TVSquad

(S01E02) This week, the show's over-the-top moments were swapped for more dramatic ones. Far more time was spent on the murder mystery and affair plotlines than on the crazy antics of the Darlings, and the show still worked for me. "The Lions" shed light on the unique father-son relationships that exist within the Darling family. Letitia said that "we're all capable of everything," and this episode certainly proved that.

(S01E01) After months of creative promotion, Dirty Sexy Money has finally arrived! While it has been listed as a drama, the show's premiere featured many hilarious moments. The Darlings actually remind me of the Bluth family from Arrested Development. Both families are wealthy and full of self-involved people who say the most outrageous things. "Well, you're poor!" has officially become my new comeback. Let's not waste any more time, though. Meet the Darlings:

We TV Critics are dead on our feet now that we're in the last two days of a near-three week press tour at the Beverly Hilton, but that hasn't stopped us from getting dish from actors and producers here to hawk their fall ABC series.

On stage to promote Cashmere Mafia (a series about four women living life in New York City) creator Darren Star was asked about his other program about four women that call the Big Apple home. Star says: "There's a [film] script. It's in the form of pre-production."

If you've been watching the 24 hour news channels today, you may have heard that Paris Hilton is heading back to jail. There was a media frenzy outside the L.A. courthouse this morning to rival anything that happened with O.J. or Michael Jackson. And many people in L.A. noticed a plane flying a banner overhead that read "We Love Paris - The Darling Family." It's part of a promotion for ABC's new fall show Dirty Sexy Money.

But ABC is saying that the banner didn't refer to Paris Hilton, it refers to Paris, France, because the Darling family (the family in the show) owns property in many exotic locales, including France.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. And this post doesn't really refer to Paris Hilton, it refers to the Hilton Hotel in Paris, France.

We're in the middle of pilot season right now, and of the approximately 9000 different shows all fighting to be part of this fall's network schedule (as long as they aren't put up against American Idol), a handful have shown promise, some even more than was expected. Here's the buzz:

Dirty Sexy Money is at the top of the list. The ABC drama stars Peter Krause, Donald Sutherland, and William Baldwin and is about a lawyer who defends rich New Yorkers. It also has a title that catches your attention. Marlowe, the new modern take on the Raymond Chandler hero on ABC, is getting better than expected reviews. Other shows that look like winners: FOX's Action News, with Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, ABC's Football Wives, and an untitled CBS drama starring Jimmy Smits.

Viva Laughlin, a musical produced by Hugh Jackman and based on the British series Blackpool, is also getting good early buzz, but I don't know. A weekly musical drama? Hmmm...

It's that time of the year. People are being cast in pilots left and right and some interesting stuff has been announced. At ABC, Christopher Titus (Titus) has landed one of the lead roles in an untitled project from Warner Bros. The show focuses on CEOs and also stars Dylan McDermott (The Practice) and Michael Vartan (Alias). McDermott and Vartan as CEOs is an easy sell. But Christopher Titus, Senior VP Harvard graduate? That's different, and something I look forward to checking out.

Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) is set to star in ABC's Suspect. The show is a procedural that will solve crimes by tracking suspects through a lineup. She's joined by Eric Palladino (ER) and Kathleen Munroe (Beautiful People). The ABC track record for procedurals is less than impressive, but the addition of Guy Ritchie (Snatch) as director is intriguing enough to give this one a look.

The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting story about the five "hottest" television actors who are looking for plum roles. And by "hottest", the publication means they're most in demand (plus, they're good-looking).

The five actors that all the networks are trying to scoop up are: Jeremy Sisto, Paul Rudd, Peter Krause, Simon Baker and Gabriel Macht. Honorable mentions include Christian Slater, Steve Zahn, and Michael Vartan, who just took a role in an untitled ABC drama. A look at their profiles on IMDB show that most of these guys (except Slater & Zahn) currently have a break in their schedules.

(S01E23) This is one of my favorite episodes of the show. It has so many great lines and exchanges that I really can't put all of them down here. It's the first season finale, and the way it ends, it almost seems like they weren't sure if the show was coming back and they wanted to end it in a very definite manner, with many plots tied up and the return of a beloved character.

Casey's son Charlie is coming to the studio, and he seems to have an odd relationship with his father. Meanwhile, Dana bought that camera she talked about endlessly in the last episode and wants to take a picture of the staff in their nice clothes to break in the camera, and Dan is still wondering if Rebecca will change her mind and come back to him.

(S01E22) This is one of the more soap opera-ish of the Sports Night episodes, because it deals with relationships and secrets and who's sleeping with who and who knows and who doesn't know and will they find out. But it doesn't feel lie it, because it's still Sports Night, and that means it's still funny and smart and well done.

Gordon proposes to Dana, who has accepted, and this ticks off Casey, who knows that Gordon slept with Sally. But he can't tell Dana because then she'll find out that he too slept with Sally. Casey says he's just going to follow "Napoleon's Battle Plan" and just see what happens. Dan isn't sure if this is such a good idea, and has a plan of his own.

(S01E20) While Isaac continues to recover from his stroke in the hospital, Dana is in charge, and the network execs are putting a lot of pressure on her. Meanwhile, Rebecca might want to go back to hubby Steve, which doesn't please Dan too much, and Jeremy wants to break up with Natalie, because there are way too many things happening right now, including his parents breaking up.

Oh, and there's a bomb threat called in to the building.

(S01E19) It must be hard as hell to do an episode of a show where something bad happens to one of the characters that actually happened to the actor in real life. In this episode, we find out that Isaac had a stroke after returning from a vacation. Actor Robert Guillaume had a stroke in real-life too. It's a tricky thing for a show to write in a real-life incident into a show, but because of the way this show is structured - a seamless blend of comedy and drama - it actually works.

Before they find out about Isaac, the staff is getting ready for special March Madness coverage. They're working on a Saturday, Bobbi Berstein is coming in to co-anchor (which thrills Dan, since she still thinks they slept together in Spain), and Dan is wondering why Rebecca's ex-husband Steve is in her office. On a Saturday. He thinks it's like "Eli's Coming," the classic Three Dog Night song, that something bad is about to happen. But as Casey reminds him, the song isn't about that, it's about a womanizer. No matter, Dan still thinks it's going to be a bad day.

(S01E18) At this point, the show is rather complex, with many storylines going on and continuing from episode to episode. There's even a "previously on Sports Night" clip at the beginning, though it's kinda odd. They show a scene with Jeremy telling Natalie that his parents are getting divorced, but I don't remember that from a previous episode.

Jeremy is going to see his parents about the divorce, and Natalie is upset because he hasn't called her in a few days. Meanwhile, Dan is trying desperately to get Rebecca interested in baseball.

(S03E18) Larry Charles, one of Seinfeld's primary writers, mentions in the DVD commentary for "The Limo" that it is one of his favorite episodes; he feels that it's one of the first episodes in the series to take a silly premise -- what if George and Jerry take the limo of a Neo-Nazi? -- and find humor in it by grounding it in reality. Well, the reality of Larry David, but at least it's someone's reality.

Personally, this is one of my least favortie episodes of the show's entire run. Sure, there are some funny moments, but the whole "pretending to be someone else" plotline comes right out of Sitcomland, and could have been taken right from an episode of Three's Company -- well, not the Neo-Nazi part, but you get the idea. At this point in Seinfeld's run, especially after the brilliance of "The Boyfriend" the week before, audiences were expecting more. And, to be honest, there wasn't a lot to laugh at in this one.

(S01E17) Basically, it's all Pete Sampras' fault.

That's what everyone thinks in this, one of my favorite episodes. Pete Sampras is in the middle of a U.S. Open match with a guy he should be beating easily, but the nobody is actually making a comeback against the world's #1 player, which means that Sports Night is delayed (side note: I'd love to find out how CSC got the rights to the U.S. Open). It also means that Dana might have to cancel her date with Gordon, Rebecca won't be able to see her first live broadcast of the show, and Dana might have to hand the show over to Sally's 2am show.

But it gives Jeremy time to write a letter to his sister Louise, who's in college but is thinking about quitting because of boyfriend problems.

(S01E16) This episode has one of the great surprise lines in sitcom history (in my opinion anyway, don't want to oversell it).

While Dana is upset that Gordon stood her up last night and Jewish Jeremy is freaking out that he has to spend three days with Natalie's Catholic family, Casey talks to Dan about a shirt of his that's missing, and Dan figures out how and why this particular shirt is missing.