TVSquad

What's going on at the other TV blogs via the internets.

• Wanna save Friday Night Lights? Send light bulbs to NBC!
• Are there cartoons where Sylvester the Cat actually wins in the end?
• Survivor got the lowest debut ratings in the show's history the other night.
• Conan O'Brien and an audience member ran through the MSNBC studios yesterday.
• Did you know Dick Cavett is keeping a blog at The New York Times site?
• Will the final episodes of Scrubs go straight to DVD?
• Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings has a new book out.

This is either big news for game show fans or much to do about nothing.

The show sent out a note this week that promises something major is going to happen on the show tomorrow (Friday) that has never happened on the show before:

"This Friday, March 16, 2007...for the first time in 23 years, Jeopardy history will be made...it was such a remarkable event we consulted a game theory expert, and he said it may never happen again!"

OK, now they have me curious, and since they mention game theory, I think I've narrowed it down to three possible events.

If I was to pick the Top 5 things I hate about television, the coverage of the NCAA Tournament this month would be near the top of the list. It interrupts regular shows, and I truly don't understand why people get so ga-ga over COLLEGE basketball, unless you went there or something.

But I do like the brackets set up, and we can use it for other things in life, including TV! Jacksonville.com has a tournment of their own going on. They're trying to pick the best sitcom character of all-time and they need your help. Go here and vote for your favorites in Week 1 (the second round is this Wednesday). Make sure you read the directions carefully.

Speaking of brackets, I picked up the new book The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything. It's a clever idea: get an expert in a particular field to set up a tournament about everything in life (puncuation, sports rivalries, dogs, political issues, etc) and keep on narrowing them down til you get the champ. There's a lot of TV-related ones in the book, including game show catchphrases (by Ken Jennings), animation characters (by New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast), black and white TV shows, talk show hosts, and several more). Lists like these are argument starters for sure, and the entire outcome depends on how you start the brackets, which is rather random (unless you do something like talk show hosts, which you can at least start by nighttime, daytime, or region). Why are certain people/items placed together and not in another bracket? So it's probably not precise, but it's a ton of fun.

[Thanks to Toby for the tip.]

Like a lot of people, I'll be out there today spending cash and gift cards I got yesterday. There are a lot of TV-oriented books released every year, and many of them are quite good. Some of them are downright terrible (*cough* TWOP *cough*), but let's focus on the good ones. Below is a list of 10 great TV books to give the TV addict in your family.

1. Hello, Lied The Agent, by Ian Gurvitz: Excellent behind-the-scenes look at how the TV industry works, from a writer/producer of such shows as Wings, Becker, and Get A Life. He talks about the dos and don'ts for Hollywood writers, pitch meetings, cancellations, shows the journal he kept a few years ago, and even talks about the new shows that have debuted in the past couple of years. Very informative and just really, really funny.

• On the cover: Borat!
  
• Take the poll: Which TV characters are so bad they're good? Included are Michael Scott (The Office), Edie (Desperate Housewives), Sawyer (Lost), and many others...including Dipsy from the Tele-Tubbies??
• Which little six year old girl just turned 50 and has a new TV show?
• Is it really fair to call Barbie the plastic Paris Hilton? I thought Paris Hilton was the plastic Paris Hilton?
• Last week I told you about Stephen King's essay about Nancy Grace. It's now online.
• DVD reviews: the fourth season of Scrubs gets an A-, while the 1996 TV version of Pride and Prejudice gets a B-.
• Book reviews: Simpsons veteran Harry Shearer has a new novel, and EW gives it a C. But they like Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings' book Brainiac. They give it a B+, and I'll second that. It's an interesting look at the world of trivia.

• ABC cancels The One.
• Rocco DiSpirito gets another TV show.
• Senator Ted Stevens wants to go on The Daily Show.
• Ed Helms joins the cast of The Office.
• Leno to sub for Ebert on review show.
• So is Kevin Smith.
• Did Tori Spelling get the shaft... from her dad?
• E! programming now available on iTunes.
• Kevin Bacon to direct season finale of The Closer.
• PBS chief says new FCC fines will put stations in danger.
• PBS shows for sale on Google.
• Arrested Development reruns to air on MSN, G4, and HDNet.
• Cox-Arquette says she wouldn't mind a Friends reunion.
• Will Braff and Lawerence make a new Fletch movie?
• Anthony Bourdain talks about being trapped in Beirut.
• Harold Reynolds fired by ESPN over sexual harassment charges.
• Mako dead at 72.
• Ratings for the World Cup are fantastic.
• FOX thinks fans of serialized dramas need closure.
• Here is the list of celebrity voices for Simpsons season 18.
• FOX renews Hell's Kitchen and So You Think You Can Dance.
• PBS children's show host fired for sex-themed parody sketch.
• T-Mobile pulls ads from FX over racy content.
• Grey's reruns will be on Lifetime.
• Sci Fi may give Stargate shows a 6-month break to air BSG.

• Is Rescue Me's schedule getting in the way of Nip/Tuck's new season?
• Madame (the puppet) is still around.
• Would you attend the press tour?
• Watch Stephen Colbert nail the D.C. delegate.
• Who should stay and who should go on SNL?
• What's on Rob Corddry's iPod?
• Bob asks if Letterman's show has been better lately.

• Best sports to watch on TV.
• Worst sports to watch on TV.
• Characters from under the sea.

• Screech is starting to piss Rich off.
• Bob disputes the notion that Dennis Miller wasn't funny in 1992.
• When will TLC air new eps of Little People, Big World?
• Read our previews of FOX's new shows.
• Should studios or the networks market TV shows?
• Anna has problems getting her Dwight bobblehead replaced.
• People don't get Ken Jennings' sense of humor.

• Strangers with Candy: "To Be Young Gifted and Blank"
• Firefly: "Ariel"
• The Prisoner: "Many Happy Returns"
• Seinfeld: "The Nose Job"
• The Office (BBC): Episode 9
• Angel: "I Will Remember You"
• Futurama: "A Big Piece of Garbage"

• Monk: "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing"
• Psych: "Woman Seeking Dead Husband..."
• Moral Orel: "God's Chef"
• It's Always Sunny...: "The Gang Exploits a Miracle"
• Big Brother All-Stars: Elimination #3
• Who Wants to be a Superhero: Episode 1
• Entourage: "Strange Days"
• 30 Days: "Immigration"
• Project Runway: "A Designer's Best Friend"
• Rock Star: Supernova: Week 4 Elimination
• Rescue Me: "Karate"
• Eureka: "Many Happy Returns"
• Last Comic Standing: One leaves, four perform
• The Closer: "Head Over Heels"
• The Dead Zone: "Lotto Fever"

There's a phrase that Dave Barry uses to describe people who don't understand his columns are supposed to be funny. He calls them "humor impaired." I love that phrase, and use it often, and famous Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings used it quite appropriately when responding on his blog to a recent article in The New York Post that accused him of bashing the show that made him a millionaire. Here's the thing: Jennings did no such thing. His post titled "Dear Jeopardy" was a hilariously scathing tongue-in-cheek indictment of the show that suggested Alex Trebek had actually been replaced by a robot called the "Trebektron 4000" and that the Clue Crew "look like they beamed in from some 1970s PBS show." He also suggests ideas for better categories, such as "Skanks from Reality TV Who Got Naked in Men's Magazines." It's funny, very vicious, and nothing more than a good-natured barb in the "Don Rickles" vein.