TVSquad

The New Adventures of Old Christine is one of my favorite sitcoms and last night's episode included what I saw as a tribute to TV icons Lucille Ball and Mary Tyler Moore, as well as Seinfeld. Yes, Julia Louis-Dreyfus had a true Elaine moment that was not only hilarious, but a real wink to her Seinfeld fans.

The CBS sitcom came up with a doozy of a situation, although it felt familiar to me, which I'll explain why in a moment. Christine was determined to prove that she was not afraid of living alone and wound up locked out of her house. She climbed back in through a bathroom window and got her foot stuck in the toilet bowl!

You mean Bea Arthur wasn't already in the TV Academy Hall of Fame before today? Well, actually, that was Bea's choice. In a very Maude-like way, she had turned them down. "I said, `So sorry, very nice of you, but I can't possibly accept. There are so many talented people in the business,'" Arthur recalled.

However, she's had a chance to think it over and when asked again, she agreed to become a Hall of Famer, just like Lucille Ball, Johnny Carson and Bill Cosby.

As I wrote previously, the TV Academy Hall of Fame will expand to include Bea Arthur, Merv Griffin, Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H), Sherwood Schwartz (Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch), and ABC executives Thomas Murphy and Daniel B. Burke. On December 9 in Beverly Hills, the awards will be presented.

As AOL Television continues their look at the 50 Best TV Comedies -- Ever with their Top 10, we here at TV Squad are also looking at television comedy, but with a slightly skewed difference. Last week, we took a look at the Saturday Night Live cast members from 1996 to 2006 that made it to the big time. This week, we get a bit more serious.

There are those in the industry who say that it is easier to go from acting in a drama to acting in a comedy than it is the other way around. Yet, as you will see from the list we've compiled after the jump, there are plenty of comedic actors who have jumped from the world of comedy films, stand-up comedy, and television sitcoms into the more serious world of drama. In many cases they have had even greater success than they did on the other side of the tracks. There have even been instances where they stayed in the drama genre and never went back to being funny.

(S06E20) Funny is funny and it never goes out of style. That's really true when you consider the enduring hilarity found in the black and white treasure known as I Love Lucy. In honor of Easter, I offer for your enjoyment memories of one of the most brilliant episodes from a series brimming with classics. The episode is Lucy Does the Tango, and it's all about eggs. Lucille Ball and three dozen eggs to be exact.

Do you like TV shows and movies? Do you like to eat? Well, I've got a site for you, but fair warning: it will consume all of your time today.

It's Frank DeCaro's site. He's not on The Daily Show anymore, but he's got quite a site, including this section where you can find a massive list of recipes from celebs! You can try Bitter and Booze from The Dick Van Dyke Show's Richard Deacon, which mixes semi-sweet chocolate chips, whipped cream and brandy (your teeth will ache but you'll be too drunk to care). Or how about Wheel of Fortune star Vanna White's Layered Pea Salad? Martha Stewart loves Bourbon Balls (and check out the pics in her section too). Jim Nabors makes a mean Alabama Chili, and the original Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner's contribution is a Tabbouleh Salad. Then there's the aforementioned Turkey Potpie recipe from Oprah.

There's a ton more too, and you can search by name or type of food.

Bob Carroll Jr. and writing partner Madelyn Pugh Davis (that's them in the pic, with Jess Oppenheimer in the middle) were writing for Steve Allen's radio in the 1940s when they decided to take a week off. Not for a vacation, but to write a script for Lucille Ball, who was looking for writers for her radio show My Favorite Husband. They got the job, and went on to write on all of Ball's TV shows, including I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, Here's Lucy, and Life With Lucy, Ball's last TV show in 1986. Caroll also wrote for The Mothers-In-Law, The Paul Lynde Show, Dorothy, and Alice, which he also co-produced. He wrote the 1968 movie Yours, Mine and Ours (yup, Lucy again), which was remade a couple of years ago with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo.

Carroll died of natural causes in Los Angeles on Saturday. (Pugh Davis lives in California. She released a book with Carroll in 2005 titled Laughing With Lucy.)

Here is the list of the Top 10 Dead Celebrities, as ranked by Marketing Evaluations, a company that has done surveys every year for 41 years:

• Lucille Ball
• Bob Hope
• John Wayne
• Jimmy Stewart
• Red Skelton
• Johnny Carson
• John Ritter
• Jackie Gleason
• Charles Schulz
• Michael Landon

Most of these names aren't a surprise, but I can't understand how Red Skelton is on the list yet Elvis Presley and Princess Di aren't.