TVSquad

We've been following the progress of Boardwalk Empire here at TV Squad for awhile now. Don't take my word for it; click that link if you don't believe me. HBO was waiting to get a look at the pilot, directed by executive producer Martin Scorsese, to see if they wanted to move forward with it.

Of course, all things were looking good, and who really expects Scorsese to hand in crap, but now it's finally official. HBO has given a 12-episode commitment to Boardwalk Empire, including that pilot.

The series takes place in 1920s Atlantic City and features Steve Buscemi as an important city figure, as well as a bootlegger. I absolutely love it when HBO does period pieces like this. They seem to excel at authentically bringing these bygone eras to stunning life.

Prohibition was a tumultuous time in this country, and I can just imagine how intense things got in a hotbed for seedy behavior like Atlantic City. And then there's Buscemi. Brilliant, unpredictable, I can't imagine anyone better to play a character who's described as "equal parts politician and gangster." HBO's hit streak looks to keep on going.

(S01E07) "I am God, and you are an asshole." - God

Oh, the times I've wanted to say that in my life. I'm sort of living vicariously through Nurse Jackie these days. She does stuff that everyone else wants to do, but doesn't because they don't have the guts. Like:

• Yanking the catheter out of the repeat sex-offender, then telling Mo-Mo, "He's a fucking pedophile!"
• Giving the Cartier bracelet that Eddie gave her to the morphine-drugged, steak-knife guy to give to the girl who's really just looking for a nice guy.
• Telling God to get back on his meds.

Yes, I want to be Nurse Jackie when I grow up.

(S03E20) "It's the biggest regret of my life, Lemon. And I once made love to Kathy Hilton." - Jack, about not confronting his dad

Oh, come on. There's no way that Liz Lemon would be that incompetent when it comes to replacing a water bottle. It was like she was a mixture of Steve Urkel and Barney Fife, dropping the bottle, getting herself soaked. I mean, she could have at least known that you take the empty jug off before you attempt to put the new one on. That whole scene was odd. It went on a lot longer and was more slapstick-oriented than most 30 Rock gags.

Steve Buscemi is in talks to star in Martin Scorsese's new HBO drama Boardwalk Empire. The series chronicles the rise of Atlantic City as a gambling haven in the 1920's.

Buscemi has never been a leading man, to my knowledge; however he's an extremely versatile character actor and has always had a prominent supporting role in every drama or comedy in which he's appeared (my favorite still remains Airheads. Yeah, I'm weird that way).

He's no stranger to HBO drama either, as he had a sizable role in one of its most critically acclaimed dramas The Sopranos. He directed episodes of that show as well, before he even got in front of the camera. Martin Scorsese has also historically been attracted to mob dramas, so it seems like a good match.

The show itself has a lot of talent behind it (including Mark Wahlberg, who also executive-produces Entourage), so this show has a better chance of being a hit than most others, particularly anything on network TV.

TV Guide is reporting that the complete series of The Sopranos will be available as a box set on Nov. 11, 2008, with a $400 price tag. That seems like a heckuva deal to me, given that fact that most seasons of any given show cost anywhere from $30 to $60. The individual seasons of The Sopranos sell for $60 each on the HBO Web site, and the complete series was released last year for $515.

So let's do the math here: Six seasons (TV Guide says seven, but the official HBO site refers to Season Six, Parts 1 and 2, as one season, so we'll go with that) divided by $400 comes out to $66.66 per season.

(S14E19) Now, let the speculation begin!

Did you really think that ER would end its fourteenth season with everything all honky-dory at County General? You haven't watched it recently, have you? Fact is, the season-ender for the last few years has been some sort of cliffhanger. Last season the fate of Neela was unknown. The year before it was Abby and Luka. A few years before that the fates of Pratt and Jing-Mei were undecided.

Now we have two (or three, or four) characters to consider as potential victims. But, who will be the lucky -- or in this case, unlucky -- one who will end up as a patient in their very own Emergency Room when season 15 of ER begins? Let's take a look at the candidates. Oh, by the way, spoilers ahead if you didn't watch the last three minutes of the episode.

When you see the names Norm Macdonald and Steve Buscemi, what comes to mind? Perhaps funny or edgy or, in the case of Buscemi, a bit scary looking? I would tend to agree. How about gingerbread men? When you see those names does it elicit a vision of Macdonald and Buscemi as a father-son gingerbread duo? No, I didn't think so.

And yet here they are, in all of their gingerbreadiness, in a holiday commercial for AT&T's GoPhone. In the ad, Macdonald's character wants a cell phone, but all that Buscemi's gingerbread father wants to do is make sure that no one eats anymore of his house this season. In a touching moment the son gets the phone he wants.

Unfortunately, tragedy strikes as we see a human hand breaking off a piece of the gingerbread man's roof, exposing the lovely gingerbread mother in the bathtub. It's probably one of the funnier holiday ads this season (although the Verizon 'Pony' commercial is pretty good) and you can see it after the jump.

(S02E03) "I could never pay an English-speaking woman that little - they'd starve!" - Jack, about his household staff

This year many of us here at TV Squad have been featuring our favorite quotes at the start of each review. Most of the time it's pretty easy to pick out the best line (on a show like Bionic Woman they stand out), but it's not the easiest thing to do on a comedy like 30 Rock. There's always at least six laugh out loud lines and about 5 lines that aren't hysterical but are bizarrely clever. That was true of tonight's episode too, and I hope you agree the above comment was one of the better ones.

(S19E04) If I don't make it, feel free to re-marry from anyone on the list on the bulletin board in the closet. -- Marge, during her hostage scare

We had two good things happen this week on The Simpsons. First, we finally had an episode that didn't focus on Homer. Second, we had a guest voice that was actually utilized. Actually, there were two guest voices used well; I just didn't know about one of them until the credits were rolling. More as we progress.

Joe Pantoliano does not want his infamous The Sopranos character to be remembered as "a head in a bowling bag". Access Hollywood obtained a letter that "Joey Pants" wrote to Sopranos creator David Chase, expressing his anger over a photo spread appearing in the April edition of Vanity Fair (see the photo here).

The photo, taken by Annie Liebowitz, features the legendary characters who've been whacked over the years, including actors Drea de Matteo, Vincent Pastore, Annabella Sciorra, and Steve Buscemi. Pantoliano refused to appear in the photo, so Liebowitz improvised by having a headless mannequin hold one of the actual head molds used from the episode where Tony kills Ralphie and puts his head in a bowling bag.

Remember the days when alternative music and indie movies were actually alternative and independent? When I was in high school in the late 80s and early 90s, you got beat up for liking Hal Hartley movies, listening to bands from Athens and thinking Crispin Glover was the best part of Back to the Future. Members of Generation X that had taken a liking to punk rock or arty movies had to wait until college to find like-minded folks. This may, of course, be my romanticizing memory at work, but if your glory days were anything like mine, than The Adventures of Pete & Pete was your show.

The Nickelodeon show started out as a series of shorts and developed into a show which ran for three seasons between 1993 and 1996. The show's eccentric cast of characters included two brothers named Pete, their mom, the metal plate inside mom's head, dad, the eldest Pete's best friend Ellen, Artie the strongest man in the world and little Pete's tattoo Petunia. The show followed the kids' adventures in the suburban town of Wellsville.

HBO realizes that it's been a really, really long time since we've seen any new episodes of The Sopranos, so it has enlisted the assistance of Google Maps to help you remember. On The Sopranos website, the Google Map shows different locations in New Jersey where key plot points happened last season. Move your mouse over a red dot and a box will appear with a video clip, summary, and a link to an entire episode guide. A lot of the video clips are just conversations between Tony and other major characters like Tony B. (Steve Buschemi), Christopher (Michael Imperioli), and Sack (Vince Curatola) and really aren't all that exciting. They're used as a reminder of who got whacked and where the tensions lie between crime bosses. And, of course, it includes the scene where Adriana gets whacked.

Speaking of getting whacked, here's a way to kill time. It's The Sopranos' version of Whack-a-Mole.