TVSquad

(S06E07) "I'm leaving." - Cheryl

Wow. I don't want to say that was the best episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm ever... but it might have been. I don't recall ever feeling so conflicted, angry, confused, and giddy all at the same time while watching this show but now I know what it's like. The whole season has really been building up to this. Hell, the whole series has. We'd always wondered what it would take for Cheryl to finally call it quits. Now we know. Poor airplane phone reception.

The networks are revving up a few new pilots, and they've hand-picked some ladies from the, um, lady garden ... of entertainment. Yeah. So, anyway:

First, Louise Lombard will play Judy in ABC's Judy's Got a Gun, about a single suburban mother who investigates suburban crimes. She'll balance work and family because balancing things is common in television land. Seriously, every season there are at least a dozen new shows that involve somebody balancing something and something else. You gotta have balance, you know.

• You'll always remember where you were when you heard the news: Miss USA may be dethroned.
• The downside of being A-list: Jennifer Aniston and Ben Stiller were both denied guest roles on 24.
• Just like Dustin Diamond will always be Screech to me, Lucy Lawless will always be Xena. But she's trying to turn her new love of singing into a career in music.
  

• Have you checked out Trivial TV? It's a great site about, well, TV of course. But it has an incredible search engine for TV schedules. Type in the day, month, and year and you can see the TV network schedules for that night! Very cool.
• Paul Davidson has two TV-related posts up at his blog this week. One is Prison Break: The Drinking Game, and the other is about Battlestar Galactica and Lucy Lawless' fingernail.
• Ken Levine has some thoughts on the O.J. book/TV special (written before they were canceled).
• Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog says that John Stamos has pumped so much life into ER that the show just might be renewed for a 15th season.
• A TV Guide reader tells Matt Roush that the reason why Jericho is a hit is because "it's Lost for Republicans."

Well, that wasn't much of a surprise, was it? In a show that should have lasted all of ten minutes, Alfonso Ribeiro was named winner of the first Celebrity Duets competition. By winning, $100,000 was donated to his charity Fresh Start. And, I wouldn't be surprised if David Foster, one of the judges for this competition, didn't ask Alfonso to stop by his studios one day. Personally, I always thought Alfonso was the front runner since the beginning of the competition, and I'm glad that he won.

I'll admit that I fast-forwarded through a good portion of tonight's fluff, but there were some highlights. We actually got to see what Little Richard was most famous for . . . singing and pounding the piano keys. Although he seemed a bit out of it (more than usual) he really belted out a version of Good Golly Miss Molly. Wayne Brady also performed this evening with Boyz II Men (now known as just 'Men'). If you had never heard them before, you would have thought that Wayne was part of the group since the beginning; he's actually quite good. Another highlight was solo performances from the remaining three finalists. I thought Alfonso did the best job, and Hal was much less screechy than in past duets. I thought that Lucy's solo performance was the worst, mostly because she looked like she was having a seizure up on stage.

All in all, I liked Celebrity Duets. I think they had a good mix of semi-professional and novice singers and it was actually quite entertaining. If there is another season of the show I would drop Little Richard from the judges tables and switch David and Marie Osmond, so that David could speak first. Definitely keep Wayne as host. If you have some ideas for improvements (besides canceling the show) let me know.

(S01E05) Alfonso Ribeiro, Lucy Lawless and Hal Sparks. These are your three remaining Celebrity Duets performers.I'm rooting for Alfonso, who I always felt was the front-runner. Even a bit better than Jai Rodriguez. Although, I do have a soft spot for Hal. So, without further ado, here are the night's performances.

I haven't reviewed the Celebrity Duets live results show, but I decided that I should this week because the three finalists would be picked. Well, it's good that I did because I got to see the elimination of Cheech Marin (big surprise) and . . . Jai Rodriguez?

What? The? Hell?

Yes, you are reading this right. Jai Rodriguez, who was a front runner since the beginning of the competition a few weeks ago, was eliminated this week over, ready, Lucy Lawless! Okay, Lucy is a decent singer, but Jai was head-and-shoulders above her and I thought he would be in the finals along with Alfonso Ribeiro, who you knew was going to make it after his very first duet. I guess, like in all other Simon Cowell produced shows, the fix was in. Although, in the show's defense, Lucy looked absolutely shocked that she was in the finals. I believe that she was mouthing something like 'Are you sure you didn't make a mistake?'.

(S01E04) Folks, it's a late night once again, so I'm going to get to the show quickly. Right after these few announcements. First, it was revealed at the beginning of Celebrity Duets that two contestants will be eliminated this week (one of them probably being Cheech Marin, but, heck, I've been wrong so far), leaving three for the remainder of the finale. Next, the celebrity with the fewest votes last week was Carly Patterson. I was sure it was going to be Cheech!

And now, let's get to the program. As soon as I mention this one thing. I want to thank my lovely wife, friend and partner to me for these last 9 years and mother to our four lovely children, for assisting me with this week's reviews. I was unavailable for some of the competition and she stepped right in to assist.

(S01E03) It's about 1:00 a.m. as I write this, so let's get down to the business at hand. To recap from last week, Lea Thompson was let go. I'm surprised, since I thought she did a fairly decent job. I'm guessing that a number of wives and girlfriends called to vote her off because they were tired of their husbands and boyfriends ogling Thompson in her mini-skirts. And now, this week's performances:

1. Lucy Lawless and Dionne Warwick: This was one of Lucy's better performances (this coming from the man who thought she should have been let go after her first week). She was a nice fit to Dionne's husky singing. Judge Marie Osmond liked her performance as well, but thought she was being a bit timid. Judge Little Richard also liked her performance (although it was hard to tell). Finally, Judge David Foster agreed with his colleagues, but requested that she sing her next duet in a higher harmony.