TVSquad

To the programming monkeys over at The CW: Do you really believe that you are an honest-to-goodness competitor in the market right now? Because, if you were, then you would probably be doing something more than just relying on the teen angst shows that populate your weekday schedule.You would probably be trying again to get original programming up and running on the weekends, as well. Particularly on Sunday nights.

Sadly, you're not doing this. In fact, according to the most recent press release you sent out, you're pretty much caving in on Sundays. Instead of giving viewers some new shows to try out, or even reruns (or, as you say, encores) of your more popular programs, from 5-8 pm you're giving us first season episodes of Everybody Hates Chris and The Game, second season episodes of The Drew Carey Show and first season episodes of Jericho. The only people I can see being even remotely happy about this schedule are Jericho fans.

When I look at some of the people who have emerged as today's biggest stars on TV, I scratch my head and wonder, "how did that happen?" There are a few stars who have completely exceeded my expectations -- and I bet yours, too. In fact, after you read my five (no cell phone pun intended), I'm betting that you'll have a few more overachievers to add to the list.

1) Ty Pennington
I'm not ashamed to admit that for a couple of years I was hooking on TLC's Trading Spaces. It may have been the perky Paige Davis, the home improvement on a $1,000, the cool things that the designers did in just 24 hours -- whatever it was, I was a regular viewer. Oh, yes, there was also a carpenter on the show named Ty Pennington.

How hot is Craig Ferguson? By my thermometer, he's sizzling. His Late Late Show has risen up to challenge Conan O'Brien in the Nielsens, he was the emcee at the White House Press Correspondents dinner -- riffing on W. right to his face! -- and now the publishing world wants his story. HarperCollins has signed Craig Ferguson to write American on Purpose, the story of his life from small town Scottish boy to big time talk show comic. The book is due to be published in the fall of 2009.

As the title suggests, a big part of the story is Craig's choice to become an American citizen, which he did earlier this year. Craig said he hopes the book "...will inspire other alcoholic punk rock drummers from Scotland to find their true place in U.S. late night television." Well, I say to that, hooray! The talk show host also cracked, "I wanted to get the story down before I get so old I forget it and start believing the crap on Wikipedia."

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Drew Carey is Drew Carey. He exudes that non-pretentious, 'I am who I am' type of personality. It doesn't matter if he's host of a game show like The Price is Right or Power of 10, laughing his butt off on Whose Line is it Anyway?, or starring in his own sitcom.

To prove my point I present to you a scene from The Drew Carey Show. It comes from the first episode of the second season and it features the very first Drew Carey Show music video. Take a look at Drew as he dances to and mouths the words of Five O'Clock World by The Vogues. He is thoroughly enjoying himself. This is the same enjoyment you can see now on Power of 10 when someone reaches the million dollar mark and that you'll probably see when he hosts TPIR.

You can view the video after the jump. By the way, this is the first of three music videos performed during the second season of The Drew Carey Show, and was used for the opening credits to the show before Cleveland Rocks took over a few years later. Both this video and the one for What is Hip are my favorites.

Good Monday morning to you! Looks like you had a tough weekend. Let's get you pumped up for the workday, courtesy of Drew Carey and the band Tower of Power.

During the second season of The Drew Carey Show, the star (that would be one Drew Carey) had some fun producing little music videos featuring the show's cast. In the season premiere Drew and his friends lip-synced and danced to Five O'Clock World by The Vogues. At the end of the season they had a dance-off between Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Shake Your Groove Thing by Peaches and Herb. Somewhere in the middle they produced the video for What is Hip from Tower of Power. Out of the three this is my favorite, although the Five O'Clock World video runs a close second.

So, in order to get your blood flowing, go ahead and jump ahead to the video. Look for the cameo appearances from the late Flip Wilson, Dick Clark, and characters from H.R. Puffinstuff and The Banana Splits.