TVSquad

AMC has done wonders with dramatic series like 'Mad Men' and 'Breaking Bad' but hasn't really tried to crack the comedy bubble yet.

Their first and biggest attempt to date comes in the form of a "mini-com" called 'Life Coach' starring former 'SNL'-er Cheri Oteri as Liza, a life counselor with some major life control problems of her own. The show serves as both a web series and a buffer between AMC's Monday night movies.

The episodes will feature celebrity appearances including comedians Lewis Black and Kathleen Madigan, CNN talking face Nancy Grace and actor and 'Perfect Strangers' star Mark Linn-Baker.

Don't get excited. Nancy Grace still wants to be all over television, just not the parts that make her look like a mean, accusatory harpy with a God complex. That still applies to her talk show, but nevertheless...

Her attorneys are trying to get a federal judge to keep cameras from recording her deposition in a wrongful death suit filed against her, or at least keep the videotape from leaving the courthouse and ending up on television. She is being sued by the family of Melinda Duckett, a mother who appeared on her CNN Headline News show in 2006 and got grilled by the host following the disappearance of her 2-year-old son Trenton. Duckett killed herself on the day the interview was scheduled to air.

Attorneys said they want to protect Grace from any undue embarrassment. I'd say they're already too late.

I'll admit it: I watch Jon & Kate Plus Eight. In all of the episodes I've seen, I've never listened to Jon Gosselin speak and thought, "You sir, have missed your vocational calling in the Rocket Sciences," but I also didn't think he was a complete idiot. Recently, my view has changed.

Let's not even get into the wisdom of dating a 22-year-old, or partying on a yacht in France while your wife is back home in Pennsylvania caring for your eight children. The man simply does not know the meaning of the phrase, "quit while you're ahead." To wit: his ridiculous defense on Larry King of his decision to halt production on Jon & Kate as soon as it became Kate Plus Eight, and his Ed Hardy-wearing ass got fired.

Gosselin also thought it would be wise to go on The Insider and square off against caustic defender of "justice," Nancy Grace. In this appearance, he further defends his actions, and claims that all of the decisions he makes are for his kids. Spoiler alert: This does not go well for him.

Do you think we need another court show? What if I told you that this new court show was going to be hosted by Nancy Grace.

Yup, Grace is planning to star in her own daily syndicated court show next year. And it has actually gone past just a "talks" stage because Grace has reportedly filmed a presentation to show CBS Television Distribution. The name of the show (right now anyway, this could change) is Swift Justice with Nancy Grace. I guess The Biggest Loser was already taken.

Here's a tip: if you're invited to be a guest on a talk show, it's probably not the best strategy to insult the host and say you're embarrassed to even be on the show. That's what happened to a guest on Nancy Grace's CNN Headline News show the other night. This guy has actually been a guest on her show before, but I'm assuming never again.

[via TV Newser]

It's amazing how many bad talk shows there are on the air. I'm not talking about The Late Show with David Letterman or Late Night with Conan O'Brien or Jimmy Kimmel Live. Those are good shows, and if you clicked on this list expecting to find any of them, you're going to be disappointed. The shows I picked are the talk shows that deal in exploitation, human degradation, and feature terrible, terrible people. In short, daytime talk shows!

Well, OK, I did include one late night talk show, but you'll have to click after the jump to see which one it is.

1. Maury (syndicated). Really, was there any question that this would be number one? It shouldn't even be called Maury anymore, they should just go ahead and call it Paternity Tests!, since that is what it's most known for. Doesn't Povich have enough money? Can't he do something else in his life besides this show? What does Connie think of this? Who knows, considering she co-hosted one of the worst shows from a few years ago. If aliens watch our TV broadcasts and happen upon this show every single morning, we're all doomed.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• The first chapter of the Burn Notice novel The Fix, by Tod Goldberg, is up at the publisher's site.
• Michael Ian Black has a new book coming out, and a really funny blog.
• Nancy Grace makes an appearance in Hancock?!
• Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra plays the full-length version of the Late Show theme.
• Rush Limbaugh vs. Bill O'Reilly.
• TV Guide has a short Q&A with former CNN newsman Aaron Brown.
• What is (or was) The Oaks?

The Hulkster's son, in jail for a driving accident that put his friend in a coma, just got moved last Friday into a new jail cell. He was serving his eight-month prison sentence in solitary confinement after pleading no contest to the three charges: reckless driving, drunk driving, and having tinted windows on his Supra.

In a conversation with his mother, Linda Hogan, Nick (real last name Bollea) described the jail cell as half the size of his bathroom with no windows. According to Nancy Grace, the cell measures 12 X 16. Nick's new digs include a cable television, unlimited phone use, a snack bar, and three other juvenille inmates. According to the Sherrif's office, he was being held in solitary confinement becuase he is seventeen and therefore too young to be with the rest of the criminal population. His lawyers apparently filed a lawsuit against the sheriff's office saying that the decision to keep their client in solitary confinement is a violation of his privacy.

What do you think? Should Nick have stayed in solitary confinement until July 27th, his eighteenth birthday?

[via VH1]

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• NBC is moving Life to Mondays at 10...at least temporarily.
• Jane Espenson on writing comedy and drama for television.
• The script for every single Kitchen Nightmares that will ever be made.
• TV and film execs are worried about these things called "books."
• Nancy Grace is out of the hospital.
• Stephen Colbert is the Comedy Rambo.
• Salon names Mad Men's Jon Hamm the Sexiest Man Alive (not dead).
• Mo Rocca, Kyle MacLachlan, John Gibson, and Leonard Nimoy are Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians.

I'm not sure how many people out there think that Nancy Grace is really a nice person away from her TV show, where she is usually sneering, snarling, and yelling at both defendants and victims, but the video after the jump should put to rest any of those thoughts. It's Grace's appearance on Celebrity Jeopardy, along with Regis Philbin and Queer Eye's Carson Kressley.

I don't think you have to have a degree in psychology to see what she's really like. When she says an answer wrong, she tries to tell Alex Trebek and the judges that she actually said the right answer. She also gives a rather inane answer to "Final Jeopardy" that I still can't figure out.

A couple of times a year, TV Week asks TV critics from print and online media to fill out a survey with their lists of the best and worst TV shows of the season. The summer list this year doesn't hold too many surprises in the "best" category, though I think the "worst" has a few (worst lists are always more fun to read anyway, right?). First, the ten best:

1. The Sopranos (HBO)
2. Lost (ABC)
3. Friday Night Lights (NBC)

Nancy Grace, the CNN, ahem, anchor who ruthlessly interrogates guests on her show and spends days reporting on the same story (usually involving a celebrity), has just made news herself. According to an article in the New York Post Grace secretly married back in April and is now pregnant.

Nancy married David Linch, an investment banker from Atlanta. Linch and Grace have known each other since they attended college back in the 1970's. According to Nancy the wedding was a spur of the moment thing which was attended by family.

If you needed yet another reason not to watch The View, this might be it.

Sources inside Court TV are saying that one of the reasons why Nancy Grace has decided to leave Court TV (besides the fact that they are changing their name and what they cover) is that she really wants to host the ABC morning show, and couldn't seriously discuss terms with ABC while she was still under contract.

Um...wow. Nancy Grace hosting The View. How could that happen? Does she even have a light touch that she can use on the show? Can she even interview anyone about something non-controversial without making them feel bad?

Imagine the field day SNL could have with this.

"Indecision '08": It's all about the photo ops, apparently. I fail to see the appeal in that picture of John Edwards shaving an old guy... I hope that doesn't make me (more of) a heartless person.

"Mess O' Potamia Potomac": Senior Military Analyst John Oliver stopped by to elaborate on the "war czar" plan. I hope I wasn't the only one that immediately thought of making some sweet new business cards at the very mention of the title "galactic space fuhrer".

The latest from the land of CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News:

1. Jeff Greenfield is leaving CNN. He's going over to CBS to become part of their Election 2008 (or whatever CBS is calling it) coverage. The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz says that Greenfield hasn't been too happy with the way CNN has been using him lately.

2. Dan Abrams to lose his title at MSNBC. Last year he got a promotion from on-air host/analyst to general manager, but it looks like Abrams will lose that title when the cable network moves from New Jersey to 30 Rock in NYC. The move probably won't happen until the end of the year.

3. Nancy Grace and John Gibson news. Both of their shows (Grace on CNN Headline News and Gibson over on FOX News) had "Breaking News" reports that Michael Jackson was really ill in the hospital, when he actually is just a little sick and not in the hospital at all. Yet more evidence that the "Breaking News" and "This Just In" and "Developing News" graphics are waaaaay overused. Don't the networks use judgment anymore?

[via TV Newser]