TVSquad

(S01E05) It was the best of In Plain Sight, it was the less than best of In Plain Sight. For starters, the only carry-over from the previous episode was Marshall's arm in a sling. Hey, what about his nearly dying and Mary's emotional breakdown in the waiting room? The lack of follow-through was stunning.

Granted, this show isn't a serial, but I did expect at least a moment between Mary and Marshall that would connect back beyond her quip in the art gallery. It was too glib. Would it have killed them to have a moment? I can imagine a fight in the writer's room over this point and keeping it light and unemotional won.

NBC has had it pretty easy for the last fifteen years where Thursday nights at 10, 9 Central, are concerned. ER was locked in, and for the better part of that run was a dominant force. Now that the show is finally coming to an end, they need to start grooming a replacement. It looks like it could be a case of meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

ER executive producer, John Wells, has set up a new show, LAPD, at the network. It's an ensemble show that will follow the lives of police officers in Los Angeles and will be written by Ann Biderman. That's a solid choice as she won an Emmy for her work on NYPD Blue. The network has ordered a pilot and casting has begun. Another ER alum, Christopher Chulack, is on board to direct. Can it replace ER? Probably not completely. Remember, ER had a run as the number one show on television. That kind of success is hard to come by. Still, given the talent involved, it is something to look forward to.

[ via Cynopsis ]

Cane may be gone from the landscape of fictional South Florida, but the actor who starred in that CBS drama seems bound to remain in the Miami area. Emmy-winner Jimmy Smits will be joining the cast of Showtime's Dexter in the new season.

Dexter, which stars Michael C. Hall as a serial killer who murders those he feels deserve to die and remains under the radar thanks to his job as a blood-splatter expert in the Miami Police department, was a breakout hit for Showtime. CBS aired slightly-altered episodes of the twisted crime drama earlier this year, in part of fill the schedule holes created by the writers' strike -- and, ironically, the failure of shows like Cane.

New York, New York -- a place so big that had to name it twice. Isn't that what they say about the Big Apple? Recently, movie critic Leonard Maltin, host of the ReelzChannel original series Secret's Out named his picks for the 15 greatest New York scenes in movie history. That got me thinking about the television shows that are intimately tied to New York, series that are inextricably New York shows. Whether they are -- or were -- filmed in the city, here's 15 absolutely, positively New York TV shows (in the order in which they debuted!). You don't have to agree with me -- and I may have overlooked one or two (which I urge you to comment and let me know) -- but I have good reasons for every one of my choices!

(S01E06) Nice to see a little more personal information about the other characters. I was curious when we would get to meet the famous Eddie Marquez. Nestor Serrano is one of my favorite character actors and he's a good choice for the role. My only worry is that Eva's "Papa Don't Preach" routine is already wearing thin.

Not that you can really blame her for being so pissed off all the time. In this episode alone, there were numerous occasions where John worked the case by himself. If I found out my partner was more willing to discuss the case with his dog than with me, I'd be pretty bent out of shape about it too.

Television has a long standing tradition of making its stars feel more popular than they really are. As somebody who used to be on TV, five nights a a week, I know what that feeling is like. Generally when that person leaves television, they go on to do movies or change professions and they often become even more popular. However, there is always that TV celebrity who overestimates how much people want to see them and when they leave their hit TV show, it ends up being the biggest mistake of their career.

David Caruso
Before Caruso became the star of the weakest part of the CSI franchise, he was the star of NYPD Blue. After playing numerous bit parts on TV and in film, he finally hit the big time. The critics and the public both agreed that he was a breath of fresh air in what had become a stale world of TV dramas. He was sexy and tough, just like his show and he fit in perfectly with his supporting characters. Then suddenly, Caruso decided he was too talented for the small screen and bailed on the show. His much talked-about departure allowed him to make unwatchable films like Jade and the remake of Kiss of Death that nobody asked for. Luckily, the ginger-haired tough guy was able to revive his career, but one can't help but wonder how different things would have been had he continued to be Detective John Kelly.

Cynopsis reports that now that the writers' strike is over -- hallelujah! -- Lifetime Television will soon begin production on the second season of Army Wives with episodes scheduled to air in early summer. This is great news for fans of the Lifetime original drama series that was a ratings juggernaut when it premiered last summer. In fact, Army Wives was the most successful series in Lifetime's 23-year history! During its 13-episode run, Army Wives was the highest rated drama on cable among women, establishing new Lifetime marks for an original scripted series. The soapy-drama was scheduled to return in April, but then the writers struck and the show has been in hibernation -- I mean, hiatus -- ever since.

(S02E01) As the show began, I couldn't help but feel like I was seeing an old friend. You know, that friend who went away for a semester and you missed because he was always entertaining. I know I wasn't the only one grinning like an idiot as the the new season of Jericho began.

Esai Morales sure has come a long way since he played Ritchie Valens' big brother. Seeing him in another leader role reminds me how good he was on NYPD Blue. Taming Sipowicz is going to look like a piece of cake compared to this job.

As I'm sure you've heard by now, the FCC has levied a $1.4 million fine against Disney for an episode of NYPD Blue. The fine comes as a reaction to an extended shot of Charlotte Ross's bare butt in an episode of NYPD Blue back in 2003.

Now, I'm sure we all have different opinions about the fine. Some of you think it's wrong to fine creative works for their mode of expression, even a TV show. Some of you think the fine is appropriate because you don't want your children accidentally seeing any nudity and some of you, like me, think that Disney and ABC should be given an award for showing us what is very possibly the most beautiful butt ever seen on film.

First it was Deadwood, then it was John From Cincinnati. Now, it seems, David Milch has decided to get back to his cop roots with Last of the Ninth.

Last of the Ninth is a cop drama that focuses on the rampant corruption of the NYPD in the 1970's

OK, it seems to be "David Milch Day" here at TV Squad, with petitions and spoofs and all that. Now comes word about the new show that Milch is doing with HBO (they certainly aren't wasting any time, eh?).

The new Milch show isn't Deadwood (sorry fans), it's a cop show, centering on a Vietnam veteran who returns to the United States and joins the New York City police force in the 1970s. This is actually a show that Milch and HBO have been working on even before Deadwood or John From Cincinnati, but now they have the time to work on it.

No word yet on whether this cop will levitate or not, but considering it's Milch and gritty 70's cops and HBO, expect a lot of swearing.

Ricky Schroder's character on 24 -- CTU agent Mike "The Brawler" Doyle -- is "a dark guy who feels like a killer inside," the actor told the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Schroder described Doyle as someone who lives for his job, has "no personal life," is "ruthless" and doesn't care who he hurts. (Kind of like Jack Bauer, only, without the heart that Jack sometimes exhibits to children and women who are romantically interested in him.)

Schroder, who played a cop on NYPD Blue, said the sets have similar atmospheres. "On NYPD Blue, it was relentless, the pressure . . . [24] is a much more organized kind of environment. But the intensity is similar."

I'm still waiting to find out what his character did in Denver to which everyone, including Nadia Yassir and Milo Pressman, keeps referring.

TV Squad reader Kat Griffith asks us this interesting question:

I am trying to find a list of TV shows that have geographic names in their titles, I know of a few but was wondering if there is a list of shows out there somewhere.

Kat, we spent many hours on Google trying to find such a list, but no luck. However, if you are interested in a list of TV show settings you may want to order a copy of TV Land: A Guide to America's Television Shrines, Sets, and Sites, which is available for sale on amazon.com.

But, you're not looking for that type of information. So, as a public service to you, and our other rabid readers, here is a list of geographically-named shows that was compiled by the equally rabid staff of TV Squad writers. The list can be found after the jump.

Look, I know that his years on NYPD Blue redeemed him from a crash course with the child star curse of reality shows and cultural irrelevance, but he'll always be Ricky Schroeder to me. Ricky Schroeder - Silver Spoons star, friend to "Tap Dance Kid" Alfonso Riberio and owner of the racing car bed. Fortunately for Ricky, he overcame the 80s with the aforementioned three seasons on NYPD Blue, a comedic turn as Nurse Paul Flowers on Scrubs and his latest outing as Dr. Dylan West on Lifetime's Strong Medicine.

Ricky has made another great career move - further distancing himself from that plucky young lad in The Champ. He'll be joining the cast of 24 as CTU operative Mike Doyle. Expect to see Schroder team up with Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer in executing "key field ops." 24 is really pulling out all the stops with its latest casting decisions. Schroder is just one of a list of fancy new cast members including Chad Lowe, Regina King, Powers Boothe, Peter MacNicol, James Cromwell, Kal Penn and David Hunt. That's right - Deadwood's Cy Tolliver meets Babe's Father Hoggett meets The Boondocks' Huey Freeman meets Kumar. Who doesn't want to see that?

All right, let's get into this Cop Rock thing that the A.V. Club has just mentioned as one of the top "lamentably lost" television shows. Trust me folks, the show was not something to lament about. In fact, I'm sure there are people out there who wish the show would just be lost and buried deep into the ground.

I guess you could say that the concept of the show was unique. Created by Steven Bochco, who was known as the driving force behind the police drama Hill Street Blues, Cop Rock combined said police drama with musical theater. Each episode of the short-lived series, which ran on ABC from September to December of 1990, began with a music-video style credit sequence with theme music by Randy Newman. Then, throughout each week's program, characters would break out in song and dance during the middle of a scene. For example, a jury would sing out "He's Guilty" in Gospel format, or a lineup of Hispanic suspects would proclaim racial discrimination in a pithy little ditty.