TVSquad

Hey you. Yeah, you - guy wasting company time by watching last week's episode of Heroes on Hulu. Enjoying it? Well, get ready to cough up some cash to find out what happens next.

In a move that we've all long feared was probably inevitable anyway, Chase Carey, deputy chairman of News Corp. (one of Hulu's co-owners) annouced that Hulu would begin charging users. According to Broadcasting & Cable, Hulu's fees could start as early as 2010.

You may commence booing now.

A few months ago, I ever-so-giddily wrote about the entire first season of the British comedy Green Wing being available on Hulu to American viewers. It only seemed right to spread the good word, as it happens to be one of my favorite shows (it's like Scrubs if it were a little less annoying and more demented).

Well, shame on me for being late with more news, because it wasn't until reader Erik pointed it out that I saw that the entire series of Green Wing is now on Hulu. Having both seasons and the finale special means that you get the laughs and closure. Isn't that nice?

Our friends at AOL TV have launched a new video site today that they're pretty proud of. The new site, SlashControl, provides thousands of free full-length TV episodes of current and past TV shows, as well as lots of free full-length movies.

Navigation is fairly simple: go to either "Free Movies" or "Free TV Shows" and click on the first letter of the show or movie you want to watch. Shows are also easily searchable and grouped by season. Through AOL's partnerships with Hulu, ABC, CBS, Showtime, and a number of other providers, the list of available shows is fairly comprehensive. For shows that don't have full episodes available, there are plenty of embeddable clips available for viewing.

After taking a quick stroll through the site, the interface looks pretty easy to use and navigate, and it's always good to look for what you want on one site instead of all over the place. So take a look at SlashControl; hopefully, it'll only suck away half your day instead of the whole thing.

For those of you that have been annoyed with Hulu's ABC offerings since the alphabet company's parent Disney became a stake-holder in the online video service, here's a bit of good news:

Almost every episode of Lost is now available to stream online.

Up until now, only the first season and the last five episodes of season five had been uploaded for viewing, but now the list has expanded to include the first four seasons in their entirety. Season five still only has the last five eps available, but that isn't too surprising since the DVD set doesn't come out until December 8th. Hey - you gotta give people at least some reason to buy it I suppose.

I'm curious to know what people think about this though. At this point, Lost has become such a pop culture obsession, that it makes me wonder how many people are still out there and haven't seen at least the first couple of seasons. Any Lost virgins out there with plans to plow through the first four seasons now that it's an option?

Today I don't feel like Brian Krakow standing sad and alone in the street holding my bike. Nope, today it feels like the Internet is giving me a big warm hug thanks to the debut of My So-Called Life on Hulu. The site is now streaming every episode of ABC's pioneering but short-lived series about a teenage girl growing up in the '90s.

For the uninitiated, My So-Called Life stars Claire Danes as Angela Chase, a teen desperately searching for meaning in her life and balancing new friends, the wild Rayanne Graff (A.J. Langer) and gay 15-year-old Rickie Vasquez (Wilson Cruz), with old ones, nerdy Brian (Devon Gummersall) and cheerleader Sharon Cherski (Devon Odessa). The show also chronicles Angela's parents' (Bess Armstrong and Tom Irwin) rocky relationship and her obsession with the broody Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto).

Despite a lengthy hiatus in the middle of its third season due to that pesky WGA Strike, and a shift to Friday nights, it was reported at Comic-Con that Syfy has renewed Eureka for a fourth season. And not one of those crappy 12- or 13-episode seasons we usually get on cable. This is a full 22 episodes, for which I say ... well, that would be a bit obvious, wouldn't it?

The good news is that the absence didn't hurt the show at all. It's just as compelling as it ever was. And fun. By fun, of course, I mean for us. Poor Sheriff Carter seems on the verge of a nervous breakdown half the time. Between negotiating a teenage daughter and the geniuses and their dangerously inventive concoctions, it's a wonder Eureka hasn't been blown off the map. Maybe for the series finale.

Even better, if you've yet to add it to your weekly list of stops, you can catch the latest four episodes of Eureka streaming on Hulu, along with tons of other fun clips.

Hulu has been making all the right, super-sweet moves lately, at least in my book. Not only is the site streaming the marvelous British comedies Peep Show and Green Wing, but now Spaced is on Hulu, too. Spaced! You can tell I'm excited because I put an exclamation mark on it. The show has been available on DVD in the States for quite a while, but now that both seasons are online, there really isn't any excuse to not experience it. Is it obvious that I have a weird, almost evangelical need to spread the word?

It's about damn time. The folks behind Hulu are making deals with broadcasters in the U.K. to offer their service to U.K. residents. Hopefully as a result of this, TV Squad won't have to apologize to Brits every time we post a clip from Hulu (at least most of the time... some current American shows like Heroes won't be available in the U.K. due to rights issues).

I'm secretly hoping this also means that some British content will be available to United States viewers. It would somewhat ease my frustration with my cable provider, who can't seem to justify carrying BBC America in their channel line-up no matter how many times I ask. It would be nice to satisfy my Brit TV craving without resorting to Netflix (or, even worse, The Pirate Bay).

Given how protective both countries are of their content, it wouldn't surprise me if this deal fell through. Regulation is a bitch, but Hulu is making some pretty big bucks right now for an Internet venture and I can't see how the media conglomerates behind this deal could be that resistant to profit.

Do you remember a long time ago when you had no options to watch a TV show if you didn't see it when it aired (you had to wait for a repeat)? Of course you don't, you people with your Twitters and your iPhones and your space-age Saran Wrap. But there was a time when if you wanted to watch, say, The Magician, you had to stay home and watch it. No iTunes, no Hulu, no YouTube, no DVDs.

Then came the VCR, and everything changed. Only $1000! (Full-sized ad here.) Notice the fine print at the bottom: "Caution: The unauthorized recording of television programs and other materials may infringe the rights of others."

ABC's Lost was the most watched TV show online in May, ranking up more than 36.4 million total video streams, according to Nielsen VideoCensus. Another ABC show, Grey's Anatomy, was the second most watched show online with the network's Desperate Housewives rounding out the top three. All three ABC shows brought in about 80 million online viewers for the month.

Variety posits that May's season finale cliffhangers put the ABC shows on top of the list. That's a fine theory, but here's another one – ABC led the online pack because Nielsen VideoCensus doesn't count any viewing done via Hulu, arguably the most popular site for streaming free online video content from TV networks.

I recently -- and giddily -- posted about Hulu.com's inclusion of Channel 4's Green Wing, one of my favorite programs. Hulu is definitely on my good side right now, as they also have the first season of Peep Show online now. Those of you that don't have this in your list of British comedies to conquer, you should. Now. I mean, once you get over David Mitchell's extra-weird, giant, almost-black eyes, it's pretty enjoyable.

A lot of readers outside of the United States regularly express their disgust with us over our use of Hulu's videos on some of our posts.

Well, I've got some good news ... for 1/100ths of the rest of the world.

Hulu could be coming to the United Kingdom and include more programming than what's available in the States. So if you Brits have been hankering for some Facts of Life but don't feel like the necessary humiliation of having people see you buy it at the local video store, you're in luck.

Researchers think this whole "Internet as a television" concept may be slightly overblown. In a survey, only 8% of teens aged 12 to 17 say they use the Internet to watch television.

Well, duh. You know why that is? Because computer monitor screens are still relatively small ones that go on a desk while television screens tend to be much larger and better for overall television watching.

There's also the factor that most of the time programs are initially shown on television and then move to the Internet. For those who are eagerly awaiting the new episode of Dollhouse, they will likely go to Fox on Friday nights rather than Hulu.

Let's not discount that online television is a relatively new phenomenon.

I predict that eventually the Internet will be streamed directly into one's television via your cable or television provider (and I won't discount satellite at this stage) and then online television viewership will go up. Until then, we're still mostly stuck with the traditional model.

Pepsi has teamed up with Hulu to place ads for their new Pepsi Throwback (Pepsi made with real sugar) into several old shows, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Battlestar Galactica. Each short spot features the Pepsi can talking to something from the 70s: a disco ball, roller skates, a fondue pot, a Polaroid camera. There are no spots with the can talking to Nixon or Dorothy Hamill's hairdo, however.

What the ads can't answer is why the heck I can't find any of this stuff in any of the stores in my area.

Ever since Hulu's incredibly funny first advertisement starring Alec Baldwin (it premiered during the Super Bowl back in early February), I've been salivating for more.

If you pay any attention to what Baldwin says during the ad, apparently salivating is all I know how to do know since my brain is mush. It's true though - my brain is mush. I've blown through the entire first season of Friday Night Lights in about two and half days thanks to Hulu. Anyway, after the Baldwin ad, Hulu followed up with a mediocre second try featuring Eliza Dushku rallying for Dollhouse more than Hulu. The third attempt with Seth MacFarlane trumped them all though as he went through his entire catalogue of Family Guy voices to pitch the online video service.

To kick off May, Hulu just released the fourth ad in the campaign and Rescue Me fans are gonna be happy with this one. It features Denis Leary talking faster than he did on his No Cure for Cancer album, so try and keep up with him. Enjoy!