was Pete and then Chloe, on The Greatest American Hero it was Bill and on this show it's Omar. The difference here is why Omar knows his secret...because he is John's son. That's different. It's really quite brilliant actually, because not only does it explain why Omar knows all about John and his entire history it also explains their relationship. Omar can be bitter and upset with John on a daily basis but they will always be there for each other since they are family. In the TV business, we call this the Simon and Simon principle.

One of the saddest changes in the television landscape has been the disappearance of the theme song. They're really not that important to the people who create TV shows now (or the networks who want to get more commercials in). Lost has just a single note as their theme song, ER has changed and shortened their theme song, Jericho has static, and Heroes doesn't have a theme song or credits either.

Luckily, the shows that still have theme songs also have opening credits. Shows like The Office and Dexter all have theme songs and opening credits. They're classic TV openings. Of course, it's nothing like years gone by, where almost all shows had theme song and opening credits. The Onion has picked 22 that they feel fit their shows perfectly. I don't know if that is the same as "best opening sequences," but the choices are interesting, quirky, a little maddening, and they left out a few, as I'm sure you'll agree.

Bob already mentioned this new detective drama to y'all back in October, but we didn't know exactly when the show would air. Now we know Raines, starring Jeff Goldblum, will debut on NBC in March. The series will air on Fridays at 9 pm, booting Las Vegas out of that timeslot.

I'm a bit tired of all this supernatural nonsense like Medium and Ghost Whisperer, but Raines does have a slight twist, in that Goldblum's detective only imagines the ghosts he's seeing, and they help him solve the murder cases. Huh, a human who confabs with imaginary creatures only he can see? Isn't that essentially Calvin and Hobbes? And wouldn't that be cool if Calvin actually grew up to become a homicide detective and Hobbes helped him solve all his cases? And wouldn't it be even cooler if I could learn to stay on topic instead of digressing into talking about comic strips that have absolutely nothing to do with the show I'm writing about? Yes, in a perfect world that would be grand.

• The Adventures of Superman - Seasons 5 and 6
• The Bugs Bunny/Loony Tunes Hour - Golden Collection, Vol. 4
• CSI - Season 6
• Columbo - Seasons 6 and 7
• DuckTales - Vol. 2
• Family Guy - Vol. 4
• Friends - Complete Series
• Get Smart - Complete Series
• Home Improvement - Season 5
• Homicide - Complete Series
• Lois & Clark - Season 4
• NCIS - Season 2
• Northern Exposure - Season 5
• Quantum Leap - Season 5
• Reba - Season 4
• Six Feet Under - Complete Series
• That Girl - Season 2
• Third Rock From The Sun - Season 6

Dear television viewer:

In an effort to further drain you of all your energy, tonight's episode of Extremely Popular TV Drama will involve a cliffhanger to be resolved next week on an episode of That Other Extremely Popular TV Drama which airs on a different night and time.  We hope you enjoy.

Your friends, The Insane Network Executives.

Am I the only one who hates this? For whatever reason, it really bugs me when TV worlds collide. I just can't deal with the notion that, just maybe, Jack Bauer and Sydney Bristow work down the street from each other. Someone who works on a much higher floor than me thinks this is great idea though. Joel briefly mentioned them in his Festivus post from a few weeks ago, but I've got a whole rant in me.