TVSquad

(S02E13) Memo to NBC: Idea for product placement on Chuck. All the computers and cell phones are great, but what about Excedrin, Tylenol or Advil? In this episode alone, Chuck's brain activated the Intersect so many times that he should have needed something extra strength to deal with the killer headache he had to have had when he finally got out of the top secret Fulcrum initiation lab. I was ready to reach for two tablets myself, what with all the flashing and colors and weird old stock footage.

Anyway, this was the Happy Valentine's Day show, which is why last week's pre-empted episode was re-slotted so this one could land in closer proximity to the holiday. It made sense, then, for there to be some good Chuck and Sarah flirting. Not flirting with each other, just flirting with the idea of them flirting with a real relationship. It looked good there for a while. More after the jump.

Ah, another day, another list. This one is from PopCrunch, and it lists the 25 Best Game Shows of All-Time. And yes, it will provoke discussion and hair-pulling.

It's not a bad list actually, as these things go. It's a little predictable (and I certainly wouldn't have included Love Connection, Deal or No Deal, or Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?), but there are some good choices here. Press Your Luck was a great show (though it should be higher on the list), and it's hard to argue with how high shows like Jeopardy and The Price is Right are. I also like that they included The Mole (the first two Anderson Cooper-hosted seasons) and Remote Control.

For some, watching relationship-based reality programming is not their idea of a pleasant night in. Why should they watch shows about finding and keeping love when it takes so long to find that right person in real life? Yet, since the mid-'60s, viewers have turned-in to watch others search for their soul mate. Or, at least their soul mate of the hour.

Of course, in the time of the Reality Revolution, the way love was found on television changed a bit. Rather than asking a simple set of questions to a set of bachelors or bachelorettes sitting behind a wall, men and women would compete for the love of a well-to-do bachelor or bachelorette, or a rapper/model, or a washed up 80s hair band star. They would even compete to see if their love could withstand an onslaught of temptation.

Sometimes they would find their one true love on these reality show. Other times they would be tossed away, their hearts broken, like a piece of paper. Along the way they would be love, sex, fights, sex, heartfelt moments, and sex. With reality programming being what it is, the viewers ate it all up.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Lilyan Chauvin: She was a veteran actress you might remember as Joey's grandmother on Friends and the woman in the pilot of The Pretender who asks "Are you a doctor?" (Jarrod's response: "I am today"). She appeared on a ton of other shows over the years, including ER, Alias, Frasier, Star Trek: DS9, Ugly Betty, Malcolm in the Middle, The X-Files, Baywatch, The Young and the Restless, Falcon Crest, Fantasy Island, Man From Atlantis, The Bob Newhart Show, Mannix, The Adventures of Superman, Studio One, and many, many others. She died of cancer and heart disease at age 82.