You know, it's funny. When I started here I was a lowly IT guy with no girlfriend and lots of time on his hands to watch TV, even on Thanksgiving. Now I'm engaged, the editor of this site, and have to run around to so many family and friend-related events this weekend my head's already spinning just thinking about it. So I have a lot to be thankful for (and I just realized how friggin' long I've been here... wow).
But TV has always been a part of that equation, and it had no less of a role for me this year. So, in the TV world, here is what will make me thankful as I dive into the turkey tomorrow:
ABC's Wednesday comedy line-up: Against all trends, ABC rolled the dice and started a whole new night of comedy on Wednesdays. And while Hank flamed out, The Middle, Modern Family, and Cougar Town look like they have staying power, both from a quality and a ratings standpoint.
A lot of us here at TV Squad have been listing that for which we are thankful. Like many of the others, I feel I have to start with my wife and family, and my friends. And I'd also add the comedy community in Boston, where I work, and beyond, for giving me something worth writing about and following day after day, year after year.
But this is a TV site, so the big part of this list is the things I am thankful I can see on the rundown TV in my office that makes a horrible cranking sound when I try to play DVDs, ot downstairs when I'm not bothering anyone by trying to catch up on thirteen discs of the Steve Coogan Collection.
My Local Library
Don't laugh. I have a rule that I won't watch an episodic TV series unless I've started it from the beginning, which means I wind up missing a lot of shows everyone else is screaming praises for.
There's an old adage in show business that says something to the effect that casting is half the battle. If you cast a part well, you're sure to have a winning finished project. If that's true, then the casting of Fred Willard on Modern Family is sure to be a hit. I won't reveal what role Fred will be playing til after the jump, so if you don't want to know, don't read on. Suffice to say, the very funny Mr. Willard is being given a great opportunity to shine.
Willard, who was terrific on Everybody Loves Raymond, not to mention all the Christopher Guest films like Best In Show and A Mighty Wind, was on sitcom TV just last season on Fox's Back to You. In fact, it was on that show that Fred worked with Modern Family's Ty Burrell. Now they get to do it again.
One of my favorite character actors will be guesting on an upcoming episode of Modern Family, Chazz Palminteri. And for a change of pace, Chazz will not be toting a gun. Instead he'll be swinging a golf club, and unless the sitcom takes a radically wicked turn, I don't think Chazz will be taking swings at Ed O'Neill's head.
On the other hand, things can get pretty intense on the links. In the episode, Chazz is golfing with Ed's character, Jay, and somehow the relationship between Cameron and Mitchell comes into play and there's a big gay understanding... or is that a misunderstanding?
One of the true breakout hits of this fall season is ABC's sitcom Modern Family. The critics have been singing the praises of this show, and the ratings have been good enough that I will predict without equivocation, that Modern Family will see a second season. And Ed O'Neill deserves a lot of the credit.
I like Modern Family. I don't love, love, love it, but I like it. The guys that were together on Frasier, Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, have given us something good here. It's not Frasier level yet, but it might get there with time.
If there's one part of Modern Family that has won me over completely, it's Ed O'Neill. You might think, well, sure, it's Ed O'Neill. But I have never liked Ed. I was never a fan of Married With Children. I loathed it. And don't tell me I'm a moron for saying that; it's just a show that never worked for me.
(S01E04) You know, I never even thought about the fact that Jay's ex-wife might still be out there. I don't know why, but I guess I figured she was dead or something, since nobody's even mentioned her prior to tonight. Now I know why that's the case. There's a lot of history to this family, and it looks like we're going to be able to piece it together.
I loved the flashbacks we did get this week, and Shelley Long as the ex-wife is just brilliant casting. And may I say she's been aging very well. She hasn't lost even a bit of her comic shops, either. I'm hoping she agreed to come back and play this role over and over again. Since she's also Claire and Mitchell's mother, there's reason for her to come back over and over again.
Every week, I'm blown away at all the little moments of humor the writers find in these three families. They pack so much in a short half-hour that I come out of it exhausted. Tonight's episode stuck to one main plot, but man was it good.
I was already looking forward to Shelley Long guest starring on tonight's episode of Modern Family. Long is playing the unstable ex-wife of Jay, played by Ed O'Neill, who I also like.
Modern Family has been one of the best new comedies this year, delivering on the hype surrounding it by establishing an appealing base of characters. And yesterday, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Benjamin Bratt signed on to play Javier Delgado, the ex-husband of Jay's new wife, Gloria Delgado-Prtichett, who is played by Sofia Vergara.
Both are great casting, and seem to be a good fit.
As part of our ongoing efforts to infiltrate every one of your senses, we've decided to bring back the APB Podcast, last seen in various forms around two years ago. In this first podcast, Jason Hughes, Kona Gallagher and myself discuss the following topics:
The Letterman scandal
A minute (if that) about Jon and Kate
How the fall season's going so far, including why Dollhouse's ratings are so bad,
Ask TV Squad, where we answer a question submitted to Isabelle's column,
The Bon Jovi Wig is back! This has been a week of TV memories for me. First, I enjoyed Andre Braugher's psychiatrist on House, and last night, Ed O'Neill made a welcome return to the sitcom world. O'Neill hasn't been gone completely, of course. He has bounced around a bit, most recently appearing as a regular on John from Cincinnati. But he hasn't had a character as fun as Jay from Modern Family since his days as Al Bundy on Married... with Children.
I've always liked O'Neill (even watched a bit of Popeye Doyle, but not too much - no one is that big a fan). As a kid, I watched Married... with Children every week with my family. We were never quite touchy-feely enough for the standard sitcom family. And there was a small running gag in Modern Family that brought back memories of another gag from Married... with Children.
(S01E01) It's so simple. All you need to make a great family comedy is have it be funny. I must have laughed out loud at Modern Family more than I have at any recent television show, including the much-hyped Community. Bar none, this had some of the sharpest one-liners and zings flying around, as well as sharp characterization and top-notch acting across the board.
I don't even care that ABC "spoiled" the first episode by revealing that these three very different families were all actually one big family. I think I would have figured it out by then anyway. What I did care about was that I found myself interested and enjoying all three families equally. Combined, they're going to be able to mine great comedy from this ensemble for years to come.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson found success on Broadway originating the role of Coneybear in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He stood out, too, in his role in The Class, but the show didn't stick around too long. Now he's in one of the most buzzed about sitcoms on the fall schedule, Modern Family, co-starring with Ed O'Neill, Sofia Vergara, and Ty Burrell.
Ferguson plays Mitchell, half of a gay couple with Eric Songstreet's Cameron, who are raising an adopted Vietnamese girl. O'Neill plays his father, Jay, who is newly married to a woman half his age, Gloria, who is played by Vergara. There is also his sister Clarie (played by Julie Bowen) and her husband Phil (Burrell) who thinks he'll be cool to his kids if he learns all of the dance routines from High School Musical.
The family looks like a wonderfully funny mess, and Ferguson says they'll add their share of guest stars in the coming weeks with Elizabeth Banks, Edward Norton, and Shelly Long making appearances. I caught up with Ferguson by phone during a morning long press session of interviews to talk about the buzz for the show, his character, and his Tweet that he's planning to dress as Lady GaGa from the VMAs for Halloween.
Each year, as the new fall season approaches, I go through all the magazine and online sources talking about the various shows to try and figure out which ones I'm going to be excited about, and which I'm going to avoid like the plague.
Inevitably, I wind up sampling plenty of shows from which I should have steered clear. At the same time, a few shows will slip between the cracks, and then I'm bashing my head against the wall because I missed out on the beginning of something special. I hate coming into things late.
This year, I decided to share my top and bottom five selections. I'm sure the rest of the Squadders and you will have differing opinions than mine, but that's what makes America great, right? Chime in with your own lists in the comments.
The networks have had a quiet summer, quietly introducing scripted bomb after scripted bomb, so they're certainly ready to jump into the new fall season. And It looks to be an interesting one. ABC is scheduling a two-hour block of new comedies on Wednesdays as the sitcom tries to make a comeback.
Even more risky is NBC handing 10:00 to Jay Leno every night of the week. Everyone's waiting to see how that one plays out. FOX is banking on huge positive buzz for Glee to make it a hit, while ABC is hoping FlashForward can pick up where Lost is leaving off when it wraps its run this season.
To help you with it all, TV Squad has put together a handy calendar of all the premieres so you can schedule responsibly in this busy time of TV watching. Some nights have as many as twelve premieres scheduled, so you might need to invest in a few more DVRs to catch all your favorites; Monday's still look grim. Bookmark this page and you'll have it handy to help see you through.
The ABC Inner Circle is comprised of 20,000 consumers who have be recruited or volunteered to the online fan base. ABC marketing is counting on those people then spreading the word via Facebook, Twitter and other social networking programs.
As usual, I've come back from the TCA press tour with a voice recorder full of great interviews and a brain made of mush. Because of the mush-brain part, I'm sure I'll go back and listen to some of the interviews and find that the ones I thought were full of golden nuggets of wit turn out to be full of nothing but platitudes.
That's okay, though; the tour was a lot of fun and I got to talk to a lot of interesting people. I mean, where else can you talk to Maria from Sesame Street, Alan Alda, Norman Lear, and Patti Smith.... all in the same day? It's amazing who you feel empowered to talk to when you have a press credential around your neck and a voice recorder in your hand.
But I also learned a bunch of other things during the tour, mostly about the upcoming season, but also a few other things as well:
You know, it's funny. When I started here I was a lowly IT guy with no girlfriend and lots of time on his hands to watch TV, even on Thanksgiving. Now I'm engaged, the editor of this site, and have to run around to so many family and friend-related events this weekend my head's already spinning just thinking about it. So I have a lot to be thankful for (and I just realized how friggin' long I've been here... wow).
A lot of us here at TV Squad have been listing that for which we are thankful. Like many of the others, I feel I have to start with my wife and family, and my friends. And I'd also add the comedy community in Boston, where I work, and beyond, for giving me something worth writing about and following day after day, year after year. 
There's an old adage in show business that says something to the effect that casting is half the battle. If you cast a part well, you're sure to have a winning finished project. If that's true, then 
One of my favorite character actors will be 
(S01E04) You know, I never even thought about the fact that Jay's ex-wife might still be out there. I don't know why, but I guess I figured she was dead or something, since nobody's even mentioned her prior to tonight. Now I know why that's the case. There's a lot of history to this family, and it looks like we're going to be able to piece it together.
I was already looking forward to Shelley Long guest starring on tonight's episode of Modern Family. Long is playing the unstable ex-wife of Jay, played by Ed O'Neill, who I also like. 
As part of our ongoing efforts to infiltrate every one of your senses, we've decided to bring back the APB Podcast, last seen in various forms around two years ago. In this first podcast, Jason Hughes, Kona Gallagher and myself discuss the following topics: 
Jesse Tyler Ferguson found success on Broadway originating the role of Coneybear in 
Each year, as the new fall season approaches, I go through all the magazine and online sources talking about the various shows to try and figure out which ones I'm going to be excited about, and which I'm going to avoid like the plague. 
The networks have had a quiet summer, quietly introducing scripted bomb after scripted bomb, so they're certainly ready to jump into the new fall season. And It looks to be an interesting one. ABC is scheduling a two-hour block of new comedies on Wednesdays as the sitcom tries to make a comeback. 
As usual, I've come back from the TCA press tour with a voice recorder full of great interviews and a brain made of mush. Because of the mush-brain part, I'm sure I'll go back and listen to some of the interviews and find that the ones I thought were full of golden nuggets of wit turn out to be full of nothing but platitudes.
Gone Too Soon: Invasion
Scrubs season nine -- An early look
The TV Squad Podcast: Vik Sahay of Chuck, Oprah talk, brutal timeslots, and more!
