TVSquad

No, this is not going to be another post about the shoddy umpiring or spittle analysis or any of the other on-field matters that have been going on in baseball since the playoffs began. No, we're on a TV blog, so I'm going to just talk about the things that have annoyed me about FOX's and TBS's coverage of the ALCS and the NLCS. In no particular order:

1. The Fidelity-sponsored Fox Trak. The pitching tracker, which shows if a pitch actually hit the strike zone or not, has been around for years. But, the flight of the ball has been to this point represented by a red streak and a dot. Now that Fidelity Investments is sponsoring the tracker, the red streak/dot combo has been replaced by a green streak/green arrow combo that mimics Fidelity's "stay on the line" series of ads. What financial guidance has to do with balls and strikes, I'll never know.

Have you noticed lately that the new faces cropping up on TV series in starring roles are often actors you've never seen before -- or if you have, it was in a supporting role of a feature or a foreign TV show? Think about it, Lee Pace as the Pie Man on Pushing Daisies, Jonny Lee Miller on Eli Stone, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in New Amsterdam, Michelle Ryan in Bionic Woman, all of these leads are relatively new faces. That's one way to cast series. Another is for big stars to take to TV, if not for the first time, than for a return.

In an interesting article at IGN.com, blogger Travis Fickett points out that there used to be a line of demarcation between the worlds of acting: film actors vs. television actors. But nowadays the stars are going back and forth a lot more fluidly.

As you probably have heard, AOL TV has been releasing their giant list of television's sexiest women for the past several weeks. Apparently, some readers were a little miffed that some of their favorite television actresses were NOT included. So, to assuage their hurt feelings, AOL TV has released a list of 20 hot fan picks. The list comes replete with great pictures (except for the heinous one of Maura Tierney--ouch) and comments from the fans themselves.

As I browsed through the list, I wondered myself why some of these women weren't included in the original fifty. Kate Walsh is gorgeous. Jane Seymour is an exquisite beauty. Plus she was just on Dancing with the Stars so I can't see how she wasn't fresh in everyone's minds. I remember almost every guy I knew had a crush on Nicole Eggert back when she was on Charles in Charge. But my favorite add-on to the list has got to be Betty Rubble. Hubba. Hubba.

Barney? Oh, please. Blue's Clues? Just not the same since Steve left. No, the biggest craze in toddler land right now is a group of giddy, brightly-clad gents from Australia known as The Wiggles. Trust me, if my three-year-old niece could type I'd let her tell all of you about how great these guys are, and even celebs can't deny their Wiggly influence. I caught a re-run of Yes, Dear featuring the group the other day, and Kate Hudson says her son Ryder is infatuated with the groups catchy songs. I once tried out for the group, but could only waggle. Sad, really.

Tonight's guest on The Daily Show is actress Kate Hudson. Kate Hudson. Jon Stewart starts off by saying that her family's river is very nice. He offers his kudos.

Well, early this morning, the shuttle landed safely in California. Senior Space Correspondent, Stephen Colbert, elaborates on this. Colbert says that although the astronauts had to land in California due to bad weather in Florida, mission control in Houston had everything under control. They play a clip of missioin control guiding the shuttle, obnoxiously pointing out over and over again that the atmosphere is hot, hot, hot and that the handrails should be used when coming down the stairs. To go even more in-depth, Colbert demonstrates the landing by using his wallet as the shuttle, a napkin as the tile, and a toy shuttle as Earth. If these problems persist though, it may mark the end of the program. Colbert begs to differ though because we still have yet to fulfill our basic human need out there: finding the space oil. It's out there somewhere but we "just haven't figured out how to drill the void."