TVSquad

Last Friday, Senator John McCain shocked the world by announcing that little-known Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was his choice as vice presidential candidate for the Republican party. If you were like me, you couldn't help but notice that Sarah Palin -- a very attractive, 44-year-old mother of five -- looked an awful lot like some familiar TV faces, like 30 Rock's Liz Lemon.

In fact, at least one Hollywood writer recognized in Sarah Palin's being plucked from virtual obscurity was like one of his creations. Rod Lurie, the writer/producer of Commander in Chief, joked that he and Gena Davis should be asking for royalties if Palin emerges as McCain's VEEP, especially if she becomes president like Davis's character did on that ABC drama series.

Here are the main TV characters that come to mind when you think about Palin:

This sounds like a promising new project: John Corbett as Toni Collette's leading man in the Showtime comedy pilot United States of Tara. The show comes from the pen of Diablo Cody, fresh off her Oscar win as the screenwriter of Juno, and the pilot's director is Craig Gillespie who received plaudits for the indie hit Lars and the Real Girl. Oh, and did I mention that Steven Spielberg is one of the producers? Considering this collection of talent and Showtime's recent programming successes, United States of Tara sounds like another ace for the cable net.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow:

• The Addams Family - Complete Series
• Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 4
• Captain N and the New Super Mario World - Complete Series
• DaVinci's Inquest - Season 2
• DuckTales - Vol. 3
• Gilmore Girls - Complete Series and Season 7
• Kenny vs. Spenny - Season 3
• Masters of Horror - Dream Cruise and Season 1,Vol. 3
• Melrose Place - Season 3
• Miami Vice - Complete Series
• Northern Exposure - Complete Series
• Perrry Mason - Season 2, Vol. 2
• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? - Treasure Chest Gift Set
• South Park - Christmas Time
• SpongeBob SquarePants - Atlantis SquarePantis
• Tale Spin - Vol. 2
• The Young Ones - Extra Stoopid
• Zorro: Generation Z - Return to the Future

As I started putting this list together it occurred to me, "Holy crap, there is a lot of good TV this summer." The summer used to be the time when my VCRs cooled their worn out heads after nine months of hard work. And now I find myself needing the Tivo and the DVR to keep up with everything. That's progress!

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Doctor Who - The Invasion and The Sontaran Experiment
• Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends - Season 1
• Hawaii Five-0 - Season 1
• The Loop - Season 1
• Moonlighting - The Final Season (review coming tomorrow)
• Northern Exposure - Season 6
• Sabrina, The Teenage Witch - Season 1
• South Park - Season 9
• Stargate: Atlantis - Season 2

(S04E16) Those crafty NCIS writers kind of slipped a little something in there this week. As we got underway I resigned myself to the fact that this was a stand alone episode and we wouldn't be tracking The Frog or making any headway where Jeanne is concerned.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. NCIS does as good a job as anybody at mixing the two facets. As the story moved along though, there was something of an ongoing story that continued to develop. I'm referring to the ever evolving relationship between Tony and Ziva. Their bickering and fighting has proved quite entertaining in the past, but as season four has progressed, things have slowly been changing. It's a nice bit of writing the team is doing as they've taken their time to let this all come out.

Former Sex in the City and Northern Exposure heartthrob John Corbett is joining the cast of Showtime's comedy pilot Manchild.

Based on the BBC series of the same name, the show focuses on four guy friends experiencing the mid-life crisis rite of passage that, for better or worse, we'll all be going through some day if we haven't already.

Corbett will be playing a former Deadhead pot smoker who has made an art form out of sabotaging his own life.

You can check out Corbett's own mid-life, wish-fulfillment strategy via his country music outing with the John Corbett Band.

Even when he played Aidan on Sex and the City, John Corbett has always been a little bit country. That's why he gave up acting in 2005, headed to Nashville, and grew out his chops. He spent the last year writing and composing songs for a country album with guitarist/friend Tara Novick. Now he has a self-titled album and a video, which you can see on AOL. The video is for a song called Good to Go, and it features your usual country stuff: hay bales, horses, tractors, and dirt. Oh yeah, and it also has a few cameos by Bo Derek, John's real-life girlfriend. You can hear samples of all the songs on his debut album over at his official website. Corbett isn't signed on with a record label because he didn't like their recommendation of waiting a year to create a "marketing strategy" for his album. It's his first album, but it's also a life-long dream for him, so he probably wanted to start the country music part of his life as soon as possible. Even if you don't like the style of music, you've got to admire the guy for walking away from it all to pursue his dream.

[Via Pop Candy]