TVSquad

It's one of the eternal questions in life: what do you call your remote?

Tim Dowling over at The Guardian has a story about all of the different names that TV viewers have for that little device that saves us from having to walk across the room and has probably contributed to the onslaught of ADD we have. All of the names we've all heard are on the list, such as "clicker" (my mom used to call it that), "flipper" (which was popular with Frank on Everybody Loves Raymond), "wand," and "changer." Of course, The Guardian is a British paper so you're going to get some words that Americans really aren't familiar with, such as "tellychanger," "podger," and "hoofer-doofer." Most people I know just call it "the remote." We should come up with a different name for it. "Binky" is good, but that's already taken for pacifiers. How about "the glooptron?"

I call mine "Jessica."

[via TV Tattle]

Last summer, I was reviewing an-hour long commercial for Visa for TV Squad. It was slightly more interesting than an infomercial, though. There was this guy named Johnny Smith who could see the future or the past when he touched people, and he always made sure to use his Visa card in sticky situations that would arise from this ability. Oh wait... What's that you say? That wasn't a commercial? That was an actual show? Then why did Johnny Smith make such a big deal of showing off his Visa card REPEATEDLY?

Oh, product placement. We love you so. It's not enough that we all got Tivos so we didn't have to watch the commercials that interrupt our favorite shows. Oh no. The sneaky advertisers don't need us to watch the commercials at all anymore. They just stick their products into the shows and let the actors use them. TV Squad. Simple. Inescapable, unless you plan to give up television entirely (and I don't.).

Of course, some products are necessary. Most people eat or drink something during the day, and it would be weird in today's world if television characters didn't have cell phones. TV Squad. But it's a little distracting when you are in the middle of watching a riveting episode of Moonlight, and you are distracted because Hey! There's a picture of Mick on Beth's iPhone! I wish I had an iPhone. Mick has an iPhone too! I wonder who programmed their pictures into the phones -- was it the actors, or some props person? Do you think the actors get to keep those iPhones? Oh wait, somebody just got killed.

So, in honor (not!) of the blatant use of product placement in our favorite shows (those darn Oceanic 815 survivors and their Dharma mayonnaise!), we bring to you The Brought to You by TV Squad Award. What are your nominees for the show who should receive this award, and what product are they pimping? Please nominate your favorites in the comments.

We all know that how people watch TV has been changing dramatically in the last few years, but now comes this news from TorrentFreak.com: 50% of all people using BitTorrent at any given point in time are downloading a TV series. More than anything else, it's TV content they want.

What this means is that TV fans aren't just watching TV shows live or using DVRs and TiVos alone. They're just as apt to download a show to view on a laptop, desktop or iPod. According to the article, "over a billion TV shows are downloaded every year and this number continues to rise."

I know I have a problem. I don't need anyone to tell me that I was a child of television and it's been in my life all my life. Yes, I read. Yes, I listen to music. And, obviously I write.

But most of my writing these days is about television!

I recall the last writers strike. It was during that time that I wrote a really horrible horror novel to occupy my time outside of my day job. I'm not doing that again this time. I refuse to spend weeks writing dreck just because the television and film writers are on strike.

FOX announced today that Ryan Seacrest will be hosting the 59th Emmy Awards on FOX September 16 at 8:00 p.m. This news comes in the wake of the announcement that Seacrest will also be hosting the Super Bowl.

I have no idea if this is a good idea or not, as I don't watch American Idol, E! News, Captain Seacrest's Pirate Ship Hootenanny, or whatever the hell other series he's featured on. Still, isn't the typical rule for awards shows to have some kind of comedian hosting them?

As a teenager, your opinion is irrelevant to most of society, but the Teen Choice Awards is your chance to let your voice be heard, and to nominate Paris Hilton for some reason.

Hilton is just one of the folks who have been nominated for Teen Choice 2007, which airs live starting at 8:00 p.m. on August 26 on FOX. She's been nominated in the "Choice TV: Female Reality/Variety Star" category for her "role" on The Simple Life. She's also nominated for the "OMG! Moment" for her jail sentence. Yes, you can win an award for that now, so star commiting some felonies right now, kids.

(S03E11 / S03E12) I've decided to combine the first two episodes of this three-part finale in to one review, partly because it's only a few days until the finale itself, but mostly because I really don't know where to start with this totally explosive storyline.

When Doctor Who returned to our screens a few years ago, everyone was anticipating the return of old favourites, like the Autons, the Daleks and the Cybermen -- and, sure, those guys notched up the fear factor and excitement when The Doctor faced them down -- but there's one guy we've all been waiting for, and he finally turned up in the strangest of places.

Well, make that two guys...

WARNING: Spoilers after the jump.

(S03E10) Apologies for the lack of Doctor Who reviews recently, but I was sunning myself in Italy, and returned home to find a bumper hoard of episodes waiting for me on my Sky+ box.

Before I begin, let me ask you a question: how many times in recent years have you watched a stand-alone episode of a big sci-fi show and walked away from it thinking, "Man, that was brilliant"?

Seriously -- it can't be more than once or twice. Maybe a few episodes of X-Files, or Star Trek:TNG - possibly some Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica.

(S03E08 / S03E09) Haven't I always said that the best episodes of Doctor Who are generally set in the past?

I deliberately waited until the second part of this two-part episode had aired before making any judgments on it, partly because the first episode promised so much, but left things hanging in the balance -- but also because it was a sharp turn away from the recent filler episodes which had found me falling asleep on the settee.

But this was a different beast altogether; classic Doctor Who with sinister villains, a curious plot, some romance and a whole heap of adventure and emotion.

(S03E07) I'm starting to get the feeling that Russell T. Davies and company are filling time for a big run-in towards the end of series three of Doctor Who.

Last week's episode, 'The Lazarus Experiment' was almost an exercise in filler TV, and this week's roll of the dice (die?) took us into the far reaches of outer space, some time in the future, where a crew of humans were plummeting headlong towards a Sun-like star.

The '42' in the title referred to the 42 (or so) minutes duration of the episode, and the 42-minute countdown until the ship exploded in the corona of the burning sphere.

Last November, Brett told you that Michael Cera (Arrested Development) would be starring in a new Web series with his pal, actor Clark Duke. The series would be called The Good Life, and it would be available for viewing on the CBS innertube broadband site.

Well, two things have changed, apparently: the new series is now called Clark and Michael, and it's not on innertube, it's at ClarkAnd Michael.com, so go check it out.

(S03E06) It's almost inevitable for any good series to hit a slight dip when it reaches the half-way point in a series, and Doctor Who isn't immune to a lull in pace.

I honestly wasn't expecting much of "The Lazarus Experiment", and even though the special effects were of a reasonably high standard, the whole story was somewhat disjointed and hurried.

A few weeks ago, I made a point of suggesting that someone would soon have to start explaining why the Doctor bumps in to trouble everywhere he goes (apart from driving TV viewing schedules), and this episode finally started to indicate that something might be causing our favourite time-traveller to wander in to the path of out-and-out trouble everywhere he goes.

Are you a teenager? Do you like choosing things? Okay, good, because Teen Choice 2007 airs on FOX August 26 at 8:00 p.m., and we need to make sure you're at home that evening to see what series, celebrities and movies your contemporaries have chosen.

Teens have been choosing things for years. I myself have chosen my own adventure, Chosen or Losened (I'll check the dictionary to see if that's a real word later), and I've spoken to choosy moms who choose Jif. I've also had choice cuts of meat, and chosen Pikachu on numerous occasions.

Nominees and hosts for Teen Choice 2007 will be announced soon, but that's not important. What's important is that all you hula-hoopin', Charleston-dancin', domino-playin' teens out there start using your God-given right to choose. Or, more importantly, let your peers decide for you what's cool. Otherwise, you'll show up at your next ice cream social without a poodle skirt and then you'll look really stupid.

I've slept on a couch for the past 8 or 9 years, so I'd simply take the bedroom and the bed in this video. But the TV is cool, too.

It's the Underbed Lift, a rather complex looking gizmo that holds a 50" television, DVD player, VCR, amplifiers, a subwoofer, and seven channels of surround sound. Press a button and the TV screen comes up from under the bed, presumably to the theme of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's for people who don't want all that entertainment equipment taking up room in their bedroom, and for people who just want something that's pretty damn cool.

It looks like you need a queen-sized bed and a pretty big bedroom. I wonder if they make a couch version for the living room? After you view the video, here are some pics that show it from different angles.

[via Digg]

Every April we can be sure that several things will happen: the weather will alternate between warm/sunny and cold/rainy, kids will enjoy spring vacation before going back to school for the end of the year push, and a bunch of people will decide "hey, this is the week I won't watch television!" for some reason.

Yup, it's that time of year again. Today is the start of TV Turnoff Week (they've changed their name to "The Center For Screen-Time Awareness"), that week when all the misguided souls around the country decide to shut off their televisions and read a book and eat salad. Or so they'd have you believe. I write about this every year, and a couple of years ago even debated a guy on MSNBC about it, so I won't rehash all the points here. Check out this post, where I give all the reasons why this week is such a silly idea.

In short, don't celebrate TV Turnoff Week this week. To quote Jim Halpert on The Office when Pam told him to get a life, "but who will watch my television?"