TVSquad

Former According to Jim star Jim Belushi is moving to a drama series. He's been tapped to star in a legal drama created by Murphy Brown mastermind Diane English and Homicide and Oz exec-producer Barry Levinson. The show is loosely based on the memoir "How Can You Defend These People?" by TV commentator and lawyer Mickey Sherman.

This is an excellent way for Belushi to wash the stench of According to Jim from his person. If presented as a dramedy (much like many of the popular dramas today), this could be a winner.

The success of Slumdog Millionaire and Frost/Nixon recently inspired me to assess the ten best movies about television. TV has been a fertile source of entertainment for filmmakers. The TV turf is also a popular setting for TV shows, and there have been some all-time great shows about the tube. Here are nine that I think warrant special recognition -- in no special order.

1. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
It all started at WJM-TV in Minneapolis. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was the perfect sitcom blend of home and work, and work happened to be the local TV news team. As Mary Richards, the associate producer, Mary Tyler Moore was the single girl America loved because she was real, funny, gorgeous and lovable. At work, the news was mangled nightly by Ted Baxter, the quintessential news reader anchorman who loved every dulcet tone of his voice and had no idea what he was reporting. In perfect irony, when the show came to an end, most everyone at WJM -- Lou Grant, Murray Slaughter, Sue Anne Nivens, Mary -- were fired. Only Ted was spared!

Reunions are hot, you know? On February 12, for example, Oprah reunited (most of) the kids from The Cosby Show, with Bill appearing via satellite. Well, never one to let a good idea go to waste, NBC jumped on the theme. They recently had a Family Ties reunion on Today, so now the morning show is commencing tomorrow with a series of more "Together Again" features. Tune into 8:00 a.m. hour each day so you don't miss a thing!

(S04E13) "Denny Crane, to serve and protect" - Denny Crane

Only a couple minutes into the show and the crazy meter is off the charts. Nutjob Leigh is threatening Katie. Denny is having anonymous sex with Shirley's friend and I'm having a Murphy Brown flashback.

I've lost a lot of respect for Jerry. What could possibly compel him to get involved with Leigh again other than his being a pitiful loser? It seemed like he was making progress for a while there. Doesn't he know that a woman who leaves you once is very likely to leave you again? I just hope he never takes her on a date to an electronics expo.

When one of our favorite TV shows goes off the air, it always brings sadness. However, many times, the silver lining in the cancellation is the birth of a spinoff. Sometimes it can be a great thing (Frasier) and sometimes the results can be less than ideal (The Art of Being Nick). Last month's spin-off ideas were so popular, I decided to make this a regular post. Here are some more spinoff ideas that I would love to see.

The Sherwood-Forrest Report
After the retirement of veteran newswoman Murphy Brown, Corky Sherwood-Forrest and her husband Will Forrest become the hosts of a new show on Court TV. Corky is the moderator while Will provides legal expertise along with a rotating team of guest legal scholars (Marcia Cross, Star Jones, Greta Van Susteren).

You know you've moved on in the TV critics press tour from CBS to its sister network The CW by the pages -- those helpful young men and women who direct members of the press to where lunch is being served. They also bring handheld microphones to the reporters during the sessions so their questions can be heard.

I'm betting that the CBS pages are wearing the same polyester red jackets that I did way back when Murphy Brown was on the air.

The CW pages wear green coats, and the pages themselves all look like models. Many of them are hotter than the actors on the CW shows themselves. (And the stars on CW shows are pretty hot!) I wonder how many of the pages (actors, too, I'm betting) are thinking, "I should be on a show," as they're running a microphone over to a reporter.

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

• Jack B. Sowards: He was a television and film writer who wrote for Bonanza, Peyton Place, Daniel Boone, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Hagen, The Bold Ones, B.L. Stryker, and Star Trek: TNG. He also wrote the big screen movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He died in Valley Village, CA at age 78.

Tom Poston, one of the classic veterans of TV comedy, died earlier today at his home in Los Angeles. He appeared on The Steve Allen Show in the 1950s and Newhart in the 1980s.

Poston played handyman George Utley on Newhart, and was also a regular on another Bob Newhart series, Bob. And to keep the connection to Newhart going, he played Cliff "The Peeper" Murdock on The Bob Newhart Show in the 70s. Poston also appeared on Grace Under Fire, Mork & Mindy, The Simpsons, Will & Grace, Home Improvement, Murphy Brown, Get Smart, Coach, The Love Boat, Studio One, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Just Shoot Me, That 70s Show, and dozens of other shows over the years.

Poston was married to actress Suzanne Pleshette, who played Newhart's wife Emily on The Bob Newhart Show.

A Canadian online journal, The Tyee, has likened the controversy over the impact of 24's fictional portrayal of torture on real-life military interrogators to Dan Quayle's condemnation of the impact of Murphy Brown's single motherhood on real-life women.

While making sport of the invitation extended to Kiefer Sutherland, who plays 24's torturer-in-chief, to speak to West Point cadets to tell them that torture is ineffective and wrong, The Tyee article added that when it comes to politics and 24, viewers see what they want to see.

"Jack is one of those outsiders who [is] above society's rules because he has a superior moral compass and always does the right thing -- and every American likes to believe this is his or her own story," writer Shannon Rupp said.

With Helen Mirren's Detective Tennison bowing out on Sunday's Prime Suspect finale, television is losing one of its finest tough broads.

Tough broads have feelings and faults, but they're nobody's baby. They also don't give a crap what you think of them. They dress for utility not for style, and they work -- usually in domains stereotypically belonging to men.

We'll miss you, Detective Tennison. You are the inspiration for this list of tough TV broads - the ones little girls and little boys can look up to.

Here's a story that got lost amidst all of the other new fall season hoopla. . .

Candice Bergen, presently a cast member on the ABC drama Boston Legal, suffered an apparent stroke last week. After falling ill, the 60-year-old actress was promptly treated and released from the hospital, and was expected to make a full recovery. According to news reports, nurses say Bergen was in good spirits during her short stay.

Known for her Emmy award winning work on CBS's Murphy Brown, Bergen was hired to play Shirley Schmidt on Boston Legal, where she trades barbs with co-stars James Spader and William Shatner. Whether or not the stroke will have any implications for Bergen's role on the show is unknown at this time.

Actor Pat Corley was probably best known as Phil, the gruff owner of the bar where the Murphy Brown hung out all the time. But he had a long career in TV and movies.

Besides appearances on tons of TV shows, from Kojak and Starsky and Hutch and Magnum, P.I. and Hill Street Blues, he was also in several movies, including Coming Home, The Onion Field, The Rose, and Night Shift. Corley actually started out as a ballet dancer!

Corley died earlier this week after coronary stent surgery.

April 24th begins the annual "TV Turnoff Week". For seven days we are to turn off the boob tube and focus on other activities inside and outside our home. For instance, talking to the other members of our family or walking out the front door into that space full of yellow light and green grass. I think we call that the outdoors.

Of course, the purpose of "TV Turnoff Week" is the total opposite of what we do here at TV Squad, which is, um, report on television. So, as a public service to you we present this special episode of The Five: Reasons to not turn off TV during 'TV Turnoff Week'.

You can post comments on TV Squad articles:  We love your comments, even when you say we're messengers of Satan because some of us don't like Pearl Jam. However, if you don't turn the TV on, you're not going to be able to comment on any of the shows that we review. That will make all of us sad, and probably make our bosses even sadder. We'll end up losing our jobs, which will have a domino effect for all of our other blogging sites. Of course, that will cause AOL to go out of business, and the Internet will probably collapse unto itself. Dogs and cats will fight, cows will stop giving milk, and, yadda yadda yadda. We'll eventually be beating each other over the heads with clubs in order to grab the carcass of a dead brontosaurus.