Curb Your Enthusiasm reruns are coming to basic cable. First they will be shown on the TV Guide Channel next year (doesn't everybody get that channel? I thought it was just a guide to what's on television. They have shows?) and then TV Land in 2013. Any event that brings Larry David's sense of humor to the masses can only be a good thing (Who had the idea for the humor in awkward situations first, Larry or Ricky Gervais?).
Mind you, the show's language is somewhat racy for basic cable. There will be some bleeping here and there. At least there's no prevalent nudity in any episode that I recall. There is some adult subject matter, but nothing basic cable hasn't seen before. Hey, if The Sopranos can make it to basic cable then Larry David should have no problem.
Given Susie Essman's vocabulary on the series, she may have every third word bleeped. That could possibly make her lines even funnier.
Everybody has a love/hate relationship with TV Land these days. We love that they still show sitcoms like The Andy Griffith Show and we like the idea of TV Land, but we also hate that movies and reality shows seem to be taking over the network.
But now the network has announced that they are actually going to be creating their own sitcoms. The first two are Retired at 35, which is about a businessman who visits his parents' Florida retirement home and decides to stay, and the second is from Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) and Frasier writer Suzanne Martin and called Hot in Cleveland. It centers around a group of Los Angeles women who move to Cleveland.
Hey, look, I'm all for any type of programming on TV Land that doesn't involve a-hole high school reunion members yelling at each other or cougars in a hot tub.
TV Land has a little gem on their hands, methinks with How'd You Get So Rich? When I was younger, I used to get a kick out of Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous. When your mother comes in and asks you which utility you want the most this month, it's kind of nice to imagine what it would be like to live in such opulence.
Joan Rivers was on Late Night earlier this week, and she spoke of the idea behind the show. When traveling around the country, she'd see these mansions scattered around and wonder what the story is behind them. These aren't celebrities, after all. They're just ordinary people. So the title question came to mind.
What's great about the show is that it's presented in such an uplifting way. It's telling you that all things are possible. You too could have these amazing houses and cars. All it takes is hard work and dedication, and sometimes a great idea like tonight's founder of Billy Bob Teeth.
This show actually isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I mean, it's fluffy and you'll forget about it the day after you see it, and I doubt I'll watch it again. But it's good to see a hidden camera show that goes out of its way to help an unsuspecting person instead of embarrassing/fooling/arresting them.
Did anyone else catch this, and will you watch it again?
So I was watching TheAndy Griffith Show marathon that TV Land seems to air every other day. This isn't my complaint, as I would watch that show every day of the week (as long as they're the black and white episodes and not the color ones, but that's another rant). No, my complaint is about the commercial that ran during the marathon.
The promo isn't online so I'll have to describe it. The narrator talks about how times change (with a montage of how phones have evolved over the years), how tastes change (a montage of different foods that people have eaten over the decades), and how we've changed (a montage of different hairstyles you might have had since you were a kid). The point of all this is that things change, but ... change is good! And that's why it's good that TV Land has a bunch of reality shows instead of classic TV shows, because things change and that's where viewers are now in their lives.
I had the great honor of interviewing the legendary Joan Rivers after her TCA panel promoting her new TV Land show How'd You Get So Rich? While the panel was hilarious, Joan was in fine form during the interview, telling me a good story about why she doesn't dwell in the past, criticizing Sarah Palin and Brooke Shields, and giving her one-millionth rebuke of her Apprentice rival, Annie Duke, or "Annie Douche" as she called the poker star during the panel.
But Rivers also took some vicious shots at David Tutera, the party planner who left her and Duke high and dry on The Celebrity Apprentice's finale, quitting after Joan asked him to make some changes to his plan. Since Tutera is scheduled to do a panel on his show My Fair Wedding on Friday, I wanted to post what she said about him here and then give Tutera a chance to respond.
The Cougar is in the running for Worst TV Show of 2009 honors in my mind, so it's good to see that late night host Chelsea Handler feels the same way. Here she is doing a little rant about the show (some suggestive scenes and jokes included, so put your headphones on if you're at work).
I'll say this again: isn't it awful how low TV Land has gone? It's weird that I can watch a great Andy Griffith Show marathon, immediately followed by The Cougar. There's something wrong there. (Video also here if the one below doesn't work for you.)
You won't believe which show is kicking the collective ass of TV Land's The Cougar. Then again, maybe you will.The New York Times reports that reruns of (Shazam!) The Andy Griffith Show are the cable network's most watched show.
So does this mean that the former classic TV network will go back to running shows that people actually want to watch? Probably not. Sorry to break the bad news to you. Oh, and there is no Santa Claus, and if the tooth fairy does exist, she's probably a big ol' commie.
The marketing for this show has been relentless, and that's an understatement. It's easier to shake the SARS virus in a back alley chicken hut in downtown Hong Kong than it is to shake an ad for The Cougar.
One of my personal rules (number one is "thou who smelt it, dealt it") is the harder the advertising, the worse a show is bound to be. TV Land hasn't just aired a commercial for The Cougar every five seconds in between their few remaining watchable shows. They air it on other networks. They plaster ads all over the Internet. If the economy dips any lower, they'll probably start tattooing ads to people's foreheads.
TV Land just keeps drifting further and further away from what they originally were. It wouldn't surprise me if some day we see them change the name to Reality Land and all of the older comedies and dramas dragged over to Nick at Nite.
The network has announced a few new reality shows, including one that they call an "anti-makeover" show. If it's truly anti-makeover, it will be a scripted comedy, but I'm sure it's really just another damn reality program. They have also announced a third season (gah) of High School Reunion. Guess all the people in their 40s and 50s like these things, though as someone in my 40s I'd just like to say HEY, YOU KNOW WHAT, TV LAND? I DON'T WANT TO SEE MORE REALITY SHOWS AND MAKEOVER SHOWS, EVEN IF THEY ARE "ANTI."
Cable channels used to have fairly rigid formats that followed simple formulas. Nickelodeon was the network for kids. ESPN was the network for sports. USA was the network for non-stop reruns of Wings.
Now most of them have fallen into a strange gelatinous blob of unoriginal and unrecognizable sewage. I believe the technical term is "reality shows."
The TV Land network has been slowly engulfed by this blob of mediocrity with shows like High School Reunion and The Cougar. Their latest VP hire indicates it's about to be swallowed whole by more of the same.
Since I accepted TiVo as my personal savior, I have been afforded an opportunity to watch some great shows that air in the wee hours of the morning. Shows that, until now, have only been enjoyed by air traffic controllers with low attention spans, speed freaks and easily confused frat boys.
One of them is All in the Family, which airs at 8 a.m. on TV Land, the network with its rack of sour tasting reality shows and shrinking share of old sitcoms and serials that is in danger of becoming the new MTV.
A week ago, one of the show's -- and all of television history's greatest -- gems found its way to my "Now Playing List." That famous episode where Sammy Davis Jr. makes the trek to 704 Hauser Street and gives Archie a big wet one on the cheek. I had not seen this show since I was a kid, back in the 80s when All in the Family reruns flooded my television, but this most recent viewing unveiled an interesting factoid that almost went unnoticed.
Television as an industry is in need of a major overhaul. It's old, dusty, soiling itself, and not keeping up with the technology that changes from day to day. If it were an old, sick animal, or Larry King, it would probably be put to sleep. Alas, so many of us rely on the old biddy that it would be hard for us to say good-bye.
Luckily, I am a resourceful, intelligent and, dare I say it, gorgeous human being who has some ideas in mind to freshen up the television landscape. Yes, it may mean sacrifice from some of us (mainly network executives) and we may lose something in the process. But, in the end, the industry that we love to quietly despise while watching Cheaters will thrive once again.
There are two things that I find disturbing about the news that there's a reality show in the works for married actors Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna for TV Land. Number one, do we really need another show biz couple exposing their personal lives for the cameras? Number two, why is TV Land getting away from celebrating TV history by broadcasting great old shows to do banal entertainment like this kind of unscripted drivel?
Are audiences really clamoring for more of this stuff? I know I'm not, and I don't know anyone else who is! Seriously, this is not reality TV. There's nothing real about it except that they're using their real names. (Yes, those are their real names!)
Curb Your Enthusiasm reruns are coming to basic cable. First they will be shown on the TV Guide Channel next year (doesn't everybody get that channel? I thought it was just a guide to what's on television. They have shows?) and then TV Land in 2013. Any event that brings Larry David's sense of humor to the masses can only be a good thing (Who had the idea for the humor in awkward situations first, Larry or Ricky Gervais?).
Everybody has a love/hate relationship with TV Land these days. We love that they still show sitcoms like The Andy Griffith Show and we like the idea of TV Land, but we also hate that movies and reality shows seem to be taking over the network.
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! 
TV Land has a little gem on their hands, methinks with 
This show actually isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I mean, it's fluffy and you'll forget about it the day after you see it, and I doubt I'll watch it again. But it's good to see a hidden camera show that goes out of its way to help an unsuspecting person instead of embarrassing/fooling/arresting them. 
I had the great honor of interviewing the legendary 
TV Land just keeps drifting further and further away from what they originally were. It wouldn't surprise me if some day we see them change the name to Reality Land and all of the older comedies and dramas dragged over to Nick at Nite.
Cable channels used to have fairly rigid formats that followed simple formulas. Nickelodeon was the network for kids. ESPN was the network for sports. USA was the network for non-stop reruns of Wings. 
Since I accepted TiVo as my personal savior, I have been afforded an opportunity to watch some great shows that air in the wee hours of the morning. Shows that, until now, have only been enjoyed by air traffic controllers with low attention spans, speed freaks and easily confused frat boys. 
Television as an industry is in need of a major overhaul. It's old, dusty, soiling itself, and not keeping up with the technology that changes from day to day. If it were an old, sick animal, or Larry King, it would probably be put to sleep. Alas, so many of us rely on the old biddy that it would be hard for us to say good-bye.
There are two things that I find disturbing about the news that there's a reality show in the works for married actors 
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
Have any questions for Vik Sahay of Chuck? Ask them here!
Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
