TVSquad

Well, Apple didn't take my suggestion to replace Microsoft as the new sponsor of Seth MacFarlane's comedy special. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stepped up. Actually, it's Warner Bothers Pictures' Sherlock Holmes that'll sponsor the MacFarlane variety special.

Microsoft backed out of Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show when they caught a run through of the program and objected to the humor. Goodness only knows what they thought they were getting with Seth, but it's all water under the bridge now.

The folks at our sister site Cinematical are working hard to give you news and reviews of the best -- and worst -- the silver screen has to offer. Here are some of their latest musings on the latest blockbusters, indies, and everything in between:

• The excitement for Watchmen continues to grow. Check out the latest trailer.
• Writing for this site, I've had to deal with my share of rabid spoilerphobes. This video right here? It's enough to make their heads explode: 100 movie spoilers in 4 minutes.
• The cute, indie Nick and Norah with their playlists and their hoodies wasn't the first Nick and Nora(h) to grace the big screen. Cinematical takes a look back at the Nick and Nora who started it all, from The Thin Man.
• I had completely forgotten that Chris Cornell did the theme for Casino Royale. Yikes. See if your favorite is on the Cinematical (Double-O) Seven list of best Bond theme songs.
• I'm very curious about the upcoming Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock Holmes. Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr.? Count me in. Find out more from Cinematical's set visit.

(S07E07) Too often when a show reaches an anniversary, like say 100 episodes, the producers feel the need to mark the occasion with an extraordinary entry. That was what happened with Monk.

To commemorate the 100th episode, they created Mr. Monk's 100th Case, and using a show within a show format, celebrated Adrian Monk, a modern day Sherlock Holmes. San Francisco's defective detective

Thank goodness it all worked! I was afraid we were going to get a clip-laden, down-memory-lane type of show with nothing remotely intriguing. No, writer Tom Scharpling and company were more clever than that.

Welcome to TV Squad Lists (formerly 'The Five'), a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.

OK, so yesterday I gave my list of the Five Greatest Police Detectives, and several readers gave their lists. Today I thought I'd do the other end of the invesitgation spectrum, private eyes, amateur sleuths and other investigators. This list was even hard to do. So many great characters.

1. Spenser (Robert Urich): I picked this Boston-based private eye because he seemed to be a great mix of brain and brawn. The type of guy who could go to the ratty gym and knock around some boxer and then go off to a fancy Beacon Hill cafe and have coffee with his girlfriend and talk about politics or literature. He was smart, clever, caring, a wiseass, and ridiculously moral. What else do you want in a private eye?

In case you weren't buying the rumors that the character of Gregory House, M.D. was very much based on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, the deal was pretty much sealed when our beloved curmudgeon took a bullet to the gut care of Jack Moriarty at the close of season two. Moriarty is also the namesake of the nemesis that took Sherlock over the cliff with him in the short story The Final Problem. But with our House and Holmes, it's the inner demons that really torment.

Here's a blow-by-blow on the House-Holmes connection: