Happy pre-Thanksgiving! Before you dive into the feast and football, dig in for some Chuck talk first. Vik Sahay, who plays Lester Patel on the NBC geek hit, joins me, Jason Hughes and Kona Gallagher to talk about the show's new season, which starts on January 10. Here's a hint about the season: Jeffster is mentioned a few times during the interview.
Before and after the interview, the three of us talk about:
Why Mondays, especially at 8, is such a brutal timeslot,
Oprah's "retirement" and if she'll ever have that same kind of platform again,
If you haven't seen The Prisoner yet, you may want to skip the first fifteen or so minutes of this podcast, because we talk about the whole damn thing this week. Jason Hughes and Allison Waldman join me to talk about the AMC remake of the British cult classic, as well as these topics:
Another dip into our Ask TV Squad mailbag, where we discuss the use of laugh tracks and why multi-camera shows are written differently than single-camera shows,
As usual, the music at the beginning and end of the podcast is "Life" by Justin Trawick. Though I decided to add a small surprise at the beginning, a call-back to an interview I did a few years ago. Hope you enjoy it.
We've got a new e-mail address for the podcast! If you have any questions or suggestions about the 'cast, please e-mail us at tvsquadpodcast [at] google [dot] com.
This week, actress Linda Purl joins me, Jason Hughes and Kona Gallagher to talk about her guest starring stint as Pam's mom on The Office -- she's on tonight's episode, by the way. She also chats about her long acting career (remember her during the waning days of Happy Days?), her work with the California International Theatre Festival and her current success as a touring lounge singer.
After the interview, which is about 30 minutes, Kona, Jason and and I talk about the following:
Today I made an executive decision and gave the podcast an oh-so-creative name: "The TV Squad Podcast." This was after we recorded it on Tuesday, so I still refer to it by its old APB name. If you have any suggestions, let me know at tvsquad [at] gmail [dot] com.
In this episode, Late Show writer Bill Scheft joins me, Danny Gallagher and Kona Gallagher to talk about his new book Everything Hurts. Of course, there's lots of good behind-the-scenes info about what it was like to work at The Late Show, especially on how the events of the past month affected the staff and the show's writing, including the monologue.
He also tells some funny stories about being canned from Sports Illustrated (and spawns a new catchphrase), feeding lines to the guy who played Mike Singletary and more. It's 45 minutes of fun.
After the interview, Kona, Danny and I give our picks of the week. Run time is 1:03:02.
Week two of the revival of TV Squad's APB podcast has arrived! In this episode, Bob Sassone and Danny Gallagher join me to talk about TV's doings this week:
The cancellation of Southland and the role of The Jay Leno Show in that cancellation,
As part of our ongoing efforts to infiltrate every one of your senses, we've decided to bring back the APB Podcast, last seen in various forms around two years ago. In this first podcast, Jason Hughes, Kona Gallagher and myself discuss the following topics:
The Letterman scandal
A minute (if that) about Jon and Kate
How the fall season's going so far, including why Dollhouse's ratings are so bad,
Ask TV Squad, where we answer a question submitted to Isabelle's column,
Over the last eight months or so, you've been seeing a lot of new names on TV Squad, and I'm sure you've been saying to yourself, "Self, who are all these people on my favorite TV blog? And why oh why, self, do I not know what they look like? Tell me, self... damn you!"
Well, I have to admit to you all now: I've been remiss in adding the new bloggers to our "Meet the TV Squad" page; I've just been taking people out as they've left the site.
But some hot weather and lack of good baseball on TV (thank you, All-Star break!) gave me the time to redo the page. So when you click on the "Meet the TV Squad" banner on the left side of the screen, you'll see our new bloggers page.
For those of you who have asked us whether Bob has busted into the TV Squad offices and taken over the blog by force, I'm here to say that nothing of the sort has happened. First of all, we have no offices. And second of all, the short posts Bob has done this week are something new that we're trying out (as I've mentioned in the comment sections of many of his posts this week).
Why are we doing this? Well, why not? There are plenty of occasions when a video or picture -- or even a show we don't cover -- deserves a post, but doesn't need a lot of commentary attached. So, what I've asked Bob to do (actually, it was his idea, and I just said "sure") is to post these things with a few sentences of comment, and then open it up to the readers. Some of the posts have gotten some nice discussion going, which is what we were going for.
But this does not mean that we're substituting these shorties for our normal posts. These are supposed to fill in the spaces between the normal posts we do. More info after the jump.
What year was the CTU created? Who played President Palmer in Season Five? Who killed Teri Bauer at the end of Season One?
These questions and more are featured in a 24 quiz written by our illustrious leader Joel for Parade.com. I thought I knew 24 pretty well, but Joel managed to throw in a few trick questions that led me astray. Or then again, maybe I just don't know 24 as well as I thought I did. Nah, I think it's the trick questions.
Also featured on Parade.com is a nice little Q&A with Kiefer Sutherland, in which he talks about the possibility of a 24 movie, Barack Obama becoming President, and why he cried buckets over Bambi.
But first, take the quiz and report back on how you did. I'm not even going to admit my pathetic score. It's Joel's trick questions - yeah, that's it.
TV Squad -- at least the part consisting of Joel Keller and myself -- recently visited the set of Scrubs, and were lucky enough to score interviews with Zach Braff (J.D.), Sarah Chalke (Elliot), and Bill Lawrence, the creator and executive producer. The hardest part about doing this video is not revealing who dies in the episode that was being shot. Seriously, it's driving me a bit mental. However, NBC lawyers and corporate drones would descend upon us so fast if we were to reveal which long-time cast member unfortunately passes away in the episode. So, we'll keep mum.
Scrubs has been shooting for six seasons now, and has an extremely tight cast and crew. However, they couldn't have been nicer to us, and we were treated to a fun day on set. In between takes, we picked up some interviews that drop hints at a possible seventh season, insights into the characters, and even some news about the Nobody's Watching show. Looks like a special on NBC is in the works!
Watch the video after the jump, and also check out AOL's gallery of photos from the very same set visit. We really want one of those Dr. Kelso paintings hanging in the palatial TV Squad lobby. He manages to look both regal and downtrodden at the same time.
A few months ago, I bemoaned the fact that not one Squadder was included in Broadcasting & Cable magazine's fall critics poll. I mean, we're critics, sort of; I just thought that the survey was incomplete without at least some opinions from everyone's favorite TV blog.
Well, anyway, now we're on B&C's radar, because they sent us a ballot for their year-end poll. In all, 67 critics were polled on what they thought was the best and worst on television in 2006. The Wire was voted Best Show and Best Drama, while The Office was voted Best Comedy. You can see the results here. They even published a few choice quotes in their "BC Beat" blog, including not one, but two quotes from Squadders (Anna and yours truly). Now, that's more like it!
If you're a fan of G4's Attack of the Show, you may have been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some of us Squadders. But, since we've never promoted our appearances in advance, our glowing faces on your TV screens may have come as a surprise to you.
Well, this week,we're going to ruin the surprise. TV Squadders will be appearing on AoTS not once, but twice this week, both on the show's debate segment, "The Loop":
Tonight, I get to trundle on down to a satellite studio in New York to argue about Saturday Night Live. From what I understand, my fellow panelists are going to be Mindy Sterling (who played Frau on Austin Powers).
On Wednesday, Anna will talk about the season premiere of Lost. Since she's a big fan and somewhat of an expert on it, we asked her to represent us in the debate about the show. I wish her luck; I've been on this segment before, and she's going to need all the luck she can get.
(UPDATE: Due to a scheduling conflict, it looks like Anna's appearance isn't going to happen. Oh, well.)
So tune in or fire up the DVR. The show airs from 7-8 PM ET; "The Loop" segment usually airs around 7:10 or so.
While we've received dozens of comments
about yesterday's Oprah-James Frey show, Oprah has received tens of thousands of comments. The message board
on her website lists more than 12,000 comments for the Frey show. In comparison, other shows only garnered several
hundred comments. The commenters go from bashing Oprah, to supporting Frey, to discussing the definition of a memoir. A
lot of people on Oprah's site and on our site think that she was too harsh on Frey, that it doesn't matter if he lied
because it's still a good book, and mostly that she crucified him on national television for personal gain.
Does anybody out there support what Oprah did? I mean, other than me and Joel and Maureen Dowd.
Happy pre-Thanksgiving! Before you dive into the feast and football, dig in for some Chuck talk first. Vik Sahay, who plays Lester Patel on the NBC geek hit, joins me, Jason Hughes and Kona Gallagher to talk about the show's new season, which starts on January 10. Here's a hint about the season: Jeffster is mentioned a few times during the interview.
If you haven't seen 
We've got a new e-mail address for the podcast! If you have any questions or suggestions about the 'cast, please e-mail us at tvsquadpodcast [at] google [dot] com.
What year was the CTU created? Who played President Palmer in Season Five? Who killed Teri Bauer at the end of Season One? 
A few months ago, I 
If you're a fan of G4's 
While we've received dozens of 
The TV Squad Podcast: Vik Sahay of Chuck, Oprah talk, brutal timeslots, and more!
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
